4 ms·

Is Chrome taking share from Firefox?

13 points by techdog 17y ago

maurycy 17y ago
I wish Mozilla folks woke up. I'm on Mac and, to be honest, once you get used to Chrome, Firefox is completely unusable. It is slow, cluttered interface, w/o any major advantages over other browsers. I use Chrome on daily basis and it is pleasure to browse the web. Folks, do not underestimate speed. It is one of the most important UI features.
- TNO 17y ago
  I wish people paid more attention to developments. #1: Direct2D is in Fx nightlies: http://www.tapper-ware.net/files/stresstest.comparison.ogg http://www.tapper-ware.net/files/stresstest.comparison.ogg #2: Jaeger Monkey: http://www.bailopan.net/blog/?p=683 http://www.bailopan.net/blog/?p=683 #3: 64bit builds are builds are planned for 4.0 if not sooner #4 multi-processes: http://blog.mozilla.com/cjones/2009/06/21/multi-process-firefox-coming-to-an-internets-near-you/ http://blog.mozilla.com/cjones/2009/06/21/multi-process-fire...
- varaon 17y ago
  Ironically, Flash is the main reason I'm using Chrome. Firefox is plenty fast, but tab isolation means that my browser crashes less often.
  - alagu 17y ago
    I'm using vice-versa for the same case. Reason being Chrome takes up 50% cpu on an average when I'm watching youtube videos.
  - nollidge 17y ago
    My one nitpick with Flash under Chrome is that for some reason, in fullscreen streaming video (from e.g. Hulu) the mouse cursor never disappears, whereas it does under Firefox.
  - Perceval 17y ago
    Out-of-process-plugins are slated for release soon. May not even require bumping the version number to 3.7 – instead we might see it shipped as 3.6.2. Here is the Mozilla project page for separate processes: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Electrolysis https://wiki.mozilla.org/Electrolysis
- rsheridan6 17y ago
  I doubt the Mozilla folks can do much about it. It's, like, 7 billion line of C++. How nimble can they be about turning that into a lean, mean, browsing machine? If they haven't done it in 10 years, they probably can't.
  - ZeroGravitas 17y ago
    They're actually doing some interesting work in this space: https://developer.mozilla.org/En/Dehydra https://developer.mozilla.org/En/Dehydra Dehydra is a lightweight, scriptable, general purpose static analysis tool capable of application-specific analyses of C++ code. In the simplest sense, Dehydra can be thought of as a semantic grep tool. It presents a wealth of semantic information that can be queried with concise JavaScripts. It is also useful to find bugs in source code as it allows for much more error checking than C++ is capable of by itself. Dehydra is built as a GCC plugin, thus it is easy to use for projects that already support GCC. Dehydra is also useful for generating language bindings and is used to bootstrap Treehydra, a heavy-duty static analysis GCC plugin.
  - Perceval 17y ago
    A big cleanup of the code was announced back in 2006: http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/roadmap/archives/2006/10/mozilla_2.html http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/roadmap/archives/2006/10/mozi... They've been working on it since, although I think it has evolved over the past three-and-a-half years. They've got a bunch of automated tools and subprojects to help move things forward.
- pohl 17y ago
  It might be useful for the FF team to put their tools down for a while and just use Chrome (and/or Safari). Then, upon returning to FF, they might see more clearly what needs to be done to make FF better. Eating your own dogfood is good, but so is thorough study of the competition.
  - nollidge 17y ago
    Eat the other guy's dogfood!
ryandvm 17y ago
Makes sense. If you haven't decided to upgrade from IE to Firefox, you sure as hell aren't going to be finding Chrome on your own.
- hannibalhorn 17y ago
  Well, a lot of EU citizens have over the past few weeks. It'll be interesting to see where each browser's market share winds up in a couple months.
ErrantX 17y ago
Not unexpected; for a lot of us Chrome was a refreshing reboot of the browser after Firefox became a little on the bloated side. Incidentally I suspect Firefox has gotten as high a market share as any browser other than IE will ever get. I fully suspect that over time IE's share (the high %age of which is mostly down to the "monopoly" aspect) will continue to be eroded to level off in the 30-40 range whilst other browsers, rather than just one, will fill the gap. Also; is the increased safari explained by iPhone usage? are they counting Mobile safari in the overall Safari stats?
- jim-greer 17y ago
  On Kongregate at least the Safari growth is from the Mac, not iPhone. And Chrome has taken share from both IE and Firefox on our site, but mostly from IE. Safari Mac - 6.4%, up from 3.8% a year ago Safari Win - 0.9%, up from 0.5% Mac - 9.3%, up from 6.6% iPhone - 0.4%, up from 0.3%
  - ErrantX 17y ago
    Wicked, actual data. Looks like I could be wrong then. (that's a huge jump for safari mac!)
mawhidby 17y ago
I still use Firefox for my web development because I like Firebug much better than Web Inspector, but that's about it. I use Chrome for everything else, and love it even more now that it supports extensions. My favorite thing about Chrome is the fusion of the search/address bar - you can just fire up a new tab and enter your search, rather than open tab, tab over to search, enter search.
- ErrantX 17y ago
  It was a smart move adding that to chrome; I am completely unable to function in another browser now because of it. Especially the auto-complete - type 2 letters and hit enter... :)
  - mawhidby 17y ago
    Agreed. With Firefox's auto-complete you still have to click on the list of links for it to navigate to that page, and if you enter a search term into the address bar it seems like it either does a regular Google (or default provider) search or a "I'm feeling lucky" search. The reduced number of clicks/keypresses in Chrome really make a difference for me.
- cmgarcia 17y ago
  Same here. I use Firefox for development with Firebug at work, but I use Chrome at home.
MikeCapone 17y ago
I moved from Safari to Chrome. But before that, I moved from Firefox to Safari because FF is too bloated and slow on the Mac.
ZeroGravitas 17y ago
Does anyone else have issues with text-selection being finnicky in Chrome, or is just my install (on Ubuntu 9.04)?
fierarul 17y ago
Still waiting for a proper AdBlock on Chrome/Mac (ie. one that doesn't just hide the ads) and I'll switch. "GWT developer plugin" for Chrome/Mac would also be nice although it's not that essential.

13 points by techdog 17y ago

I wish Mozilla folks woke up. I'm on Mac and, to be honest, once you get used to Chrome, Firefox is completely unusable. It is slow, cluttered interface, w/o any major advantages over other browsers. I use Chrome on daily basis and it is pleasure to browse the web. Folks, do not underestimate speed. It is one of the most important UI features.

TNO 17y ago
I wish people paid more attention to developments. #1: Direct2D is in Fx nightlies: http://www.tapper-ware.net/files/stresstest.comparison.ogg http://www.tapper-ware.net/files/stresstest.comparison.ogg #2: Jaeger Monkey: http://www.bailopan.net/blog/?p=683 http://www.bailopan.net/blog/?p=683 #3: 64bit builds are builds are planned for 4.0 if not sooner #4 multi-processes: http://blog.mozilla.com/cjones/2009/06/21/multi-process-firefox-coming-to-an-internets-near-you/ http://blog.mozilla.com/cjones/2009/06/21/multi-process-fire...
varaon 17y ago
Ironically, Flash is the main reason I'm using Chrome. Firefox is plenty fast, but tab isolation means that my browser crashes less often.
- alagu 17y ago
  I'm using vice-versa for the same case. Reason being Chrome takes up 50% cpu on an average when I'm watching youtube videos.
- nollidge 17y ago
  My one nitpick with Flash under Chrome is that for some reason, in fullscreen streaming video (from e.g. Hulu) the mouse cursor never disappears, whereas it does under Firefox.
- Perceval 17y ago
  Out-of-process-plugins are slated for release soon. May not even require bumping the version number to 3.7 – instead we might see it shipped as 3.6.2. Here is the Mozilla project page for separate processes: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Electrolysis https://wiki.mozilla.org/Electrolysis
rsheridan6 17y ago
I doubt the Mozilla folks can do much about it. It's, like, 7 billion line of C++. How nimble can they be about turning that into a lean, mean, browsing machine? If they haven't done it in 10 years, they probably can't.
- ZeroGravitas 17y ago
  They're actually doing some interesting work in this space: https://developer.mozilla.org/En/Dehydra https://developer.mozilla.org/En/Dehydra Dehydra is a lightweight, scriptable, general purpose static analysis tool capable of application-specific analyses of C++ code. In the simplest sense, Dehydra can be thought of as a semantic grep tool. It presents a wealth of semantic information that can be queried with concise JavaScripts. It is also useful to find bugs in source code as it allows for much more error checking than C++ is capable of by itself. Dehydra is built as a GCC plugin, thus it is easy to use for projects that already support GCC. Dehydra is also useful for generating language bindings and is used to bootstrap Treehydra, a heavy-duty static analysis GCC plugin.
- Perceval 17y ago
  A big cleanup of the code was announced back in 2006: http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/roadmap/archives/2006/10/mozilla_2.html http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/roadmap/archives/2006/10/mozi... They've been working on it since, although I think it has evolved over the past three-and-a-half years. They've got a bunch of automated tools and subprojects to help move things forward.
pohl 17y ago
It might be useful for the FF team to put their tools down for a while and just use Chrome (and/or Safari). Then, upon returning to FF, they might see more clearly what needs to be done to make FF better. Eating your own dogfood is good, but so is thorough study of the competition.
- nollidge 17y ago
  Eat the other guy's dogfood!

ryandvm 17y ago

Makes sense. If you haven't decided to upgrade from IE to Firefox, you sure as hell aren't going to be finding Chrome on your own.

hannibalhorn 17y ago
Well, a lot of EU citizens have over the past few weeks. It'll be interesting to see where each browser's market share winds up in a couple months.

ErrantX 17y ago

Not unexpected; for a lot of us Chrome was a refreshing reboot of the browser after Firefox became a little on the bloated side. Incidentally I suspect Firefox has gotten as high a market share as any browser other than IE will ever get. I fully suspect that over time IE's share (the high %age of which is mostly down to the "monopoly" aspect) will continue to be eroded to level off in the 30-40 range whilst other browsers, rather than just one, will fill the gap. Also; is the increased safari explained by iPhone usage? are they counting Mobile safari in the overall Safari stats?

jim-greer 17y ago
On Kongregate at least the Safari growth is from the Mac, not iPhone. And Chrome has taken share from both IE and Firefox on our site, but mostly from IE. Safari Mac - 6.4%, up from 3.8% a year ago Safari Win - 0.9%, up from 0.5% Mac - 9.3%, up from 6.6% iPhone - 0.4%, up from 0.3%
- ErrantX 17y ago
  Wicked, actual data. Looks like I could be wrong then. (that's a huge jump for safari mac!)

mawhidby 17y ago

I still use Firefox for my web development because I like Firebug much better than Web Inspector, but that's about it. I use Chrome for everything else, and love it even more now that it supports extensions. My favorite thing about Chrome is the fusion of the search/address bar - you can just fire up a new tab and enter your search, rather than open tab, tab over to search, enter search.

ErrantX 17y ago
It was a smart move adding that to chrome; I am completely unable to function in another browser now because of it. Especially the auto-complete - type 2 letters and hit enter... :)
- mawhidby 17y ago
  Agreed. With Firefox's auto-complete you still have to click on the list of links for it to navigate to that page, and if you enter a search term into the address bar it seems like it either does a regular Google (or default provider) search or a "I'm feeling lucky" search. The reduced number of clicks/keypresses in Chrome really make a difference for me.
cmgarcia 17y ago
Same here. I use Firefox for development with Firebug at work, but I use Chrome at home.

MikeCapone 17y ago

I moved from Safari to Chrome. But before that, I moved from Firefox to Safari because FF is too bloated and slow on the Mac.

ZeroGravitas 17y ago

Does anyone else have issues with text-selection being finnicky in Chrome, or is just my install (on Ubuntu 9.04)?

fierarul 17y ago

Still waiting for a proper AdBlock on Chrome/Mac (ie. one that doesn't just hide the ads) and I'll switch. "GWT developer plugin" for Chrome/Mac would also be nice although it's not that essential.