6 ms·

What got me hooked on chrome was the unified address bar that just worked, and tabs on top (and the close button stays in the right place when you close half a

by fleitz 16y ago

What got me hooked on chrome was the unified address bar that just worked, and tabs on top (and the close button stays in the right place when you close half a dozen tabs), basically it just took up less space, firefox feels like IE with way too much clutter and a prompt to ask you if you really meant to do whatever, yes I really want my browser to close, update etc. Chrome just does whatever it feels like and I'm ok with that as it makes decent choices. It's really not the end of the world if a dozen tabs close, especially if you can just reopen them with a click. The difference between chrome and firefox is usability. I always feel like I'm fighting firefox to do what I want.

SeanDav 16y ago
I feel almost diametrically opposite :) I find the Chrome interface so simple as to be almost brain dead. Chrome's handling of tabs and sessions is much worse than Firefox. As a power user of browsers I just feel Firefox is streets ahead of Chrome. I honestly cannot think of a single thing I prefer about Chrome. The only reasons I have it installed is just to see what the fuss is all about and as an alternative to Firefox if I have display or other problems in 1 browser.
- drivebyacct2 16y ago
  How is it's handling of tabs or sessions radically different? And come on, its impossible to look at Firefox 4 (or IE9 for that matter) and not know where ALL of the major design shifts came from...
- greyman 16y ago
  What about speed? On my machines, startup time and rendering time are both noticeably shorter in Chrome. That was my primary reason I switched.
  - WalterGR 16y ago
    What about speed? I empathize. I'm a bookmark junkie, keeping 10,000+ bookmarks in my browser at a given time. Firefox just couldn't handle that (on my admittedly older computer,) taking ~30 seconds to both start up and shut down, and ~5 seconds to navigate to a new URL. I blame it largely on the switch to SQLite as backing store, but unfortunately I don't have any hard numbers.
    - xiongchiamiov 16y ago
      Have you looked into using an online bookmark system instead? Del.icio.us responds at the same rate, whether you have 10 bookmarks or 10 thousand.
- fleitz 16y ago
  Interesting, I'll give you sessions hands down, but tabs? I'm really interested to know what I'm missing in FF. I think FF4 may get me to switch back as there are a few extensions I miss, oh, and the in page search sucks compared to firefox. Nothing like pressing / to search, maybe I should install Vimium.
  - Raphael 16y ago
    With many tabs, they shrink so small they lose the text and favicon. Eventually they stop shrinking and new tabs are not displayed, and clicking the new tab button just activates the tab under it.
    - zcid 16y ago
      Use Tree Style Tabs for a week and I guarantee you will never go back to top style tabs. I have about 40 tabs open right now and it feels completely organized (I am obsessive about minimizing clutter).
  - Flenser 16y ago
    but search term highlighting is much better in chrome. When Firefox has search highlighting in the scrollbar I'll switch back.
- blntechie 16y ago
  +1 For me, Chrome has nothing Firefox don't have. Both have almost same set of features now . A year back, Chrome was in fact lagging in features. IMHO, the only difference i find is startup speed is better in chrome. But Firefox 4 nightly builds are rapidly catching up in that area. Load times for me are 5-10 seconds with a big Adblock list pre loading. Without Adblock list, it's a snap. Both are rapidly catching up with each others features and so I don't find reason for me to switch to Chrome. Firefox + Sync + Adblock + No Script + Awesome Bar is virtually unbeatable for me even though Chrome has equivalents.
  - Volscio 16y ago
    I can't live without Tab Mix Plus in Firefox. I want anything I click on to open in a new tab. Chrome hasn't been able to provide that to me yet although I guess I could just try to learn middle click or whatever.
    - chadgeidel 16y ago
      Even worse, I would prefer my searches (and new address bar entries) go in a separate tab. I just don't understand why this feature (especially "open search results in a new tab") can't be an option in the default software. Sure, it doesn't take long to Ctrl+T, but I've become accustomed to TMP behavior in FF. (edit: and option -> an option)
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- SeanDav 16y ago
  I see someone doesn't like pro Firefox comments and came and downvoted all pro Firefox entries....
- kellishaver 16y ago
  The main thing that turns me off of Chrome is that there is no way to zoom text only. If I want to zoom in, I have to resize the entire layout. That means that column of text I wanted to read that fit nicely in the browser window, but was simply too small, now requires a lot of horizontal scrolling to read. Sure, sometimes text-only zoom breaks the layout, but usually only if you zoom in a very large amount, and often times, it is still preferable and easier to work with. I surf the web with my text zoomed in 4-6x.
  - xiongchiamiov 16y ago
    If you're using Firefox, you might find NoSquint[0] useful. It allows you to customize per-site settings for font sizes and colors (as well as more precise global defaults than Firefox does naturally). [0]: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2592/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2592/
    - kellishaver 16y ago
      Thanks! That's quite handy.
dheerosaur 16y ago
> What got me hooked on chrome was the unified address bar that just worked Has anyone used CyberSearch add-on for Firefox? It's one of the add-ons I got so used to, that's the biggest reason I am sticking with Firefox.
mambodog 16y ago
I switched to Chrome from Safari, and while I still find Safari's design to be neater, and prefer it's Reader to Readability, I just can't go back to the separate URL and search bars. I can't un-know that subtle yet profound improvement in usability. I'm sure there's a SIMBL plugin to add this to Safari but I find SIMBL to be a source of memory leaks. Hopefully Apple comes to the party and just adds it.
listic 16y ago
Yes, I like that too. But how about all those Firefox add-ons?
- olalonde 16y ago
  The only one I really miss on Chrome is Firebug.
kristiandupont 16y ago
After having switched to Chrome I miss three things from FF: FireBug, TreeView tabs and the awesomebar. The awesomebar searches through my browsing history in a way that feels way superior to Chrome. I can see that Chrome tries to do the same but it doesn't work nearly as well. In Firefox, I feel that if I can remember something from a page I have visited, I can find it. In Chrome, I have to re-google it.
- WalterGR 16y ago
  I can see that Chrome tries to do the same but it doesn't work nearly as well. It doesn't. And it's so very unfortunate, because it seems like it could: my Chrome installation currently stores 1 GB of data as "History Index 2010-xx". For what? I don't know.
  - blntechie 16y ago
    Excellent point. My C:\ partition of Windows 7 is just barely 15GB and Windows takes almost 90% of it. The remaining 10% is almost used by Chrome. Whopping 1.5 GB for 6 months of history!! What the heck it's storing there? Comparatively, my Firefox's 4 years history is stored in a 85MB file. For anyone who has doubts check your AppData folder in Windows. This is a moot point considering the storage points available nowadays, but still i have no explanation why Chrome is taking so much space. I had to use a portable version of Chrome to make it not install itself into the User directories deep inside the Windows system folders.
    - drivebyacct2 16y ago
      du -hs ~/.config/google-chrome 89M /home/cole/.config/google-chrome Hm.
  - petdog 16y ago
    >For what? I don't know. Full text indexing of your history: press C-h and search.
  - nswanberg 16y ago
mfukar 16y ago
How do you feel about Firefox 4 beta then?
NikkiA 16y ago
> What got me hooked on chrome was the unified address bar that just worked, and tabs on top (and the close button stays in the right place when you close half a dozen tabs), basically it just took up less space, firefox feels like IE with way too much clutter and a prompt to ask you if you really meant to do whatever, yes I really want my browser to close, update etc. Exactly the same here, but then I got sick of various changes to chrome that went against how I felt a browser should work, and google wouldn't honor a config setting for. (Oddly, removal of http:// http:// prefix isn't one of these things, I supported that...) So I went back to firefox, albeit FF4 as MineField, and added in Omnibar and gTranslate extensions to get the functionality of chrome that I depended on (the combined nav bar and the ability to auto-translate web pages). Haven't regretted it since, although I do keep a chrome install around as my backup browser - every few weeks minefield will have some earth-shattering bug that causes it to be unusable for a few hours or so..
elblanco 16y ago
I do wish the Chrome team would fix the inability to view local XML files.

by fleitz 16y ago

SeanDav 16y ago

I feel almost diametrically opposite :) I find the Chrome interface so simple as to be almost brain dead. Chrome's handling of tabs and sessions is much worse than Firefox. As a power user of browsers I just feel Firefox is streets ahead of Chrome. I honestly cannot think of a single thing I prefer about Chrome. The only reasons I have it installed is just to see what the fuss is all about and as an alternative to Firefox if I have display or other problems in 1 browser.

drivebyacct2 16y ago
How is it's handling of tabs or sessions radically different? And come on, its impossible to look at Firefox 4 (or IE9 for that matter) and not know where ALL of the major design shifts came from...
greyman 16y ago
What about speed? On my machines, startup time and rendering time are both noticeably shorter in Chrome. That was my primary reason I switched.
- WalterGR 16y ago
  What about speed? I empathize. I'm a bookmark junkie, keeping 10,000+ bookmarks in my browser at a given time. Firefox just couldn't handle that (on my admittedly older computer,) taking ~30 seconds to both start up and shut down, and ~5 seconds to navigate to a new URL. I blame it largely on the switch to SQLite as backing store, but unfortunately I don't have any hard numbers.
  - xiongchiamiov 16y ago
    Have you looked into using an online bookmark system instead? Del.icio.us responds at the same rate, whether you have 10 bookmarks or 10 thousand.
fleitz 16y ago
Interesting, I'll give you sessions hands down, but tabs? I'm really interested to know what I'm missing in FF. I think FF4 may get me to switch back as there are a few extensions I miss, oh, and the in page search sucks compared to firefox. Nothing like pressing / to search, maybe I should install Vimium.
- Raphael 16y ago
  With many tabs, they shrink so small they lose the text and favicon. Eventually they stop shrinking and new tabs are not displayed, and clicking the new tab button just activates the tab under it.
  - zcid 16y ago
    Use Tree Style Tabs for a week and I guarantee you will never go back to top style tabs. I have about 40 tabs open right now and it feels completely organized (I am obsessive about minimizing clutter).
- Flenser 16y ago
  but search term highlighting is much better in chrome. When Firefox has search highlighting in the scrollbar I'll switch back.
blntechie 16y ago
+1 For me, Chrome has nothing Firefox don't have. Both have almost same set of features now . A year back, Chrome was in fact lagging in features. IMHO, the only difference i find is startup speed is better in chrome. But Firefox 4 nightly builds are rapidly catching up in that area. Load times for me are 5-10 seconds with a big Adblock list pre loading. Without Adblock list, it's a snap. Both are rapidly catching up with each others features and so I don't find reason for me to switch to Chrome. Firefox + Sync + Adblock + No Script + Awesome Bar is virtually unbeatable for me even though Chrome has equivalents.
- Volscio 16y ago
  I can't live without Tab Mix Plus in Firefox. I want anything I click on to open in a new tab. Chrome hasn't been able to provide that to me yet although I guess I could just try to learn middle click or whatever.
  - chadgeidel 16y ago
    Even worse, I would prefer my searches (and new address bar entries) go in a separate tab. I just don't understand why this feature (especially "open search results in a new tab") can't be an option in the default software. Sure, it doesn't take long to Ctrl+T, but I've become accustomed to TMP behavior in FF. (edit: and option -> an option)
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
SeanDav 16y ago
I see someone doesn't like pro Firefox comments and came and downvoted all pro Firefox entries....
kellishaver 16y ago
The main thing that turns me off of Chrome is that there is no way to zoom text only. If I want to zoom in, I have to resize the entire layout. That means that column of text I wanted to read that fit nicely in the browser window, but was simply too small, now requires a lot of horizontal scrolling to read. Sure, sometimes text-only zoom breaks the layout, but usually only if you zoom in a very large amount, and often times, it is still preferable and easier to work with. I surf the web with my text zoomed in 4-6x.
- xiongchiamiov 16y ago
  If you're using Firefox, you might find NoSquint[0] useful. It allows you to customize per-site settings for font sizes and colors (as well as more precise global defaults than Firefox does naturally). [0]: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2592/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2592/
  - kellishaver 16y ago
    Thanks! That's quite handy.

dheerosaur 16y ago

> What got me hooked on chrome was the unified address bar that just worked Has anyone used CyberSearch add-on for Firefox? It's one of the add-ons I got so used to, that's the biggest reason I am sticking with Firefox.

mambodog 16y ago

I switched to Chrome from Safari, and while I still find Safari's design to be neater, and prefer it's Reader to Readability, I just can't go back to the separate URL and search bars. I can't un-know that subtle yet profound improvement in usability. I'm sure there's a SIMBL plugin to add this to Safari but I find SIMBL to be a source of memory leaks. Hopefully Apple comes to the party and just adds it.

listic 16y ago

Yes, I like that too. But how about all those Firefox add-ons?

olalonde 16y ago
The only one I really miss on Chrome is Firebug.

kristiandupont 16y ago

After having switched to Chrome I miss three things from FF: FireBug, TreeView tabs and the awesomebar. The awesomebar searches through my browsing history in a way that feels way superior to Chrome. I can see that Chrome tries to do the same but it doesn't work nearly as well. In Firefox, I feel that if I can remember something from a page I have visited, I can find it. In Chrome, I have to re-google it.

WalterGR 16y ago
I can see that Chrome tries to do the same but it doesn't work nearly as well. It doesn't. And it's so very unfortunate, because it seems like it could: my Chrome installation currently stores 1 GB of data as "History Index 2010-xx". For what? I don't know.
- blntechie 16y ago
  Excellent point. My C:\ partition of Windows 7 is just barely 15GB and Windows takes almost 90% of it. The remaining 10% is almost used by Chrome. Whopping 1.5 GB for 6 months of history!! What the heck it's storing there? Comparatively, my Firefox's 4 years history is stored in a 85MB file. For anyone who has doubts check your AppData folder in Windows. This is a moot point considering the storage points available nowadays, but still i have no explanation why Chrome is taking so much space. I had to use a portable version of Chrome to make it not install itself into the User directories deep inside the Windows system folders.
  - drivebyacct2 16y ago
    du -hs ~/.config/google-chrome 89M /home/cole/.config/google-chrome Hm.
- petdog 16y ago
  >For what? I don't know. Full text indexing of your history: press C-h and search.
- nswanberg 16y ago

mfukar 16y ago

How do you feel about Firefox 4 beta then?

NikkiA 16y ago

> What got me hooked on chrome was the unified address bar that just worked, and tabs on top (and the close button stays in the right place when you close half a dozen tabs), basically it just took up less space, firefox feels like IE with way too much clutter and a prompt to ask you if you really meant to do whatever, yes I really want my browser to close, update etc. Exactly the same here, but then I got sick of various changes to chrome that went against how I felt a browser should work, and google wouldn't honor a config setting for. (Oddly, removal of http:// http:// prefix isn't one of these things, I supported that...) So I went back to firefox, albeit FF4 as MineField, and added in Omnibar and gTranslate extensions to get the functionality of chrome that I depended on (the combined nav bar and the ability to auto-translate web pages). Haven't regretted it since, although I do keep a chrome install around as my backup browser - every few weeks minefield will have some earth-shattering bug that causes it to be unusable for a few hours or so..

elblanco 16y ago

I do wish the Chrome team would fix the inability to view local XML files.