3 ms·

An exception to Betteridge's Law of Headlines?

charliesharding 7y ago
I suspect the downvotes are for those who think it really can be answered with a simple no. Or perhaps because it doesn't end in a question mark.. On topic though I recently tried switching to FF and was surprised at how much slower pages were loading. Has anyone else experienced this? Is this just a matter of caching?
- pessimizer 7y ago
  The downvotes are just for mentioning "Betteridge's Law of Headlines." 8-10 years ago on every headline that was phrased as a question, it was like every 3rd comment. It adds nothing, and I still reflexively downvote it without any particular malice. A) Everybody has heard of it (or can hear about it from somewhere else), B) nobody cares if a particular headline comports with it, because C) it's not a law, just a funny observation somebody made once that definitely doesn't hold anymore because headline writers are familiar with it, too.
- rossdavidh 7y ago
  I've actually had the opposite experience recently, but it was a page I developed myself using FF as my primary browser, and when I switched to Chrome discovered it was very slow (>10s vs. <1s in FF). I expect it depends mostly on what the developer is targeting. As Chrome approaches monoculture status similar to IE in the 90's, devs are more and more paying attention only to it.
- abstractbarista 7y ago
  Yea stuff is always loading a bit slower on FF versus Chrome, both on my phone and actual computers. Regardless, I only use FF. It's worth it if only for the ad-blocking extensions on mobile.
GuB-42 7y ago
I call Betteridge's law on your comment ;) Betteridge's law doesn't apply here because it answers the question: it comes down to privacy. But even if it did, then Bettridge's law would apply. If you read the article, you will see that he doesn't say that Firefox is flat out better than Chrome. If fact, he even gives the performance advantage to Chrome and says that there are ways of "defanging" Chrome when it comes to privacy. Really, the point of the article is not a technical comparison of browsers, but rather a statement of the importance of Firefox when it comes to privacy. And the value of not using a browser made by an adtech company.

I suspect the downvotes are for those who think it really can be answered with a simple no. Or perhaps because it doesn't end in a question mark.. On topic though I recently tried switching to FF and was surprised at how much slower pages were loading. Has anyone else experienced this? Is this just a matter of caching?

pessimizer 7y ago
The downvotes are just for mentioning "Betteridge's Law of Headlines." 8-10 years ago on every headline that was phrased as a question, it was like every 3rd comment. It adds nothing, and I still reflexively downvote it without any particular malice. A) Everybody has heard of it (or can hear about it from somewhere else), B) nobody cares if a particular headline comports with it, because C) it's not a law, just a funny observation somebody made once that definitely doesn't hold anymore because headline writers are familiar with it, too.
rossdavidh 7y ago
I've actually had the opposite experience recently, but it was a page I developed myself using FF as my primary browser, and when I switched to Chrome discovered it was very slow (>10s vs. <1s in FF). I expect it depends mostly on what the developer is targeting. As Chrome approaches monoculture status similar to IE in the 90's, devs are more and more paying attention only to it.
abstractbarista 7y ago
Yea stuff is always loading a bit slower on FF versus Chrome, both on my phone and actual computers. Regardless, I only use FF. It's worth it if only for the ad-blocking extensions on mobile.

GuB-42 7y ago

I call Betteridge's law on your comment ;) Betteridge's law doesn't apply here because it answers the question: it comes down to privacy. But even if it did, then Bettridge's law would apply. If you read the article, you will see that he doesn't say that Firefox is flat out better than Chrome. If fact, he even gives the performance advantage to Chrome and says that there are ways of "defanging" Chrome when it comes to privacy. Really, the point of the article is not a technical comparison of browsers, but rather a statement of the importance of Firefox when it comes to privacy. And the value of not using a browser made by an adtech company.