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If you are flabbergasted by the fact Yahoo, and everyone else for that matter, thought it absolutely impossible to disrupt Google (except for perhaps a handful

If you are flabbergasted by the fact Yahoo, and everyone else for that matter, thought it absolutely impossible to disrupt Google (except for perhaps a handful of hubris-riddled people at MS), please remember the general sentiment HN used to have towards Google who according to us, at that time, could do no wrong. They were infallible. They were the brightest people in the world. They were The Good Guy (TM). They were so good that when they launched a browser later that year, no one blinked before installing it. You didn't blink. I didn't blink. We just drank the cool aid and clicked "install".

darkwizard42 5y ago
Chrome was an excellent browser when it launched... It might not be able to compete with such a wide gap against all the Chromium based clones out there now, but it was rightfully an amazing experience. Initially its only competition felt like Firefox
- agumonkey 5y ago
  a list of shockers - streamed install process (download a shim of 300kB which will stream the rest) - obviously the chromeless ui - the dynamic status bar (ok that was the point above) - downloads shown below (as cute as the status bar, actually I miss that thing) - something about tab closing that was more regular (no need to move your mouse) - option / printing lean and fast
  - DaiPlusPlus 5y ago
    Counter-points: 1. At the time, Firefox’ total installer size was ~4-5MB. 2. Much lighter than the contemporaneous IE8 and default Firefox skin, but it just came down to removing the menu-bar and status bar. Chrome’s lack of a traditional menu-bar put me off for a while, I’ll admit. I also disagreed with Chrome having its own visual-style on Windows instead of using the system theme. I know Chrome integrated with Aero Glass on Vista-and-later, but I was an XP hold-out until 2013 when I jumped to Windows 8.1. 3. “Dynamic” is overselling it. Internet Explorer had an auto-hiding status bar since version 4, albeit only in full-screen mode. 4. How is that a good thing? It wastes a thick line of screen space if you downloaded a single file. I preferred Firefox’s separate download manager window. 5. IIRC, Chrome’s “close-everything-without-moving-the-mouse” feature wasn’t in its earlier releases - and I had that functionality in Firefox (back when Firefox had a single close-current-tab button on the far-right instead of close buttons on each tab) 6. Who prints web-pages? Even in 2008. - But yeah, Chrome’s attempt at cutting down unnecessary UI was bold - and prompted Microsoft to redo IE9’s UI to look like Chrome’s in 2011 (despite that, they never fixed the “snappy” feel that Chrome has - why does IE still freeze briefly for 1-2 frames every time you switch tabs? Why is the address bar still so fiddly? Oh well, IE is dead now so we’ll never know...)
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - jfim 5y ago
    One of the big features was also the fact that it was running multiple processes. Back then, if the browser crashed it just took down the whole browser with all tabs, which was also a bit more common with the numerous plugins that were required to browse the web.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - sangnoir 5y ago
    You forgot speed - both when launching the app and general responsiveness. Launching chrome was shockingly fast - clicking the launcher and having the browser chrome show immediately without the crutch of a loading window was downright revolutionary. Once loaded, Chrome was really snappy (e.g. switching between tabs).
    - agumonkey 5y ago
      yes indeed, it's so ingrained that I forgot. And to this day, chromium/chrome is still the fastest (even though it got bloated in other places).. I hate to admit it for I wish firefox could get up to par but everytime I use chrome I sense it; and it was shocking at the time. Also the update release pace, for better or worse, was also a new kind of fast.
    - mohanmcgeek 5y ago
      Yes. There would be a chrome process always running in the background, visible in your taskbar on the right. Chrome had a lot of smart people put in a lot of thought into it. It was a sea of difference when it came out. Not to mention their original Chrome OS pitch was also amazing. I really wish we had THAT Google now.
  - virtue3 5y ago
    - no horrible mem leaks from tabs like firefox :/
- perryizgr8 5y ago
  Remember this video? https://youtu.be/nCgQDjiotG0 https://youtu.be/nCgQDjiotG0 Chrome was seriously fast when it launched. It made everything else seem a decade old.
cbsmith 5y ago
> We just drank the cool aid and clicked "install". That's misrepresenting the search market's reality though. For most people, they never clicked install.
- kreeben 5y ago
  In 2008 there wasn't a need to click "install"? What OS were you on that provided Google Chrome seamlessly?
  - mhermher 5y ago
    No, it was snuck in with Java updates (or maybe Flash?). Unless you spotted the correct checked-by-default option.
  - cbsmith 5y ago
    Chrome wasn't released until September of 2008. Initial adoption was around 1% in 2008. I was referring to search engines, though the same was true for browsers. Deals were cut with distribution channels to have browsers pre-installed and to have certain browsers and search engines as the default. The overwhelming majority of people would use the default. In fact, a lot of the benefit of releasing Chrome was that it became another distribution channel that would default to Google as the search engine.
- nl 5y ago
  > That's misrepresenting the search market's reality though. For most people, they never clicked install. The author was talking about Chrome.
  - cbsmith 5y ago
    On the other hand, the author's statement flies in the face of the reality that Chrome's market share at the end of the year was ~1%. ;-)
    - nl 5y ago
tolbish 5y ago
Tabbed browsing and incognito mode were incredibly innovative. edit - Looks like Firefox introduced both. But Chrome was incredible in comparison at the time. I recall thinking Firefox was no longer worth it. I made the move back to Firefox a few years ago.
- xxpor 5y ago
  FF had tabbed browsing for years before Chrome ever showed up.
  - Aa9C4xPz43Gg7k6 5y ago
    And also had single process model which failed completely when you had 50 tabs and Youtube etc. implemented in Flash. Main tab use case being unusable around the time Chrome came out was what motivated me to switch. Also, extensions getting broken at each update.
    - xxpor 5y ago
      Yes, the multi-process model was a godsend. Especially since it was around the time multicore processors started becoming more common, especially on laptops. Perfect timing. Terrible javascript not locking up the whole browser was fantastic.
- meestaahjoshee 5y ago
  firefox definitely had tabbed browsing and private mode before chrome was released. pretty sure opera had tabbed browsing as well. i just recall chrome being very minimal, clean and fast when it was first released. plus as kreeben said, Google was pretty revered at the time.
  - Huffers2 5y ago
    You're right. Opera had tabbed browsing before Firefox existed, and Firefox had tabbed browsing before Chrome existed.
andy_ppp 5y ago
Sure, but if you had 20+% of the search engine market it seems terrible to not even try. Maybe it would have failed and bankrupted the company but I still think it would have been an exciting sell for the employees to try to compete. There were so many extremely talented people working there.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
raspasov 5y ago
Nothing is perfect, all of the time.
Rapzid 5y ago
Well I'm not going to apologize for installing Chrome then or now lol. It was a fantastic piece of tech with the tab process isolation and V8 helped to revolutionize what "webapps" were capable of.
- kreeben 5y ago
  I wish for us all that some day the internet as it is today would fracture and split into one webapps realm and one hypertext realm so that those who can't stand it when you want to click on something and you do, once the page finishes loading you end up clicking the top page ad instead of the button you aimed at, could go on doing the things we thought we could do, back in the day.
  - tenebrisalietum 5y ago
    The Gemini protocol is actively doing this.
armchairhacker 5y ago
To be fair I think Google really was better back then, and unfortunately they've changed.

darkwizard42 5y ago

Chrome was an excellent browser when it launched... It might not be able to compete with such a wide gap against all the Chromium based clones out there now, but it was rightfully an amazing experience. Initially its only competition felt like Firefox

agumonkey 5y ago
a list of shockers - streamed install process (download a shim of 300kB which will stream the rest) - obviously the chromeless ui - the dynamic status bar (ok that was the point above) - downloads shown below (as cute as the status bar, actually I miss that thing) - something about tab closing that was more regular (no need to move your mouse) - option / printing lean and fast
- DaiPlusPlus 5y ago
  Counter-points: 1. At the time, Firefox’ total installer size was ~4-5MB. 2. Much lighter than the contemporaneous IE8 and default Firefox skin, but it just came down to removing the menu-bar and status bar. Chrome’s lack of a traditional menu-bar put me off for a while, I’ll admit. I also disagreed with Chrome having its own visual-style on Windows instead of using the system theme. I know Chrome integrated with Aero Glass on Vista-and-later, but I was an XP hold-out until 2013 when I jumped to Windows 8.1. 3. “Dynamic” is overselling it. Internet Explorer had an auto-hiding status bar since version 4, albeit only in full-screen mode. 4. How is that a good thing? It wastes a thick line of screen space if you downloaded a single file. I preferred Firefox’s separate download manager window. 5. IIRC, Chrome’s “close-everything-without-moving-the-mouse” feature wasn’t in its earlier releases - and I had that functionality in Firefox (back when Firefox had a single close-current-tab button on the far-right instead of close buttons on each tab) 6. Who prints web-pages? Even in 2008. - But yeah, Chrome’s attempt at cutting down unnecessary UI was bold - and prompted Microsoft to redo IE9’s UI to look like Chrome’s in 2011 (despite that, they never fixed the “snappy” feel that Chrome has - why does IE still freeze briefly for 1-2 frames every time you switch tabs? Why is the address bar still so fiddly? Oh well, IE is dead now so we’ll never know...)
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- jfim 5y ago
  One of the big features was also the fact that it was running multiple processes. Back then, if the browser crashed it just took down the whole browser with all tabs, which was also a bit more common with the numerous plugins that were required to browse the web.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- sangnoir 5y ago
  You forgot speed - both when launching the app and general responsiveness. Launching chrome was shockingly fast - clicking the launcher and having the browser chrome show immediately without the crutch of a loading window was downright revolutionary. Once loaded, Chrome was really snappy (e.g. switching between tabs).
  - agumonkey 5y ago
    yes indeed, it's so ingrained that I forgot. And to this day, chromium/chrome is still the fastest (even though it got bloated in other places).. I hate to admit it for I wish firefox could get up to par but everytime I use chrome I sense it; and it was shocking at the time. Also the update release pace, for better or worse, was also a new kind of fast.
  - mohanmcgeek 5y ago
    Yes. There would be a chrome process always running in the background, visible in your taskbar on the right. Chrome had a lot of smart people put in a lot of thought into it. It was a sea of difference when it came out. Not to mention their original Chrome OS pitch was also amazing. I really wish we had THAT Google now.
- virtue3 5y ago
  - no horrible mem leaks from tabs like firefox :/
perryizgr8 5y ago
Remember this video? https://youtu.be/nCgQDjiotG0 https://youtu.be/nCgQDjiotG0 Chrome was seriously fast when it launched. It made everything else seem a decade old.

cbsmith 5y ago

> We just drank the cool aid and clicked "install". That's misrepresenting the search market's reality though. For most people, they never clicked install.

kreeben 5y ago
In 2008 there wasn't a need to click "install"? What OS were you on that provided Google Chrome seamlessly?
- mhermher 5y ago
  No, it was snuck in with Java updates (or maybe Flash?). Unless you spotted the correct checked-by-default option.
- cbsmith 5y ago
  Chrome wasn't released until September of 2008. Initial adoption was around 1% in 2008. I was referring to search engines, though the same was true for browsers. Deals were cut with distribution channels to have browsers pre-installed and to have certain browsers and search engines as the default. The overwhelming majority of people would use the default. In fact, a lot of the benefit of releasing Chrome was that it became another distribution channel that would default to Google as the search engine.
nl 5y ago
> That's misrepresenting the search market's reality though. For most people, they never clicked install. The author was talking about Chrome.
- cbsmith 5y ago
  On the other hand, the author's statement flies in the face of the reality that Chrome's market share at the end of the year was ~1%. ;-)
  - nl 5y ago

tolbish 5y ago

Tabbed browsing and incognito mode were incredibly innovative. edit - Looks like Firefox introduced both. But Chrome was incredible in comparison at the time. I recall thinking Firefox was no longer worth it. I made the move back to Firefox a few years ago.

xxpor 5y ago
FF had tabbed browsing for years before Chrome ever showed up.
- Aa9C4xPz43Gg7k6 5y ago
  And also had single process model which failed completely when you had 50 tabs and Youtube etc. implemented in Flash. Main tab use case being unusable around the time Chrome came out was what motivated me to switch. Also, extensions getting broken at each update.
  - xxpor 5y ago
    Yes, the multi-process model was a godsend. Especially since it was around the time multicore processors started becoming more common, especially on laptops. Perfect timing. Terrible javascript not locking up the whole browser was fantastic.
meestaahjoshee 5y ago
firefox definitely had tabbed browsing and private mode before chrome was released. pretty sure opera had tabbed browsing as well. i just recall chrome being very minimal, clean and fast when it was first released. plus as kreeben said, Google was pretty revered at the time.
- Huffers2 5y ago
  You're right. Opera had tabbed browsing before Firefox existed, and Firefox had tabbed browsing before Chrome existed.

andy_ppp 5y ago

Sure, but if you had 20+% of the search engine market it seems terrible to not even try. Maybe it would have failed and bankrupted the company but I still think it would have been an exciting sell for the employees to try to compete. There were so many extremely talented people working there.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

raspasov 5y ago

Nothing is perfect, all of the time.

Rapzid 5y ago

Well I'm not going to apologize for installing Chrome then or now lol. It was a fantastic piece of tech with the tab process isolation and V8 helped to revolutionize what "webapps" were capable of.

kreeben 5y ago
I wish for us all that some day the internet as it is today would fracture and split into one webapps realm and one hypertext realm so that those who can't stand it when you want to click on something and you do, once the page finishes loading you end up clicking the top page ad instead of the button you aimed at, could go on doing the things we thought we could do, back in the day.
- tenebrisalietum 5y ago
  The Gemini protocol is actively doing this.

armchairhacker 5y ago

To be fair I think Google really was better back then, and unfortunately they've changed.