5 ms·

Which is ironic, because it really is just a webkit view, not even running the latest js engine that native Safari has access to. In short, it's not very good,

by f055 14y ago

Which is ironic, because it really is just a webkit view, not even running the latest js engine that native Safari has access to. In short, it's not very good, this Chrome.

rryan 14y ago
Well, there's more to Chrome than its pure rendering and JS speed you know? Predictive prefetching makes sure Chrome already has the page data before you finish typing. It can still beat Safari with tricks like this. Chrome Sync syncs your profile (credentials, tabs, bookmarks, omnibox typing model, etc.) across all your devices. The user interface for managing tabs is also very slick. Auto-update is gimped by the app store approval process, but at least you know that the Chrome team takes security very seriously and will take the minimum possible time to patch security flaws. Those are some things that I would want over Mobile Safari.
- togasystems 14y ago
  Does the iOS version have predictive prefetching?
  - jorts 14y ago
    Yes.
- jorts 14y ago
  I totally agree. Everything in iOS Chrome works amazingly well and all of its features feel very natural to me. I primarily use Chrome across my other machines so it's nice to have all of the same information on my phone now.
- bonch 14y ago
  I thought Mobile Safari already had prefetching, and iCloud provides syncing. Along with the faster engine, I don't have a compelling reason to use Chrome on iOS.
- Samuel_Michon 14y ago
  "Predictive prefetching makes sure Chrome already has the page data before you finish typing." As a website owner, I really hate that 'feature', it really screws up the exit rate in my site stats (I don't run ads on my sites.)
  - joshuahedlund 14y ago
    I always assumed prefetching just grabbed html output... does it run javascript too?
    - bzbarsky 14y ago
      Prefetching just grabs HTML. Chrome also does prerendering in some cases, which runs JS, fetches stylesheets, etc. The user may or may not ever see the result, of course.
  - simonbrown 14y ago
    You could use the page visibility API to wait until the page is visible before loading the analytics code. https://developers.google.com/chrome/whitepapers/pagevisibility https://developers.google.com/chrome/whitepapers/pagevisibil... This is only for prerendering. I think joshuahedlund is right about prefetching.
- redthrowaway 14y ago
  >Chrome Sync syncs your profile (credentials, tabs, bookmarks, omnibox typing model, etc.) across all your devices. This really is a killer feature, but it needs some tweaking. I do not want iChrome to autofill the same urls it does on my laptop. Let the mobile version default to mobile sites, and the desktop version default to full sites.
  - jeffjose 14y ago
    But arent sites smart enough to redirect to the mobile version even if the requested url is the same?
- geofft 14y ago
  > Auto-update is gimped by the app store approval process, but at least you know that the Chrome team takes security very seriously and will take the minimum possible time to patch security flaws. But most security flaws are in the renderer, which comes from the OS. The Chrome team has no ability to do security updates for that copy of WebKit. Frankly, I'm surprised they were willing to brand this wrapper as "Chrome", given that (and the more general issue that it's not the Chrome WebKit and is slower / less featureful / etc.).
falling 14y ago
It is pretty good instead, you and all the other people making noise over here since yesterday should try it instead of making assumptions just for the love of bashing iOS. There is much more to a browser than the rendering engine. It often feels faster than Safari (no matter how much people complain it being THREE TIMES slower than Safari because it doesn’t have JIT), incognito mode is much better as I don’t have to go to Settings every tim, passwords sync, omnibox. The only big issue is that you cannot set it as default.
- f055 14y ago
  I obviously tried it before commenting, but props to you for implying a statistically possible situation of me being a troll. Well I'm not :P Chrome works slower and that's a fact. Its keyboard is custom, but inferior to Mobile Safari by far. Its syncing options are superior, but all in all you cannot say it's better than Mobile Safari. Unfortunately, you cannot say Mobile Safari is better either... But not being able to set Chrome as default effectively renders it useless.
  - booticon 14y ago
    I've been using Chrome in iOS since it went on the App Store yesterday, and so far not being able to set it as my default browser doesn't seem to be holding me back too much. It replaced Safari on my dock, and my browser is usually within a single swipe on the multitasking tray at the most. Sure, you'll be thrown into Safari here and there, but that's the case for Mail as well, and I can still enjoy Sparrow.

by f055 14y ago

Which is ironic, because it really is just a webkit view, not even running the latest js engine that native Safari has access to. In short, it's not very good, this Chrome.

rryan 14y ago

Well, there's more to Chrome than its pure rendering and JS speed you know? Predictive prefetching makes sure Chrome already has the page data before you finish typing. It can still beat Safari with tricks like this. Chrome Sync syncs your profile (credentials, tabs, bookmarks, omnibox typing model, etc.) across all your devices. The user interface for managing tabs is also very slick. Auto-update is gimped by the app store approval process, but at least you know that the Chrome team takes security very seriously and will take the minimum possible time to patch security flaws. Those are some things that I would want over Mobile Safari.

togasystems 14y ago
Does the iOS version have predictive prefetching?
- jorts 14y ago
  Yes.
jorts 14y ago
I totally agree. Everything in iOS Chrome works amazingly well and all of its features feel very natural to me. I primarily use Chrome across my other machines so it's nice to have all of the same information on my phone now.
bonch 14y ago
I thought Mobile Safari already had prefetching, and iCloud provides syncing. Along with the faster engine, I don't have a compelling reason to use Chrome on iOS.
Samuel_Michon 14y ago
"Predictive prefetching makes sure Chrome already has the page data before you finish typing." As a website owner, I really hate that 'feature', it really screws up the exit rate in my site stats (I don't run ads on my sites.)
- joshuahedlund 14y ago
  I always assumed prefetching just grabbed html output... does it run javascript too?
  - bzbarsky 14y ago
    Prefetching just grabs HTML. Chrome also does prerendering in some cases, which runs JS, fetches stylesheets, etc. The user may or may not ever see the result, of course.
- simonbrown 14y ago
  You could use the page visibility API to wait until the page is visible before loading the analytics code. https://developers.google.com/chrome/whitepapers/pagevisibility https://developers.google.com/chrome/whitepapers/pagevisibil... This is only for prerendering. I think joshuahedlund is right about prefetching.
redthrowaway 14y ago
>Chrome Sync syncs your profile (credentials, tabs, bookmarks, omnibox typing model, etc.) across all your devices. This really is a killer feature, but it needs some tweaking. I do not want iChrome to autofill the same urls it does on my laptop. Let the mobile version default to mobile sites, and the desktop version default to full sites.
- jeffjose 14y ago
  But arent sites smart enough to redirect to the mobile version even if the requested url is the same?
geofft 14y ago
> Auto-update is gimped by the app store approval process, but at least you know that the Chrome team takes security very seriously and will take the minimum possible time to patch security flaws. But most security flaws are in the renderer, which comes from the OS. The Chrome team has no ability to do security updates for that copy of WebKit. Frankly, I'm surprised they were willing to brand this wrapper as "Chrome", given that (and the more general issue that it's not the Chrome WebKit and is slower / less featureful / etc.).

falling 14y ago

It is pretty good instead, you and all the other people making noise over here since yesterday should try it instead of making assumptions just for the love of bashing iOS. There is much more to a browser than the rendering engine. It often feels faster than Safari (no matter how much people complain it being THREE TIMES slower than Safari because it doesn’t have JIT), incognito mode is much better as I don’t have to go to Settings every tim, passwords sync, omnibox. The only big issue is that you cannot set it as default.

f055 14y ago
I obviously tried it before commenting, but props to you for implying a statistically possible situation of me being a troll. Well I'm not :P Chrome works slower and that's a fact. Its keyboard is custom, but inferior to Mobile Safari by far. Its syncing options are superior, but all in all you cannot say it's better than Mobile Safari. Unfortunately, you cannot say Mobile Safari is better either... But not being able to set Chrome as default effectively renders it useless.
- booticon 14y ago
  I've been using Chrome in iOS since it went on the App Store yesterday, and so far not being able to set it as my default browser doesn't seem to be holding me back too much. It replaced Safari on my dock, and my browser is usually within a single swipe on the multitasking tray at the most. Sure, you'll be thrown into Safari here and there, but that's the case for Mail as well, and I can still enjoy Sparrow.