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Google Chrome: Thumbs Up or Down?

Abe Olandres Editor-in-chief September 3, 2008 · 1 min read

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Now that most of us have downloaded and tried the new Google Chrome browser, what’s the verdict? Will Chrome become your primary web browser of will you stick with you favorite one?

But before that, let’s see what’s under the hood of Google Chrome and compare that with other browsers (layout engine):

Google Chrome: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US) AppleWebKit/525.13 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/0.2.149.27 Safari/525.13

Mozilla Firefox 3: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008070208 Firefox/3.0.1

Flock 1.2.4: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.16) Gecko/20080714 Firefox/2.0.0.16 Flock/1.2.4

Apple Safari: AppleWebKit

Opera 9.5: Presto

In a sense, Chrome is like a hybrid of Firefox and Safari. It’s lean and its fast. When Flock came out, it was also lean and fast which is why I still use it as a secondary browser today. But nothing beats Firefox’s development community and the extensions.

Note: Google Chrome is running a serious security flaw so I wouldn’t encourage downloading and using it for the meantime.

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Abe Olandres

Editor-in-chief

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and is considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines.

8,007 Articles

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83 Comments

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jaffy · 17 years ago

i’ve been using chrome at home since it came out. and when it got out of beta, it’s way way better now performancewise and in stability.

Robert · 18 years ago

I still prefer Safari…

chewy · 18 years ago

I downloaded it last week and have been using it for a few days. I like the sleekness of the GUI and how shift+Esc brings up the Chrome taskbar (showing you how much memory each page is using and how much bandwidth is being used)

google was right by saying that the autonomous tab makes for a better browsing experience in the “long run” as you open and close tabs and pages, but it doesn’t make the browser faster when you first access it. It doesn’t bloat at all compared to firefox.

Frustrating though that my multiply uploads don’t go smoothly, and facebook is JUST A PAIN using chrome.

I’d use chrome for work and firefox for fun, for now.

makr · 18 years ago

chrome’s fast w/ some eye candy but i still prefer the safari & firefox over it..

might change my mind though coz i know it’s still in the beta stage.

Jay · 18 years ago

chrome: it’s fast.

Rondon · 18 years ago

I’m using it right now under Windows 2000. (got it running there via the chrome2k “patch” from the web). What I like about it is that despite eating up tons of memory, it feels “smooth”. Pages load quickly (as I see it), the way it animates the tabs when you drag it is smooth. The status bar is unobtrusive, same with the download bar.

Hope that “smooth” feeling gets transferred to other browsers in the future.

joaquinbordado · 18 years ago

Fast and efficient, kaso parang nghahang sya..tska ala sya ung gaya sa FF tska opera ung search options..(wiki,imdb,yahoo..etc)

BrianB · 18 years ago

Amazing, amazing, amazing.

BrianB · 18 years ago

This is a great preview here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fwNH49zuqw

truly an amazing browser Design is a generation or two ahead of firefox 3. Really incredible. The best browser by a mile.

BrianB · 18 years ago

Best part is that each tab is a single unit, amazing.

BrianB · 18 years ago

The sad part about Google Chrome is that it will not dislodge IE. It’s a Firefox competitor and will surely push FF into the brink. Good luck to FF.

elmer · 18 years ago

thumbs up.. fast and simple. i love the incognito feature.

i guess goog is really looking forward to the days where there’s no need to have a fat apps client and everything works with the browser.. called chrome

Jaypee · 18 years ago

Thumbs up but…

Chrome is definitely faster and lighter than Firefox and other browsers but when I read the TOA and the line that JC pointed out, I stopped using it. Now that they’ve removed that, then I’m gonna continue using it but Firefox will remain as my default browser mainly because of the addons/extensions that I can’t live out with. :)

Gel · 18 years ago

I tried using it but most likely i’m sticking with Mozilla :D I dunno.. for some reason there’s something weird about Chrome but I can’t figure out exactly what!

Marc · 18 years ago

Loading is fast compared to IE and Firefox. It shutdown when there is an error. One thing I’ve noticed, There is no drop down menu on the previous page you visited, you need to check the history tab to look for your previously visited site, Much better that scrolling.

Nonoy · 18 years ago

Simple and fast. I love it!

jhay · 18 years ago

I’m using it as my default browser since yesterday. And so far, everything has been great.

The security flaw is a good concern but since I’m very careful in downloading files off the net, it wouldn’t be a big deal for me.

I can’t wait for the first plugins for Chrome to come out. :)

kouji · 18 years ago

i was thinking about downloading it. but i’ve already gotten so used to my firefox add ons, that i don’t really think i could use some other browser as my primary.

max · 18 years ago

i like how it looks AND like the new functionalities provided ..

1. most visited sites page
2. in the fonts and languages filipino and french are included.
3. open the following pages on startup i thought is really helpful

and so on and on ..

purelocke · 18 years ago

Definitely thumbs up! Faster and leaner, even the UI is sleek in my opinion. I do miss some of the extensions in Firefox, but the speed at which Chrome handles web apps is just great. It also breezes around javascript heavy sites, which would be any site heavily relying in AJAX. Right now, I still have Firefox as my default browser, but I’ve been using Chrome ( including writing this comment ) exclusively for 2 days now. About running it in Linux, I’ll try it on WINE when I have a chance, but I think this should run pretty easy.

With regards to the webkit security flaw – I’m not so much concerned as the attack needs social engineering into making you think that the download is part of a system message ( or part of the browser ), — which makes it easier to avoid and detect. I personally direct all my downloads to a Temp folder ( for all browsers, and the first thing I did to Chrome was to set its download path ) where I can check for files I want and delete those that I do not need ( or have used but do not serve me any purpose anymore ). Also, make it a practice to not open files using the browser download box, just go to your downloads folder to do that. I do hope Google patches this flaw soon, but this should not hinder people from trying it out.

JC John SESE-Cuneta · 18 years ago

Ah, thanks Tim, so it was finally removed. I’ve been thinking last night if they just copied and paste their Generic or Universal EULA to Chrome in time for release, it seems so, lol.

Ok, now back to Chrome craziness…. I’ll try to make it work in GNU/Linux hehe :p

Tim · 18 years ago

JC John, that’s answered here:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/does_google_have_rights_to_all.php

kath · 18 years ago

hmm i like the interface. simple but elegant. besides i love the bluish gray color :) as for a not so techie girl, well setting it up is ok, i found my way easily to customize most if not everything. im still trying to use it just for the sake of testing it out but still im using firefox as usual.

JC John SESE-Cuneta · 18 years ago

Check this out:

First, define “Services”:

1.1 Your use of Googleâ€™s products, software, services and web sites (referred to collectively as the â€œServicesâ€ in this document and excluding any services provided to you by Google under a separate written agreement) is subject to the terms of a legal agreement between you and Google. â€œGoogleâ€ means Google Inc., whose principal place of business is at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States. This document explains how the agreement is made up, and sets out some of the terms of that agreement.

Second, the issue:

11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.

1) The word “through” was used.
2) Google Chrome is a “product” of Google and thus is included in “Services”

In other words,
“By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services.”

means Google CAN do all of those to YOUR CONTENT which you submit, post or display on or THROUGH, the Services (example: Google Chrome).

——-
PS, I hope I am wrong ;)

Also found via Wikipedia, I only emphasized the keyword which wasn’t emphasized by the original article.

Alfie · 18 years ago

its COOL. There’s only a slight problem in showing kontera ads.

JC John SESE-Cuneta · 18 years ago

Here are more details:

Layout Engine: WebKit – [1] FLOSS developed by Apple (which is used by Safari and other browsers); [2] a fork of KDE’s KHTML (which is used by Konqueror); [3] Chrome v0.2 is using an old version of WebKit (Safari 3.1.0 equivalent; latest WebKit is used by Safari 3.1.2)
Rich Internet Application (RIA): Gears
JavaScript Engine: Google V8
Graphics Library: Skia Graphic Library (SGL)
Project Behind Chrome: Chromium

It is interesting to note the following:
1) Google used FLOSS projects to build Chrome
2) Chrome was developed by 2 ex-Mozilla Firefox developers
3) It is importing from Firefox only upon installation
4) Will surely be integrated with Android
5) This is beta (LOL) so don’t expect ‘perfectness’

Personally, IMO, Chrome > Safari > Firefox > Opera > IE8

This was posted using Chrome v0.2 btw :p

Thumbbook · 18 years ago

I’m using Chrome, and so far, I’ts working great for me, and I love the incognito feature!

minor · 18 years ago

aero + chrome = eye candy

Mark · 18 years ago

Really cool browser, i’m using it now with no problem.. =D

BigBird · 18 years ago

Killer apps rules! Chrome is Google’s OS as internet as their platform. Chrome is a Cloud Operating Systems for Google Apps. Stocks are sky rocketing now and Microsoft are already loosing big time!