Google Chrome versus Firefox
First, let’s meet Google Chrome in the flesh, now that is has been released.
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- Google Chrome main window features a slick minimalistic theme that blends best with Google applications.
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- Chrome can import settings from Firefox and Internet Explorer including bookmarks, search engines, saved passwords and history.
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- Chrome’s task manager provides an easy way to spot which tab is using the most bandwidth, CPU, and memory. Thanks to its multiprocess architecture you can discard tabs and have all resources back.
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- Instead of a blank screen you get a search bar, most recently visited pages and most recent bookmarks.
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- Chrome’s download manager has a very attractive and, again, simple design.
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- A download icon is added to all tabs where a download is taking place.
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- Find in page functionality is activated pressing Ctrl + F.
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- Google Chrome save password confirmation info bar.
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- Popups are minimized and stacked in the lower right corner. You can drag them to show the blocked window.
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- You can save any web application as a shortcut to Windows Quick Launch toolbar, the desktop and the Start menu.
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- Incognito is a private space where all traces of your session are deleted as you leave the mode and get back to normal browsing.
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- Following its minimalist approach, Google Chrome options dialog is brief and limited to the some very basic options.
To keep it as short as possible, let’s see what Chrome has that Firefox users may miss.
I would say the greatest advantage of Chrome over Firefox is its ability to handle tabs in independent processes which means a browser or plugin bug, or an incorrectly coded web page can’t take down the whole browser, but just that tab or plugin alone. This architecture also enables the cool task manager which as noted by John Resig, lets once and for all be able to know whether it is the browser or a badly coded web site the responsible for a slow down.
There is a noticeable memory overhead but what’s the point of having 1 GB or 2 GB of RAM if you’re going to care about 200 or 300MB. Slim is always good, but snappy is even better.
Then there is the really slick theme: no main menu, the status bar is overlaid at the bottom when needed, just like the find bar; there is no search bar which is integrated with the location bar, it has a new tab button, it has cool animations when accessing the bookmarks toolbar or moving tabs which definitely helps feel the browser more responsive.
Its private mode, Incognito, sounds like a nice to have rather than a must have feature for me, but with its implementation along with Microsoft’s and Apple’s, its definitely becoming a standard feature just like antiphishing protection.
It scores a 79/100 in the Acid 3 test (ahead of Firefox 3 (75/100) and behind Firefox 3.1 nightlies (85/100). In the Sunspider JavaScript benchmark, it clearly beats Firefox 3.0.1: 3700ms vs 5100ms in my Dell Inspiron 6400 (2GHz Centrino Duo, 2GB RAM).
Another positive thing is what Google didn’t do: they haven’t stuffed it with Google applications integration: there is no Gmail integration (or any other web mail service), Google Reader, Google Docs, Gtalk, etc. Google is of course the default search engine but you can easily change it to any other provider. Of course this is just a beta, and Google integration may be already in the plans, but it’s good to know that there is Chromium, the open source project from where Chrome is derived, so developers will be able to modify it as needed.
What Chrome is missing from Firefox? Well, that’s a much longer list that of course starts with the lack of extensibility in the sense Firefox provides it: a way to make the browser do whatever you can imagine, to the point of making it a completely different application like FireFTP or Pencil do.
As said before, I think Google will try to bundle Google Gadgets and present it as the way of customizing the browser, but of course it would be as limited as developers found when Apple announced the same for the first iPhone.
What else? Hold tight. In no particular order: there is no tab overflow handling, no tagging or smart bookmarks handling, no download resume between sessions, no multiple dictionary support, no toolbar customization beyond hiding the Home button and the bookmarks toolbar, the bookmarks toolbar is only accessible via Ctrl + B, no kind of web feeds support, no native video/audio support, no discontinuous selection option, no page printing options, etc.
The list goes on but since it’s a beta we can expect to see some of these features added, completed or corrected before the final release. Or not. This is Google and the final release may never come so I think if Google doesn’t provide a roadmap soon (ha!), we can treat (and beat) this as Chrome 1.0.
Conclusion
I like Google Chrome, and I believe it will be able to take a significant slice of the browsers market pie, hopefully mostly at the expense of Internet Explorer, but it remains to be seen.
While I don’t find it strong enough to beat with Firefox, it is definitely a yummy option for the hundreds of millions of Google users who will be prompted to install it through a web search results page, or any of the several Google products. Which at this point in time I think is fine. The web only benefits of more and more competition but my concern in the long term is: where do Google stop?
After all Google is a public company, and all its good public benefit intentions are second to those of their shareholders at best.
Features aside (they can always be copied, even extensibility) the main difference between Chrome and Firefox, both being open source projects, is what company stands behind and their mission. Mozilla is a public benefit organization, cares about the Internet and the Internet alone, which as noble, good and idealistic as it sounds, I still have to see any evidence that proves the opposite.
It has struggled in the past for sticking to its mission. Today it enjoys success for the exact same reason, in large part because of a business partner like Google, which is not the same as saying that Mozilla would die without Google: be sure there is no lack of companies interested in reaching 200 million users, daily.
I’m glad to welcome new products, specially products as good as Chrome.
Comments
gxg
As far as I can tell from the screenshots, the download manager will open in a tab by default. I think this is a feature Firefox should definitely have. At the moment there are no extensions (officially) updated for 3.0 that provide this tweak.
NitroOctober 11th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
No…. Chromes default download manager is really neat. What happens, when you click to download something and tell Chrome which file to put the download in…. A little on-screen(opens at the bottom of the window in the same page as where you clicked to download) slim & sleek box slides up to the bottom of the page and displays your downloads from left to right. But if you want to see a more detailed version of your downloads, you can go to options(tool symbol) and then go to downloads or press ctrl+j and it will bring up a simple downloads tab.
Christophe
2 things that Firefox should have done years ago :
- f*****g block popups. All popups. Why 5 out of 10 popup are not blocked with the so called “popup blocker” of firefox ??? Is that so difficult to do ?
- the not so awesome bar is a piece of s***t, why does it keep trying to display url like “https://mail.google.com/mail/?auth=DQAAAJMAAADAB4CqzN4uF1K6yjg-yaY5PR24O8BGXst_YfT-1yEuxMdP8XuErp3Rhq1p1jfbd9jb9Uf8XmFYvtrLIbfTa62fFWkUk_LHgPFKXKB61hpCfkJYNkOyL7k71J4B0IwhXNPqXYZDb9OAY3iQFO_cT2k1j3uTYfBlOTsUKMRMx6etC-SF-oh2Z-T6X6yQi6Wwik5×6NH_FEEkBCAqZZfIuz67&gausr=xxxx%40gmail.com&zx=p7re348lphr1″ ??? Am I suppose to know where it goes ?
Also, firefox 3 with basic theme is ugly.
AaronSeptember 26th, 2009 at 10:38 am
One you can’t knock Firefox three for it’s basic theme, Firefox’s Add-on Page has tons of other themes, if you weren’t so lazy, download a new theme, 2, the pop-up blocker, if it doesn’t work to your satisfaction, download a pop-up blocker from the add-ons. Idiot… and cya
bjzaba
I love what I see in chrome. But I won’t be using it.
I really hope you didn’t write this article in Chrome, because if you did, Google now owns the copyright.
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Devon Young
I really wanted to use Google Chrome, but it won’t let me save bookmarks to my social bookmarking site, where I keep all my bookmarks since I regularly use more than 1 computer. Then, I read on slashdot this morning that Chrome’s EULA says “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.” …and no, that doesn’t work for me and I won’t encourage anyone to use it because of that.
Ken Saunders
Great work as always Percy.
Chrome will not be the death of Firefox so people can stop freaking out.
A lot of good can come from this and things will settle down after the initial shock wave subsides.
@ gxg, the following doesn’t display the download manager by default in a tab, it simply opens it in a tab but perhaps you can kick it around a bit to see if you can tweak it to get it to do what you want.
My downloads are cleared automatically so I have no need for such a feature.
chrome://mozapps/content/downloads/downloads.xul
orlando_ombzzz
“no discontinuous selection option, no page printing options, etc.”
sorry for my language but: the “selection printing” in Firefox sucks ( ridden of infamous and very old bugs ). If you wan’t me to send some pages links to prove my point, just tell me.
and regarding selection printing, Firefox team took a “anti-common-sense” approach: instead of provide a contextual menu “print selectio” when the user right-click in the selection, they decide to hide the “print selection” feature in a lost check box in a lost tab in a lost print configuration dialog.
Why to wait Google to do the right UI things or fix fundamental bugs as the print selection problem? don’t you know that we users actually need to *print* web pages and we need some kind of fidelity in the printed page and not a blank one ?
Thanks for hearing
orlando
firefox user since 2004
( and still using it )
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Olh
Chrome certainly has the potential to grab a nice chunk of the market and I can see it replacing Internet Explorer as a simple, entry-level browser for beginners. But I honestly don’t think power users can switch to Chrome. The options dialog looks like a joke, and the lack of independently-developed extensions means that you’re stuck with whatever features Google developers decide are good for you, which sucks a lot. As long as it’s a product of a corporation and not a community, it will never beat Firefox in terms of quality and innovation.
Tan Yee Hou
Found that Chrome doesn’t work well with FB. Doesn’t load the part where it shows how many mutual friends you have with so and so person when approving them
Paul
Chrome’s bookmark management seems pretty limited. Not that Firefox 3’s bookmark management is anything to write home about, regressing from Firefox 2….
Justin
What is going on with Chrome’s PDF handling? Save only? Is there really no extension for viewing in the window?
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Dirk
I want to try it but I’m scared, has anyone ever tried to get rid of this program? does it try and take over the computer like Adobe or does the uninstall feature actually remove everything. I definitely don’t like the sound of that part in the EULA that Devon mentioned. I imagine Pixxar wouldn’t have agreed to that if the software they used had that in the EULA. I think it’ll be a while before I try it on any computer other than my gaming computer (it’s formatted often anyway).
I do like the Tabs being handled in independent processes. that’s pretty slick if it works the way they hope, Windows (especially Vista) could use something that works that actually prevents loss of our work.
I’ll probably try it this weekend but I would have to pretty impressed to switch from Firefox though.
sparkliusAugust 3rd, 2009 at 7:36 am
Hihi, if u mean u try google chrome:
Okay, i had been using firefox for a really long time, i love it really. But when google chrome comes out, i thought i should try it. I didnt hav my own laptop at that time n my parents get used to IE, so i had better to choose only one.. finally i chose to install google chrome coz i heard its faster( thats something i want)
i hav been usin google chrome for 3 month approximately, n its fast, especially when u just turn on your computer n just wanna to surf the internet. It doesnt have as many features as firefox, but thats the reason that keeps it simple. One drawback should include the PDF thing(u hav to open Foxit or Adobe to read the PDF after downloadin n saving the document) n the bookmarks arent so convinient. n it doesnt work with youtube sometime(it cant load, u need to press reload, i dont know whether firefox has it or not)
however for the speed, for the simple outlook, personally i think its a good try!
Gilbert
GET YOUR FACTS UPDATED. That part of the EULA hasn’t existed since 4 Sep 08. Google amended it to say
“You retain copyright and any other rights that you already hold in Content that you submit, post or display on or through the Services.”
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/03/google_chrome_eula_sucks/
DirkSeptember 19th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Oh, ok, thanks, that helps. I really haven’t had much time to look into these things lately. I’ll give it a try when I get the time. :-)
RickDDDecember 9th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
I’ll admit I have not read the new EULA but if the language only says I retain current copyright or other rights that I already hold doesn’t that still leave GOOGLE with the copyright to other material that hasn’t been specifically protected by me in some way? Kinda like saying if you haven’t specifically protected an “item” then it’s ours (Google’s).
Rick
AlixDecember 31st, 2008 at 6:07 pm
That just means you still own it if you have a copyright. If you haven’t copyrighted/somehow come to officially own the content you submit to anything in Chrome, Google still owns it. Really glad I did some research, otherwise I probably would have downloaded Chrome in lieu of Firefox.
Ol' Bobby
It was fun and exciting using Chrome for a little while, and man, is it fast! But it is so lacking in customizable features that it is actually annoying to work with after a while. Call it minimilistic if you want, but right now it just feels kind of dumbed down, like those email only machines you’d buy for your grandma. I can see my kid using this, but for real world power users, I’ll stick to Firefox.
Mjcoolz21
But, How to integrate with download manager, So I can download faster.
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harlemsprince
I just finished pimping my computer with all the google goodies like google chrome and the google desktop and I must say that I am In awe… well mabe thats too deep, But I am very impressed with its overall cohesiveness . my mother always has to look for IE but now she can type whatever she is looking for in the google search bar on my desktop, and find what she needs. I still like firefox b/c you can customize the hell out of it. But we all know how it can sometimes lag, and crash. with google chrome, and google accelerator, I am having a very good experience on the computer.
ADMIN
Google has changed the EULA for Google Chrome a very long time ago and when it gets add-ons in the near future, it will be the best web browser
Rick
Looks like they copied a lot of ideas from Firefox, and then tried to innovate on top of it. Firefox is good enough for me and soon enough it will catch up with the best Google has to offer. I don’t see any compelling reason to switch and contribute to Google’s monopoly.
Lubo
i think that google-chrome is good but it needs more work it has potential.The scrolling for me in google-chrome is slow.
For now mozila is the best.
for now :)
Jared
Firstly, the notion that Chrome is an inferior browser because there is less community support right now is ridiculous. The thing was just released!!! Give it time! Check Google Sidebar…. that thing has TONS of third party developed gadgets. Trust me, Chrome will develop a community that may even rival Mozilla’s one day.
Secondly, at this point, the only compelling reason one would have to switch from Firefox to Chrome, is the fact that Chrome is far more secure and is built better “under the hood”. The idea of having each tab utilize it’s own process is amazingly innovative, and their rebuilding of the Java VM is nothing sort of amazing. Chrome is, from a techie standpoint, a far superior browser. It’s more secure, and more efficient. If Chrome is able to catch up to Firefox in terms of customization, which is currently where Firefox shines, it will by far surpass it.
That’s yet to be seen, though if they will do so….
Dana
I’m long-time user of Firefox, and when I know about Google Chrome. I happened to prefer it over Firefox.
GOOGLE CHROME FOR THUMBS UP!!
Shane R
The reason I use FireFox predominantly is because of the AdBlock Plus add-on, because it also blocks ad banners- and that’s particularly what I’m after. None of the other browsers have this feature from what I’ve tried. I’ll use FireFox as long as that’s available.
Jeff
I like the content of this piece, but somebody has to edit or proofread these entries before they go out. Your grammar is lacking. This is especially evident in places where you use the wrong word (like using “specially” when you probably meant to use “especially” or possibly ” ’specially” to show slang). Yes, I know I am nit-picking, but it is sloppy and detracts from the content (like counting the number of times Pres. Bush says “nucular” (instead of “nuclear”) rather than listening to the content of a speech.
Jeff's a picky one.December 25th, 2008 at 4:13 am
Jeff
December 15th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
I like the content of this piece, but somebody has to edit or proofread these entries before they go out. Your grammar is lacking. This is especially evident in places where you use the wrong word (like using “specially” when you probably meant to use “especially” or possibly ” ’specially” to show slang). Yes, I know I am nit-picking, but it is sloppy and detracts from the content (like counting the number of times Pres. Bush says “nucular” (instead of “nuclear”) rather than listening to the content of a speech.
_________________________________________________________
This is one of the reasons why people die so early. (Eustress – When Jeff gets excited for every misspelled word then realizes that it doesn’t change a thing.) He basks himself in the most discrete puzzle he could ever think of and when its complete he wishes to be acknowledge. Well Jeff, you just got acknowledged. Hey, why don’t you trying buying a 10 piece puzzle rather than a 1000 piece puzzle. Make my day.
Jeff's a picky one.
Hey Jeff, I just realized I used the wrong grammar for the word “acknowledge” in the second sentence. What are you going to do about it?
Jay
Okay i like some of Google chrome, like the speed of the search and it simple but For those who watch movie or do video editing on the web I would stick with Firefox.I notice for sites like hulu and other sites that require a applet to run chrome does not want to load. Since Most people watch movies and missed tv show online Google has a long long way to beat firefox. I know google and firefox has a good relationship Maybe they can combine both browsers together:) But in till then I am going to have to go with Firefox
Akshay S Dinesh
Google chrome may be damn fast in 1 or 2 GB rams. BUt i have only a 256 MB ramm and if i try to open a new page with google chrome, the first page gets stuck.
And i can’t even think of running it along with antivirus.
Kyle
you don’t need 1GB of RAM i only use 512MB and i’ve just got to say Firefox is one of the laggiest browsers when used with add-ons and chrome is much faster on my 512MB RAM system you’re probably using IE because you sound like you don’t know much about firefox
Kanaverum
I checked out Google Chrome today, and I’m fairly impressed. Granted, this is coming from a guy who gave up Firefox(2.0) for IE7 once IE7pro (http://ie7pro.com/) came to my attention.
Of course, the only things I liked about ie7pro were features like continuous spell-checking, tab recovery (and particularly the feature for reopening the ‘last closed tab’), and the download manager. Of course, these things were all included in Firefox, but I needed to access specific sites that I couldn’t with Firefox (see note below).
In the end, I think Google Chrome wound up having only the features that I was ever interested in anyway… cool :)
* Note: I gave up Firefox 2.0 because it wasn’t loading a few of the financial sites properly. These sites were necessary for me to function (as they are financial), and if I find that Google Chrome has trouble with them, I’ll dump Chrome also and revert back to IE7. The way I see it, one benefit to using IE is that it always displays the sites I access. Granted, this is probably because so many people use it that they’ll kill Microsoft if it doesn’t work the way it should… but that doesn’t mean it’s a great project.
juel
@Jay: I’m sorta confused coz hulu and other video editing sites run perfectly on mine.
Tony
I’m just a middle aged old fart home computer user so I am not familiar with a lot of the technical stuff, heck I know nothing about add ons & plug ins & stuff like that. I just give things a try & try to remain unbiased & take it for what it’s worth. If I like it & don’t have probs, fine. If I don’t like it or it gives me problems I remove it. I have been using chrome for about 2 months & like it. The one problem I have is it won’t copy certain things from some websites. One example is trying to copy & paste the url code from Youtube, another I had to go back to IE to do was copying a url for a picture on photobucket to use on my blog. I’ve never tried Firefox but am going to download it & give it a go tonight.
OpenSource
Chrome is NOT open source…Therefore I will NOT use it! In fact I will run away as fast as I can! Open source is the way to go there is NO comparison to anything else period!
…and I bet you’re still using MS Windows? LoL!
Akshay S Dinesh
I have a 256 MB RAM. And, with anti virus running, I can run only IE or Firefox. Without anti virus everything runs, but, IE is the most stable, Firefox next and Chrome, the least stable.
With FF if I take Gmail or Youtube and open more than 2 tabs the whole memory gets problems and it crashes down. Also, there is this chess website chesscube.com that uses lot of scripts or adobe flash or something. Firefox is fine when just starting but gets stuck over time.
But Chrome doesn’t even allow that everything gets stuck the moment you open a new tab.
So, with very low RAM the most stable browser is IE. But I use Firefox, when I don’t want to view videos or do complex things like commenting here.
C Fred
FireFox is killing me. Worked great til last week now it’s crashing many, many times a day. Reports have been sent each time (with request for e-mail reply.) Still happenin & have yet to receive a reply. FUBAR!!
jasonSeptember 21st, 2009 at 2:24 am
this is happening to me too and thats why i uninstal it i am using the google chrome now but all happened when i downloaded google chrome maybe it is interfearing with each other i don’t know but now i have only GC
Brandon
I feel chrome is so much faster then firefox. the only downfall that I dislike is the lack of themes, if google had the themes firefox did then it would be better,
kyle
certain things (codes, alignment) on myspace and facebook look differently than ie and firefox, but pictures and text seem smoother on chrome.
asdf
I beleive that Google Chrome is better than firefox. Of course, I have a point to say that from my computer. It is a brand new 2 gig 2007 Vista, but I have dial up. I would prefer Google Chrome if you have a slower computer/internet.
Uchiha madara
I have problems on installing a newer version of chrome the exe file wont execute at all and i cant find this path for changing skin for google chrome.
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Pat
> no closed tab recovery
Open any tab, Close it , click on the new tab button , notice
” Recently closed tabs “
Reply
Percy CabelloSeptember 8th, 2008 at 12:06 am
You’re right. I’ve updated the article, thanks!
Reply