Google’s Chrome is the latest entry into the browser battles. In this mini-review, we’ll show you how it stacks up against the current king of browsers, Firefox.
First, the good: Chrome is FAST. Pages load very quickly with Chrome. We haven’t done any timed trials, but let us just say that on one of our most-accessed sites, we’re able to open and load dozens of pages in just a few seconds, whereas Firefox takes nearly a minute to load the same set of pages (for both browsers, we open pages in tabs).
Chrome is very efficient at managing memory use, too. Firefox has a long-known issue of hogging system resources, especially and most problematically memory. Over time, if you leave Firefox open, it just sucks up RAM. This is NOT the case with Chrome. Its resource handling is superb; it cannot be matched right now.
Thirdly, Chrome is much less likely to crash, and when it does, usually only the problematic site crashes; all your other tabs will still work just fine. When Firefox crashes, it usually takes the whole browser down.
Chrome has some really cool features, too. Your most-often used pages are arranged on a special page that is accessed whenever you open a new tab. This is very cool.
It also has a really nifty “incognito” mode, where your tracks are covered when you want your browsing activity to be secret. Not sure how this would apply in the real world (Porn maybe?), but it certainly works in internet cafe type settings.
However, Firefox is better at extensibility. Its numerous extensions are unmatched, and probably will be for quite some time, by any browser, including Chrome.
This is where FF really wins the battle. The extensions are so good and compelling that this feature alone sets Firefox apart from all its rivals. To read more about Firefox, click here.
Unfortunately, from a convenience standpoint, we now use two browsers: Chrome when we want to get information quickly or do some quick and dirty browsing and email; we use Firefox when we want to work.
Obviously both browsers have their benefits and drawbacks, but there is no clear winner in all categories, and, in our opinion, on balance there is no clear winner. However, if we were forced to choose one and only one browser, we would choose Firefox, simply because the memory issues are resolvable (close browser, re-open), the page loading is bearable, and the extensions make it all worth the wait and inconvenience.
Return to Use It from Firefox Versus Chrome
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