Why Google Chrome Isn’t My Default Browser
Google Chrome has been public for all of about 30 minutes now. I am very impressed with how fast it downloads and installs, with almost no need for user prompts (except to close your web browser so it can import bookmarks/passwords). It’s fast as fast can be.
I can’t get over how fast it is. If you type “about:memory” into the address/search bar you’ll see a memory comparison between Chrome and any other web browsers you’re currently running. It uses so much less memory than Firefox.
Lifehacker has a good round-up of what’s “new” in Chrome, as well as ways to tweak Firefox to get the same features. But I can’t switch to Chrome because of my dependency on multiple profiles and my Firefox extensions.
Profiles?
Multiple profiles let me log into Gmail with different user accounts at the same time, and keep my browsing history and bookmarks separate from my girlfriend who shares the computer with me.
Heck, I keep my blogging related bookmarks separated from my Joe Public bookmarks for my day-to-day email, Facebook, and job related stuff so I can be more productive.
Plugins?
- I can’t log into my accounts without Password Hasher. Not only do I not use the same password for every account, I don’t even KNOW my password for most accounts.
- I don’t want to surf the web without Ad-block.
- I’ve written so many custom Greasemonkey scripts that are unavailable on Chrome.
- I don’t want to even think about doing any kind of web stuff without Firebug at my beck and call.
- I’m missing my Delicious tag button for bookmarking.
RSS?
There doesn’t seem to be any RSS auto-discovery in Chrome. I hate how painful it is to subscribe to feeds in Google Reader using Internet Explorer, it looks like it’ll be even worse in Chrome.
Chrome looks very cool, but I think anyone who has been reading Lifehacker for the past few years is going to find they’re missing too much of what is “essential” to them. It’s really too bad, because I’d love to run some Greasemonkey scripts inside of Chrome with it’s better memory debugging. I’m hoping that one of the big brained Googlers figures out a way to transparently run Greasemonkey userscripts so we don’t have the same Firefox vs Opera vs Internet Explorer vs Safari development sinkhole.
On the other hand, Chrome might be the best thing ever for people who use Internet Explorer and aren’t co-dependent on all of Firefox’s wonderful extensions.
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I hear you on Firebug. It’s virtually a must-have for me. I was pleasantly surprised to see Chrome’s inspect element feature, though. Right click and select “inspect element.” I’m still playing around with it. It doesn’t have everything Firebug does, not even close, but it has a lot more than I expected.
I’m still trying it out (writing on it right now) and so far is amazing. Granted most of the developer features that I love an know are missing but the difference in speed is incredible. I’m now using Chrome as my primary on my 2nd PC which I mostly use for reading and facebook/myspace anyway. Being a little older and having less memory than my main machine I expected slightly less but I can’t tell the difference…Way faster than FF or IE…We’ll see how things shape up as time goes on and we start seeing addons and what not for it.
Here’s one insight: Google Incognito lets you have at least two profiles at once, if you want to. So you could juggle (say) two different Google accounts easily.
[...] plugins. That means no Firebug. No ad block. And no Delicious tagging. Also there’s no Auto-RSS subscribing feature. Its focus, apparently is web applications present and future, which is something I’ll talk [...]
StumbleUpon? but chrome is fast, damn fast and way better in using memory in my old pc :)
I’m really impressed with Chrome since its a only beta 0.2 release. All the things you point to are plug ins which just need adapting for chrome. In the future you can expect ad-block etc.
On the whole I like the speed with which it loads and the quality of the graphics.
However I store my bookmarks on my google bar for portability’s sake and there does not appear to be a way to access those. Yes, I can go through and access those sites again and add them anew though Chrome, but that’s time consuming and I won’t be the only one irritated by this. Honestly, it struck me as a no brainer to make your own online features available within your new browser so I’m a little surprised it’s not a feature.
Hopefully they’ll remedy this soon.
[...] in Tech on Sep.02, 2008 A lot of people are complaining that Firefox Extensions do not work in Google Chrome, and why would they, they are [...]
Yeah, that’s basically my list exactly. Password hasher & greasemonkey are must-have plugins before I make a complete switch, with stumbleupon, ad-block, and GTDInbox being nice features I’d like to have available as well.
It is really fast though, so I might use it for a few specific sites such as google reader and keep to FF for everything else.
I’ve just started playing with it now. I lost firebug when I went across to firefox3 (baaaad idea - if someone knows how I can get it back, please let me know) so i’m used to being without it.
I’m liking the browser so far (although losing my firefox extensions makes it not worth setting as default just yet) the only thing I’ve really noticed is how HUGE it looks. I’m working on a 22″ widescreen here at work and feel like I need to step back a few paces. It’ll be good on my little laptop, though - I need every bit of space I can get there.
It’d be great if we can import our extensions from firefox just like we do our bookmarks…
Facebook doesn’t work?
Just out of curiosity, has anyone noticed problems with chrome running facebook? I’m using facebook beta… and I’m opening it fine in firefox while chrome will occasionally let me see the page but most of the time tell me “This webpage is not available”
Anyone else noticed this? I’m running Vista.
[...] Eric at Internet Duct Tape says he likes Chrome a lot, and it really is fast, but it’s missing some crucial things (ad blocker, [...]
besides RSS, it’s also missing opensearch. Good way to show that they really are the new microsoft.
You can get the same effect of Firebug with chrome. Just right click on something on the page and choose “Inspect Element”.
It’s built in and lets you run natively rather than a plugin. Theres tons of great pluses about Chrome and I’ve made the switch. I’m missing AdBlock though, but some good host files can make those problems disappear.
It’s not working on some website that requires log in like Facebook and Friendster. So far loading has been noticeably fast on some sites.
Any updates on “This webpage is not available” ?
Chrome Password management sucks big time, it cannot remember password in some websites
This, to me, sounds like google gearing up for the Android. Looks we’ve got a built in browser.
Tried Chrome. *Yawn* Back to the bestest browser ever, Opera.
Your title: Why Google Chrome Isn’t My Default Browser
Your first sentence: Google Chrome has been public for all of about 30 minutes now
Is that not enough reason?
Also, the Delicious bookmarklets for Firefox work for Chrome, so you can still get the same functionality
http://delicious.com/help/bookmarklets
@Liney:
I’ve noticed the same thing with Facebook. Some applications not working, but when I go back to Firefox, they work fine. Obviously there still some bugs to work out.
Using Chrome right now. I haven’t had any problems with sites that have you log in (facebook, twitter, my bank, google’s various sites).
I have noticed that ad-block plus is missing, and I would like a stumbleupon plugin. Other than that, its slick, its fast, its robust (at least in theory, I haven’t put that to the test) and it looks good. (Though I wish I could change the color). And to my surprise it even has spell check (yes, I know you don’t think stumbleupon is a word, shut up, chrome)
But for a 0.2.1 release, that is extremely impressive. Most open source apps get up around 1.0 and are still a little buggy. This seems rock solid, just missing some (albeit key) features.
I really hope that Google develops this some more, with a little more love this could really be a player in the browser game, even for the Firefox and Opera power-users.
I love Google Chrome! It’s amazing, but why can’t I set it as my default browser? I tried the options, and the control panel default program settings with no success. I assume it’s a problem with vista and not Google.
Its a fawking alpha release for Gawd’s sake!
We need more customization options and certainly an extension system just like that of Firefox.
Haha, what the hell are you people doing complaining about a pre-pre-pre beta missing features. It’s google. It’s a 0.2 beta. How on earth can you bitch that a 12-hour-old browser doesn’t have the AdBlock plugin ported to it, amongst other things?
Google said themselves that their motto is to release early and iterate often. Chrome will be developed non-stop. It’s retarded to judge it so harshly right now. Sigh.
I expected a lot from Google but Chrome sucks its not as good as IE8 Beta-2
Man, “Chrome” is screaming fast…found this blog when searching for “Chrome RSS,” as I can’t read RSS feeds using the browser (not parsing the code?)…strange.
I love the totally generic look and feel; very light-weight and nimble. I am sure a Firebug/web developer tools add-on will be developed in the not-too-distant future, especially given that FF is funded primarily through Google, right? :)
…now to just get people away from Internet Destroyer. I hope they run an aggressive ad campaign.
So far, I’m not impressed with the memory and multi-process mode. In fact, about:memory shows Chrome using *more* memory, with 5 tabs, than Firefox is with 15. All depends on what’s in those tabs, I suppose, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Chrome actually has to duplicate some of the overhead memory.
So sad to see you compare Chrome to firefox. Forefox is memhungry and over rated. Compared to Opera chrome is mem hungry and not much quicker if at all. Chrome doesn’t work with SEP which is bad considering how popular SEP is. You can get round it by switching of sandboxing but then you’re circumventing one of the few features that make chrome nice.
Alas there is no reason for an Opera user to switch so I’ll just look and laugh at all the firefox users like normal. Chrome brings me nothing I don’t already have except a bloated mem hungry app. It also has a lack of useful features compared to Opera so guess what I’m staying put.
I’d also rather use IE than chrome - I’d wager that even when chrome gets out of beta IE will be a lot more secure and less buggy.
Considering the testing google say they did on this browser I am disappointed. Firefox always was a disappointment that tried to copy Opera functionality and failed. IE at least works on all web sites I visit - more than can be said for firefox. Alas my order of browser use will switch slightly from
Opera (95%)
IE (4.999%)
firefox (0.001% to remind myself how crap it is)
to the more useful
Opera (95%)
IE (4.998%)
chrome (0.0015%)
firefox (0.0005% to remind myself how crap it is)
Does anyone here find it ironic that so many people use firefox when you need a seperate app to manage its lust for abusing your memory and mozzerella are still fixing bugs and security holes Microsoft fixed several years ago?
[...] browser ships with no RSS support, which annoys power users like myself, but doesn’t affect most people. The far bigger oversight is that support for opensearch is [...]
@leny: you can get your add-on back by another add-on, it’s called nightly tester tool or something like that, and it makes it possible to install old versions of plugins. the add-on might have certain bugs, but it has generally worked for me.
This must be the skeleton version of Chrome. I bet inside is an evil beast just waiting to get out if you type in the secret binary code into the address bar. At the moment its a no go; too many things missing.
It’s not my default browser among other things because its not yet available for Linux.
Hi - tried all day today (9/3) and found ie. that “comment” is not clickable in facebook.com (new). Not a biggie - just wanted to shared my experience :-)
I for one never liked the del.icio.us addon - I have a lot of bookmarks and it used to slow down FF pretty quick - my work-around was to make a bookmark to the add post page on del.icio.us - I imported all my local bookmarks to Chrome (its only half dozen or so - they are all similar shortcuts like above i.e. I have a bookmark to the new post page in WP - love it :) - it all works for me
wonderful, fast but I still cant use it as the default browser, i’m using vista if that is one of the reasons.
[...] mir zur Zeit eine Auseinandersetzung mit dem neuen Browser der Datenkrake Google. Ich habe kurz hier hineingeschaut. Geschrieben von zoom. Veröffentlicht am Mittwoch, 3. September 2008 um 21:27. Abgelegt [...]
@eyecandymyeye - it’s fun, isn’t it? Comparing what isn’t and what is working…
@Mike - the problem with logging into facebook was solved within the first few hours - it was fun to watch. Now it’s just a few features…
@Alfonsaaberg - yeah, the comments is the main thing I’ve noticed, however there’s extra things like trying to ‘crop’ your picture, and poking someone goes through a whole lot of extra pages rather than it all being powered by AJAX. Something is definitely unhappy.
Facebook is probably the only real AJAX driven site I use - has anyone else noticed problems like this on other sites?
Chrome is bringing down my 128MB vm with more than a few tabs. I am messy when browsing and sometimes get over fifty tabs (running on LInux). Most browsers have no problem with this, save IE7, but Chrome is a mess.
Plus I miss extensions…
Unless it is drastically different, I don’t think I will be using the Linux version when it comes out.
I love Google Chrome! My favorite thing? Incognito mode. I can look at things I shouldn’t look at… and nobody will ever know. It’s also a lot faster and simpler than Firefox, and has a bigger window.
So far, everything I have tried works in Chrome - even Facebook! I have made it my default browser and probably won’t go back to any of the memory hogging browsers of yesteryear - thanks, Google!
It is a beta version, and a 0.2 beta at that. I try out a lot of betas and I have never kept a 0.2 beta for so long. I am not using it for everything and it is definitely not my default browser but I do wish that some of it’s features were available in Firefox or vice versa. One thing is for certain though, I am definitely looking forward to 1.0
Google Chrome is the fastest browser. But it doesn’t have a plug in like RSS that so important for user.
Re: Profiles, check out
http://www.labnol.org/software/create-family-profiles-in-google-chrome/
There isn’t a full-fledged Profile Manager like in FF yet, but you can do it from the command line. OTOH, IE has never had this option, other than creating a different user and using “Run As…”. Dunno about Opera.
I guess (hope) the Chrome team will implement some sort of plug-in framework in future releases. There’s just too many things that FF users will miss otherwise.
[...] Why Google Chrome Isn’t My Default Browser Google Chrome has been public for all of about 30 minutes now. I am very impressed with how fast it downloads and [...] [...]
still not fully functional in facebook…….. although my firefox version seems to be breaking a little, too, now… fun fun :D
Aside from a lack of an ad blocker, one thing I hate about Chrome is the lack of an option to automatically switch to new tabs. When I click on a link, I don’t want to also have to go up and click the tab just to see it.
Other than that, Chrome is awesome.
i totally agree with you, i think that GOOGLE and MOZILLA should sit down together and create one super bad ass webbrowser, or if they dont want that, at least make it so that they can both use the same plugins, that would put them both at the top or near it and working together…
I read this article earlier in the day and noticed it was full of adsense ads selling polished chrome shelving, chrome jewelry, chrome rims for the ford F-150 etc.
Now there are no ads.
Did you manually remove adsense ads from the page or am I just imagining things?
check out the new firefox 3.1 alpha 2 on my new blog post.
http://cultavix.wordpress.com/2008/09/06/firefox-31-alpha-2/
Chrome only bugs me when it starts running none stop in the background . it is super fast and uses less mem than IE,FF,Opera Opera was the worse fuggin broswer ive ever tried to use then IE then FF . once they get the few bugs worked out of chrome I will be jumping ship from ff and IE .
While Google Chrome has softened my heart towards Web browsers, it’s still lacking some essential features. For one, form functionality. Particularly form auto-fill, quick domain population for non-.com domains: shift+enter for .net and ctrl+shift+enter .org, multiple search engines without having to type the name of the engine, tab functionality (a la Tab Mix Plus) and some type of status indicator for page loading/ajaxing. I know Chrome is fast, and I’m definitely a “default-browser” user now (just confirmed it this morning). But I’m definitely looking forward to using it.
Number one feature for me is definitely speed. I used to take 4-5 hours doing image research for client projects, because of my impulsive desire to open tabs for everything that appeals to me. I was at a point of disgust with FF, because even on a quad-core machine boasting 4 gigs of ram, it stalled after trying to save the third photo, when I’d still have a bunch more to save. Its session restorability was also beginning to degrade as time went on, causing the loss of a small number of tabs upon restoring, if not entirely reverting to the tabs of a previous day/week. Which brings me to my number-two favorite Chrome feature… history search. Yes, full-text history search. Something that Firefox failed so well at. Sure, I will miss my extensions for a while, but Firefox three has already conditioned me well for that! Besides there are a number of similarly functioning bookmarklets out there if you know where to look.
Also, for those missing out on the AdBlock extension, you should have a look at Mike’s ad-blocking hosts file, which is 100% perfect, but still 98% effective. I don’t get many ads these days, although seldomly I get a “failure to connect” js alert, which is tolerable.I’ve used for quite a while now, and I’m not seeing a single ad in Chrome. Check it out: http://everythingisnt.com/hosts.html
Well, admittedly I’m starting to sound like a Mac user… looking past the limitations in order to see the good that the new browser offers. And if one thing is for certain, web developers who haven’t made their way over to the jquery framework should start looking into it after seeing these numbers: http://mootools.net/slickspeed/
Given, that test isn’t entirely conclusive… But it tends to confirm that you should likely drop YUI and Prototype for any of the three better frameworks. I’m a die-hard mootools user myself, but that’s more of a lifestyle thing. Mootoolers are nice people. They share the love… :)
But jquery doth blaze on in ~37-millisecond victory for now…
:)
it feels weird to use the chrome. but its faster than firefox..
My computer is clean of viruses, spyware, that sort of thing. No, really. It is.
Within minutes of installing Google Chrome and loading nothing other than google search pages in it, an innocent-looking shortcut appeared on my desktop labelled eBay, that led to an 90kb exe that had suddenly appeared inside my account’s appdata folder. It tested positive for several virii.
That’s why I will never try Google Chrome ever again.
Regarding the memory usage…”about:memory” does not show all the memory chrome uses. check out the task manager n see how many process are running of chrome. the more tab u open, the more process would be running where each takes up to 25MB.
It is beta.
I was thinking what to say, but summary of what I would like to say regarding this pointless article is above.
It is beta for GS, what did you expect? A corporate-ready pre-release.
it is an awesome beta, tho :P
re chrome bookmarks am using a program called START which added to customize,options,on startup,open following page…which use as bookmark home page. the url is http://gudbrand.no/start/ there are a number of skins avail & have set these up in ie,opera safari & chrome.
[...] switch to Chrome because of my dependency on multiple profiles and my Firefox extensions, ” said Eric of Internet Duct [...]
I love Chrome its a bit like the I-Phone its screen seems larger than it really is! Really easy to read and the speed is just fab. Only problem is my machine (HP) running Vista Home will not let me set Chrome as my default browser. The button in chrome simply does not work. If you look at Vista default settings from control panel Chrome does not appears as browser option even though its installed. Is this a case of MS blocking the browser?
I’ve read that it has a security hole that you can drive a truck through! I think it’s best to wait until this is resolved, and it is out of beta.
[...] However, now, for once, Google would be best served NOT LISTENING TO EVERYONE! Why Google Chrome Isn’t My Default Browser [...]
While I look forward to further improvements in Chrome. I do not agree that they need to start cramming in more and more features and buttons. The clear intuition present in their OmniBar should be extended to all facets of the product — keeping everything minimal and expanding within this minimal construct — not an easy challenge, but the right path for this new browser with great potential for shifting the browser paradigm.
Check out my latest article about what Google should be doing (and not doing) to Chrome…
http://tpgblog.com/2008/09/09/where-google-should-not-do-more/
Enjoy and let me know what you think.
Jeremy Horn
The Product Guy
http://tpgblog.com
But it will be the most default browser on earth..
[...] http://internetducttape.com/2008/09/02/why-google-chrome-isnt-my-default-browser/ [...]
Good article! Thank’s
Well, to be honest because of tons of plug-ins for FireFox 2, I’m still going to use it. Plain and simple.
Chrome might be the fastest but that’s not enough for advanced browsing when you heavily relay on plug-ins. Just my thoughts.
http://theanimeblizzard.com/
I have too many plugins on Firefox to jump to Chrome. But is very fast and not use too much memory. I will wait for future releases.
Are they planing on adding RSS support?, as i think this and the fact that it cant handle adons is its only problem. other wise its the best software ive seen in ages apart from CS4 of course!