Buzz Out Loud Lounge forum: Google's New "Chrome" browser will hurt...Firefox?

What a pompous remark! Who are you to judge whether or not IE users are capable of installing another browser? Your condescending and incorrect remark is neither desired nor appreciated.

I've used Safari and don't like it. I occasionally use Firefox but I prefer IE, especially the IE8 Beta 2.

I will never install anything Google on my computers. Google's only interest is to capture all the personal information and web browsing habits of its users and sell the information to third party companies. If you care about your privacy you will not install any Google applications on your computer.

It is true that many people use IE because they like it better after trying other browsers. However, it is also true that the vast majority of Windows users have never tried another browser simply because what is included with the computer is good enough. It is not that they cannot install another browser, it is simply that they don't want to bother. I did once an experiment in a computer available to many students: I designated Firefox as the default browser, put the Firefox shortcut icon on the desktop, renamed it "Internet", and removed the MSIE icon from the desktop. Not a single user looked for MSIE in the Start menu, and *it was* installed.

LOL, I think the numerous benchmarks of browsers strongly disagree with your "IE is fastest" sentiment. There's also a full-screen view for Firefox, try pressing F11. In terms of layout, you can easily show or hide any of Firefox's toolbars from the View menu. I have just an address bar with the forward, back and reload buttons. Pretty minimal hey? As for having bookmarks and favourites as a web page, Opera does this too.

Maybe you should learn a bit more about browsers before offering another opinion.

I tried it for a little bit, but found it dissapointing since it lacked the progressive zoom of Firefox 3. On a wide screen monitor that feature is a must!

It also lacks a built in spell check. For example it will underline words in red that are incorrect but right clicking will not bring up a list of correct spellings. Little features like this I'm sure will be addressed in the next version.

Yes, market share. That's just a stat, not a preference.

This thing is screaming fast. Have you seen the stats. Javascript is at least 10 times faster, much more sometimes. Im sticking w it. The speed is so nice. It actually does make it seem like an OS.

The first thing I disliked about Chrome was that there's no choice where it installs. The C drive on my laptop is full and I've been installing all programs on the D drive. (I uninstalled Google Earth and Acrobat Reader for the same reason.)

I don't have a speed problem in FF3, I love the add-ons and have tweaked it to my liking. The zoom feature is a necessity for me. There was nothing about Chrome that excited me. I have now uninstalled it.

I have been using it now for about 2 days and must say that it doesn't really have a great deal going for it at the moment - ON THE FRONT END - I can't comment on the "stuff" it does with mem management or security etc etc as you can't touch it of course.

I do however have the following observations based on usage so far though:

The problem with chrome is that if you; as a user; are ready to adopt it this early then you are a probably a google services user and hence will require the integration that your normal browser has but with the lighter front end and security / memory management features of chrome.

The interface is only early Beta but I must ask - where is the space in that interface to add services such as: gmail manager, google notebook add-ons etc..there seems to be very little real-estate to build this extra functionality onto at the minute. Sure you could have 10 tabs open with these running as separate "apps" but that surely would invalidate the cleanliness of the GUI. You can also have this functionality with Prism from Mozilla!!

They may have improved the backend and security but that is a programmers POV / needs / desires - not a users per se.

- To take the status bar out was a bold choice but was it the right one?

- To have removable tabs is functionality built in is useful but is it going to prove to be integral to users in both long and short term?

- To give each application tab a full set of "tools" as integral but did it just not take up real estate that the status bar has been sacrificed for?

I personally think that there needs to be more front end introduced to realise this as a true competitor to FF or even Opera in the functionality stakes.

I could go on but in all fairness I genuinely welcome this addition into the browser market and am really starting to appreciate all the google services as they mature and their evolution well into the desktop / cloud operating environment but time will tell with this one.

Though I try each browser that comes out, I always return to IE. How fast do you need to be?? It seems that everyone would eventually get browser fatigue.

Chrome simply cannot defeat Firefox because of extensibility. I don't know how much Google will let users add on to Chrome. However, I can't imagine they would give the same kind of freedom. For example, the Adblock extension is in direct competition with Google's ad program. The fact is, with a browser tied to a corporation, there just isn't going to be the same kind of extensibility and innovation.

I don't trust anything from Google not to slurp up all my data and information and store it for their own use forever. The EULA for Chrome pretty well spells out that they can slurp up data transmitted via Chrome.

If it's "regular" people you're going to use as your model of a Google Chrome user, I'd say this: If they don't know about Firefox (and let's be clear, the name people DO know is Firefox, not the parent Mozilla), then they probably don't know why they would need or want a new browser. In other words, they already know what they use to get to Google.com; Internet Explorer.

"Regular" people as you define them are probably not that pc savvy to begin with. I think it would be very problematic for another company to convince them to change something, much less get them to actually know how to use it or even access it, for that matter.

So again, my take is that Chrome is going to appeal mostly to those who are ALREADY looking for or using a browser alternative, not moms and pops who are none the wiser.

I've spent about 2 hour exploring Chrome. No, there isn't that much to it, I was just making sure I didn't miss anything. As far as I can tell, Chrome is exactly what Google is making it out to be: a simplistic, powerful browser. All the pages I loaded look the same as in FF3. The bookmarks work well, and the new tab page is quite useful. The speed it loads pages at is very nice. Also, it has an "incognito" window you can load. It doesn't save anything to the hard drive. The cache is instantly cleared, cookies are repressed, but secure sites still load. I'll be the first to admit, as far as features go, it isn't anywhere near FF, but that's where the "simplistic" comes from. I personally plan to use them both, depending on my mood and purpose.

Hi, To some extent this mirrors my own thoughts. However Chrome has the potential to damage both IE and Firefox. Good luck D.D.