Chrome 12: To Chrome or not to Chrome?

With all the technological advancement of Chrome over other web browsers in the wild and already available in its previous incarnations, I still prefer Apple’s Safari as my default web browser.  Simply, because the amount of resource it gobbles is much less.  Though through time, Safari does freeze up even after you’ve already added physical memory to your rig.  This can be mitigated by a simple close and reopen which can be annoying.  But what’s more annoying is that some of the websites I usually go to doesn’t support Safari.  I’ve installed “Multibrowser” to make things easier with incompatible websites but this have introduced additional mouse clicks in navigating web links especially using other applications like Reeder, Sparrow, Twitter and others.  I’m surprised that Chrome has more compatibility with web sites even though… as far as I know, Safari came first.

I’m glad I checked my Reeder (my default RSS reader) a few weeks back because had I not… I wouldn’t have known Google released an update to its Chrome web browser.  I have Chrome since its release in my application folder but never bothered to use it because of stability issues.  Comparing the PC version to its Mac incarnation, the latter was a big disappointment.  But I kept the auto-update feature open, hoping for the day it matures on a Mac.  Seeing the version 12 tag got me somehow excited… Will this be it?  Is Chrome finally tamed and ready to play nice with Mac OSX?

Surprise!

Chrome in terms of speed outpaces Safari, but not that much [I didn’t use a benchmarking tool :)].  The thing that would make me choose one from the other is stability and surprisingly, Chrome 12 is a much stable version than its predecessors.   Everything seems to be in place except, I guess as a result of the silent rift between Apple and Google and for the fact Google is developing it’s own web video codec, Chrome dropped support for H.264.      

Goodies  = Extensions

I wasn’t a fan of “extensions” when Firefox introduced them.  But with the resource hog crazy flash animation in most websites, I was forced to use extensions like “ClickToFlash” and “FlashToHTML5” for Safari.  So, just after checking out Chrome 12, I checked out their collection of extensions and was happy I found my usual extensions equivalent and found some new nifty ones.

Neat Bookmarks

There are three ways of accessing bookmarks in Chrome:

1.  Clicking on the “wrench” icon and then “bookmarks.”  [mouse/trackpad dependent action]

2.  Enable the option to “always show the bookmarks bar” in Chrome preferences.  Click the wrench icon and then “preferences.” [mouse/trackpad dependent action]

3.  Press “Option + ⌘ + B” to access the “Bookmark Manager.” [keyboard action]

Neat Bookmarks is an extension that sits in your toolbar and provides a drop down menu listing of your bookmarks with just a click.  Though mouse/trackpad dependent, this extension saves space in viewing websites since you won’t need to enable option 2 above.  And one overlooked feature of Chrome regarding bookmarks is that every time you create a new tab, it shows your bookmarks bar and disappears when you have clicked/opened a website.

Scroll To Top Button

I first saw this type of button in Tumblr and immediately installed it in Chrome upon seeing the extension in its web store.  An improvement over Tumblr’s button is the ability to also quickly navigate to the bottom part of the sites you’re viewing.  With this extension, your mouse click wheel gets its much-deserved rest and no more banging on your left mouse button to scroll up or down.  

Smooth Gestures

This is the neatest browser mouse gesture I have ever used.  Comparing it with Safari’s extension, Smooth Gestures have a plugin that would retain the function of your right mouse button for contextual menus and still use the extension.

Downside

There is no doubt that Chrome is now useable on a Mac.  A lingering issue I have since its early versions is with DNS pre-fetching and I’d turn this on and off from time to time.  Some Facebook games tend to perform poorly but when accessed through their main site turned out to perform way better which made me think of closing my Facebook account :).  Lastly, there’s no extension for downloading YouTube videos. 

Verdict

I liked that its full screen mode is built-in and its ability to sync bookmarks with other browsers do work.  After weeks of using Chrome 12, with nice extensions and better handling of memory, I’ve set Chrome as my primary web browser (as of this posting, Chrome 13 has been released).  The question now is… for how long would I use Chrome as my primary web browser?  With Apple set to release Mac OSX Lion (10.7) next month or several days from now, there will also be a new version of Apple’s Safari with features/function more like Chrome.  I just hope Apple will make it available also for late adopters like me who’ve decided to stick with Snow Leopard as long as I can… or else, I’ll be sticking with Chrome for good.

The Ultimate Web Browser!

There are a lot of web browsers available free for download on the net.  Two heavy giants of not so distant past are the Netscape Navigator and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.  Opera back then is an emerging browser whom I believe was first into (multi-) tab browsing.  Fast forward to present times, Internet Explorer and Opera is still up to date with Internet advancements but Netscape though still around, have already abandoned development. 

 

Today’s major contenders for the title of “The Ultimate Web Browser” are not those whom I previously mentioned.  Mozilla’s Firefox and Apple’s Safari have replaced Netscape and Internet Explorer rivalry.  For my surfing pleasure, I got to have this two web browsers updated all the time. 

 

Welcome to the jungle, Safari 3!

Apple’s Safari, especially with its version 3.1.1 is the fastest web browser.  I don’t have benchmark information to show since performance would vary with regards to one’s machine makeup.  The look and user interface of Safari is hands down the simplest and yet elegantly designed.  Aside from being fast, it doubles up as a very good RSS reader and it shows in terms of “numbers in parenthesis” as heads-up, new RSS feeds on the “bookmarks bar” of a particular RSS folder.  My only issue with safari is that it somehow does not harmoniously operate with the mouse.  For example, to navigate folders in your bookmarks bar, one has to click every time just to show the contents of particular folder.  In order to tweak Safari to behave like Firefox, a separate application must be installed.

 

Zippin’ Firefox 3!

Firefox is somewhat synonymous with Internet Explorer as a dominant web browser.  A lot of Internet technologies and a lot of developers are using it as “the standard” web browser.  So when web pages don’t load properly with Safari, I turn to Firefox.  Firefox 2 is not that fast with Safari 3 and one needs to install FasterFox which is an add-on.  Then came Firefox 3, which first came in Beta version.  At first, I tried to resist the temptation of installing it upon hearing all the bugs that was reported through the net.  Eventually I gave in to the eager beaver in me and installed it a couple of weeks ago.  I was impressed at the improvements Mozilla have done.  The speed is comparatively much better and is at par or better than Safari 3.  It has retained all of its function but now sports a way cooler user interface that looks like Safari.  I got a tip though that there is an add-on that can make Firefox 3 look like Safari 3 and of course I installed the add-on.  One simple feature I like with the previous one that they have retained is the way it responds to the mouse.  Contents of bookmark folders open automatically after an initial click of other bookmark folders.  My only issue with Firefox is when it is used as an RSS feed reader and I wish it would behave like Safari.  I’m just not quite sure if there is a plug-in for it.  I think it was two nights ago when Mozilla released its Firefox 3 RC 1 version.

 

It’s really hard to find all the features there is in just one web browser.  Firefox and Safari I think are like cousins.  They complement each other in a way, like Yin and Yang.   I’m not sure if there is an actual rivalry (healthy) going on but if there is one… we are very lucky.  

 

The “Ultimate Web Browser?”  This time… there can’t be “only one.”

Which is which?