Flippant Remarks about Google Chrome
My last post about floating in the cloud is now followed up with my take on Google Chrome. Flippant summary: Google Chrome helped me think about how to use Firefox better.
Google Chrome must be awesome for certain posh, desktop, multiple-monitor users. I can see how tearing off a tab to make a Window would work well in such a luxuriant setting.
Before I started using Chrome, I assumed that a new process would start for each tab. Actually processes start up for plug-ins as well. So any casual, nerdy glance at a list Windows/Linux processes will show at least a dozen chrome processes. This feels like clutter to me and does not encourage me to open tabs and enable plug-ins. Yes, Firefox uses chunks of memory too but it seems not as liberal as Chrome with RAM.
Google Chrome inspired me to get rid of the thick layer of toolbars and menus that show in Firefox by default. To me this is the biggest win.
The delicious.com plug-in for Chrome works clumsily against the default bookmarks system in Chrome. The developer of the plug-in is not at fault here. The Chrome API should accommodate this as Firefox does quite reliably.
Chrome leaves me with the expectation of writing search terms directly in the address bar. The Firefox awesome bar does not support this feature very well (as it assumes that the use of a colon in a phrase refers to an HTTP protocol). However, the awesome bar is better at finding old web addresses than Chrome.
To me, Chrome is not as violently fast as some pundits have claimed.