Chrome 15 Overtakes IE 8 For Top Browser Spot 507
An anonymous reader writes "If you're reading this on Chrome, you're part of a wave that has ditched Internet Explorer or Firefox and helped vault Google's browser to the top Web browser spot worldwide." Are you reading this on Chrome? (I'm using Chromium right now, but that's pretty close.)
Re:First post from firefox (Score:5, Informative)
Re:All versions of IE combined still beat everyone (Score:4, Informative)
Misleading (Score:0, Informative)
How misleading is this! One must count IE6, IE7, IE8, and IE9 users to get the actual IE share, which is much larger than that of Chrome. And next year, when M$ "silently" upgrade all IE users to the latest release, the numbers will favor IE even more. Let's not mistake marketing fud for reality.
Tree style tabs (Score:5, Informative)
The one thing that keeps me off Chrome for serious web browsing is the lack of a **full** equivalent to Tree Style Tab [mozilla.org]. I've found various attempts, but until something with all the critical features is available, I can't leave Firefox.
And yes, it's that important. I find serious web browsing without tree tabs is basically unusable.
Some analysis of Chrome extensions I've tried follows below, along with a longer explaination of why tree tabs matter.
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Why tree tabs are important
Critical features:
* Arrange tabs in a hierarchy (subordinate/superior relationships)
* Links middle-clicked to open in a new tab, open under the current tab
* You can collapse branches of the tabs tree, like a folder tree in Explorer/Outlook
* You can drag tabs around to restructure the tree
For example, my current top-level hierarchies at work are "PVI clusterfsck", "vern buerg list", "to read", "vmware ctrl alt del", "new server", and "training". "training" has four immediate subtabs, each for various training providers we use at $WORK. Each of those is an exploration of their course hierarchy. I can expand or collapse any section or subsection as my focus changes. I can also bookmark branches for later.
For me, at least, knowledge isn't linear, it's tree structured. The Back/Forward paradigm is totally inadequate for the task.
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Tree Style Tabs (Beta)
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ffididlaalcoegfcalmeldjfnihmoech [google.com]
Unfortunately, it's lacking some features. The biggest is that it
doesn't actually replace the tab bar across the top of the screen.
Rather, it gives you a new toolbar button, which, when clicked, drops
down a tree structure. No way to make that appear permanently, that I
can see. (TreeStyleTab appears much like a "side bar" in Firefox.)
The tree structure does reflect which tab opened from which. But I
can't drag tabs or branches to organize them, nor can I
collapse/expand branches.
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Tab Sense
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/oiabeebnmckkdjloeofbfladabfhedlg [google.com]
Similar to the "Tree Style Tabs (Beta)" above. Same
button-not-a-sidebar issue. Does allow collapse/expand, which is
good. It opens up a new Google Chrome window to hold collapsed tabs
(with the message to minimize it and forget about it), which is rather
kludgey. Still can't drag tabs.
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Tabs Manager
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ioigddmjfpphkbamgbaolfkpifddnaje [google.com]
Same button-not-a-sidebar issue. Tab structure doesn't appear to
reflect browsing history. Seems to have only two levels, a "folder"
it creates, and all your tabs. Does allow dragging of those tabs, but
I'm not sure what the point is. Can't find a way to create a folder.
I'm not quite sure what the point is.
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Some of these limitations might be due to Chrome's architecture,
rather than the extension programmers. In particular, I suspect
Chrome just doesn't let extensions have enough access to the UI to do
anything really useful. Which is a shame, because Chrome feels so
much faster than Firefox.
AdBlock 4 Opera exists (I use HOSTS & more) (Score:1, Informative)
There is an AdBlock addon 4 Opera too -> http://www.bing.com/search?q=AdBlock+for+Opera&go=&qs=bs&form=QBLH [bing.com] )
Plus? Well:
You can even Right-Click on pages & select "Block Content" & that can "do the job" easily enough on adbanners & more on ANY page...
However, Opera has PLENTY of BUILT-IN NATIVE OPTIONS for control of things in its GLOBAL & OVERRIDE/BY SITE menu options for what you mention:
1.) Tools Menu
2.) Preferences
3.) General tab has "popup control" (a source of malware sometimes)
4.) Advanced tab has
a.) Cookies
b.) Plugins
c.) Security (security protocols like BETTER THAN TLS 1.x)
d.) Certificates control
e.) Trusted Website mgt.
f.) Master Password controls
( & more)
5.) Network section has
a.) Proxy control
b.) Network referrer control
c.) Geolocation control
( & more)
6.) MOST IMPORTANTLY vs. Javascript &/or Plugins?
Opera's CONTENT TAB controls java, javascript, plugins (only on demand setting too optional), style options (where you can use your own PROTECTIVE css filters even, which I do, alongside HOSTS &/or PAC files).
Pretty much ALL YOU NEED to stop yourself from being bombarded by ads, OR WORSE, being infested/infected by malware thru them!
* OPERA ROCKS - & only just got better in 64-bit, & right in time for Christmas too...
APK
P.S.=> Nicest part is, it has an overrides section where you can MAKE EXCEPTIONS, by site (in bysite preferences of the same area above)...
... apk
Re:Is it accessible yet? (Score:4, Informative)
Perhaps you should try Safari. It defaults more modern zoom-everything behaviour, but has a "zoom text only" setting to bring back what you want.
Anyone who hasn't tried safari for a while (especially on windows) really should give it another try as it's improved a lot. There is a list of small features ten miles long I can't live without, that are only in safari.
PS: Be sure to check out the third party extensions as well.
Re:Bloat? What Bloat? (Score:4, Informative)
With a stock firefox that's true.
But throw in a few popular third party extensions, and leave FireFox running for a day or two. It will start consuming all your available RAM and a good chunk of virtual memory too (growing more and more the longer you leave it open).
With other browsers, memory consumption is rarely even noticeable. I can leave safari running for *months* and it'll happily sit on around 200MB with my usual 15 or so tabs. And yes, I do have a bunch of third party extensions installed. Pretty much the same ones I had when I was using FireFox every day.
Re:Bloat? What Bloat? (Score:4, Informative)
I've done a lot of experiments with Firefox memory usage and extensions, and I've concluded that memory usage depends less on extensions and plugins, and a lot more on what sites you visit. I tend to surf image gallery sites, especially those that use a lot of JavaScript (such as Deviantart). After only 10 minutes of surfing, memory usage usually goes up to 500MB. After just an hour, not a week, I'm up to the 700MB mark. It might be the JavaScript, or it might be due to surfing through a hundred megs of images within an hour.
I just updated from 3.6 to 8.0.1, and I've seen memory usage go up quite a bit, even without extensions. Given all the hype about lower memory usage, and fixed memory leaks, I was surprised. Firefox is indeed faster, but memory usage is even worse than ever.
Why care about memory usage? The problem is that Firefox has always had issues with freezes every 10 seconds or so, and I presume it's due to garbage collection. The more memory Firefox uses, the longer the freezes are, resulting in interrupted browsing, typing, and lost mouse clicks. I ended up downgrading back to 3.6. The freezes actually lasted longer in 8.0.1 because the browser uses more memory. Until Mozilla adds some wait states into their memory manager, or otherwise fixes the regular freezes, I won't upgrade beyond 3.6.
Re:First post from firefox (Score:5, Informative)
Back in the day Opera /was/ worth the $39 license fee. This was in the days of Netscape 4 (ptui!) and Internet Explorer 4 (bletch), and it was really the only decent browser; didn't crash your system on a regular basis or bring it to a crawl.
Re:Is it accessible yet? (Score:4, Informative)
Chrome doesn't support DPI changes. And for that alone, it's UNUSEABLE for me. 1080p screen on a 13 inches.
Re:Firefox still rules (Score:4, Informative)
Re:First post from firefox (Score:5, Informative)
I use Chrome at work (my choice) but Firefox at home. Chrome is usually very fast and being able to just hit ctrl-T and start typing to search with suggestions is very nice, but there are some annoyances that stop me switching over for personal browsing on my own PC.
That is the problem with Chrome: a lack of customisability and APIs for extensions. It's fine if you happen to like the way Chrome works, but if it doesn't you probably can't fix the annoyance.
- Smooth/fast scrolling. The SmoothScroll extension takes care of both of these but seems to have been removed from the Chrome extensions site. I found the last version and installed it locally.
- RSS reading. I use Brief in Firefox and there is nothing even half as good for Chrome. Google Reader is bearable I suppose.
- Cookie permissions. In Firefox I use Cookie Button to whitelist ones that I want and have the rest deleted when I close the browser. There is nothing like that for Chrome. There are similar looking extensions but they maintain their own whitelists instead of integrating with the built in one.
- Search from the context menu switches to the search tab instantly. Again there is an extension but it still makes the screen flicker.
Re:I'm not helping the stats much (Score:4, Informative)
Excuse me for enhancing your worst fears, but if you are using IE for your "private" (and supposedly sensitive) stuff, IMHO you must be doing something wrong. Please find the time to do this research and act accordingly as soon as possible.