New Google Chrome beta is over 30% faster; worth checking out yet?

By on Aug 6, 2009 at 10:58 AM
Opinions August 6, 2009

Google recently issued a new beta of its infant web browser and while it touts some huge improvements over older builds, we still find ourselves hesitant to give it any real face time on our machines. Let’s start by covering the improvements: First and foremost, Google claims the new version 3.0.195.4 runs over 30 percent faster than previous builds according to benchmark tests. Wow. To jump over 30 percent from one build to the next is nothing short of incredible and in our time spent playing with it, the improvement is quite obvious. Beyond speed, Google has also added some customization options to the new tab page, tweaked the display in the Omnibox, added some basic HTML5 capabilities and added 29 themes just in case the old Google blue bored you. Long story short, the new version offers a pretty respectable bump over previous builds — but we’re still not using it. Why? The answer is simple: one product cannot be all things to all people.

Firefox’s greatest advantage over Chrome is still its open nature and its vast development community. We have about 15 Firefox add-ons we simply could not browse without, literally, and another 10 or so that we could probably live without but really don’t want to. Thanks to the endless stream of available add-ons, Firefox’s behavior and functionality can be tweaked to suit individual users’ needs as opposed to just being a solution that meets the basic needs of a wide range of users. Mozilla has amassed a tremendous community of developers who support its open source projects, many of whom are simply brilliant and more than generous in donating their time and skill to making Firefox a more versatile browser. We’re sure you can see where this is going. We’ve grown accustomed to the versatility Firefox affords and until Chrome or any other browser can manage to attract developers like Mozilla has, they just don’t stand a chance on our machines.

[Via Google Chrome Blog]

Read

Tags:
, , , , , , ,
45 Comments

Related Articles

  • Eric in Cupertino

    I’m using a Chromium build from yesterday. It’s a nice start.

  • danny

    helen keller ended up being a world famous speaker and author…i’m sure a conversation with her would’ve been pretty enlightening…..i know it’s besides the point, but your attempt at humor is flawed…should have said george bush or something…

  • RJT

    George W Bush was the 43rd president of the unites states and is responsible for the single biggest humanitarian effort in the history of the world with his contribution to aids relief in Africa.

    And just because you disagree with somebody’s policies, doesn’t make that a conversation with them would be boring. In fact, I would say talking to people you disagree with the most would be most interesting.

  • PhysicalMediaRIP

    You guys do still realize that your average everyday citizen has no clue what ANY of these are, right? You realize that your mom at home or the guy you sit next to in class or your boss is just NOW finding out what Firefox is and just NOW learning that you are allowed to use something other than IE, right?

    There’s about 5 people I converted to FireFox this year alone and they only went for it simply because they got nasty spyware and viruses through IE.

    Argue all day which browser you think is better, it’s rather pointless. Google could make the best browser ever and most people still would use IE.

    Since I got a G1, I use my Google Mail more, have Visual Voicemail and Google Voice. I have a customized iGoogle page and actually do use Google Docs for some of my work. So I realize I am slowly and unconsicously becoming a Google Fanboy… I may switch to Chrome one day, but I like FireFox for now.

  • melmac

    I just use my nifty HOST file, and while it doesn’t reformat the page like AdBlock for Firefox, I don’t have to stare at useless advertising. Honestly, that’s the only thing I miss from Firefox. I’ll take faster, safer (sandbox) browsing any day of the week.

  • aaronaaron

    @BDot
    I too use USAA and with this new version of Chrome, it now works.

  • James

    I use Firefox as my development browser (Web developer toolbar + Firebug). I don’t have any other extensions beyond Ad Block Plus… installing much more just serves to further bloat and slow down Firefox and aggravate it’s memory leak problems.

    Chrome is my primary browser… that I use for, ya know, browsing. It’s ridiculously fast and responsive and application shortcuts for Gmail, Calendar, Reader, etc make it indispensable.

    Not every browser has to serve the same segment of users. I’d much prefer Chrome stay as lean as possible. The more crap they add, the worse the browser is going to get.

    This article is garbage… I mean… browser fanboys? This is where we’re at?

  • dynasty

    I can’t open my aol email with Opera. Why?

  • brewster

    Downloaded it, tried it, but sticking with IE8 (am I the only one!).

    I like how fast it is and wish IE was as fast. But one feature I like about IE8 is being able to use it full-screen (which Chrome can also do) and when I move my mouse pointer to the top of the screen the top section of the browser comes down giving you access to the tabs, menu, address bar, etc (which Chrome cannot do). When it can do that I’ll switch.

    I haven’t used Firefox in a long time ever since its resource hog days. Maybe I should give it another try.

  • fuko

    Too bad it takes a freakin hour to launch Firefox. Even IE starts faster. Chrome is by far the fastest, and that’s probably why I use it.

  • Jimmy

    Until I can use Roboform with Google Chrome, i WILL NOT use this browser.

  • http://www.twitter.com/jazzyl jazzyl

    Well I like to use both firefox and chrome well they both have their own pros and cons so big up to the chrome update!

    Sent via BlackBerry.

  • http://www.fisor.com/ mk

    brewster, I use IE8 also.

  • Wiseowl

    I switched from Firefox to chrome a long time ago and guess what , I have NEVER had a crash or freeze, or annoying messages about addons I don’t want, and in addition it is much faster and simpler to use, and that is the old version , not the new version

  • JCK1020

    When is this coming out for Mac? I mean, COME ON!

  • Nikolaus

    I have been using Chrome since day one, and was a pretty happy FireFox and Opera user before that. I have never looked back. Chrome is the best browser hands down!

  • Rudy

    BGR – If you’re not using Chrome because no browser can be every thing to everyone, then whatever you are using isn’t everything to you either.

    Chrome has been all I’ve used since the first Beta. It’s superior to all other browsers. Even the old version was faster than IE could dream of being.

  • Jah

    Chrome wins in my book. I use FF for firebug and webdev stuff only. Chrome for all my browsing and sadly I have to use IE to make sure my designs and applications look the way they should to normal users who are stuck on that pos.

  • Maria

    I agree with this article! I’ve tried chrome several times, it’s installed on my machine, but the only time I use it is when Firefox crashes cause I have 100+ tabs open for research and I have no choice. I need my add-ons!!! I love foxmarks, gmail notifier, tab mix plus, tree style tabs, ad block plus, colorzilla…..I could go on for days.

  • Andrew

    Now I just need this for my Mac!

1 2
blog comments powered by Disqus