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Why I don’t use Chrome


This is part of the reason I don’t currently use Chrome as my default browser. Too much stuff going on to just promote Google’s properties and other Google/Chrome-centric stuff. Chrome Apps is just not something I can be interested or excited by.

However, I do wish Safari had the “awesomebar” and pinned tabs.

I’ve been relatively happy with Safari 5.1 on Lion, but no browser is perfect.

5 replies on “Why I don’t use Chrome”

If that’s the only reason you’re not using Chrome – get the Speed Dial extension (http://cl.ly/3m390J2N1i0z2N2Y3W1E). I never used or liked Chrome’s new tab window, either… but I haven’t found any other problems with it.

Safari ticks me off every time I try to type a search term in the url bar. It gives me an error saying I did something wrong, and I think to myself… “No, you did it wrong!”

If I need an extension to get rid of crud that Google adds (instead of adding features that were not included) … then Google is doing something wrong.

Chrome is a fine browser, I’m just very leery of any company who gives me free things.

I find that post to be slightly misleading… if you have Chrome set to “Most Visited” you set a page of the top 8 most visited websites, and it’s sticky. Meaning, you would only ever have to choose that option once. It remembers what you chose.

@Bob Martens, I completely respect you opinion for which browser you want to use, but I don’t see the “Too much stuff going on to just promote Google’s properties and other Google/Chrome-centric stuff.” The example given in the post is a single instance of poor design that, properly configured, you should never have to see… Google has never been very good with design… I assumed we didn’t expect much from them.

@mknepprath, for a while I was using the Speed Dial extension, but I was having issues with it. I don’t remember quite what was wrong, but there was something about the extension not working correctly and opening up blank tabs, or wouldn’t allow me to click on things. Has it been updated? I’d give it another look, but I’m finding all the sites I visit are already either in my bookmark bar on on that page or even, stored in memory when I try to search for them.

@Bob Martens Again, I’m probably thinking too hard on this one, but why would a company who gives you free things be any worse than a company that sells it’s products? I get the impression that you’re knocking Google because they are giving away a free web browser. (Don’t get me wrong, we should all probably be very leery of Google at this point. They control a lot of information.) But to my point, aren’t all web browsers free at this point? Safari is free for Windows. (Though you might argue you pay for it when you buy a Mac.) Firefox is free. (Though they are having their own issues now that they can’t even compile the thing on a standard PC…) Opera is free.

I can’t help but feel that you are changing your argument mid-stream. Part of the reason you don’t use Chrome is because the design, and I get that. The other part is that you feel you don’t want to invest too much with Google or whatever. I understand that too.

But then you go on to say that you don’t like Chrome because it’s free?

Now, I’ve never really liked the idea of Google having an “App Store” in their browser. I think I tried Angry Birds once, just to see that it was possible, but since then I had forgotten they even had an “App Store” for their browser.

Let’s not hold Google to the fire here alone, though. If we want to talk about “needing extensions to get rid of crud that [INSERT COMPANY HERE] adds (instead of adding features that were not included) let’s talk about Apple and how wonderfully their new Networking Protocols work. Then let’s talk about needing DAVE Networking (by Thursby Software) just to use our iMacs with our server. Or let’s talk all the PC manufacturers who add all the crap-ware to the systems so you’ll either pay the extra $50 to not get it, or use a 3rd party tool to get it all off.

I’m not saying that you are wrong in saying that “Google is doing something wrong”, but I’m saying that this shouldn’t really be a surprise, since everyone seems to be doing it and no one seems to care. Sure, it would be nice if Google would stop adding crud to their browser. I was thinking the same thing about Firefox 7 years ago. I thought Apple’s Snow Leopard was fine before they added all the “new Lion Features.”

For what it’s worth, I probably turned this comment into more of a rant than I intended. I don’t entirely disagree with you. (As a Chrome user, I am happy with my browser, but I don’t think it’s perfect yet.)

Lastly, I want to thank you for allowing me to post this on your blog, rather than my own. I’ll be submitting the proper paperwork and fees for the renting of the space.

No, if you install Chrome for the first time, it defaults to the “App Page” and if you are smart enough to see the slightly greyed out area at the bottom, then you get to see where the “Most Visited” site is. It’s Google’s browser, they are wont to do with it as they please, but it is a change they have made to promote their own stuff.

Add into that their Native Client stuff (http://code.google.com/p/nativeclient/), Dart (http://www.dartlang.org/), WebM (http://www.webmproject.org/), and even Android (http://www.android.com/) and you have a history of “Open, but not as Open as Open” has been the ideal Google has put out. I’m not against free stuff, especially from non-profits, but Google is a publically-owned for-profit that needs to make money, and the way they do that is through ads and getting people to use their stuff and look at ads. That’s the basics of it.

Look at Angry Birds in Chrome … it is only in Chrome. The Chrome App Store is another example of Google promoting Google-only stuff. Sadly, just marking it up to “bad design” lets Google off too lightly because they SHOULD be better than that. They should be striving to be better than that and it looks like they understand that they have a design problem, but I just don’t know if they, a decidedly engineer-driven company, really knows how to get itself out.

This is noting against free web browsers, but it is against wondering why a company gives so much away “free” and yet makes huge profits. Where is the relationship? How is it initiated? Look at the kerfluffle over the Chrome ads and demoting the Chrome download page in search results. How does that happen in a company? If it had been someone else doing the same thing you need to ask: would they have demoted the page or banned it? I don’t know, but those questions come up when disparate parts of the company start acting independently. Look at Sony as an example of how that works out.

I don’t like Chrome because this design decision (and it is a decision to have the App Page show up as the default) starts to pull back the curtain a little and show you that Google is going to monetize Chrome like everything else. Is that wrong? Nope. However, I prefer the straightforward approach of a company just asking me for money and then letting me decide.

I’m holding Google to the fire and I’ll hold every company to the fire when it is needed. If you want to get angry at Apple for not being able to support Microsoft’s server because Microsoft won’t license the exact extensions … that’s fine. The crapware in PCs is another post altogether, and an even better post would be about the bundled software that comes with EVERY download now (and I’m looking at Chrome again here, coming bundled with Adobe’s downloads).

It is not a surprise, but it IS disappointing. The Snow Leopard/Lion argument is something I’ve seen before and one I don’t agree with because, in this case, I really think that is matters where you come from and who you are as a user (again, worth another post).

No problem turning a comment into a rant because I did the same thing. Don’t worry about the paperwork, I have your information on file.

Speed Dial’s been fixed, as I haven’t had any issues with it yet. Otherwise, I did just discover that the most visited website page is sticky, and I may just switch to that now…

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