Mozilla Firefox vs Google Chrome
20 Dec 2009 2 Comments
in Technology
Now that Chrome’s extension is out, it’s about time I blog about it my opinions about them. What about the other browsers? No, they’re out of the equation for me. These are the only 2 browsers of choice for me. I like Opera too but I don’t think they’re as fast and as customizable as Chrome or FireFox. IE is not even the picture. As for Safari, again it’s because of the lack of customizability and I don’t really like how the browser render html document.
Firefox
What I love: Almost everything. I like how modifiable Firefox. For a browser geek, Firefox empower users with the ability to edit, tweak, and play with however they want. I think this is probably the result of the open source nature of Firefox. Next would be the theme, it gives user a change the look of Firefox completely to look like however they want it or to look like any other browser I want. I can easily turn Firefox to look like Chrome, Safari and even Opera. If u like personalisation and customization like I do, then you’d understand why having the ability to fully personalize is a strong point of a browser. Then we have the Firefox plug-ins which is very very handy since internet nowadays is no longer just a static hmtl page document any more but a fully integrated and dynamic interface with different add-on applications like flash embed, Javascript, video embed…etc. In order to view all these in the browser, it has be equipped with the capabilities to run them, and that is what the plug-ins do. Finally, the one thing I love the most about Firefox. Extensions. It unlocks so many abilities in the browser. It redefines the definition of browser completely. That was also part of the reason why I ignore other browser from my choice. Having browser without extensions is like being handicapped online… nah I’m just kidding. It’s not that dramatic. I have to admit that after being given the power to do almost whatever you want, I’m addicted and like any other unholy mortal, I’m not willing to give up that power especially when I have a choice of keeping it.
What I don’t love: Hmmm… that’s would be firefox 3.5! I really hate FF 3.5. It’s supposed to be major update but it’s anything but stable. First of all, it fails to run all my favorite extensions regularly. That means sometime I find some extensions is not enabled and it say “not compatible” but after I restarted the browser, it became back ok but the ones that were ok have problem. Argh… it’s frustrating. Another more frustrating thing would be the constant crashing. Image having like 20 tabs on and it crashes. *pissed off* Without with ado, I immediately converted back to 3.0. And I’m in love again. Another thing would be the large system resource consumption. But I don’t really have much complain about that because I think maybe it’s due to the fact that I installed too many plug-ins and extensions. Lastly, it would be the browser restart requirement. It does get on my nerves sometime when I have to always restart the browser after installation of extension or theme. Just imagine when you wanna go around and try out new extensions and new themes, the thought of having to restart every installation and removal may kill your mood. I really hope they’ll find a way to work that out.
Chrome
What I love: The speed! and the smooth loading! I’m blown away. When I tried Chrome 4.0 for the first time, I was literally wow! And the broader viewing space with fewer things eat up the the space. Also, I love the smooth tab transition. To put it simply, everything is just smooth, from starting browser, adding tabs, closing tabs, and closing the browser. Next would be theme, I’ve already mentioned that I love personalisation. So yes theme is always a plus. And yes! the recently released extensions. Nothing much to say, it’s very similar to the Firefox extension. What I want to highlight is that extensions and theme installation and removal in Chrome do NOT require any browser restart!!! A very strong point indeed. I find it very convenient and time saving.
What I don’t love: If you try ctrl+alt+Del and look at the task manager when you have Chrome running, you’d see that even if you only have 1 window of Chrome but have like 4 or 5 Chrome precesses running, which I have no idea why is it so as well. Since each of them consumes quite a small amount of resource, I didn’t bother to look them up. But still, I’d prefer having 1 process for 1 application. Another issue for me would be the apparent lack of customization power. If you look at Chrome interface, it seems that all it wants you to do is surf net and not bothered with anything else. This is very good for none IT-savvy user or a non geek person. But from a geek’s perspective like me, I feel that it takes away too many things out of sight – one of the very main one would be the menu bar. Seeing less things giving you the impression that there isn’t much there thus there isn’t much you can do.
FireFox vs Chrome
For net surfing experience, I have to give it up to Chrome, no doubt about that. For features, customization power, and user’s empowerment, I would stand for FireFox still because I still believe that FireFox is still far ahead of Chrome for that. Another thing would be the download speed and download management. Somehow, the download speed I get from FireFox is considerably faster than in Chrome. On top of that, DownThemAll! is one the best thing that ever happened to me on FireFox. It liberates me completely from my reliance on download manager software. And being a browser add-on, it integrates more seamlessly with the browser than external download manager. DownloadHelper and ColorZilla are another 2 I can’t live without. So far I don’t think Chrome has them yet. In fact, there are a lot of add-ons that I rely on that aren’t there yet in Chrome extensions archive. I can go on endlessly on extensions so to keep it simple, I have greater browser experience with FF than Chrome.
Conclusion
If we look at browser for its traditional definition, Chrome wins. However, if you look at it as a complete software package, Firefox wins. In conclusion, if you are just looking to surf net, go for Chrome but if you like doing and trying out a lot of nonsense like me, then go for FireFox, at least for the moment (because Chrome extensions archive is still at a very early phase, so we will not know what happen next when their extensions library grow substantially.) For me, my final choice is that I choose to stick with both – Chrome for surfing web, FireFox for every other things.
Google Week
10 Dec 2009 Leave a Comment
in Technology
Lately, Google has been aggressively smashing it down with one release after another. It renders many shocked and stunned with the rate Google continuously bombarding us with revolutionary ideas. But I love it!
Apple was undoubtedly the one company in my opinion that has truly shaped the way we perceive elegance and beauty in design and interface. No one in this industry has ever made white and grey so intricate, elegant yet beautifully simple like Apple does. Google, on the hand, is at the moment the one company in my opinion that is changing the way we think, the way we see and the way we do things. They’re the ones who’re aggressively shaping the future outlook of the web by presenting us with creatively revolutionary ideas and let us be apart of their quest to a very seamlessly dynamic and collaborative future of the web.
Let me go through some of their releases that I came across recently. And I hope you’re aware of some of them by now because they’re really really cool and helpful tools that will help shape the way you do things.
- Google Wave
I don’t know a better way to describe it better than the Google people do. So yeah I’ve linked them up instead. Just click the link and see what they for yourself. I found out about 2 months back before they started giving invites to users other than developers. Currently this is my most favorite release from Google. It completely blow me away… completely. I was utterly speechless and amazed by what they’ve done. I can’t wait for this to be fully released and for it to become contagious and spread among people because the more people using it, the more we’ll find Google Wave to be a genius invention. I think that’s probably why they name it, Google Wave. - Google Real-Time Search
Again I’ve linked it up. Click the link and find out more about Google Real-Time Search. I find this really cool but at the moment, I don’t find very useful to me yet. And probably not in the near future as well. Frankly, I think it’s a bit distracting and annoying. Nevertheless, I can see the benefits that it could give to people who needs it. - Google Goggles
I’m very excited about this. This release totally makes me want to get an iPhone or an android. Although, as Google mentioned, they still at a very premature stage and the search is not that powerful yet. But the fact they have managed to lay the foundation, if there anything we’ve observed from the history of technology and IT, it would be that it’s just gonna get better. - Google Search Side Bar
I’ve been playing with it for sometime now. I’m not that crazy over this but I do find it very handy at times especially when doing my project which requires searching on certain specific categories. It helps speed up things. Well, that’s precisely why Google make it so it serves its purpose. - Google Chrome Extensions
This is probably the release that I’ve been waiting for longest time. And finally… it’s here! I’m obviously very very excited about it. When Chrome was initially released, I downloaded, installed, tried, and uninstalled it. Didn’t care about it till Chrome 3.0 beta was out when I found I could change browser theme. I installed it back and played around with all the cool theme. Then got bored and left it alone. Then when Chrome 4.0 was here, I found myself half converted to Chrome. As far as net surfing concerned, Chrome will be my browser of choice. The loading speed and smoothness of page transition is addictive. Until Chrome 3.0, I was still yet to find any noticeable difference from FireFox, and that was why I was not persuaded. But with 4.0, it was obvious.Now that the long-awaited extension, it gives me a lot of reason to debate on the full convert from FireFox. But at the moment it’s not yet convincing because there are a bunch of the extensions that I use heavily on FireFox yet to be available in Chrome. So when they do, I’m gonna have to ask myself really serious questions because I’ve been a really huge fan of FireFox.
- Liquid Galaxy
At the moment, this is a just-for-fun thing. But it has potential to pose a serious implication to the future of GPS viewing. - Chrome on Mac
Now peeps on Mac have another tempting option. It’s time for them to start scratching their heads too. Welcome to the club. - SPDY
I keep my fingers cross and pray that this one will come through. Please let it do. I hope many peeps out there are aware of this project and start pressurizing Google for it. XD I know it will. - Google Speed Tracer
This is a suitable item to end it since it’s the least useful and least attractive to normal users. This is more for geeks like me. We’ll find it very handy.
So how’s that for release? I hope you’re as excited about it as I do because you have no idea how useful and powerful they are until you are able to use them effectively and efficiently. Then you’ll most likely find yourself in the same situation as you are now with Google Search, gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Map.
