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The Chrome Distortion: how Chrome negatively alters our expectations

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Re: The Chrome Distortion: how Chrome negatively alters our expectations

#71

Post by proactivesvcs »

update wrote: post #44
thenomad wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oddly, I have recently found Firefox so slow - particularly on YouTube where for some reason it's unusable - that I'm considering a full-fledged switch to Chrome.

I swear this conversation is as old as time --- or at least Firefox & Chrome. person 1: "Firefox is slow now i'm moving back to Chrome" person 2: "interesting! I find the complete opposite and am moving back to Firefox!" :)

And seemingly few people trying to diagnose why. Particularly when it's specific behaviour / sites that are slow.

Re: The Chrome Distortion: how Chrome negatively alters our expectations

#72

Post by 21 »

dave2000 wrote: post #7

Don't know about this features thing. I use Firefox everywhere because it lets me use plugins on android. How does anyone surf without plugins? How are you blocking ads, whitelisting sites for JavaScript, blocking trackers etc? Bizarrely this basic stuff still isn't built into the browser (anyone know why?) and using chrome just compounds the problem. You used to have to use chrome because the other browsers were jus…

> How are you blocking ads, whitelisting sites for JavaScript, blocking trackers etc? Bizarrely this basic stuff still isn't built into the browser (anyone know why?)

Try enabling DoNotTrack in Chrome. It will give you a long and confusing warning, that will just scare a non-technical user into thinking that it's a bad idea to enable.

I think the conflict of interest is powerful here...

Re: The Chrome Distortion: how Chrome negatively alters our expectations

#73

Post by proactivesvcs »

Razengan wrote: post #33
dsugarman wrote: post #9

I was waiting for someone to come out and say it. 6 months ago, I couldn't imagine using another browser regularly but chrome has become so slow for me, I can't stand it. I switched to Firefox.

Chrome was (probably still is) the only usable browser left on Windows, but I never used it or had to use it ever since I switched to Macs a few years ago. Aside from the plugins ecosystem (which I don't need) Safari works infinitely better (loads faster, uses less resources, even with 100s of tabs, and has nice little features like the Reading List, Reading Mode, Force-Touch Peek and so on) and fits into the OS X lo…

I have yet to come across a modern web browser on Windows that's unusable - although I've "replaced" Edge for IE11 for several customers because of missing features. I suppose that would count as unusable, but in those cases it's been for specific reasons.

Re: The Chrome Distortion: how Chrome negatively alters our expectations

#74

Post by thisislame »

okket wrote: post #54
bdickason wrote: post #48

I think this article is missing the idea of the browser hype cycle (Every 4-5 years): 1. A cool new browser comes along promising a minimal featureset with a focus on speed. 2. Early adopters make the move and start asking for a few features they liked on their old browser (extensions, some customization, etc). 3. The new browser is excited by the growth opportunity and invests in said features. 4. Eventually, the ne…

Such a "hype cycle" can only exist where the OS supports integration of 3rd party browsers (desktop only). On mobile devices you can rarely switch browsers without losing access to major parts of the OS (read: 3rd party browsers can render/view web pages, but forget about integration).

Why would I ever want my browser to have access to anything outside its running context? In what universe is this a good idea?!

I don't even want it to have access to the clipboard until I affirmatively paste contents!

The browser is a window into an unsafe world of shit you don't trust or control (also known as THE WORLD.) It's SUPPOSED to be at a remove from your local resources. Lack of integration is a FEATURE.

Creating browsers (and add-ons) without this design tenet from the outset is how you end up with MSIE and Flash.

Re: The Chrome Distortion: how Chrome negatively alters our expectations

#75

Post by donatj »

I read all these instructions he gives on making an "efficient" app and just wonder if everyone wouldn't be better off with less JavaScript. I have never used a JavaScript app I would call "better" than a static site. 2-4mb of Js? You've gotta be kidding me. There's no any that's a better experience than 10-20 50kb HTML requests for anyone. You're just working way to hard. Very very few apps benefit from that kind of interactivity. The form driven majority certainly do not.

Re: The Chrome Distortion: how Chrome negatively alters our expectations

#76

Post by open-source-ux »

abritishguy wrote: post #20

I've always liked this article by one of Stripe's interface designers: https://medium.com/@bdc/chrome-is-the-new-ie-1a21c1efc133#.3... >Chrome is unfortunately contributing to the web’s bad reputation by caring more about developers than end-users. Mobile Safari can easily handle, say, a Photos.app-like interface with a translucent navigation bar, native-like swipe gestures and smooth animations. Chrome handles none…

I'm a Windows user, and one thing I dislike about Chrome on Windows is the text rendering.

Here is a screenshot of some text from the Google Play store rendered in IE, Firefox and Chrome. Click the image to see it in its full size:

http://imgur.com/yYKSNBB

Firefox looks the best to me; Chrome the worst. IE is not great either, but it is better at larger font sizes than Chrome (IMO).

You might argue that the difference in each browser is not great, but it is a noticeable difference.

I would have thought that text rendering would be top priority from a UX perspective given that reading text constitutes such a major part of browsing the web.

Re: The Chrome Distortion: how Chrome negatively alters our expectations

#77

Post by LoSboccacc »

wahsd wrote: post #55
abritishguy wrote: post #20

I've always liked this article by one of Stripe's interface designers: https://medium.com/@bdc/chrome-is-the-new-ie-1a21c1efc133#.3... >Chrome is unfortunately contributing to the web’s bad reputation by caring more about developers than end-users. Mobile Safari can easily handle, say, a Photos.app-like interface with a translucent navigation bar, native-like swipe gestures and smooth animations. Chrome handles none…

Pretty much describes the archetypal difference between Apple and Google, end-user experience vs engineers developing for engineers ... and those pesky end-users if we must.

Wat. Safari ios is the most obtuse browser regarding to standards, makes devs life miserable in every conceivable way, breaks every standard web interaction since 199x (like a top fixed navbar), has it's own opinion on transform origin, handles differently than every other pseudo elements positioning parent and to top it all when it crashes because it gobs more memory than the os can handle spits a message vague enough that it's the website owner that gets the blame for its faults.

Re: The Chrome Distortion: how Chrome negatively alters our expectations

#78

Post by Joeri »

update wrote: post #44
thenomad wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oddly, I have recently found Firefox so slow - particularly on YouTube where for some reason it's unusable - that I'm considering a full-fledged switch to Chrome.

I swear this conversation is as old as time --- or at least Firefox & Chrome. person 1: "Firefox is slow now i'm moving back to Chrome" person 2: "interesting! I find the complete opposite and am moving back to Firefox!" :)

Those people should throw away and recreate their profile, including the server-side backup, which is exactly what switching browsers does.

Re: The Chrome Distortion: how Chrome negatively alters our expectations

#79

Post by evook »

donatj wrote: post #75

I read all these instructions he gives on making an "efficient" app and just wonder if everyone wouldn't be better off with less JavaScript. I have never used a JavaScript app I would call "better" than a static site. 2-4mb of Js? You've gotta be kidding me. There's no any that's a better experience than 10-20 50kb HTML requests for anyone. You're just working way to hard. Very very few apps benefit from that kind of…

fefe[0] commented on his rant very precise "Folks, if you continue to let your pile of shit grow, then you may not point your fingers at google if the shit hits the fan. It's your pile of shit, not chromes"[analogous translation]

[0]https://blog.fefe.de/?ts=a80874c9

Re: The Chrome Distortion: how Chrome negatively alters our expectations

#80

Post by evook »

takno wrote: post #49
therealmarv wrote: post #45

Messing for the last several months also with mobile browsers on my Android devices. Especially because mobile scare-/malware was bothering me too much in recent times ( harmless example you could open on Android: https://shkspr.mobi/vibratescam/ ). Compared them all (Chrome, Chrome beta, Firefox, Firefox beta, Opera, Brave) and realized that Firefox+uBlock, especially since Firefox 45, is reasonable fast and good to…

I'd love to know what I'm doing wrong. FF45 on a fast Android phone for me is almost unbearably laggy both on loading and scrolling pages. I mean to the point where I can't really understand how anybody is using it. I've tried this with and without a couple of ad blockers and ghostery

µblock on android is the number one reason for firefox on android. For me A reason good enough to live with lags and stuttering.
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