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Google Chrome: The Fast Browser With Slow Adoption

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Re: Google Chrome: The Fast Browser With Slow Adoption

#21

Post by pavs »

whopa wrote: post #18
fnid wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why they have television commercials for chrome? If they wanted to make the web better, why didn't they just contribute to the Firefox project itself rather than inventing their own browser? Releasing, yet another browser only complicates things for existing web developers.

To be fair to Google, they tried to contribute to Firefox back in the Firefox 1.x timeframe, but they realized that Mozilla is rather dysfunctional open source project. It is incredibly hard to get feature work into Mozilla as an outsider, so they decided to go their own way. In a way they got what they wanted in the end, now with Mozilla copying stuff from Chrome wholesale now that someone else has made them look ba…

I am a mac user (primarily) and I find this funny. How is Mac version holding back Chrome in terms of adoption when mac represents roughly 9-10% OS market?

Chrome already supports extensions, Adsweep works on Chrome as an alternative of ABplus. Noscript is used by a very small niche users, I seriously doubt noscript users are holding Chrome back on mass adoption.

I think switching browser is always a difficult choice for non tech savvy users. Personally it was a hard choice for me 4-5 years ago to leave IE for FF, but it was easier for me to make the switch to Chrome after I used it and liked it. I think my view towards a browser changed over the last 4-5 years and I see a "browser" as a tool as opposed to a gateway to the internet. I think most of the early adopters of Chrome are fairly tech savvy users and for chrome to be really mainstream they need to push chrome bundled with new computers (I think they already do that).

Chrome is awesome and it can only get better. I hope Google Chrome OS will be just as good.

Re: Google Chrome: The Fast Browser With Slow Adoption

#22

Post by fnid »

benofsky wrote: post #15
fnid wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why they have television commercials for chrome? If they wanted to make the web better, why didn't they just contribute to the Firefox project itself rather than inventing their own browser? Releasing, yet another browser only complicates things for existing web developers.

Well the other browsers aren't going to make their product better if no one knows of anything better hence the tv commercials. They didn't contribute to Firefox instead of inventing their own browser because if they have a browser of their own their contributions and improvements don't have to be approved (or denied) by a 3rd party. Chrome also does not make things more complicated for existing web developers as it i…

I hear this all the time and as the builder of multiple AJAX web applications I know for a fact that it does not behave the same way Safari behaves.

Re: Google Chrome: The Fast Browser With Slow Adoption

#23

Post by cscotta »

sketerpot wrote: post #20
raintrees wrote: post #2

I am waiting/hoping for NoScript-like functionality...

I want AdBlock and Greasemonkey. Once those things work properly on Chrome, I'll switch happily. (If they already work, and I just missed the news, please tell me.)

Ask and ye shall receive -

Here's AdBlock (Adsweep): http://adsweep.org/

Here's Greasemonkey (Greasemetal): http://www.mychromeaddons.com/chrome-addon-greasemetal-greas...

Re: Google Chrome: The Fast Browser With Slow Adoption

#24

Post by sketerpot »

cscotta wrote: post #23
sketerpot wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want AdBlock and Greasemonkey. Once those things work properly on Chrome, I'll switch happily. (If they already work, and I just missed the news, please tell me.)

Ask and ye shall receive - Here's AdBlock (Adsweep): http://adsweep.org/ Here's Greasemonkey (Greasemetal): http://www.mychromeaddons.com/chrome-addon-greasemetal-greas...

The Greasemonkey clone has a lot of people warning of crashes when they installed it, so I think I'll hold off for another month or so. Still, I'm impressed that Chrome is this close. Thanks for the links!

Re: Google Chrome: The Fast Browser With Slow Adoption

#25

Post by cscotta »

nostrademons wrote: post #7
scw wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no non-developer release yet, and the browser isn't feature-complete on non-Windows platforms. For example, on Ubuntu I can't open links from other programs with Chrome, and asking it to restore tabs when opening the browser doesn't work. I'm sure once they make official versions the situation will change, I've been happy having it as my secondary browser on all three platforms despite the hiccups.

I'm posting this from Chrome on the Mac. It works well enough to use for daily use. There're still some glitches, but in general I've found it better than Safari or Firefox (both of which I also have installed...web developers need everything).

I've found Chrome for Mac pretty stable so far, too - but this is my showstopper.

Any time Calibri is requested in text, it displays like this: http://u.phoreo.com/jy.png

The font works fine everywhere else, so I'm not sure what's up. Do you have this problem?

Re: Google Chrome: The Fast Browser With Slow Adoption

#26

Post by whopa »

pavs wrote: post #21
whopa wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair to Google, they tried to contribute to Firefox back in the Firefox 1.x timeframe, but they realized that Mozilla is rather dysfunctional open source project. It is incredibly hard to get feature work into Mozilla as an outsider, so they decided to go their own way. In a way they got what they wanted in the end, now with Mozilla copying stuff from Chrome wholesale now that someone else has made them look ba…

I am a mac user (primarily) and I find this funny. How is Mac version holding back Chrome in terms of adoption when mac represents roughly 9-10% OS market? Chrome already supports extensions, Adsweep works on Chrome as an alternative of ABplus. Noscript is used by a very small niche users, I seriously doubt noscript users are holding Chrome back on mass adoption. I think switching browser is always a difficult choice…

> How is Mac version holding back Chrome in terms of adoption when mac represents roughly 9-10% OS market?

Because Mac usage among early adopters and other tech influencers is a much higher percentage, and they're the ones who recommend software to use to the less savvy. That's how Firefox's marketshare got its initial big boost.

> Noscript is used by a very small niche users

Again, Noscript usage incidence is higher among that same market.

> I think most of the early adopters of Chrome are fairly tech savvy users

Most alpha geeks I know (including myself) use Firefox as their primary browser rather than Chrome, mainly because it's not quite there on Mac/Linux, and/or favorite extensions don't exist. Nearly all Chrome users I know are Windows users, and don't care about extensions, and like the perceived speed compared to other browsers. Nearly all alpha geeks I know use Chrome on Windows, when they have to use Windows, which isn't very often.

Get more of those alpha geeks using Chrome as their primary, more recommendations trickle down to their less geeky friends. That's what happened with Firefox, and that's what will happen with Chrome once a stable Mac port and support for the popular extensions show up.

Re: Google Chrome: The Fast Browser With Slow Adoption

#27

Post by nostrademons »

cscotta wrote: post #25
nostrademons wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm posting this from Chrome on the Mac. It works well enough to use for daily use. There're still some glitches, but in general I've found it better than Safari or Firefox (both of which I also have installed...web developers need everything).

I've found Chrome for Mac pretty stable so far, too - but this is my showstopper. Any time Calibri is requested in text, it displays like this: http://u.phoreo.com/jy.png The font works fine everywhere else, so I'm not sure what's up. Do you have this problem?

The site in your screenshot works fine for me. I can't tell whether that's because it's working or because Calibri's not installed. I'm using Chrome 4.0.223.11 (wtf is up with those version numbers) on a recent (~3 month old) stock Macbook Pro.

Re: Google Chrome: The Fast Browser With Slow Adoption

#28

Post by boucher »

NathanKP wrote: post #12

I don't use Google Chrome because they haven't made an official version for Mac OS X. The current developer version for Mac OS X is very buggy and unreliable.

I have to disagree. I've been using it full time for a week and it hasn't crashed yet. It's faster than Safari, and it's open source. It has some UI quirks still, but on the whole it's a great browser.

Re: Google Chrome: The Fast Browser With Slow Adoption

#29

Post by PerplexedGuide »

sketerpot wrote: post #20
raintrees wrote: post #2

I am waiting/hoping for NoScript-like functionality...

I want AdBlock and Greasemonkey. Once those things work properly on Chrome, I'll switch happily. (If they already work, and I just missed the news, please tell me.)

AdBlock+ found here: http://www.chromeextensions.org/appearance-functioning/adblo...

First you need to update to the 4.0+ Dev Build: http://www.google.com/chrome/eula.html?extra=devchannel

if you want FlashBlock: http://www.chromeextensions.org/appearance-functioning/flash...

Both AdBlock Plus & FlashBlock work flawlessly in Google Chrome/Chromium for me

Re: Google Chrome: The Fast Browser With Slow Adoption

#30

Post by mattyb »

scw wrote: post #5
stanleydrew wrote: post #3

Is the reason people get away with saying "There's no chrome for mac or linux" that chrome doesn't exist on those platforms but chromium does? I've been using chrome (or chromium, whatever) on linux for about 2.5 months and it's great. I use it on my macbook too and it's also really good. So what gives?

There's no non-developer release yet, and the browser isn't feature-complete on non-Windows platforms. For example, on Ubuntu I can't open links from other programs with Chrome, and asking it to restore tabs when opening the browser doesn't work. I'm sure once they make official versions the situation will change, I've been happy having it as my secondary browser on all three platforms despite the hiccups.

In Ubuntu 9.04, go to System->Preferences->Preferred Applications, and select Chromium. I'm using the chromium-daily PPA (https://launchpad.net/~chromium-daily/+archive/ppa), and links from other apps work fine.
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