It's becoming obvious that Chrome will beat Firefox and become #2

[hairbawl87]

Funny how this thread pops up as earlier this week I switched from Firefox to Chrome.

Really just got tired of Firefox's slowness and Chrome offered a great replacement and was able to find extensions that were similar to my Firefox add-ons. The application's bootup is fantastic even with all the enabled extensions!

Mozilla is, I think, falling behind in the speed race and in the programs architecture as Chrome is completely seamless in transitions (drag & drop tabs - no lag).

It's also nice to have Flash built-in and using Google's Update software which is completely behind the scenes.

[Frylock86]

The drop of H.264 will certainly ruin it.

EDIT: My 1337th post!

[hairbawl87]

The drop of H.264 will certainly ruin it.

How will this affect the end-user?

[leedogg]

Regardless of which is better, all of these competing browsers are doing wonders for the growth of the internet browser. Pretty amazing how long IE was dominant and growth was pretty much nonexistant during that period.

[Xilo]

How will this affect the end-user?

You're limited to flash which is ****.

[hairbawl87]

You're limited to flash which is ****.

Seems like everything is Flash tho'.

[Frylock86]

How will this affect the end-user?

From what I'm getting out of it, Google dropped support for a codec that has been pretty much adopted everywhere in favor of some inferior, no name, open source codec, all in the name of "open source". But, they still left Flash in too. This move has been universally panned by everyone who lays eyes on the news, no doubt bad news for Google, as many have reported to uninstalling the browser.

Most think it's a stab at Apple, but whatever the case, Google is hurting users here and set back HTML5 adoption.

[polyarchist]

You're limited to flash which is ****.

Firefox doesn't support h.264 either. No browser except IE9 will. Google wants to kill h.264 on the web.

[bjoswald]

Finally, someone else sees things like I do. I salute you, OP.

Chrome will be the #2 browser in no time, for the exact reasons you mentioned. People don't want to accept it because Firefox is everyone's old favorite and it changed the web. But the sooner you put that old dog down, the faster we can get on with the web. Firefox has absolutely nothing going for it outside of extensions, and with more of those being created/ported every day, time is running out for FF.

[Boz]

Can't remember the last time I used Firefox.. 4.0beta or not.. Chrome is just fantastic..super fast and gets out of the way.. the way browser should be. I stopped using Firefox mainly because it was a dog and that hasn't changed in several releases (and I can't notice any improvements in 4.0 version). I have no doubt Chrome will catch up.. it's just a better browser.

[cork1958]

Personally,

I use Google and anything it offeres as little as possible.

I've tried Chrome a few times and although it is fast, it's not fast enough to make me switch to it. I would use SRWare Iron over Googles Chrome, if I wanted to go that route.

Can't stand the way bookmarks are organised in Chrome either.

I hope Chrome over takes Firefox in the future though. Won't have to listen to those fanboys (Firefox) so much, at least!! :laugh:

[DaRkMaDnEsS]

well i tried to use chrome

despite it's speed i went back to Firefox as i didn't like it's UI despite it's too simple

Firefox 4 have a lot of speed up in it's update and if it can keep that up Chrome will never pass it

and chrome takes most of the IE users it take a fewer user from Firefox so both of them are going up

this year will be the Browser War Year :woot:

IE 9 , Firefox 4 , Chrome 9 and 10 soon , Opera 11

whatever happens every Browser will evolve and i would be happy

[alisalem]

2011 is Firefox's year.

[devHead]

That's exactly WHY it will beat Firefox. Most people want something that "just works".

No, that's why it won't beat Firefox, at least among people who know better. Just works? DownThemAll doesn't 'just work' on it, so there is no way I'll use it as my primary browser. AdBlock Plus doesn't 'just work' on it like on Firefox, so there's another reason. It's more than just a browser that just works, most people want the ability to customize it and be able to do things easier. With literally thousands of add-ons, you can do that with Firefox. Chrome will never be that way, to say nothing of different themes like Firefox has. Every time a new version of Chrome is released I try it out for a week or so, but consistently I go back to Firefox.

[mad_onion]

Doesn't Mozilla get almost all its money from Google so if that ever disappeared then development would pretty much grind to a halt...

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

It's been awhile since I last used Firefox as my main browser. I made the switch to Chrome for a number of reasons: 1) Chrome was seemingly more responsive than Firefox. It wouldn't "hang" as much and it felt snappier. 2) I found Chrome's minimalistic UI to be more aesthetically pleasing. It offered more webpage real estate and I found the dynamic status bar to be a nice touch. 3) Did I mention the speed? Chrome starts up right away for me ? something that Firefox failed to do a little too often.

However, I don't think it'll beat Firefox in usage share this year. Why? The answer is quite simple, actually. Firefox's extension ecosystem is, by far, unmatched. I highly doubt many users will give up the use of their favourite extensions for a different browser (with far less extensions).

[thealexweb]

Google has had it easy in the past against Firefox but with 4.0 things have really turned around, on my PC Beta 9 is just as smooth as Chrome is and I'm strongly considering changing back.

[Yakuzing]

7) When most people see Firefox 4 Beta for the first time, they immediately say on web forums, blog comments, etc : "Oh look, they copied Chrome"

People thus start to get the idea that Chrome is more innovative, and once they try Chrome, they get hooked on the speed advantage over Firefox.

Oh look, they did not copy.

I know Chrome is not completely default but I didn't see a safe mode.

With a little bit of customization, Firefox will look like this instead:

Now stop lying dude.

[Jan Veteran]

IE9 opens fastest by FAR on Windows.

[Malisk]

Does NoScript work with Chrome? No? Besides, I do not trust anything Google does. But to each their own.

Hehe, was the answer about NoScript not working on Chrome also an answer on if it will take over Firefox? If so, you're grossly oversimplifying things. Also, why don't you think this can change? "Never" is a strong word to use - I'm not so sure Chrome will never beat Firefox. There's even an issue opened in the Chrome bug tracker precisely about improved content blocking for extensions like NoScript.

[Raa]

Totally agree. And thats the way it should be, IMO.

[Malisk]

Doesn't Mozilla get almost all its money from Google so if that ever disappeared then development would pretty much grind to a halt...

Yes, they do. Something like 90% of their funding. This partnership has been extended to this year, so it's anyone's guess if it'll be renewed or not.

[grant0r]

bring back the navigator...you heard me right, lets bring back netscape navigator and be done with all of your rubbish browsers ;)

[Julius Caro]

I loved firefox but moved to chrome because firefox seemed sluggy and sometimes momentarily hung for no reason at all. I haven't had a good experience with ANY of the firefox 4 betas. And the mockups looked MUCH better than the actual end product. Mozilla need to up their game, that's all. Even microsoft is doing it. I love me some browser wars.

From what I'm getting out of it, Google dropped support for a codec that has been pretty much adopted everywhere in favor of some inferior, no name, open source codec, all in the name of "open source". But, they still left Flash in too. This move has been universally panned by everyone who lays eyes on the news, no doubt bad news for Google, as many have reported to uninstalling the browser.

Most think it's a stab at Apple, but whatever the case, Google is hurting users here and set back HTML5 adoption.

Firefox doesn't support the codec either, yet microsoft announced a plug in that allows firefox to simply use windows 7's built in codec. I'm sure they'll do the same for chrome.

[still1]

FF 4 > Chrome > FF 3.6

corrected :p

Chrome 10 >FF 4 > Chrome 8 > FF 3.6