Why you should switch to Google Chrome . . . and why not to.
The Greatest Reason to switch to Chrome:
1. Chrome handles Facebook chat wonderfully! Guys, when you were trying to sell me on Chrome, if you would have said that it doesn't have the annoying Facebook chat issues, the would have sealed the deal!
Let's face it, Firefox just doesn't handle facebook chat very well. Every time you receive an IM, it stops you from typing, even if you were trying to reply! What's worse, if you hit backspace, it's likely to go back a page, and you lose everything on the page you were working on.
Chrome, however, works like one would expect it to. No errors or problems, the chat just pops up, and you can check it when you want to. No interrupted typing; no lost data.
The other jabberings:
2. Chrome runs every new tab as a separate process. This has some benefits, such as more efficient operation on multi-processor machines, and less risk of losing all your tabs if one crashes. However, for a heavy browser user like myself, it wasn't impressive. I am often using 10-30 tabs at a time, and adding that many processses kinda fills up the task manager. (If you don't understand that last sentence, don't worry about it. Just ignore this entire paragraph.)
3. Chrome has been touted as faster and less intensive, using less system resources. Say what you like, but my experience says this point is mostly moot. Sometimes it loads faster than Firefox; sometimes slower. With few tabs open, it uses less resources; with many tabs open, it uses more. Check out these notes from my experiments:
"Chrome is using less resources right now. I'm gonna kill Firefox and see if it speeds things up ... since it's receiving all these Facebook IMs also ..."
"Hmm, ok. I just managed to stall Chrome like firefox stalls. It uses a good bit of system resources, and steadily uses more until it's closed, just like Firefox.
I don't think there's significant benefit in speed or resources."
"Now I'm using Chrome pretty heavily, and I noticed a significant computer slowdown. So I opened firefox at the same time, and opened the same amount of tabs (10). Chrome is using 77% MORE system resources than Firefox."
(Really) Odd Things:
4. Chrome seems to have been designed with Facebook in mind. It appears that Chrome can stay logged into Facebook, even when the same account is being accessed from another computer! (Yup, I tried it.)
"LOL, what on earth did google do? Firefox and Chrome are SO closely linked, that not only can BOTH be logged into the same Facebook account at the same time, but both will ALSO receive the same instant message -- as though they are exactly the same program. *Cough Cough*"
The Deal Breaker
5. There is no Ad Blocking plugin for Chrome. If you have been using Firefox with Ad Block Plus, this will be one of the first things you notice when using Chrome. There are ads everywhere, and you can't get rid of them! I did not realize how many ads there are now (and how bad some of them are, I might add), because I never see them in Firefox. Unfortunately, this is the deal-breaker for me. Chrome is nice, and I really like smooth Facebook operation, but it just can't top having complete control over your ads.
If/when Chrome has an adblocking plugin, Chrome will become my browser of choice.
