Firefox Beats Chrome But…
Recently, I wrote about why Firefox is better than Chrome in a head-to-head browser comparison between Firefox 3.5 vs. Google Chrome 2. In the end, it basically came down to certain specific features that I just cannot live without because I use them on a daily basis to increase my productivity.
However, I do switch back and forth between Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox a lot. In doing so, I have developed a list of things that I wish Firefox did that Chrome already does. For the most part, these are little things that make surfing the web faster or easier, rather than make or break requirements. That doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t really like to see these Google Chrome features show up in the next version of Firefox.
Chrome Better Than Firefox Features
The biggest one here has to be speed. You have to give it to Google and their open-source browser project Chromium. What they have put together is hands down the fastest web browser. Each browser developer out there from Microsoft, to Opera, to Apple’s Safari, all have specific tests that they construct to showcase their browser’s speed. But, when it comes to real-world browsing speed, Chrome is undeniably the fastest.
Where Internet browsing surfing speed really counts is in a user’s ability to get to the Internet and then do what they need to do without having to wait for the browser program to load or refresh, or whatever. Start the timer when you click to run the program and stop the timer when your favorite website or homepage has finished loading and nothing comes close to Chrome’s speed regardless of which carefully chosen website the developer wants to use.
The reason is that Google’s Chrome browser has the fastest start-up speed. True, it cheats a little bit by displaying the interface and giving control to the user before it is actually ready to do anything productive (it keeps loading in the background), but even if you account for that extra boot up time, Chrome is still the fastest to start.
Firefox, on the other hand, is a NIGHTMARE to start-up, especially if you purposely left a bunch of tabs open to automatically reload the next time you started Firefox. Here is the rest of the list. (I do know that some of these things can be done by plug-ins or add-ons for Firefox, and that is one of the great things about Firefox, but, frankly, I already have a TON of plug-ins loaded. I’d like to start cutting down on the number of Firefox add-ons I have, not increase them.)
Things I Wish Firefox Did More Like Chrome
- Load Faster
- Search from the Address Bar – It’s awesome, but it doesn’t do this.
- Paste and Go in the Address Bar – Nothing has saved me more keystrokes.
- Incognito style privacy – I get why Firefox does privacy mode the way it does, but I really like being able to have a private session going concurrently with a normal browsing session. Getting to choose between the two types would be ideal.
- One Tab = One Process – For research purposes, sometimes I right-click a dozen or more search results before I go look at what opened up in those tabs. Sometimes one of those websites is junk and ends up hanging the whole smash. In Chrome, I open the task manager find the garbage site and shut it down without even looking at in. In Firefox I have to wait until I get back control and then hunt down the offending site myself.
How about you? What features from Chrome would you like to see in Firefox?
Firefox 3.5 vs. Chrome 2 Why Firefox Wins For This User
I do a lot of reading online. Some of it is for my freelance writing business, other times, it is research for my own projects like my saving and investing advice website, and other times, it just shows up in my RSS Feeds which I never used to read, but now read all the time because I like reading them on my phone (via Google Reader on Windows Mobile). Plus, I’m a reformed IT professional, and you can take the techie out of the computer world, buy you can’t take the computer world out of the techie.
Anyway, a lot of sites and feeds I read are starting to trickle out articles about why people are switching from Firefox to Google Chrome as their primary browser.
When I read the reasons why these people think that Chrome is better than Firefox, I realize that they don’t use their browsers like I do. They may think they are power-users, but until you’ve done 24 Google searches (still open in their tabs in case you still haven’t found what you need), opened 100+ sites, twenty or so online PDF files, clicked every one of the reference links at the bottom of eight or nine Wikipedia articles (Wikipedia is a good way to find sources, Wikipedia is not a good source for professional writers.) read through page 188 of a 533 page SEC public comments posting in order to find out just where the regulatory agency stands on what type of disclaimer is required in an investment related corporate email, all while still messing around on Facebook, Twitter, and Hulu, you don’t know what a power browser is.
Ironically, you don’t even have to push the browsers to advanced capabilities to see that Firefox is better than Google Chrome (at least for now.)
Why Firefox Is Better Than Chrome For Main Browser
When you are done running tests and calculating that Chrome loads a Javascript page in 1.834 seconds while Firefox takes 2.122 seconds, the choice comes down not to speed, but usability and functionality. There are several critical features that are missing in Google Chrome, either intentionally, or someone just hasn’t gotten around to it yet.
I’m not talking about playful little plug-ins and things like moon-phase calendars or digital clocks or skins. I’m talking about things that interrupt my workflow so dramatically, that it causes me to sit stunned for a few seconds while I try and figure out what the best way to proceed is. Do I work around it in Chrome, or do I wait forever for Firefox to load and copy and past the link over there?
Here are the Top Reasons Firefox is Better Than Chrome As a Default Browser
- File Handling – I don’t care if Chrome’s built-in download manager is better or not. Sometimes I don’t want to download the file (or technically, I want to download it in the background instead). PDF files come to mind. There are hundreds of PDF files that are linked to out there. In Firefox, it opens Foxit Reader and loads the file. I can scan it and decide whether to read it, save it, or get rid of it and move on. In Chrome, it downloads it, puts a button at the bottom of the screen and waits for me to decide what to do with it. That’s after it asked me where to save it. I had to create a temporary directory just so I have a place to put all of those little files that I have to fully download and store in Chrome, just so I can access it. I also get no choice to Open, Run, or anything else. You can’t get through 40 PDF files on a website by doing it this way.
- Google Updater – Yeah, I know, they finally pulled their head out and started doing it in a way that makes sense, but I spent so many months killing, deleting, closing, and stopping Google Update from starting automatically with Windows, that I don’t even know how to go back to letting it run. By the way, even if it doesn’t run all the time it still runs every single hour and doesn’t bother checking with you to see if now is a good time to update. If you are pushing a tight deadline and trying to download, proof, and re-upload some big files, too bad. Google Update will be wasting your bandwidth (and number of connections) downloading the upgrade from version 2.1.03.2 to 2.1.03.3, because we all know that is more important.
- No Print Preview – Seriously, how hard is this to code? There is nothing quite like printing out what you think will be 2 pages only to get 14 pages thanks to all the extra stuff that prints funny. I also hate that one extra line that prints on a new page. I never print without preview first, and Chrome doesn’t have one.
- Plug-ins – No Zotero, no default browser. The same people that used to say plug-ins were one of the main reasons Firefox was so much better than Internet Explorer, now say they don’t need them. Not me. Some of my plug-ins are optional, but plenty of my add-ons are not optional.
- Bookmark Tags – No tag support for bookmarks? I long ago passed the point where folders were sufficient to find my bookmarks efficiently, this is a deal killer.
Notice that I didn’t say anything about Ad-block Plus or NoScript or other Firefox add-ons that make browsing less annoying. If those are your main reasons for using Firefox, then by all means, switch over to Chrome. But, until I have usable bookmarks, usable printing, usable file handling, and my can’t-live-without-them add-ons, Chrome will be my secondary browser.
Chrome Is Faster
Don’t get me wrong. Chrome is faster, way, way, faster. The quicker start-up time alone is worth the extra resources I use up having another browser. When I need to check something out quickly, Chrome is my go to browser. But, when I’m settling in to get some real work done, it’s worth the wait to start up Firefox.
Top 5 Uses for Google Incognito Windows and Internet Explorer Privacy Mode
When Google released its Chrome browser, there was a lot of focus on two features, the faster JavaScript engine, named V8, and the privacy mode, named Incognito. The latter was the subject of much snickering and finger pointing as the blog-heads promptly nicknamed the feature "porno mode," suggesting that the only reason for having a privacy feature like Incognito was to use your computer to surf the Internet for pornography.
The reaction to Google’s inclusion of a browsing privacy mode was ironic, considering the considerable heat the company takes from the same group of users for its own privacy policy and data collection techniques. The same users who wail about how much Google might know about its users and what it does with that data was the same group to suggest that the only people who need privacy from their browser are perverts who look at pornography all day long. This begs the question why these writers are so concerned then with their privacy for searches; presumably because they are searching for porn all day long. That being said, there have emerged several very useful needs for the privacy mode included in browsers like Google Chrome, and now Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Top 5 Uses For Internet Browser Privacy Mode
- Pure Search Results – When you search via Google and other search engines, the search results you get are often colored by your past searching and other online behavior. Thus, if Google’s systems detect that in the past you have searched regularly for tree root watering kits, then your searches for "root kits" are likely to have results returned that have something to do with watering plants, while a heavy searcher of Unix utilities would find the same search slanted toward computer based root kits. This makes it difficult to get an idea of what a "pure" search ranking looks like. The standard techniques to avoid this require things like creating a separate Firefox profile, or using a different browser, and so on. A quick click over to Privacy Mode, though ensures search results that are not colored by previous searches.
- Testing New User Experience – Likewise, many websites offer a different experience to users who are returning users versus the one they offer to new users. Also, many sites behave differently depending upon whether or not the user has logged in before from a specific computer. By entering into Privacy Mode, or an Incognito Window, users can see what it is like to approach a site as a new user. Using the privacy mode to see such things is much easier for someone like the Director of Marketing than maintaining and switching to a different profile or program to see the same.
- Shopping Without Suggestions – Several websites seek to make a user’s experience more valuable by providing suggestions based upon your past behavior and purchases. While this is a noble goal, there are times when you would prefer to not have your suggestions influenced by your past. For example, if you are looking for something different or completely new to you, those helpful suggestions aren’t so helpful. Getting movie or music download recommendations based on the universe versus based on Bob Smith can provide for a perspective broadening experience.
- Providing Honest Input – Ever been to a website that you have an affiliation with? Maybe one that you work for, or one that advertises on your website, and then wanted to comment on something, but were afraid of possible retaliation or a misunderstanding? While privacy mode is no excuse to become a jerk, constructive criticism can be important for both the user and the provider. A quick jump into Incognito mode helps ensure that your comments aren’t linked to your seller ID.
- Actual Privacy – Whatever the teenage boys trapped inside grown-up bodies might say to the contrary, there are plenty of reasons to just want a little extra bit of privacy as provided by IE Privacy Mode or Google Incognito. Between auto-complete web addresses, the Speed Dial like functionality of Google’s default page, and web form auto-fill, there are a thousand ways that someone jumping on your computer browser to handle a quick task could ruin your privacy. Most mainstream companies point toward online shopping as the reason you might want some privacy, which only fans the red-faced finger pointing. Imagine instead, the co-worker (you know, the gossipy one) who wants to check the company Intranet at baubles.net and upon typing “b-a” gets an auto-complete suggestion of “baby-advice.com” and suddenly turns around and asks if your wife is pregnant in a loud voice. Frankly, you would probably prefer they thought you were looking at porn. It doesn’t take long to think of 50 other instances that might arise, all of which can now be quickly and easily handled without having to turn off useful features like auto-complete, or managing different profiles.
Don’t let the giggling, eye-rolling, finger pointing stop you from dropping into privacy mode whenever you feel like what you are doing is nobody’s business, or if you just need a little peak at what something looks like “from the outside.” You’ll be surprised at how often you end up using it.
