Jim Lynch: Off the Top of My Head…

Interesting column about a switcher who switched because Chrome was faster for him.

Years ago, Firefox won me over chiefly with plug-ins, tabbed browsing, and some security advantages. But using Chrome removed a bit of friction from Web I hadn’t realized was there. It felt like discovering I’d been driving with the parking brake on just a bit.

Here’s what coaxed me away: Chrome starts way faster than Firefox. Web pages load faster when I type in an address or click a link. The Omnibox–Chrome’s combination location bar and search box–often gets me where I want to go at least a keystroke faster, and I’m not terribly worried about sending Web navigation and search data to Google.

Individually, a few tenths of a second here or there doesn’t make much difference. But it adds up fast. I spend hours a day using the Web–not just browsing, but also uploading photos, issuing instructions to my bank, editing documents online, and posting comments. As the Web gets more complex and more deeply embedded in my life, waiting for it gets more annoying.

I’m on Macs mostly these days and there currently is no Mac version of Chrome. But even if there were I doubt I’d switch. I love my Firefox plugins way too much to switch to Chrome. It’s one of the reasons why I use Safari so sparingly. Safari is a good browser but it just doesn’t provide me with the functionality I get with Firefox. So I use Safari here and there but use Firefox for the vast, vast majority of my browsing.

I’ve played with the version of Chrome out for Windows and it left me a bit cold. I’m sure Google will beef it up functionality-wise but I doubt it will be enough to sell me on it. As far as speed goes, it’s nice to have a bit more but…sheesh…does it really matter that much if a web page loads half a second faster?

I just don’t see a bit more speed from Chrome making it worth losing all of Firefox’s extensions. Maybe at some point Chrome will have this additional functionality but right now it just doesn’t appeal to me. Your mileage may vary, however.

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