The two major features of chrome when it was released was the multi-process design of the browser, as well as the focus on JavaScript performance. TechRadar has an interview with Lars Bak, the developer who headed the effort behind the v8 JavaScript engine in Chrome. He talks about the impact v8 had on the browser ecosystem, as well as why it is taking so long for Chrome to get third-party plug-in support.
It’s fairly reasonable to assume that Chrome’s focus on JavaScript performance forced other browsers to get off their bums in that division and work on the JavaScript performance of their own browsers. Bak agrees, and is happy that this happened. “It doesn’t really matter because you also have to think about having one [fast] browser when all the others are slow is no good because all the apps have to be designed for the lowest common denominator,” he argues, “So we want all browsers to be fast.” And this is exactly what happened: all major browsers have poured considerably time into improving JS performance.
The reasoning behind the v8 JavaScript performance push is obvious. “In essence, what we wanted to show was that we could build a JavaScript engine which is scalable and have enough juice left to run future web applications,” Bak said. He thinks they have achieved just that with Chrome. It is obvious that Google didn’t want to just build a decent browser – they also wanted to push others to focus on JS performance for the very simple reason tat many Google products rely on good JS performance.
The biggest complaint about Chrome is the absence of an extension framework, something that made Firefox such a beloved browser. We already know Google is working on such a framework, but when is it coming? “We’re working on that. As we said in the blog this is coming this year and it’s certainly something that you want.” Bak explains, “But when you are working on a new project it’s important to focus on the basics, like our UI for instance, and I think other things come later and that’s what we’re doing.”
I’m personally not very interested in an extension framework, mostly because, well, I don’t use any extensions; I do use Flashblock on Firefox on Linux, but that’s only because Flash has a tendency to crash, bringing down Firefox as a whole. Thanks to Chrome being modern and having a multi-process design, there’s no need for such an extension. I just kill a crashed tab, and move on.
Still, it is obvious that it is a much-requested feature, but I do hope (in vain, I know) they release a build of Chrome without all that user-requested stuff, so I can continue to use Chrome for the same reason I’m using it now: no-nonsense, to-the-point browsing. I don’t need my browser to make me coffee while gently rocking me back and forth – I need it to show web pages.
For most people the ‘must have’ extension is only really an ‘Adblock Plus’ type add-on. Ironic in a sense that Google is one of the web’s largest advertisers and AdBlock can remove GoogleAds.
I wouldn’t use adblock if most adverts weren’t so garish, intrusive and resource heavy, if websites really care about revenue – surely less adverts should mean higher ‘rental’. if most websites didn’t overload their sites with them there would be no real need for adblock.
I pretty much fully agree with you… in fact, before AdBlock plus hit the scene, I was using just the regular AdBlock and adding my own exceptions as needed. I generally left the google ads alone (the text ads anyway), and usually shot down the really annoying animated ads.
I’ve been using Chrome almost exclusively since it came out (on my Windows machines) – I’m so sick of the ads again now that I’m considering a move back to Firefox now just to get my AdBlock Plus back. Chrome had a significant chance to woo me, but they still haven’t offered that one major feature. Firefox is “good ’nuff” still.
I agree with both of you. Websites are overloaded with ads and it makes it really annoying. I have adblock installed but don’t subscribe. I usually block ads on a per site basis. For example, I will block all ads on sites like cnet, extremepc, and a few others, but I won’t block them for osnews. Any ads that cover half the page will get blocked as well, especially those stupid animated ones that cover up the content of the page. If Chrome ever gets an adblock I’ll be using it a lot more.
You could always try privoxy. Did the trick for ads with opera for me.
You can try this: http://pgl.yoyo.org/adservers/serverlist.php?showintro=0;hostformat…
If all websites agreed to have unintrusive advertisement, then people wouldn’t use ABP and all websites would make more money. Alas, in an environment where people don’t use ABP, agressive advertisement may well be more profitable than benign advertisement. Thus, under a few assumptions (like the fact that ABP can’t distinguish benign advertisement from the annoying variety), a situation where most websites avoid annoying advertisement is clearly out of Nash equilibrium:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nash_equilibrium
I need to block javascript and malicious code in general (if ads are plain JPEG files and not using tracking cookies/js, they wouldn’t be blocked). I simply do not trust the web anymore.
I _want_ to move to Chrome for a number of reasons, but without a NoScript extension (or in-browser made by Google), I just won’t touch it. Not even if they pay me to do so.
You can use Safari 4.0 if Chrome ever gets too bloated. Apple generally makes their products simple, and Safari is no exception. Version 4 looks a ton like chrome and blends in with windows/mac very nicely.
Really? I think Apple needs to do a lot of UI work for that to be true.
Maybe the mac version is better, I have not tried it on my MacBook yet, but the Windows version has a ways to go to catch up to Chrome’s UI. Safari 4 takes a lot of steps in the right direction with it’s UI, but they just do not execute very well. It seems like some decisions were made thinking saving a few pixels of space in more important that usability. Safari 4 compared to Chrome feels like a Microsoft knockoff of an Apple product.
Not to mention that even with their new javascript engine they are still a ways behind Chrome in performance. http://www.jsballs.com/benchmark.html
Bookmark manager/synchonizer. Ironically, I prefer gmarks, which uses Google Bookmarks.
RSS subscriber. Again, I use google reader as RSS reader. But I have to switch to Firefox to find a feed.
GMail as a default mailto: protocol handler.
And download manager, which uses several connections to accelerate downloading.
Do you mean, downloads a file in blocks in parallel via multiple http connections? Are there any existing (mainstream) download managers that do this? Do you notice any download time improvements?
Of course using multiple connections makes sense for p2p when you have multiple sources. But I’m a bit dubious that it would be worth the extra complexity for http.
I use a standalone download manager, Free Download Manager which does this. It uses multiple connections, each making a ranged request, to download a file in multiple parts, concurrently. When I enable multiple connections to the same server, I almost always get speeds approaching my connection’s maximum of 700-800KB/s, even on servers that were downloading at 50-150KB/s on a single connection. I’m pretty sure almost every download manager supports something like this.
I don’t use the “heavy” download mode very often, since it’s presumably 8x harder on a server than a download through an (un-extended) browser. And of course, this is in flagrant violation of the HTTP spec’s required limits on connections per server, but it does work.
I’m not sure how hard it would be on the web if everyone’s browsers started opening eight connections per-file when downloading, by default. I suppose servers would start getting heavy support for per-client/ip throttling rather than just per-connection throttling, and maybe just denying additional connections past a certain number.
There have been download managers that have supported this for YEARS. I use DownThemAll in firefox which supports it and a friend of mine used some standalone download manager to do it, and he’s been using it for pushing 7-8 years.
As much as I love Firefox it’s not really that light anymore. It used to be this relatively simple base that you could extend to become the powerhouse of your choosing. (As opposed to Opera which includes every software feature you can imagine.)
I hear that in the next release Firefox will include among other things Ubiquity, I think that’s going a step to far. (Although I understand why Mozilla is doing it, and I don’t blame them.)
I hope Chrome will be the new ultra-light-weight browser that you can extend what you want from.
I’m also really really like Safari, espascially on Mac, but I doubt that Apple will ever make it run extensions. =/ (In a proper non-hacky way.)
I find FireBug and FireShot essential for a bit of UI work. Foxmarks does a good job of synchronising my bookmarks across multiple machines. It’s all a matter of how you use your browser really – mine does more than just show web pages. If the extension framework was optional/could be disabled, then it would suit everyone.
That’s pretty clear for me too :
Either an AdBlock feature is available, or i don’t use the browser, whatever its merit. Same for Opera and Internet Explorer (both have AddBlock extensions, a little more complex to install, but that works).
These Ads are so flashy and intrusive that you can’t decently browse nowadays.
For the little time i tested it, Chrome seems a very interesting browser, very efficient. BUT it currently displays all these adds, so back to Firefox.
Sadly, i’m not expecting google to provide a tool that ruins their own business base; so this is going to be a job for an extension maker; and even in this case, i’m not sure that google will not interfere to make sure their own adds pass the filter.