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Chrome 15 Overtakes IE 8 For Top Browser Spot
An anonymous reader writes "If you're reading this on Chrome, you're part of a wave that has ditched Internet Explorer or Firefox and helped vault Google's browser to the top Web browser spot worldwide." Are you reading this on Chrome? (I'm using Chromium right now, but that's pretty close.)
It's just stupid comparison. Chrome automatically updates all old versions to their newest one while IE doesn't. This compares two exact versions, Chrome 15 and IE8. If you compare just browsers, IE is still easily number one at 50%, while Chrome has 25%.
The one thing that keeps me off Chrome for serious web browsing is the lack of a **full** equivalent to Tree Style Tab. I've found various attempts, but until something with all the critical features is available, I can't leave Firefox.
And yes, it's that important. I find serious web browsing without tree tabs is basically unusable.
Some analysis of Chrome extensions I've tried follows below, along with a longer explaination of why tree tabs matter.
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Why tree tabs are important
Critical features:
* Arrange tabs in a hierarchy (subordinate/superior relationships)
* Links middle-clicked to open in a new tab, open under the current tab
* You can collapse branches of the tabs tree, like a folder tree in Explorer/Outlook
* You can drag tabs around to restructure the tree
For example, my current top-level hierarchies at work are "PVI clusterfsck", "vern buerg list", "to read", "vmware ctrl alt del", "new server", and "training". "training" has four immediate subtabs, each for various training providers we use at $WORK. Each of those is an exploration of their course hierarchy. I can expand or collapse any section or subsection as my focus changes. I can also bookmark branches for later.
For me, at least, knowledge isn't linear, it's tree structured. The Back/Forward paradigm is totally inadequate for the task.
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Tree Style Tabs (Beta)
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ffididlaalcoegfcalmeldjfnihmoech
Unfortunately, it's lacking some features. The biggest is that it
doesn't actually replace the tab bar across the top of the screen.
Rather, it gives you a new toolbar button, which, when clicked, drops
down a tree structure. No way to make that appear permanently, that I
can see. (TreeStyleTab appears much like a "side bar" in Firefox.)
The tree structure does reflect which tab opened from which. But I
can't drag tabs or branches to organize them, nor can I
collapse/expand branches.
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Tab Sense
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/oiabeebnmckkdjloeofbfladabfhedlg
Similar to the "Tree Style Tabs (Beta)" above. Same
button-not-a-sidebar issue. Does allow collapse/expand, which is
good. It opens up a new Google Chrome window to hold collapsed tabs
(with the message to minimize it and forget about it), which is rather
kludgey. Still can't drag tabs.
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Tabs Manager
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ioigddmjfpphkbamgbaolfkpifddnaje
Same button-not-a-sidebar issue. Tab structure doesn't appear to
reflect browsing history. Seems to have only two levels, a "folder"
it creates, and all your tabs. Does allow dragging of those tabs, but
I'm not sure what the point is. Can't find a way to create a folder.
I'm not quite sure what the point is.
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Some of these limitations might be due to Chrome's architecture,
rather than the extension programmers. In particular, I suspect
Chrome just doesn't let extensions have enough access to the UI to do
anything really useful. Which is a shame, because Chrome feels so
much faster than Firefox.
dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
Back in the day Opera /was/ worth the $39 license fee. This was in the days of Netscape 4 (ptui!) and Internet Explorer 4 (bletch), and it was really the only decent browser; didn't crash your system on a regular basis or bring it to a crawl.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
I use Chrome at work (my choice) but Firefox at home. Chrome is usually very fast and being able to just hit ctrl-T and start typing to search with suggestions is very nice, but there are some annoyances that stop me switching over for personal browsing on my own PC.
That is the problem with Chrome: a lack of customisability and APIs for extensions. It's fine if you happen to like the way Chrome works, but if it doesn't you probably can't fix the annoyance.
- Smooth/fast scrolling. The SmoothScroll extension takes care of both of these but seems to have been removed from the Chrome extensions site. I found the last version and installed it locally.
- RSS reading. I use Brief in Firefox and there is nothing even half as good for Chrome. Google Reader is bearable I suppose.
- Cookie permissions. In Firefox I use Cookie Button to whitelist ones that I want and have the rest deleted when I close the browser. There is nothing like that for Chrome. There are similar looking extensions but they maintain their own whitelists instead of integrating with the built in one.
- Search from the context menu switches to the search tab instantly. Again there is an extension but it still makes the screen flicker.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC