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Chrome Now Accounts For 55% of All Web Browsing (hothardware.com)

Google's Chrome browser "now accounts for more than half of all desktop browser usage and has nearly double the market share of Edge and Internet Explorer combined," reports Hot Hardware: Market research firm Net Applications has Chrome sitting pretty with a 54.99% share of the desktop browser market, up from 31.12% at this moment a year ago, while Internet Explorer and Edge combine for 28.39 percent and Firefox stuck at around 11%. Even more interesting is that when Windows 10 launched to the public at the end of July 2015, Chrome had a 27.82% share of the market while IE still dominated the landscape with a 54% share. Now the script has flipped.
Just six months ago, the same research firm reported Chrome with a 41.66%, share barely beating Microsoft's 41.35%.

113 comments

  1. I wonder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    where is that bar in chrome where I can type "google" so that I can google something?

  2. all your searches are belong to us by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    thanks, love sergie page xoxoxoxo

    1. Re:all your searches are belong to us by Noah+Haders · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Honestly, right? The only reason why goog made chrome was to suck up everybody's browser history. I use safari and Firefox. I don't install toolbars. And my default search engine is DuckDuckGo. Too bad goog, you lose this round!

    2. Re:all your searches are belong to us by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      like some black hole or what? https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B4E4uZiZ59pwSGNneThPWkRUbGM?usp=sharing

    3. Re:all your searches are belong to us by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I think Google made Chrome was to help drive the internet the way they wanted it to go (you can take that however you want). Google is a company that depends entirely on internet technology to supply their services. I'd guess they weren't comfortable leaving that client-side connectivity to their services in the hands of other companies, some of them competitors. So, I believe that by creating their own browser, they were attempting to control their own destiny rather than leaving it to middlemen.

      We see today Google using Chrome to experiment with new web technologies to improve connection speed via new standards extensions, advanced security issues, research projects, ensure standards compliance, and many other things. To me, I see it as a same way a company that makes products with Linux installed on it would probably make contributions to the Linux kernel. Not altruistic, certainly, but also not nefarious.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    4. Re:all your searches are belong to us by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You think they lose? You clearly don't realize just how many sites have google services integrated into them. Even this page here is using google analytics. Firefox is google services integrated into it (i.e. safe browsing) which was integrated into Firefox by... you guessed it, Google. Mozilla had no problem letting Google put their code in Firefox when Google was feeding Mozilla hoards of cash.

      Yes you can block google analytics, but some services you can't block because it will cause sites to no function at all.

    5. Re:all your searches are belong to us by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think you generally misunderstand how Google and similar companies operate. Google has already killed Usenet, tried to kill email but failed, has managed to inject their data collection engines into almost every web technology (by exploiting the laziness of developers), and generally do their best to turn the Internet into Google-Net. Google and Alphabet are gigantic shareholder corporations whose main goal is to increase profit, share value, market penetration, and so forth. Google makes much money by selling end-user data to advertisers.

      If Google was interested in the advancement of free and open technologies then you could simply download the most recent copy of Android, modify it as you like, and compile it for your device. In theory you can, in practice you can't. Guess why.

    6. Re:all your searches are belong to us by rsborg · · Score: 1

      I think Google made Chrome was to help drive the internet the way they wanted it to go (you can take that however you want).

      Amusingly, before Chrome browser existed, Google funded Mozilla pretty heavily. So their motives haven't changed - just their execution. Chrome was essentially using webkit earlier, then forked off it's own engine (blink).

      --
      Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
    7. Re:all your searches are belong to us by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, you have it arse about face.

      Google is a company that depends ENTIRELY on accessing user data so they can sell targeted adverts.
      ALL googles services are there to increase the amount of user data they have access to as the more refined the ad, the more "clicks" it is likely to get and the more value it potentially has. Problem is the $ per click has been falling, so there are two choices.
      Make the clicks more valuable (i.e. more snooping into your life)
      Sell more adverts (and then we get into ad blockers)

      95% of Googles income comes from advertising.

      YOU are the product Google sells, end of story.

    8. Re:all your searches are belong to us by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 1

      Google and Alphabet are gigantic shareholder corporations whose main goal is to increase profit, share value, market penetration, and so forth.

      Yes, and you also just described nearly every for-profit corporation in the world.

      Google makes much money by selling end-user data to advertisers.

      Actually, you don't even have that correct. Google sells advertising services, but not people's personal data. And you completely missed my point anyhow.

      Google created Chrome and gives it away because it helps users get to their services, which in turm drives eyeballs to their real business of selling online advertising. In other words, it's known as a business driver. It has jack-all to do with "advancement of free and open technologies", which I never uttered in my post, but which you mysteriously read into it somehow.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    9. Re:all your searches are belong to us by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 1

      See that second sentence of my post? That's me agreeing with you. My bad for assuming everyone here understood what Google's services actually are and how they operate. I'll make sure to state it very clearly in each Google-related post so you don't assume I'm a bloody ignoramus.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    10. Re: all your searches are belong to us by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes I can. The Firefox addon Decentraleyes mirrors Google APIs. If that isn't enough, then I'll just do without your website.

  3. thanks sheeple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Out with the old web, in with the Google Web. Enjoy your spyware/adware/drm.

    1. Re:thanks sheeple by tepples · · Score: 1

      What digital restrictions management is there in Chrome other than HTML5 EME (which can be turned off) and the DRM in Flash Player (which can also be turned off)?

  4. Your purpose is clear. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://imgur.com/NxIHVrY

  5. bing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As MS is trying to tie the browser to bing, people will turn to an alternative that allows searches with google. Further, chrome's reputation as a secure browser seems to push it above FF.

    1. Re:bing by rudy_wayne · · Score: 4, Funny

      Obviously Firefox needs to be made to look even more like Chrome.

    2. Re:bing by thsths · · Score: 1

      Maybe, but for me the main problem with Microsoft is that Edge is a decent render engine, but more a demo than a complete browser. They released it too early, before it was ready. Edge is slowly becoming a competitive browser, but in the mean time people are changing to Chrome.

    3. Re:bing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I can't speak for their HTML layout / renderer, but their SVG renderer still sucks and has tons of optimisation bugs... always trying to cut corners for speed M$.

    4. Re:bing by Gavagai80 · · Score: 1

      If Firefox would change their application icon to match Chrome's and would label it "Google Chrome", they'd see a rapid rise in market share.

      --
      This space intentionally left blank
    5. Re:bing by pnutjam · · Score: 1

      People would wonder why Chrome slowed down so much.

  6. In Googleand, Losers don't google things by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Google already knows all your places, all your bases, and all your faces. Teh G has no need to peek and what you seek for you give it everything and ask for nothing. You. Are. A. Loser!

    1. Re:In Googleand, Losers don't google things by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 1

      All Hail Google...
      LOL autocorrect sorry
      Ah Hell Google!

      --
      You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
  7. Windows browser? by Kohath · · Score: 1

    What's a good Windows browser for people who don't want Google/Microsoft spying on them?

    1. Re:Windows browser? by ArchieBunker · · Score: 1

      How does Chrome spy on you? I keep hearing this but so far no one can point to packet logs showing such behavior. I dumped Firefox years ago when they started adding features for shits and giggles instead of improving things like speed or reliability.

      --
      Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
    2. Re:Windows browser? by Mitreya · · Score: 2

      What's a good Windows browser for people who don't want Google/Microsoft spying on them?

      I think the answer is in the question. I don't know that you can avoid spying from Microsoft being on Windows...

    3. Re:Windows browser? by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      What's a good Windows browser for people who don't want Google/Microsoft spying on them?

      Use FireFox or Palemoon to at least not relinquish all the control to big corporations.

    4. Re:Windows browser? by xeoron · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Vivaldi formed by the former founder of Opera web browser. Uses the Chrome's Blink rendering engine and supports Chrome Extensions. Vivaldi website

    5. Re: Windows browser? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      mostly do not input your google account to browser it has its bonuses and you can always reset or change your ad designator number and other histories and cookies etc in your google settings.

    6. Re:Windows browser? by DaMattster · · Score: 1

      You could use Opera.

    7. Re:Windows browser? by Kohath · · Score: 1

      I don't know. I'm asking. Maybe the answer is "Chrome". It would be good to know. I'm getting tired of Firefox.

    8. Re:Windows browser? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Iridium?
      https://iridiumbrowser.de/

    9. Re:Windows browser? by Baloo+Uriza · · Score: 2

      If you don't want Microsoft spying on you and you're a Windows user, you've already lost the game.

      --
      Furries make the internet go.
    10. Re:Windows browser? by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · · Score: 1

      Sure you can, though if you're on Windows 10 you may have other things to worry about. On older versions, you can disable or remove all the dubious phone-home behaviours, or just install something like Spybot Anti-Beacon and let it turn everything off for you, and then Microsoft will be none the wiser whichever browser (including IE) you choose to use.

      --
      If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
    11. Re:Windows browser? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe you should actually LOOK at the packets and not just assume that they are all OK.

      It is very well known that Chrome was designed for the specific business purpose of collecting data. Best proof ... try recording packets with Chromium, then with Chrome. You will notice a good amount of extra data is being sent by Chrome, but not Chromium.

    12. Re:Windows browser? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      there is a reason why google went https over all their properties.. and it wasn't to protect YOU or your data or searches, it was to protect THEIR COMMUNICATIONS between chrome and android and their servers from snoops running packet sniffers.

      fact is, google collects an enormous amount of usage data (and not just about google's own sites and services) and can tie that to a particular browser install, and if you're stupid enough, to a particular google account - across devices, even, too.

    13. Re:Windows browser? by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      Sigh

      Firefox I guess. The good news is with electrosys it has caught up to 2009 IE 8 and Chrome 1.0 in terms of security by using lowrights in c:\users\%appdata and threading per process which is nice if you have more than 1 cpu core which is everyone but grandma here in 2016.

      But it is too little too late for me personally to use Firefox again, but try it as the newer versions supposed to be caught up.

    14. Re:Windows browser? by BenFenner · · Score: 1

      Most of us jumped form Firefox to Pale Moon. I highly recommend it.

    15. Re:Windows browser? by Mike+Frett · · Score: 1

      Chromium. It's Chrome without Google.

    16. Re:Windows browser? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Vivaldi crashes about once per day for me, and I'm considering going back to Firefox.

      Though I do need to remind myself that I switched after Firefox crashed four times in ten seconds.

    17. Re:Windows browser? by ArchieBunker · · Score: 1

      Palemoon is just an outdated Firefox build without the Australis interface.

      --
      Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
    18. Re:Windows browser? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It appears Vivaldi is a safe alternative. I wish I knew for sure though. So far the firewall did not report any strange connection attempts. I did not engage in packet inspection.

    19. Re:Windows browser? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'd like to believe that security researchers would realise something was wrong even if Google used encryption to hide the (allegedly) collected data before sending it "home."

      How would this be uncovered? I'm not a security expert, so this is just a guess: Firewall or packet sniffer reports Chrome sending a large amount of data to an IP not justified based on the websites being used at the time. I admit you need to do some work to set up the experiment correctly, but at least its doable, and you don't have to read the actual contents of the traffic to reach a verdict.

    20. Re:Windows browser? by BenFenner · · Score: 1

      While Pale Moon is based on the Firefox code-base, it had made its own path now and could better be described these days as a classic Firefox experience with bleeding-edge security under the hood.

  8. A fool and his privacy are soon parted. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Suckers.

  9. I literally feel physically ill when I use any bro by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    wser today.

    They are so obviously and completely designed to maximize the number of search queries made by accident, or by luring users into this. I've gone to great lengths to remove ALL fucking "smart prediction" bullshit and "search fields" and all of that, but they keep resetting the settings, or invent new BS, or remove existing about:config preferences, etc. I don't wanna deal with all this fucking BS all the time.

    Chrome... Firefox... Edge... they are all the same. And the only "alternatives" are like PaleMoon (still full of junk by default) and Tor Browser (also not clean defaults, and also crippled in too many ways to be useful).

    Ugh. And now Windows itself is like this as well. I no longer enjoy using computers at all. The software is made in the opposite way of what it should be.

  10. Because edge sucks! by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

    IE is a better browser. I can't believe I wrote that but Edge is crash and misses things like favorites. Has MS added it yet?

    I always put X-UA-Compatible in Css to force edge to use IE so I do not have to work around bugs.

    So my guess is those who think the blue E for internet out of habit upgraded to 10 they found a web which was broken and switched

    1. Re:Because edge sucks! by Tablizer · · Score: 2

      Edge is yet another brand we have to test UI's with. There are two Microsoft browsers now, and they both suck. (Insert my usual rant about fat-client-version-hell.)

    2. Re: Because edge sucks! by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      Just put that tag I listed above.

      Eventually I will start to use Edge html 5.1 features, but for now it's too cutting edge and changing and a small percentage.

      But users hate it. IE got Ok by version 9 for Joe Six pack and Ok by IE 10 for developers. Not great but it did it's job. Edge gives me subscription errors with AdBlock and crashes when I loaded it. It feels alpha quality and made for phones. Not pcs. IE 11 is still part of 10. I replaced edge and put an IE icon on the taskbar to test things.

      X-UA-Compatible Css tag will save us for awhile until IE 11 becomes too out of date. I refuse to test on Edge

    3. Re:Because edge sucks! by antdude · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I hate Edge. I'd rather use IE11.

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
    4. Re:Because edge sucks! by Merk42 · · Score: 1

      I always put X-UA-Compatible in Css to force edge to use IE so I do not have to work around bugs.

      What CSS works in IE11 (and presumably Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc) but does not work in Edge?

  11. complacency and feedback by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 2

    Chome's dominance is not surprising. The number one way to lose users is to complacently enjoy the lead you have over your competitors and ignore user feedback. Microsoft and Mozilla are both experts are ignoring user feedback and both enjoyed large leads while they diverted resources. Chrome can also be defeated by a competitor that offers something better that they don't want to or refuse to provide. Frankly, I would like to see a fork of Chromium that focuses on privacy, ad blocking and script blocking (I don't like random scripts running on my machine). These are things Google wouldn't want to provide, so this could be how Chrome slips back to a 5% user share.

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    1. Re:complacency and feedback by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can do all of this and more with extensions on Firefox, and I assume on Chrome as well. I would rather have a light browser with solid extension support like Firefox used to be than a bloated, slow piece of shit that requires half my RAM like all browsers are currently.

    2. Re:complacency and feedback by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're wrong about Microsoft. They listened to their corporate users. That's why IE never changed, and why they didn't care to change it.

      You're also wrong about Mozilla. In reality they've always listened to their users. Back back Chrome, nobody wanted them to do the necessaries to keep Firefox modern. They wanted Mozilla to not break addons, and keep Firefox "stable". They did. Then Chrome showed everyone how stupid this mentality was, and users started telling Mozilla to go ahead and fix it. But of course, they still didn't want Mozilla to change anything substantially to get there - they just wanted a magic band-aid. Which was impossible. And so, things started to break and change in Firefox, and there were no fixes that could satisfy everyone. The users who disliked that fact and weren't skilled enough to help Mozilla out just started chanting that they "don't listen to their users", when in reality if that were true then Firefox would probably never have gotten so bad that any of this would be necessary.

      And yes, I realize that Slashdot doesn't want to face up to reality with respect to these things. I know I will be modded down into oblivion. But the facts are the facts, no matter how much you want to twist them.

    3. Re:complacency and feedback by James+Carnley · · Score: 1

      Frankly, I would like to see a fork of Chromium that focuses on privacy, ad blocking and script blocking (I don't like random scripts running on my machine). These are things Google wouldn't want to provide, so this could be how Chrome slips back to a 5% user share.

      There are numerous forks of Chromium focusing on privacy already. I'm surprised you've never heard of any of them. They don't get used very much because they aren't as helpful or featurful as the real Chrome and most people just want to browse the web quickly and securely which Chrome does very well.

    4. Re:complacency and feedback by Clived · · Score: 1

      Well I for one am so pissed off by Google dropping support for Chrome on 32 bit Linux computers. I use Chromium but its not as good as Chrome as there is way better video support (especially embedded video support) on Chrome. As a result, I find myself using FF more these days

      My two bits

      --
      Clive DaSilva Email: clive.dasilva@gmail.com Ubuntu 18.10 Kernel 4.18
    5. Re:complacency and feedback by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What do you think about Vivaldi? It's not privacy-focused from what I know... but does it actively spy on its users?

    6. Re:complacency and feedback by jez9999 · · Score: 1

      Care to name a few? I wouldn't mind using one of them it is was decently maintained. Google has been getting pretty arrogant lately. Oh, it would be really nice if the fork allowed disabling the per-tab close buttons, which Google refuses to do in Chrome.

  12. Re:I literally feel physically ill when I use any by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I haven't seen Firefox reset anything like that, and if you give a crap you won't use Google as a search engine anyway (DDG/Startpage/ixquick in ascending order of privacy). The problem is using Windows, period. Stop using that nightmare of an OS and use GNU or *BSD (no, Netcraft hasn't confirmed anything!).

  13. Chrome Sucks by neonman · · Score: 2

    I don't know about the rest of slashdot readers, but from my point of view, Chrome is a great browser for apathetic users who don't have very sophisticated expectations in terms of extensibility and privacy features. With Firefox you have a much richer selection of add-ons and other niceties like, for instance, the ability to synchronize your data to your own server, rather than being entirely dependent on someone's so-called "cloud". Whereas Mozilla remains committed to a decentralized web, Google has managed to progressively blur the lines between browser and web property.

    I suppose Chrome is not as horrific as whatever Facebook might come up with if they ever decided to make a browser, but that's not saying much for Chrome. I'm a user of many Google products, but when it comes to browsers I'll be sticking with the content-neutral product that prioritizes my freedom and privacy - Firefox!

    1. Re:Chrome Sucks by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 1

      Is it my imagination or is Chrome starting to get really unstable? It stops responding to keystrokes or mouse clicks for about 15 seconds at a time, and some websites make the fan spin so fast that other people in the room complain about the noise. I usually have to restart it once an hour. It's starting to feel like Netscape 1.0.

    2. Re:Chrome Sucks by James+Carnley · · Score: 1

      That doesn't sound like a Chrome problem that sounds like something wrong with your computer. Possibly drivers. Try reinstalling Windows/Linux and see if it gets better.

    3. Re:Chrome Sucks by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 1

      This shit is happening on both OSX and Windows.

    4. Re:Chrome Sucks by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      I don't know about the rest of slashdot readers, but from my point of view, Chrome is a great browser for apathetic users who don't have very sophisticated expectations in terms of extensibility and privacy features. With Firefox you have a much richer selection of add-ons and other niceties like, for instance, the ability to synchronize your data to your own server, rather than being entirely dependent on someone's so-called "cloud". Whereas Mozilla remains committed to a decentralized web, Google has managed to progressively blur the lines between browser and web property.

      I suppose Chrome is not as horrific as whatever Facebook might come up with if they ever decided to make a browser, but that's not saying much for Chrome. I'm a user of many Google products, but when it comes to browsers I'll be sticking with the content-neutral product that prioritizes my freedom and privacy - Firefox!

      Well everyone is different.

      To me I want a fast browser that is secure and takes advantage of my hardware and syncs up everything with all platforms. Chrome is it! Both modern IE and Chrome use threading per tab which means under Windows it uses c"\users\%appdata\lowrights. It is sandboxed at the kernel level! It also means my i7 can utilize all my cores with both browsers by MS and Google.

      Firefox keeps getting hacked as a result and I do not want to run workarounds for this architectural limit with sandboxie. I just want something to work and have no radical changes.

      When I need more functionality I use an app. If I want a browser I pick Chrome. Firefox lost me at 4.0. Remember that release? AWFULL. Worse was the versions that kept breaking everything. I just wanted one version for 2 years. IE 9 came out which no longer required hacks and had full hardware acceleration and smooth scrool. I was hooked in 2011 and started using IE 11 and then Chrome by the end of the year.

      Well I haven't used Firefox since except for special occasions and I am reminded each time how a modern browser is so much nicer. The next version of Firefox will be at 2008 level technology soon of Chrome 1.0 and IE 8 with electrosys where I can get a real sandbox and threading and process isolation for security.

      Chrome is what Phoenix was to Mozilla today.

    5. Re:Chrome Sucks by Gavagai80 · · Score: 1

      Nothing like that ever happens to me, even though I have 40 tabs open and am using a dinosaur low-end 2011 PC.

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      This space intentionally left blank
    6. Re:Chrome Sucks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Have you tried to disable hardware acceleration feature on Chrome?

  14. Well yeah because phones/tablets by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Barely anyone browses on desktops compared to phones and tablets, and then they want to use something familiar when they do use a PC or laptop, so of course they ask "where's chrome?" Doesn't help that the IE name and icon are now gone from the desktop.

    1. Re:Well yeah because phones/tablets by Stephen+Chadfield · · Score: 1

      I use Firefox on my Android smartphone because it supports Ublock/Adblock.

  15. Am I the Only One Not Okay With This? by rsmith-mac · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Quick check: am I the only person not okay with Chrome overtaking the browser market?

    Though I am greatly appreciative of breaking up the homoogenous (and semi-proprietary) web that IE left us with, I'm afraid we've replaced one devil with an even greater devil. Now the most widely used browser is developed by a company whose very existence is dependent on user profiling and advertising sales.

    Google borders on being anti-user these days. The web they create is technically advanced, but it's also one that's been optimized to deliver ads, to strip control from users in the name of simplicity and to support Google's revenue stream. It gives Google an incredible amount of power - more than anyone else ever before - as they have laid the groundwork to see exactly what their customers are doing on the Web. That's a power I fear they're not capable of wielding wisely anymore.

    At least MS just wanted to sell you a copy of Windows every few years; Google wants to sell you each and every day to the highest bidder.

    1. Re:Am I the Only One Not Okay With This? by HBI · · Score: 0

      No, you aren't. I refuse to use Chrome or install it - even on other people's machines. It's creepy from the get-go. Firefox or Pale Moon with NoScript and other add-ons, only. If I am compelled to use IE for something, I use it and then close it.

      I'm hardly a typical user, though.

      --
      HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
    2. Re:Am I the Only One Not Okay With This? by Baloo+Uriza · · Score: 1

      Joke's on them. I adblock the shit out of everything (want to feed me ads? Pay for my and my employer's internet connections), and thanks to being the victim of student loan fraud dropping my credit from 800 to an unrecoverable (short of paying for some other asshole's college) 450, I pay cash on the spot for everything, lowest cost, and generally grey-market.

      --
      Furries make the internet go.
    3. Re:Am I the Only One Not Okay With This? by Gavagai80 · · Score: 1

      The day Chrome prevents ad-blocking is the day they lose their dominant market share. Personally I'm very pleased with the new devil, because this devil is cross-platform and well-maintained. The problem with MSIE's dominance was that it didn't work on Linux and it was for a long time basically abandonware holding back progress and making web developers waste tons of time.

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      This space intentionally left blank
    4. Re:Am I the Only One Not Okay With This? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      . I adblock the shit out of everything (want to feed me ads? Pay for my and my employer's internet connections),

      So Chrome fixed the issue which caused AdBlock to only work after the fact? I thought there were still several build-in limitations in Chromes plug-in API that cripple the effectiveness of ad, script and tracking blockers.

    5. Re:Am I the Only One Not Okay With This? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Quick check: am I the only person not okay with Chrome overtaking the browser market?

      No, but you might be one of the tiny minority who are actually uppity about it.

      In an ideal world, I want Google - all of it, the whole organization, from the political sleeze-enabling top to the lowest janitor - to die in a fire.

      But when it comes to web browsing, I'm more concerned with using a browser that doesn't suck complete ass. That leaves me with Chrome. Chrome felches a bit, but it isn't the full on, tongue-in-bung shiteating of Firefox, Opera, or whatever Microsoft has named their turd-gobbler nowadays.

  16. Re:Chrome Sucks -- Try Iridium by heilbron · · Score: 1

    What should you do if you love **Chromium**, but hate the spyware Google created around it in Chrome ?
    Look for a well supported Chromium-based browser: I tried **Iridium Browser** (https://iridiumbrowser.de).
    They claim adherence to German data protection standards, as well as having an reproducible and audible build process.
    There might be other Chromium-based browsers, too, but with that one I'm quite happy for some months now....

  17. no thanks by markdavis · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Chrome:

    * Closed Source: Check!
    * Closed Development: Check!
    * Google Spyware: Check!
    * Most Restricted UI: Check!

    Edge/IE are even worse because they only run on MS-Windows. No thanks, I will continue to use Firefox. Open source, open development, most addons. That doesn't mean Firefox doesn't have its issues... the biggest of which is TRYING TO TURN INTO CHROME!

    1. Re:no thanks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > That doesn't mean Firefox doesn't have its issues... the biggest of which is TRYING TO TURN INTO CHROME!

      And yet, none of the ways it is "trying to turn into chrome" are on your list of the 4 reasons to avoid chrome.
      So, what exactly is the problem? Taking the good and leaving the bad, isn't that how the state of the art improves?

    2. Re:no thanks by markdavis · · Score: 3, Insightful

      >"And yet, none of the ways it is "trying to turn into chrome" are on your list of the 4 reasons to avoid chrome. So, what exactly is the problem?"

      With Mozilla/Firefox? That they keep removing and hiding things in the UI trying to make it so-called "clean" like Chrome. Then, worse, changing stuff and then removing the options to revert the changes. Now you have to load an addon (Classic Theme Restorer) to get some of the stuff back. Want a specific example? How about tabs-on-bottom, like they are supposed to be. Then there is all the crap they DO add that we don't want... like "hello" and "developer view" and "pocket"; all things that should clearly be addons.

      The UI problem with Chrome is the arrogance of the design along with the lack of user choice. The lack of control is infamous and runs through all Google's apps and Android too (IOS is the same way). Firefox was never that way until Chrome came on the scene and then Firefox started mimicking Chrome more and more. That is my big beef with Mozilla/Firefox.

      I don't want "clean" menus.
      I don't want "hamburger" menus.
      I don't want auto-hiding scrollbars.
      I don't want tabs on the top.
      I don't want the browser "refreshing" my settings.
      I don't want frequent site icons cluttering my blank newpage.
      I don't want my option for the addon bar removed.
      I don't want inactive tabs not looking like a tab.

      And, yet, I still think Firefox is the "best" browser for all the reasons I have previously stated. One thing is for sure- it is nice to have choices. The idea of any one browser taking over and becoming the de-facto again is truly repulsive. I look at Chrome and hope it is not just the new "IE."

    3. Re:no thanks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Slow. SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW.

    4. Re:no thanks by Baloo+Uriza · · Score: 1

      Closed source and closed development? Did we forget about Chromium, which is in Debian?

      --
      Furries make the internet go.
    5. Re:no thanks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So you complaint isn't that its turning into chrome, its just that its changing in a way you don't like because get off my lawn.

    6. Re:no thanks by markdavis · · Score: 1

      >Closed source and closed development? Did we forget about Chromium, which is in Debian?

      Nope. Didn't forget about it at all. For one, we are talking about Chrome, not Chromium. Chrome is closed on both fronts. Chromium is open source, but that is not what people are using- I would guess the ratio is about 99+% Chrome and less than 1% Chromium as far as installations go. And just because Chrome is based on Chromium, that doesn't mean it is using that code. Google puts whatever they like in Chrome and we really have no idea what it does behind the scenes. Our only clues are to try and carefully monitor the traffic it sends.

      As for development, Mozilla isn't as open as I would like, but they are still far more open than Google is with Chromium. Even so Mozilla (corp) is a primarily a browser company, Google has its hands in all kinds of things, giving it far more incentive to develop to its own goals, not ours. Firefox coding is done by Mozilla Foundation, and that is a non-profit organization.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... "The Mozilla Foundation describes itself as "a non-profit organization that promotes openness, innovation and participation on the Internet."

    7. Re:no thanks by markdavis · · Score: 1

      If you are referring to Firefox, it is apparent you haven't really used it/compared in years, then. Most benchmarks show that the current versions of Firefox are close to Chrome in performance for most metrics, beating it in some.

      As much damage as Chrome has done to Firefox (in user base and in causing Mozilla to start mimicking the UI), the best thing it did do was to put pressure on Mozilla to improve Firefox's performance. For that, we are all grateful :)

      I knew the tide was turning last year when I started seeing articles complaining about the extremely high memory usage of Chrome and that Firefox had trimmed back so much it was using less than Chrome.

    8. Re:no thanks by markdavis · · Score: 1

      Is there much of a difference? I am certainly not alone. In fact, what I am saying mirrors the complaints of many thousands of people that post on Slashdot and in many other places.

      "Turning into Chrome" means different things to different people, but in general it means:

      1) Removing user control of the UI, less user choice and preference.
      2) Minimizing the UI, making it harder to use and customize.
      3) Ignoring or resisting what the user base wants.

      Chrome is a fast, multiplatform browser. And I am glad it exists. But its popularity is based far more on VERY aggressive marketing by Google and less by any faults in Firefox. Especially over the last year, since Firefox's speed and memory footprint is not that much different from Chrome.

    9. Re:no thanks by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 1

      * Google Spyware: Check!

      Any reference?

      --
      Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
    10. Re:no thanks by markdavis · · Score: 1

      >"Any reference?"

      I will admit I am yelling "fire" without seeing the flames. My bad, and I should probably tone it down.

      Here is an example of what can happen: http://arstechnica.com/securit... It shows just how easy it can be for them to insert something that can be abused.

      The real danger is that with a binary-only, closed-source browser like Chrome, there is really no easy way know what it is doing behind-the-scenes or what backdoors it might have for them or governments. It is probably harder to prove it is not spying on users than proving it is. And Google has far more incentive to track everything you do compared to, say, Mozilla. Of course, if you also use Google search and/or sign-in with a Google account while using Chrome/Chromium, you are turning it into a type of approved super spyware on the spot.

      http://betanews.com/2012/03/01...
      http://www.theverge.com/2016/9...
      http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

      I am amazed at how cavalier people are about their privacy, especially when it involves Google. The scariest thing is that most people have no idea just how much data is being collected about them (and yes it happens with all browsers and all services, but it is stepped up to overdrive with Google).

      And if you are curious, no, I don't use Google's search engine directly, I always use http://startpage.org/ I also install Firefox browser on my Android devices and use that and startpage for searching.

    11. Re:no thanks by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 1

      Of course it's indeed very easy in a proprietary non open source program to inject whatever code they want. On the other hand, Google, while profiling ad nauseam, base their business on users trust. If someone comes to reveal that Google is spying directly from Chrome (i.e. the browser sends information to Google even though the page visited is not related to them), especially from an "Incognito" tab, that would be a top scandal that surely will break most people trust in the company.

      --
      Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
  18. Or pretend to be Chrome? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I wonder how many browsers pretend to be Chrome for one reason or another? My Firefox browser identifies as Chrome to get it to work properly with Netflix. My Qupzilla browser IDs as Chrome to avoid compatibility issues. Just about every browser I use or set up for people ID themselves as Chrome because otherwise people see an endless stream of "We recommend you update your browser" nag messages.

  19. Survival of the fittest by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Windows webbrowsers get viruses, and then die off. People browse the Internet with their android device and don't get viruses as easy.

  20. Don't use Chrome. Use Palemoon instead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's more than just a Firefox fork with all of Mozilla's crap purged out, and Chrome calling home features. None of that safebrowsing-send-your-data-to-google BS either.

    Yes, Chrome does call home, starting with its very first packet being sent whenever you launch its browser.

  21. SImple reason its not firefox: group policy by n3r0.m4dski11z · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I would love to make firefox the default browser in my company. However mozilla has zero interest in that. While chrome provides MSI's and group policy templates to tie the whole thing together, enforce custom settings, etc.

    Firefox how to deploy faq: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Deplo... (note the two most important links are broken and defunct)

    google how to deploy faq: https://support.google.com/chr... (and many other webpages, but you dont even need instructions because its teh same as every other well designed software package from a major corporation)

    Its been like this for literally years. Mozilla simply does not care about centralized policy management or deployment.

    Firefox is the best web browser by far and much more stable, and less ram hungry than chrome, so its sad for me. Until i can push out adblock and firefox with a customized home page in 30 minutes to 200 workstations its not going to be standard on my network.

    --
    -
    1. Re:SImple reason its not firefox: group policy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What's funnier is that nobody in the enterprise REALLY cares about Firefox supporting them. If they were to donate a little worker time, I'm sure that Firefox could already have MSI installers and such, but no dice. Far easier to complain about it, wag some fingers, and just point users toward Chrome (or Explorer, for organizations that are even more cheap).

    2. Re:SImple reason its not firefox: group policy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      build your own msi installers. If you were a real company, you'd have IT folks already tasked for doing that part of things. As far as GPO templates - eh - depending on what you're trying to do. Many things can be done via advanced settings and registry settings that your custom MSI can do for you.

    3. Re:SImple reason its not firefox: group policy by eWarz · · Score: 1

      Firefox tends to be buggy. I have run both chrome and Firefox for long periods of time without closing either/or on the same system...Firefox either blows up (crashes, FF windows stop rendering, or it just stops working) or eventually just quits for no reason at all. I've had the same chrome session running nonstop for a while now. Longest stretch of time was 5 months. The only time I restart it is for an update. I've never had it crash or blow up. I was one of the earliest users of Firefox as well...I used it since the very first build was released...long before it was called Firefox. The problem is that the Mozilla team has not spent enough time stabilizing it and working on speeding things up. Firefox STILL doesn't have a reliable 64 bit build, multi-process tabs, compatibility with webkit css etc. Mozilla needs to reinvent themselves again...before they become irrelevant yet again.

    4. Re:SImple reason its not firefox: group policy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I would love to make firefox the default browser in my company. However mozilla has zero interest in that. While chrome provides MSI's and group policy templates to tie the whole thing together, enforce custom settings, etc.

      Firefox how to deploy faq: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Deplo... (note the two most important links are broken and defunct)

      google how to deploy faq: https://support.google.com/chr... (and many other webpages, but you dont even need instructions because its teh same as every other well designed software package from a major corporation)

      Its been like this for literally years. Mozilla simply does not care about centralized policy management or deployment.

      Firefox is the best web browser by far and much more stable, and less ram hungry than chrome, so its sad for me. Until i can push out adblock and firefox with a customized home page in 30 minutes to 200 workstations its not going to be standard on my network.

      http://www.frontmotion.com/FMFirefoxCE/
      MSI and GPO, works like a charm

    5. Re:SImple reason its not firefox: group policy by strikethree · · Score: 1

      I would love to make firefox the default browser in my company. However mozilla has zero interest in that.

      It is clear that Microsoft has some sort of plant inside of Mozilla. How else could Mozilla be so utterly stupid after people like me lifted them up and got Firefox installed on US Government computers as well as within numerous other organizations. Going directly against what your users want (UI)? Changing add-on behaviour so that noscript is as useless on Firefox as it is on Chrome? Violating the base concepts that the browser was built on (lean and mean) Whatever. This goose is cooked. Stick a fork in it, it is done.

      I am saddened that the beautiful things are always trampled underfoot. Mozilla will die because there is no way to remove the plant that Microsoft put inside of Mozilla... just like there was no way to remove the plant that Microsoft had inside of Nokia. All things must die a horrible and evil death to satisfy the greedy urges of this corporation.

      --
      "Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
  22. Chrome is shit by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

    I strictly reserve it for things that don't work in Firefox. BTW, if anyone knows how you can directly open a link in Chrome from Firefox I'd be very interested to hear it. By directly I mean not copy-pasting the url.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    1. Re:Chrome is shit by afgam28 · · Score: 1

      I haven't used it, but it looks like there's a Firefox add-on for that: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-...

  23. I want browsers to be browsers... by unitron · · Score: 1

    ...and search engines to be search engines, and both to know that neither is the other, and when I'm typing something on the screen I expect it to remain on that part of the screen and not jump somewhere else.

    And I'd really like to be able to right-click on a link and have an "Open with..." option that offers my choice of all the browsers I have installed, and I'd like to be able to highlight and right click and be offered my choice of search engines.

    --

    I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.

  24. Wait.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Where does Netscape sit?

  25. Why just look at desktop numbers? by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

    Given how common mobile internet access is nowadays, it seems funny to place such an artificial restriction on this discussion. Does expanding it to include mobile access ruin the narrative somehow? It doesn't seem like it should...

    --
    #DeleteChrome
  26. Well... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...when Chrome can be installed as part of a Java update...or Flash update...or any of plenty of other ways OTHER than downloading from www.chrome.com - plus the checkbox to make it default, all checked by default....it doesn't surprise me.

    Funny how people bitched about IE...but Chrome is almost as bad when the software vendors are getting paid to push installs. And they try any way they can to make it happen.

  27. Go to chrome://sync AND SEE FOR YOURSELF. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Go to chrome://sync and see for yourself.

  28. Chrome took the users? Who'd a thunk it? by SeaFox · · Score: 1

    Even more interesting is that when Windows 10 launched to the public at the end of July 2015, Chrome had a 27.82% share of the market while IE still dominated the landscape with a 54% share. Now the script has flipped.

    That's not interesting.

    People hate Edge's interface, much like they hate any other Metro-esque vague UX Microsoft has shat out lately.
    When people installed Windows 10 (I say that like they had a choice, haha), they suddenly found the familiar blue "e" on the taskbar did not open their familiar Internet Explorer. Rather then use Edge they went looking for a replacement. Chrome has the world's most popular search engine marketing it every chance it gets, so it's what people will end up with.

    1. Re:Chrome took the users? Who'd a thunk it? by eWarz · · Score: 1

      I wouldn't necessarily agree with that. I don't use Edge, but I do use Windows 10. The reasons I use chrome are simple: 1) Your browser history, bookmarks, passwords, etc. get saved. (and I don't care about the privacy implications), 2) Add-on support wasn't in Edge for the longest time (no ad-block, etc.) 3) Edge STILL isn't 100% standards compliant (took 2 weeks to work around an Edge/IE issue while working on a project recently) 4) Edge is just ugly in general, and doesn't seem to work all that well.

  29. Google (Alphabet) is now abusive. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Google has become an extremely ABUSIVE company.

  30. New monoculture by manu0601 · · Score: 1

    Enter a new monoculture. Will Google behave less evilly that Microsoft did in its time?

  31. Tor Browser Works Well For Me! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nada

  32. Browser world problems by hakarj · · Score: 1

    Browsers can be frustrating. In my experience, _all_ of them have _some_ issues. Currently I use Firefox for "light" browsing and Chrome for media browsing, because I feel that both lack in some areas.

    Firefox:
    + Ideologically I'd like to use Firefox only instead of MS browsers and Chrome.
    + Separate search bar instead of an omnibar.
    + Tab opening and closing behaviour (always closing to the next-to-the-right tab is nice).
    + Most accurate URL suggestions based on bookmarks and history.
    + browser.tabs.loadDivertedInBackground is probably the single-most important reason I use Firefox despite the minus below. I use external RSS and IRC clients, from which I tend to open several links in one go. With MS browsers and Chrome, the freshly opened page comes to the top, and I have to tab back 6 times to open 6 links. With Firefox I can open all of the links in the background without ever being interefered with by the browser window grabbing attention. It's amazing.
    - 32 or 64 bit, e10s enabled or not, bogs down a bit with even just 3 or 4 tabs open, and becomes completely crippled when more than one tab with an HTML5 or a Flash stream is open at the same time. I suspect this isn't what most Firefox users experience, but that's irrelevant since it's happening to_me_.
    - Used to have very frequent memory leaks, now has occasional memory leaks.

    Chrome:
    + Much faster than Firefox on this computer, and stays that way with many tabs open.
    + Doesn't seem to leak memory, certainly not in the way that Firefox does.
    - Omnibar.
    - URL suggestions.
    - No background tabs from external applications.
    - Evil.

    MS browsers:
    + Pluses? What pluses?
    - All of the things.

    It grates me every day, that Firefox would be THE ONE for me, if only it would perform a bit better. It's perhaps even a bit ironic, because Palemoon, which is based on an older version of Firefox, is blisteringly fast but has some compatibility issues. If I could have current Firefox with the performance of Palemoon, I would be over the moon, and I'm not even an astronaut.

  33. Re:Chrome Sucks -- Try Iridium by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm not familiar with German data protection laws. I'm guessing they are allowed to spy on everyone else but German residents?

    I really hope that's not the case and Iridium truly respects the privacy of all its users. But given what we've heard in recent years about one country circumventing its owb privacy laws by having another country do the spying on its citizens instead... you can't call me paranoid.

  34. What I find hardest to believe about Chrome is ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What I find hardest to believe about Chrome is horribly the desktop version works with touch screen devices. It's god awful and buggy. Tap detection is miserable, all the buttons and menus are small and hard to tap, it's tough to get the right click context menu to show up, and even if you do, it's tough to get it to recognize the correct menu item you're trying to press. NONE of the other browsers I've tried have this issue, none of the other programs I use (with the touch screen) have this issue. Considering how big Chrome is on the mobile market, and that it works perfectly fine on touch screen devices, I don't see why it's so hard to make a desktop browser work well with touch. Granted, I also hate the stupid session sharing between incognito windows. Tabs? Sure. Windows? WHY? Chromium can do it (on Linux), why not Chrome?

    Granted, I think all the browsers can be infuriating to use. It's 2016, why can't Firefox install all extensions without requiring a restart (I have noticed that it can now install some without a restart). And to those that say it's almost as fast as Chrome -- in benchmarks, maybe. In my experience, it noticeably lags, and Chrome still seems to have fewer problems running sites with lots of scripting.

    I won't even bother complaining about IE and Edge, hardly worth the effort and energy.