Google Chrome - week 1

Well, it's been just over a week since I decided to try using Google Chrome as my main web browser. How have I found it? Will I stick with it?

To be honest still I'm torn between Chrome and Firefox. There are pros and cons to both. Here's  a quick list of where each browser scores, from a fairly non-technical perspective (i.e. I'm sure there all sorts of things 'under the hood' that could affect the comparison but which I don't know enough about):

Chrome

• Significantly faster startup time
• Separate processes for each tab and extension (if one crashes you can carry on using the browser)
• Memory is periodically 'cleaned' to prevent memory usage constantly creeping up (although it uses more memory overall)
• Looks nicer!
• Web search integrated into address bar (although FF similar, though not quite so good, with search keywords)
• Searching browsing history searches page content, not just titles
• Generally, Google apps (which I use a lot of - who doesn't?) work better with Google browser

Firefox

• Uses less memory overall (although memory leaks do tend to mean it increases over time)
• Several key extensions not available for Chrome (yet), e.g. Web Developer, Colorzilla, NoScript, CookieSafe
• Better bookmark management (e.g. tags)
• Sorting options for history
• Right-click to view images/background images (have to open developer console in Chrome)
• Toolbars are customizable (particularly important with extensions - Chrome's extensions all get added into the main toolbar and move around randomly! Plus FF has the added advantage in this respect of a status bar for extension icons etc.)
• As a colleague pointed out yesterday, from a web development and browser compatibility point of view, Firefox is the most widely used browser (if you treat each major version of IE as different browsers) so it makes more sense to use it as your primarily browser when developing sites.

So, the jury is split! I expect Chrome to catch up with Firefox in many of these areas, although having said that, I know that the Firefox developers are already looking into many of the things where Chrome has taken the lead, such as separate processes, better search integration, etc. for future versions, so nothing is a foregone conclusion!