Chrome versus Firefox

[James]

Lately I've been testing out Google Chrome after years of Firefox and before that Netscape. What I find I love is the speed and simplicity of the browser. What I miss... immensely is the sidebar. My reason for looking elsewhere was a feeling that Firefox was becoming a bit of a pig and not opening pages as quickly as it once did. I only have two extensions by the way.

I have a tendency to surf with my sidebar open. That way I have all my favorites to the left of my screen and I can just grab what I want and I'm off. Without that sidebar, I appear somewhat lost.

So... anyone else using Chrome? If so... how do you surf without a sidebar?

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.3 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/6.0.472.63 Safari/534.3

[Fulvio]

James,
I gave up on the Sidebar, which for me does nothing but take up space, as soon as I learned how to do it, way back when. I think that it is matter of habit, and once hooked on it, nothing else works.
I have favorite bookmarks, easily, found in folders. What else do I need?
Except for showing History which should have been deleted long ago, the Sidebar has nothing which is not available in Firefox with its Toolbars. I can hide all toolbars, except for the Menu Bar, and have a lot more space available than with the Sidebar present.
As for Google Chrome, I have not figured out how to associate with my Mail Client. Should I be satisfied with Webmail, it would be great. But, I am, just, not used to it.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.11) Gecko/20101012 Firefox/3.6.11

[James]

Thanks for the response, Fulvio. I suppose you hit the nail on the head when you mentioned being "used to it." I've used the sidebar for so many years now, that surfing without it seems unnatural. I have a wide screen monitor so I'm not giving up much space. I also reduce the width of the sidebar so really... I probably only lose an inch and a half. The thing is... I wish I could just get rid of it permanently but I can't "get used to life on the internet without it."

It's funny how we're all so different.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.11) Gecko/20101012 Firefox/3.6.11

[Antony]

So... anyone else using Chrome? If so... how do you surf without a sidebar?

I've never been a big fan of sidebar (back in Netscape days). I guess I am used to just used to that way.

For most commonly visited websites, they are on my Bookmark Toolbar (below URL address), and organise them with folders. (in Firefox and Safari)

I don't use Chrome that often to be honest.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en-US; rv:1.9.2.11) Gecko/20101012 Firefox/3.6.11

[James]

Interesting. So, Antony, you have folders in your personal bookmark bar? I've always had individual sites but I suppose folders would work. Frankly, it never occurred to me.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:2.0b6) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0b6

[Antony]

Yap, each folder is like drop down menu.
And the less frequent sites are in other section of Bookmark (not under Personal Bookmark Bar).
You do have to go to Organize Bookmarks (Firefox) or Show All Bookmarks (Safari) to create folders.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en-US; rv:1.9.2.11) Gecko/20101012 Firefox/3.6.11

[James]

Wow! I think you may have freed me from my slavery to the sidebar, Antony! I've done as you suggested and organized my favorite sites into folders in my personal address bar while leaving the "other" less frequented sites to my Bookmarks. This is looking very good. Thanks, Bud.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:2.0b6) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0b6

[Fulvio]

That's what I have. I am sure I posted in the past, so it was an obvious matter, to me. My Bookmark Folder has 14 folders, plus a few more individual unattached sites, which I have not decided on. In addition, I have been using the Prefbar Toolbar for websites which I use prequently (13 of them).
The folder's names are abbreviated to accomodate more of them. So, they are called: Ntscp, Wtr, AV, BigO(for local stuff. BigO is a nickname for Omaha), Rdio, Msic,Cmprs, Airlin, etc.
It is handy, and the space taken by the two toolbars is minimal.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.11) Gecko/20101012 Firefox/3.6.11

[James]

These are great ideas, Fulvio. Thanks for sharing them.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:2.0b6) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0b6

[Alalia83]

I am using Google Chrome because i feel its working is faster than others.I I used firefox aswell but when i run it on my computer then my computers starts responding slowly.And i bookmarks the address which i want to open quickly.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.3 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/6.0.472.63 Safari/534.3

[Fulvio]

I posted at the Firefox newsgroup this link which discusses the problems encountered by Firefox. Indeed, Google Chrome is faster (Safari is not bad, either), but I am, just, looking at it, and hope that Firefox will figure out that its lack of speed is hurting it.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.12) Gecko/20101026 Firefox/3.6.12

[Edward]

I found Chromium (Linux side) and Google Chrome (Windows side), to be faster than 'Fox, on the old K6-2 box running Ubuntu 10.04.2 and Windows XP.

I also figured out how to import the SeaMonkey bookmarks into Chromium.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.13 (KHTML, like Gecko) Ubuntu/10.10 Chromium/9.0.597.94 Chrome/9.0.597.94 Safari/534.13

[Dr Lobster*]

i've been using chrome for the same reason as you, james.

i've been using the developer channel since for a year or so now. i feel guilty because i actually got a Firefox 4 Beta Team t-shirt from Mozilla for helping squash a few bugs.

but chrome zips along nicely, the interface is minimal which is how like it - a browser really should be pretty transparent, chrome just works.

i did miss adblock at first but i was fortunate that i was able to block most adverts and crud with my router's built in functions.

now adblock has been ported to chrome the only thing i really miss from firefox is full screen mode, which is woefully poor in chrome.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64) AppleWebKit/534.27 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/12.0.712.0 Safari/534.27

[James]

Chrome is awesome and it remains a favorite of mine. But I've been playing with FF4 for a few days and have to admit that it has some really nice features. One thing that I like is the ability to pin apps to the tab position. That way I can get rid of my bookmark bar and minimize even more. When I open my browser, it goes to my start page but my pinned apps (sites that are my favorites) are automatically logged in as well (in small pinned tabs at the top). Here's an explanation:

https://www.facebook.com/video/video.ph ... 1&comments

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:2.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0

[Fulvio]

Very interesting! I had Firefox 3.6.17 open, and, since I had problems with Chrome not opening the home page (Myway.com) in a timely manner, I thought that I would compare Firefox with Chrome. All hell broke loose when I selected to open another Tab in Chrome. Chrome crashed, and I was given a chance to restarted. But, at the same time, Firefox, which had been minimized, disappeared. I saw the Crash Reporter appearing ( just like Thunderbird 3.x, after its crashes), I filled in a comment, and selected to restart Firefox. I got a notice (like with Thunderbird) that there had been a problem with the Reporter. And, that was it. Firefox never showed up, while Chrome loaded flawlessly.
This is the first time that I tried to run both Firefox and Chrome at the same time, but it bothers me that, as far as Mozilla goes, everything is cool, while I have had three crashes with its products, in about one week, which were never reported.
In any event, Chrome is ok, but not so great. Now, I will have to keep an eye on possible incompatibility of Firefox and Chrome.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1) AppleWebKit/534.24 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/11.0.696.60 Safari/534.24