Chrome Drops Safari Into Fourth Place Among Browsers

[MacRumors]

http://www.macrumors.com/images/macrumorsthreadlogo.gif (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/12/15/chrome-drops-safari-into-fourth-place-among-browsers/)

Computerworld reports (http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9142286/Chrome_Mac_Linux_betas_push_browser_into_No._3_spot) on data from research firm Net Applications showing that Google's Chrome browser has slipped past Apple's Safari to snag third place in worldwide Internet browser market share behind Internet Explorer and Firefox. The surge comes on the heels of the official release (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/12/03/google-releases-chrome-for-mac-beta/) of beta versions of Chrome for both Mac and Linux.According to Net Applications, which tracks the browser habits of 160 million unique visitors each month to the 40,000 sites it monitors for customers, Chrome's share jumped to 4.4% for the week of Dec. 6-12, an increase of 0.4 percentage points over Google's slice of the browser pie for the month of November.

Chrome's share during the week topped Safari's 4.37%, said Vince Vizzaccaro, executive vice president of Net Applications. "It appears that Chrome has made a substantial surge in usage market share," Vizzaccaro said in an e-mail.Chrome reportedly experienced a four-fold jump in market share on Mac with the release of the beta version, which marked a milestone release for a product that had previously been available only as developer preview releases. Some of the growth is undoubtedly due to curious users simply trying out Chrome for the first time before switching back to their primary browser, but Chrome's official beta status will likely continue to attract new users going forward.

Benchmarks (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/12/09/chrome-for-mac-beta-nearly-matches-safari-in-javascript-benchmarking/) have shown that Chrome, which is based on the same WebKit engine used by Safari, performs well when it comes to speed on Mac OS X, but is lacking a number of features (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/11/30/chrome-beta-for-mac-nearly-ready-for-launch-but-some-features-postponed/) that will not make their appearances until later beta releases.

Article Link: Chrome Drops Safari Into Fourth Place Among Browsers (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/12/15/chrome-drops-safari-into-fourth-place-among-browsers/)

[themoonisdown09]

When I'm using my Dell PC at work, I use Google Chrome rather than Safari. Safari for Windows (at least XP) freezes way too much to be very usable.

When I'm on my Macs at home, I use Safari. I have been trying out Google Chrome on my Mac and I like it, but it doesn't seem too different from Safari (speed wise).

In the end, I think that Google Chrome will do better on PCs than on Macs.

[Small White Car]

Oh well.
If Apple wants to reclaim it they need to make Safari competitive on Windows.

I adore Safari on my Mac, but I've never suggested it to any of my Windows-using friends. It just doesn't seem to be as great on that side of the fence.

[djellison]

4th is where it should be - behind Chrome, Firefox, and I'm afraid to say, IE. IE + Flash on Windows is great compared to Safari+Fash/ The moment you're browsing modern flash rich websites, Safari is a mess.

At this point, the usual 'oh - but flash is dreadful' apologists come in. Tough - Flash IS a massive massive part of the modern browsing experience, and it being a complete mess under OS X and Safari is why Safari has dropped to 4th.

[ProwlingTiger]

Well sure, you get all the fanatical Google nerds downloading it, Chrome was bound to over take it. I honestly don't think Apple cares about the browser competition. And it really is irrelevant, anyways.

[Tommeh]

I replaced Safari on the iMac by Chrome as it's default browser. Safari kept beachballing on me when opening a new tab and I don't feel it's responsiveness since the update to 4. I like Chrome so far.

[unity]

Oh well.
If Apple wants to reclaim it they need to make Safari competitive on Windows.

I adore Safari on my Mac, but I've never suggested it to any of my Windows-using friends. It just doesn't seem to be as great on that side of the fence.

I agree 100%. I have used Safari on my work PC and its nothing special.

[reallynotnick]

I say Safari on a Mac and Chrome on a PC, since they are both based off the amazing webkit they both fly compared to competitors.

[ChazUK]

I'm loving Chrome so far.

Been using it on OSX for a while now and also on Windows and Linux. Firefox was a bit crash happy so I decided to switch to Chrome and it's been a great browser since using it.

[KScottMyers]

And what's so compelling about the Chrome Browser over others?

[Rodimus Prime]

I am not surprised. Safari on windows is a pile of crap. Apple yet again filed to conform to the standards on windows in how everything how everything is laid out and tried to force its way on people. Apple really needs to learn that when it makes software for windows it needs to conform to windows standard menu and interface layout that everyone else uses for windows.

The masses do not like changed. Chrome on windows with the little I played with it conforms but I still will back to my Firefox because that is what I have become used to. Nothing has come out that offers me enough better stuff to get me to changed.

Safira may be better than IE but it is not that much better that people are willing to change. The other browsers are and the popularity of them is bleeding over to apple and stealing more market share there.

[jaw04005]

And what's so compelling about the Chrome Browser over others?

It has very quick rendering --- especially on Windows. Safari for Windows exists solely to test iPhone-compatible Web sites.

[djellison]

And what's so compelling about the Chrome Browser over others?

It's fast. It's 'snappy'. It lets you open up a new google-search tab from selected text. It'll default to Google UK if you want. It doesn't vomit each time a website has flash.

Functionally and practically, it's far far superior to Safari.

[apple101]

\, I have been trying out Google Chrome , but it doesn't seem too different from Safari (speed wise).



I see a difference between Safari and Google Chrome, I barley use Safari anymore because of it.

[veloceraptor]

Well sure, you get all the fanatical Google nerds downloading it, Chrome was bound to over take it. I honestly don't think Apple cares about the browser competition. And it really is irrelevant, anyways.

Didn't Steve Jobs say at WWDC 07 that he "dreams big.. and he would love Safari's market share to grow substantially"?

[The Flashing Fi]

And what's so compelling about the Chrome Browser over others?

I like the UI and its simplicity. I like it's speed, as it has a wicked fast Javascript engine, and I like the lack of bloat.

IE, need I say anything about that browser?
Firefox, rich in plugins that I have no interest in. It's also bloated as far as time it takes to start up, and it's UI layout is unattractive. I know there are plugins and themes that can help, but I still can't match the sleek UI that Chrome offers.
Safari, compared to Firefox on Mac, it's better as far as UI goes, but I find it to be dated. I like the Safari 4 beta UI better with the tabs on the top. Since I prefer the tabs on the top, why should I use Safari? I don't see a reason to use it.

[NintendoFan]

So, I'm guessing Safari on the iPhone doesn't count?

[tenguy]

I have no idea of the pros & cons of Chrome & Safari on a PC but I tried Chrome on my Mac & went right back to Safari. Even with Safari though, I have to occasionally use Firefox as an alternative for opening some pages. I'll leave Chrome to the PC crowd.

[Hattig]

Chrome is being advertised this week in the UK, there are billboards up advertising it, and full page adverts in the newspapers.

I've been using Chrome on my work PC for over a year now, and it has proven to be an excellent browser that is now maturing nicely. Flashblock, yay!

I put the beta on my Linux netbook, and that is there to stay now.

The tabs on top is lovely. The beta lets you pin tabs as well, which is really handy. The interface is nippy and feels light, unlike Firefox.

Safari was what I used on my Mac, but I feel that once Chrome is out of Mac Beta that will be my primary browser there as well.

[generationxwing]

I'd be all over Chrome if it didn't lack a Bookmark Manager. How on earth a "feature" as basic as that could be put off is beyond me. If you can't manage your bookmarks wtf is the point? Very stupid decision on Google's part.

That said, I can't stand Safari's bookmark system. I can handle the sidebar, but let me leave it open the whole time, don't close it when I choose a site. Or hey, give me a drop down menu.

Firefox does it for me.

[Azrel]

Chrome is still a beta product and it feels like it. ;)

[OllyW]

Chrome is being advertised this week in the UK, there are billboards up advertising it, and full page adverts in the newspapers.

It had the entire front page of yesterday's Metro.

[Chief Oddball]

Chrome is very quick at what it does. Quick to start, quick to render. It's very lightweight.

For all that, I can't possibly use Chrome as my primary browser; I keep it installed for WebKit testing only. It lacks way too much functionality and tweakability for my tastes. I use Firefox to fill that need -- Firefox either meets all of my requirements, or there's an extension that does. I also don't find it slow at all -- you want slow, try just opening a new tab in IE. Good God.

[BongoBanger]

Interesting.

According to Net Apps Mac OS market share has dropped from 5.27% to 5.12% and Windows 7 is already up to 4%.

Mind you, these stats are questionable at the best of times I suppose.

[HLdan]

At this point, the usual 'oh - but flash is dreadful' apologists come in. Tough - Flash IS a massive massive part of the modern browsing experience, and it being a complete mess under OS X and Safari is why Safari has dropped to 4th.

Oh yeah? Show some fact that actually say Safari dropped to 4th because of Flash running poor on it.

Well sure, you get all the fanatical Google nerds downloading it, Chrome was bound to over take it. I honestly don't think Apple cares about the browser competition. And it really is irrelevant, anyways.

It's very relevant, it's important that Apple get Safari as high on the browser ladder as possible. The world needs to drop I.E. It's frustrating that some companies still use I.E. with Active X controls activated to create their websites which virtually tells other browsers to "Get lost, you have no power here without Active X". This same experience is on the Windows side, forcing you to stop using FF, Safari or any other browser that's not I.E.

[IntelliUser]

Chrome's gonna be successful on Windows because it's the only decent browser there IS for Windows (speed-wise, and Safari for Windows sucks).
Mac users still have got the best, Safari 4 is as fast and stable as Chrome BUT it doesn't rape your privacy, while completely integrated with the OS. So you've got both a great browser and a great system integration. OS X's the only platform when you can find this thing.

[herocero]

I've been using Chrome nightly builds for awhile and downloaded the official beta. It is definitely faster, Google will contribute a lot to webkit and make Safari better. The sandbox concept is innovative, especially when people have plenty of memory to make it not feel like a resource drag.

Safari is my prime browser for one reason: cookie management. Chrome has to be able to not accept third party/tracking cookies, or a lot of security freaks won't touch it and come up with a lot horror stories for the tech media to grab onto.

In the end, the competition is good, and all the linux geeks will be all over chrome when bloated FF is their only current browser choice.

[baryon]

That's because Chrome for Windows is amazing while Safari for Windows is almost as bad as iTunes for Windows. Safari on Mac is still better than anything on Windows...

[veloceraptor]

Chrome's gonna be successful on Windows because it's the only decent browser there IS for Windows (speed-wise, and Safari for Windows sucks).
Mac users still have got the best, Safari 4 is as fast and stable as Chrome BUT it doesn't rape your privacy, while completely integrated with the OS. So you've got both a great browser and a great system integration. OS X's the only platform when you can find this thing.

Exactly how is Chrome raping your privacy?

[ChazUK]

Didn't Steve Jobs say at WWDC 07 that he "dreams big.. and he would love Safari's market share to grow substantially"?

Yep!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46DHMaCbdxc

[Dicx]

I'd be all over Chrome if it didn't lack a Bookmark Manager. How on earth a "feature" as basic as that could be put off is beyond me. If you can't manage your bookmarks wtf is the point? Very stupid decision on Google's part.

That said, I can't stand Safari's bookmark system. I can handle the sidebar, but let me leave it open the whole time, don't close it when I choose a site. Or hey, give me a drop down menu.

Firefox does it for me.

There is a Bookmark Manager menu item when you right click the bookmark bar, just greyed out for beta I would assume.

Here is the link for the nightly builds:

http://build.chromium.org/buildbot/snapshots/

I have been using it solid for 2 weeks, getting the newest build so often. I like it, if it keeps the speed then bye Safari.

[Hattig]

I'd be all over Chrome if it didn't lack a Bookmark Manager. How on earth a "feature" as basic as that could be put off is beyond me. If you can't manage your bookmarks wtf is the point? Very stupid decision on Google's part.


Err, it's ctrl+shift+B, and is listed on the Tools menu.

Or was this left out of the Mac Beta?

[Michael CM1]

Consider me one who will NOT try it out. I like Google's search engine. I like Google Maps. But where is this company going to stop? Microsoft is a mere mom & pop when you compare the two companies trying to dominate all computing 10 years apart. At least Microsoft charged you money for most of the stuff it sold. Google just seems to invent something and then throw it at us for free.

I know where the money comes from for the search engine. It worries me that Google is just using that money to develop all of this other stuff in order to route us all back to that search engine from EVERYTHING we do.

[codo]

At this point, the usual 'oh - but flash is dreadful' apologists come in. Tough - Flash IS a massive massive part of the modern browsing experience, and it being a complete mess under OS X and Safari is why Safari has dropped to 4th.

I'm no Apple apologist, and whilst I agree Flash is really hideous on Mac OSX, the same applies across all browsers on the platform... Flash on OS X is a mess, and Apple can do zilch about it unfortunately. I'm not entirely sure it's relevant to the browser debate, per-say.

[baleensavage]

Hopefully some competition will get Safari to add some advanced features that browsers like Firefox have had for years. I've started using Chrome since the Beta came out and am really liking it. It's a really nice browser, despite some of the lacking features. Safari has always been low on the customization front and for that reason I rarely use it, despite the fact that it is faster than any other browser, Chrome included, on my Mac. I'm glad to ditch Firefox lately though because the recent versions have been so bug ridden and painfully slow. Unless they get their act together, I think Firefox is going to see the biggest hit from Chrome in the long run. Safari at least has the benefit of being a default browser on Macs like IE is on PCs so there will always be a built-in audience there.

[Cabbit]

4th is where it should be - behind Chrome, Firefox, and I'm afraid to say, IE. IE + Flash on Windows is great compared to Safari+Fash/ The moment you're browsing modern flash rich websites, Safari is a mess.

At this point, the usual 'oh - but flash is dreadful' apologists come in. Tough - Flash IS a massive massive part of the modern browsing experience, and it being a complete mess under OS X and Safari is why Safari has dropped to 4th.

Flash runs poorly on Chrome, Firefox, Shiira, Opera and Safari on Mac OS. Its the flash plug in that is buggered not the browser so your argument is rather flawed as there will be no difference between Flash on Safari and Flash on Chrome also they share the same rendering engine and execute Javascript about equally in speed therefor the argument of people switching to Chrome due to Safari's Flash performance is flawed.

[!¡ V ¡!]

Let the competitive games begin, cannot wait to see what :apple: has up its sleeves to crush IE and Chrome.

I use Safari on the Mac and Safari/Chrome on the PC due to speed and security and nothing more.

[Morky]

I would think that Apple is happy to have Webkit competition driving the uptake of its rendering engine and HTML5 compliance. Webkit marketshare is far more important to Apple than Safari marketshare, as Webkit-tested sites will run well on a Mac, and that is what matters. Until IE becomes fully standards compliant (anyone holding his breath?), the important marketshare fight is Gecko/Webkit vs IE.

[!¡ V ¡!]

Flash runs poorly on Chrome, Firefox, Shiira, Opera and Safari on Mac OS. Its the flash plug in that is buggered not the browser so your argument is rather flawed as there will be no difference between Flash on Safari and Flash on Chrome also they share the same rendering engine and execute Javascript about equally in speed therefor the argument of people switching to Chrome due to Safari's Flash performance is flawed.

So in closing, flash needs to be replaced with something better. :D

[!¡ V ¡!]

I would think that Apple is happy to have Webkit competition driving the uptake of its rendering engine and HTML5 compliance. Webkit marketshare is far more important to Apple than Safari marketshare, as Webkit-tested sites will run well on a Mac, and that is what matters. Until IE becomes fully standards compliant (anyone holding his breath?), the important marketshare fight is Gecko/Webkit vs IE.

True as your comments might be, the general public only sees it for the browsers they use, they do not care or understand what drives the browser and the web in general. :)

[*LTD*]

Chrome Drops Safari Into Fourth Place Among Browsers

Not on Macs, it doesn't.

As for Chrome's success on Windows . . . excellent. I support anything that eats away at IE's share.

[alent1234]

Exactly how is Chrome raping your privacy?

its probably sending everything to google

[Cabbit]

So in closing, flash needs to be replaced with something better. :D

WebGL, HTML5, CSS3, Even faster Javascript, further improvements to AJAX, and the wide support of the HTML5 h.264 video tag would do it.

The next decade will be interesting though i suspect Flash may go back to its routes as a animation program that outputs to the HTML5 video tag. If Flash is to stay then it will need to continue to evolve and start playing nice with the other technologies that build up the web including working with accessibility software.

[ChromeAce]

Market share?? What market share? There is no market. This software is all free. Who cares which browsers are used more?

[alent1234]

That's because Chrome for Windows is amazing while Safari for Windows is almost as bad as iTunes for Windows. Safari on Mac is still better than anything on Windows...


i've used all the browsers and my preference is FF, IE, Opera, Chrome and Safari

they all have similar memory footprints. i've used FF and Chrome with Google Wave and that's where Chrome is a bit faster. but google wave sucks donkey balls and i've had Chrome up to 500MB of RAM used in Wave

[Ammo]

Of course Chrome passed Safari.

Having recently converted to Mac, I know first hand just how horrible Safari is on Windows.

It's a night and day difference on a Mac, however.

Flash sucks on Windows too...it's amazing how much it heats up a laptop when running Youtube.

[*LTD*]

In terms of speed, WebKit nightlies are tops. And they are quite stable, too.

[Cabbit]

Market share?? What market share? There is no market. This software is all free. Who cares which browsers are used more?

I care for one, as does every Web designer and/or Developer as the less users of IE the less time we need to spend pulling hair out over that stupid browser.

[Morky]

Market share?? What market share? There is no market. This software is all free. Who cares which browsers are used more?

Because if developers have to make sure their sites run on Webkit and Gecko, then Microsoft can't set Internet standards by itself. Before Firefox, that was where we were.

[arkmannj]

I'm loving Chrome so far, though I am wishing it had a bit better bookmark management (at least on the mac) but other than that I use it quite a bit. I wish there was a PPC version for my wife's old Powerbook though.

I've said this before in other threads, but I actually use Safari, FF, Chrome and kinda bounce between them (and IE at work) like any other competing products, they all have their own unique strengths and weaknesses so I use each for different sets of tasks. Though I must admit Safari and Chrome on my Mac get the most usage, I might be dreaming but FF has gotten to feel kinda slow and bloated for many things.

[cumanzor]

Oh yeah? Show some fact that actually say Safari dropped to 4th because of Flash running poor on it.



It's very relevant, it's important that Apple get Safari as high on the browser ladder as possible. The world needs to drop I.E. It's frustrating that some companies still use I.E. with Active X controls activated to create their websites which virtually tells other browsers to "Get lost, you have no power here without Active X". This same experience is on the Windows side, forcing you to stop using FF, Safari or any other browser that's not I.E.

The thing is that Chrome and Firefox are already on working on that. And to a lesser extent Opera.

Honestly, Safari is great on Windows.... but the lack of simple addons (or features that Opera already has) is just a killer for me.

I went from IE to Firefox to Opera. Been using Opera for the last couple of years. Now switched to Chrome because it's faster than Opera, and well, addons.

[alent1234]

chrome is for the cloud, you're supposed to use delicious or google bookmarks or google reader

[cmaier]

When I'm using my Dell PC at work, I use Google Chrome rather than Safari. Safari for Windows (at least XP) freezes way too much to be very usable.

When I'm on my Macs at home, I use Safari. I have been trying out Google Chrome on my Mac and I like it, but it doesn't seem too different from Safari (speed wise).

In the end, I think that Google Chrome will do better on PCs than on Macs.

As soon as chrome supports extensions, bye bye Safari-on-mac for me.

[philosopherdog]

It also tanks your processor at least on my unibody 13 inch. I'm sure it will be a great browser in time, which is a good thing.

[maxfan1]

What's up with Google trying to copy Apple in everything they do?

OS, Phone, Browser

It's like all they can do is copy copy copy. They're worse than Microsoft.

What about some innovation Google? Stop milking your cash cow search just so you can expand into other markets.

You can learn a thing or two from Apple.

[zapblast]

IMO, this is deserved. I like Safari but it's annoying that some things don't render properly when a page is zoomed (I zoom pages a lot due to my weak eyes). The Mac beta of Chrome is not afflicted by these problems. If Chrome were able to access the Mac dictionary from the right click menu, I'd switch to Chrome. For now though, I'm still switching back and forth between the two. Though I may end up making my move to Chrome permanent.

[ski1ski1]

Safari is my prime browser for one reason: cookie management. Chrome has to be able to not accept third party/tracking cookies, or a lot of security freaks won't touch it and come up with a lot horror stories for the tech media to grab onto.

Chrome has the option to not accept third party cookies. That option is on the 'Under the Hood' settings.

[ChazUK]

What's up with Google trying to copy Apple in everything they do?

OS, Phone, Browser

It's like all they can do is copy copy copy. They're worse than Microsoft.

What about some innovation Google? Stop milking your cash cow search just so you can expand into other markets.

You can learn a thing or two from Apple.

Did Apple invent the Operating System, phones and Web Browsers? :eek:

You learn something new every day! ;)

[RazHyena]

Apple needs to give Safari a serious make-over. Especially in it's bookmark management feature. And let's give some real attention to the Flash issues on OSX.

STILL...I prefer Safari and how it's intertwined with the OSX ecosystem.. I'm not fine with Google's data mining practices.

Also: Safari dropped to fourth place....ON PC'S. Not Macs.

[bozzykid]

chrome is for the cloud, you're supposed to use delicious or google bookmarks or google reader

No your not. Maybe you are confusing the Chrome browser with the Chrome OS which does a lot of things in the cloud. The browser has a fully functioning bookmark manager but it isn't enabled in the betas for the Mac yet. It will have it enabled before the stable release early next year.

[exFictitiouZ]

Despite its lack of some essential features, I've to admit that Chrome for Mac is a very impressive browser because of its speed and its simplicity.

Like Safari, it also features Speed Dial that I love. Added with several beachballs I've been getting from Safari lately, I hardly use Safari anymore since Chrome promotion to beta status.

[ski1ski1]

Also: Safari dropped to fourth place....ON PC'S. Not Macs.

Wrong! Safari dropped to fourth place for all OS's as a whole. Of course the browser marketshare on each individual OS will be different. Net Applications marketshare data included Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

[mdriftmeyer]

I am not surprised. Safari on windows is a pile of crap. Apple yet again filed to conform to the standards on windows in how everything how everything is laid out and tried to force its way on people. Apple really needs to learn that when it makes software for windows it needs to conform to windows standard menu and interface layout that everyone else uses for windows.

The masses do not like changed. Chrome on windows with the little I played with it conforms but I still will back to my Firefox because that is what I have become used to. Nothing has come out that offers me enough better stuff to get me to changed.

Safira may be better than IE but it is not that much better that people are willing to change. The other browsers are and the popularity of them is bleeding over to apple and stealing more market share there.

Thanks for the astute analysis of nothing.

[edoates]

When I'm using my Dell PC at work, I use Google Chrome rather than Safari. Safari for Windows (at least XP) freezes way too much to be very usable.

When I'm on my Macs at home, I use Safari. I have been trying out Google Chrome on my Mac and I like it, but it doesn't seem too different from Safari (speed wise).

In the end, I think that Google Chrome will do better on PCs than on Macs.

Safari will continue to sink in the ratings until Apple decides to fix actual reported problems: like the blank pages display on Earthlink's start page (other sites, too) that has been reported and discussed to death on Apple discussion site since Safari 4.0. The same page works fine on Firefox et al.

Apple: wake up...quality is job one. Cuteness is fine, but it has work.

[*LTD*]

Of course the browser marketshare on each individual OS will be different.

I think that's what he meant originally.

[kresh]

Every single person in the world could log in here and ooze on and on about "Google" this or "Google" that but I would not touch it.

The tipping point for me was Eric Schmidt's comments on privacy. Google has been removed from my life. This past weekend my extended family got together at my mom's house and I helped them removed anything Google and set all searches to ixquick.com.

I can't get over everyone ripping on Microsoft and then standing in line to take it from Google.

[theNEOone]

Not surprised. Downloaded Chrome the day the beta became available and have been using it instead of Safari ever since. Much faster and more stable (oddly enough). That's not to say that Safari ever crashed it me - it was just an issue of beach balls stalling my browsing. I can live without the added features for now. I was mainly concerned with the 3-finger gestures for navigating back and forth, which thankfully have been included.


=|

[BornAgainMac]

Quicktime, iTunes, and Safari don't run as well in Windows. It isn't Windows because it other applications fine. Apple made them as bad as Microsoft did with the Mac version of Office.

[rhett7660]

Been using Chrome for a few days now. I really like it. The only grip/issue I have is, I wish I could have my bookmarks go down the side like they do in FF. Other then that.

I never really used Safari. I have pretty much been on FF since day one of owning a Mac. So now I am splitting my time between FF and Chrome.

[bobr1952]

4th is where it should be - behind Chrome, Firefox, and I'm afraid to say, IE. IE + Flash on Windows is great compared to Safari+Fash/ The moment you're browsing modern flash rich websites, Safari is a mess.

At this point, the usual 'oh - but flash is dreadful' apologists come in. Tough - Flash IS a massive massive part of the modern browsing experience, and it being a complete mess under OS X and Safari is why Safari has dropped to 4th.

I would agree with that too but maybe for somewhat different reasons. Many of us with Macs use Safari--I personally like it better than Firefox and I've not tried Chrome yet. But when you factor in Windows, it is no surprise that Safari would drop down to fourth.

[lkrupp]

I only care about one thing as far as this debate is concerned. The IE hegemony is on its way out because of Chrome, Safari, Firefox. The number of web sites that are "optimized" for IE, meaning they work only with IE, are in sharp decline as developers can no longer ignore the other browsers out there.

As for the troll baiting, the personal opinions spewed out as fact, the obligatory Apple/Safari bashing, who the hell gives a damn?:confused:

[aucl]

And what's so compelling about the Chrome Browser over others?

the thing that comes into my mind is the Multi process, multi thread approach, so tabs are better separated.
and that's the only reason i will give it a try.
Another thing i start to miss in Safari 4 was the tabs on the top, but ok, it was never a stable feature.

[IntelliUser]

It isn't Windows because it other applications fine.

No, Windows does NOT run other applications fine. Nevertheless, Apple's app suck more than the norm on Windows.

[maxfan1]

Are fanboys this blind?

If you can't see the obvious, then your the blind one around here. Do you really think if they didn't have a monopoly in search they would be able to push Chrome this quickly?

They're leveraging a monopoly in one sector to get a monopoly in another just like MS. I am suprised they haven't been hit with anti trust suit yet.

[Stridder44]

Good news to keep competition high I suppose, but I'd like to see these figures again in a month. Wouldn't surprise me if the surge was just people trying out Chrome, only to switch back to Safari or Firefox (or perhaps just stay with Chrome).

[*LTD*]

Every single person in the world could log in here and ooze on and on about "Google" this or "Google" that but I would not touch it.

The tipping point for me was Eric Schmidt's comments on privacy. Google has been removed from my life. This past weekend my extended family got together at my mom's house and I helped them removed anything Google and set all searches to ixquick.com.

I can't get over everyone ripping on Microsoft and then standing in line to take it from Google.

So Google records my IP address?

Really, once and for all I'd like to know . . . what is the REAL risk to privacy when it comes to Google? Perhaps I'm woefully ignorant about this issue as it relates to Google, but how bad could it be? What nefarious purposes are my searches and IP addy being used for? Am I being tracked for something other than custom-tailored ads thrown at me now and then (which I have noticed) or customized search results? Or is THAT the heart of the problem?

Will an employer in the future have access to my search records? Do current emplyer have any special rights in this area? How do state/provincial privacy acts play into this? Do governments use my search records? Do they have a right to without just cause? Morevoer, what would just cause be?

Again, forgive my ignorance, but Google is pervasive and is used by everyone. If there was a real threat, would not official action have been taken already at perhaps the Federal level?

What am I missing here? "Privacy" seems to be a very nebulous and broad term. What does and doesn't consitute privacy violations seems rather imprecise these days.

I'm looking for some education here, people. ;)

[ChazUK]

If you can't see the obvious, then your the blind one around here. Do you really think if they didn't have a monopoly in search they would be able to push Chrome this quickly?

They're leveraging a monopoly in one sector to get a monopoly in another just like MS. I am suprised they haven't been hit with anti trust suit yet.

WTF? Google have no monopoly in "OS, Phone, Browser".
Where is this fabricated monopoly? :confused:

BTW, where do you get this notion that Google are copying Apple with their entries into the "OS, Phone, Browser" markets? It's not as if Apple were the first ever company with an operating system, smartphone OS or web browser.

[slffl]

What's the point of this. OSX also has low marketshare yet is the best OS. Are you telling me that IE is the best browser because it has most of the marketshare.

This is just fodder for anti-apple zealots on a slow news day.

[stylewriter]

Everyone does different stuff in a browser, but the two biggest features that are missing from Chrome that Safari has are

Awesome PDF integration. I used to have PDF plugins, but Safari's is really well done.
Good rich-text copy/paste. In Safari I can copy/paste tables from websites directly into numbers with no fuss.

[*LTD*]

4th is where it should be - behind Chrome, Firefox, and I'm afraid to say, IE. IE + Flash on Windows is great compared to Safari+Fash/ The moment you're browsing modern flash rich websites, Safari is a mess.

At this point, the usual 'oh - but flash is dreadful' apologists come in. Tough - Flash IS a massive massive part of the modern browsing experience, and it being a complete mess under OS X and Safari is why Safari has dropped to 4th.

Actually Safari isn't that bad with Flash, at least not with YouTube videos. On certain occasions the fan kicks up, but even then it doesn't really affect watchability or usability. Is it that it's using up a lot of system resources?

I currently see no reason to stop using Safari. It doesn't crash or grind to a halt when playing Flash content, I can still do other things reasonably smoothly at the same time, Safari is the fastest browser on OS X (even faster than Chrome), it has good copy-paste functionality, good pdf integration, sports an elegant look, runs on WebKit, and is 100% Acid3 compliant, is HTML5 capable (i think), and is under regular development. And Safari is absolutely wonderful with GlimmerBlocker, for instance.

[maxfan1]

WTF? Google have no monopoly in "OS, Phone, Browser".
Where is this fabricated monopoly? :confused:

BTW, where do you get this notion that Google are copying Apple with their entries into the "OS, Phone, Browser" markets? It's not as if Apple were the first ever company with an operating system, smartphone OS or web browser.

You must be pretty stupid to deny they don't have a monopoly on search engine or online video streaming. They've been pushing chrome on google and youtube pretty hard. That should be illegal.

And of course they're copying Apple to get into the OS, smartphone and browser sector. They're seeing how much money Apple is making and are jealous. They're also Afraid because Apple will dominate Google in the future.

[ChazUK]

You must be pretty stupid to deny they don't have a monopoly on search engine or online video streaming. They've been pushing chrome on google and youtube pretty hard. That should be illegal.

And of course they're copying Apple to get into the OS, smartphone and browser sector. They're seeing how much money Apple is making and are jealous. They're also Afraid because Apple will dominate Google in the future.

you said:

They're leveraging a monopoly in one sector to get a monopoly in another just like MS. I am suprised they haven't been hit with anti trust suit yet.

What proof do you have that Google are intent in creating a monopoly in these other sectors?

With Google being an internet based company isn't it only logical they move into sectors that interact with their own services?
What do you suggest they develop? Microwave ovens?

[aucl]

I know where the money comes from for the search engine. It worries me that Google is just using that money to develop all of this other stuff in order to route us all back to that search engine from EVERYTHING we do.

did you hear about that already:
Google actually puts a lot of money into brain research and related spheres, ... it says years from now, they wanna be able to redirect your brain to googles search result each time a person does not remember something by himself. And also that the chip that they wanna put into our head for that would also be possible to make us think of various products/services/companies; it will bring the Google Ad business to a whole new level.

[kresh]

So Google records my IP address?

Really, once and for all I'd like to know . . . what is the REAL risk to privacy when it comes to Google? Perhaps I'm woefully ignorant about this issue as it relates to Google, but how bad could it be? What nefarious purposes are my searches and IP addy being used for? Am I being tracked for something other than custom-tailored ads thrown at me now and then (which I have noticed) or customized search results? Or is THAT the heart of the problem?

Will an employer in the future have access to my search records? Do current emplyer have any special rights in this area? How do state/provincial privacy acts play into this? Do governments use my search records? Do they have a right to without just cause? Morevoer, what would just cause be?

Again, forgive my ignorance, but Google is pervasive and is used by everyone. If there was a real threat, would not official action have been taken already at perhaps the Federal level?

What am I missing here? "Privacy" seems to be a very nebulous and broad term. What does and doesn't consitute privacy violations seems rather imprecise these days.

I'm looking for some education here, people. ;)

http://www.thegeekprofessor.com/privacy/nothing-to-hide/

http://www.wikileaks.org/wiki/Internet_Anonymity:_Why_It_Really_Does_Matter

If one monolithic organisation knowing everything about you and tracking your every move on-line does not bother you, then nothing anyone could say would change your mind.

Why does Google need anyone's real life info from GMail or Google Docs account linked with everything from Google Search plus Google Analytics and now add to that every site one visit's with Google DNS? If there is nothing wrong with it, then what is right with it?

[maxfan1]

you said:



What proof do you have that Google are intent in creating a monopoly in these other sectors?

Because Google is a business? Look at how ruthlessly they dominate the online search sector.

[jonnysods]

Chrome is pretty sweet on the Mac. It has a little ways to go, but it's much faster for me than Safari. I get a lot of beachballing right across my machine lineup.

[AidenShaw]

Interesting.

According to Net Apps Mac OS market share has dropped from 5.27% to 5.12% and Windows 7 is already up to 4%.

Mind you, these stats are questionable at the best of times I suppose.

On the daily stats, Win7 has hit above 6% share.

To see the daily stats, go to http://marketshare.hitslink.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=8, then in the left nav pane open "Featured Reports" and the "Win7 hits 5%" article. The new page shows the latest stats. (Normally, you need a subscription to see daily stats.)

[fox10078]

Googles not forcing you to use their search engine only with their browser and both are free, + there are many alternatives. So comparing them to MS And IE is quite foolish

[maxfan1]

Googles not forcing you to use their search engine only with their browser and both are free, + there are many alternatives. So comparing them to MS And IE is quite foolish

google is the default search engine for chrome. of course most people wouldn't know better and will just stick to the default like how many people in windows stick with IE.

At least they could have given us a choice of search engines when it starts up first time. But of course Google and it's monopolistic behaviour means we don't get that stuff.

[nagromme]

Wow, impressive.

As long as WebKit keeps thriving, I as a Web developer am happy :)

[mattster16]

I use Safari almost exclusively on Mac and on Windows at work. (Occasional Firefox and IE :eek: use.) I tried using Chrome on Windows and I didn't like it - I thought it was kind of ugly looking like a cartoon little kid browser. Just started using Chrome beta on my mac though and I have to say I really like it a lot!

I am a little surprised Safari has been eclipsed by Chrome already though.

[fox10078]

google is the default search engine for chrome. of course most people wouldn't know better and will just stick to the default like how many people in windows stick with IE.

At least they could have given us a choice of search engines when it starts up first time. But of course Google and it's monopolistic behaviour means we don't get that stuff.

Yeah but MS wouldn't let OEMs install anything BUT IE. Shouldn't apple get in trouble for making apple.com safaris default aswell?

[maxfan1]

Yeah but MS wouldn't let OEMs install anything BUT IE.

MS is bad but in EU they're allowing OEMS to decide and retail users will get a ballot box for browsers when it first starts up.

Google is so much worse. They like to control everything. They want all your data and give you no options.

[*LTD*]

On the daily stats, Win7 has hit above 6% share.

To see the daily stats, go to http://marketshare.hitslink.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=8, then in the left nav pane open "Featured Reports" and the "Win7 hits 5%" article. The new page shows the latest stats. (Normally, you need a subscription to see daily stats.)

Now, on the same webpage, click the backward arrow beside "timeframe", and keep clicking back into 2008.

It really puts things into perspective.

(This is more of a response to Bongo, actually . . .)

I do agree, however, that Windows 7 seems to be helping MS here.

[ChazUK]

google is the default search engine for chrome. of course most people wouldn't know better and will just stick to the default like how many people in windows stick with IE.

At least they could have given us a choice of search engines when it starts up first time. But of course Google and it's monopolistic behaviour means we don't get that stuff.

CRAZY LOGIC! :eek:

"Most people wouldn't know better and will just stick to the default"

In that case, wouldn't these people you care for so valiantly stick with Safari for Mac and IE in windows and wouldn't even bother installing Chrome, amirite?

I can't believe you are honestly saying that these same lazy/uneducated people who stick to the default would go through the hassle of installing the Chrome browser or even changing their whole OS to chrome OS to create this huge monopoly you have envisioned.

[ArrowSmith]

If you can't see the obvious, then your the blind one around here. Do you really think if they didn't have a monopoly in search they would be able to push Chrome this quickly?

They're leveraging a monopoly in one sector to get a monopoly in another just like MS. I am suprised they haven't been hit with anti trust suit yet.

Google has a monopoly in search because it's the most kick-ass search algorithm out there. Sergey Brin is a genius and you have to give him mad props.

[mustang_dvs]

It lets you open up a new google-search tab from selected text.

So does Safari.

(If you hold down the ⌘ key while you right click and select 'Search with Google' in the contextual menu.)

[OllyW]

google is the default search engine for chrome. of course most people wouldn't know better and will just stick to the default like how many people in windows stick with IE.

At least they could have given us a choice of search engines when it starts up first time. But of course Google and it's monopolistic behaviour means we don't get that stuff.

Google is also the default search engine for Safari and I've never seen a choice of search engines offered when it's installed. :confused:

[objc]

The world needs to drop I.E. It's frustrating that some companies still use I.E. with Active X controls activated to create their websites which virtually tells other browsers to "Get lost, you have no power here without Active X". This same experience is on the Windows side, forcing you to stop using FF, Safari or any other browser that's not I.E.

Die IE DIE!!!! My solution is that if it's a company selling something, I'm not buying if I have to go to IE.

[ski1ski1]

the thing that comes into my mind is the Multi process, multi thread approach, so tabs are better separated.
and that's the only reason i will give it a try.
Another thing i start to miss in Safari 4 was the tabs on the top, but ok, it was never a stable feature.

I like the Chrome built-in feature of reopening a closed tab. To me, this is a big feature Safari lacks. Of course Safari can reopen a closed window. But to me that is not nearly as useful as reopening a closed tab.

[*LTD*]

On the daily stats, Win7 has hit above 6% share.

To see the daily stats, go to http://marketshare.hitslink.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=8, then in the left nav pane open "Featured Reports" and the "Win7 hits 5%" article. The new page shows the latest stats. (Normally, you need a subscription to see daily stats.)

Actually, if you look at October and November, you'll see a drop in OS X share in November, but Linux making the actual gain in November, with Windows at the same position in November as October.

Well, if I'm reading the chart correctly . . .

Then again, the OS version charts show more detail.

October

http://marketshare.hitslink.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10&qpmr=24&qpdt=1&qpct=3&qptimeframe=M&qpsp=129

November

http://marketshare.hitslink.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10&qpmr=24&qpdt=1&qpct=3&qptimeframe=M&qpsp=130

[objc]

At this point, the usual 'oh - but flash is dreadful' apologists come in. Tough - Flash IS a massive massive part of the modern browsing experience, and it being a complete mess under OS X and Safari is why Safari has dropped to 4th.

Flash is a proprietary steaming pile of crap, any way you cut it. With good Javascript and HTML5 video, there's little reason for flash to stay around. The only good thing about Flash is that it's not from Microsoft, and therefore, at least in theory, it's not designed to tie the web to Windoze. But with its abysmal performance on everything except Windows, I might think it was if I didn't know differently.

[knewsom]

In fact, I use it as my primary browser. It's that good. Safari is ok, but I find more sites just don't seem to work right with it. I've NEVER had a website not work in Chrome. Chrome is also fast fast fast, and lightweight.

I'm not a google fanboy, or ANY fanboy at all for that matter. The only thing I'm thrilled about is software and hardware that meets/exceeds my needs and is innovative enough to pucker my lips and raise my eyebrows in that "ooh!" moment. Chrome is just a better browser than anything else out there right now.

There are two things about the Mac version that bug me a bit though - too much room atop the tabs, between them and the top of the window - wasted space bugs me. Also, no "clear" theme like the default in Windows, though I suspect that has more to do with the OS.

[CmdrLaForge]

I would like to know - if Chrome gained so much share - who did loose ?

[Dwalls90]

Safari has always been the first choice for a browser on OS X based on performance .. but Chrome is really shaking things up as it is just on par, maybe just slightly slower and unstable if anything. It's next revision will be completely competitive with Safari on OS X. As for on Windows, I will never use Safari .. Chrome, Firefox are faster than Safari by a good amount.

I don't really mind this though, I'm sure Safari 5.0 will bring more improvements and remain even more competitive with Chrome. Plus, Apple has so many applications and specialty areas where Google has no competitor. If anything, we know that competition is good.

[ArrowSmith]

I would think Chrome is gaining at the expense of all browsers. I know I love the speed and elegance of the UI. IE has a clunky look(even 8.0), and Firefox is a bloated pig(no separate processes for individual tabs yet?). Chrome is the most innovative browser on the market now.

[generationxwing]

Err, it's ctrl+shift+B, and is listed on the Tools menu.

Or was this left out of the Mac Beta?

It was. It was put off for a future beta so they could get the first one out.

[sishaw]

It's fast. It's 'snappy'. It lets you open up a new google-search tab from selected text. It'll default to Google UK if you want. It doesn't vomit each time a website has flash.

Functionally and practically, it's far far superior to Safari.

On my new iMac, 2009 model, Safari is just as fast or faster. On the Windows side, however, I prefer Chrome.

[mdriftmeyer]

Google has a monopoly in search because it's the most kick-ass search algorithm out there. Sergey Brin is a genius and you have to give him mad props.

No it's not.

Hell, Cuil.com is far superior in pure search. Not surprising as the founders of it were the main force behind Google Search.

Their advertising contracts with 3rd parties is what drove them to become the MSFT of Search.

[DougB541]

There are some funny comments in this thread thats for sure.


I'm not a huge chrome fan...but firefox/opera are my fav ones. IE i use for flash videos if they are running HD.

[DougB541]

No it's not.

Hell, Cuil.com is far superior in pure search. Not surprising as the founders of it were the main force behind Google Search.

Their advertising contracts with 3rd parties is what drove them to become the MSFT of Search.

lol
Cuil has received widely critical press coverage.[17][18][19] Concerns were expressed about the website's slow response times, irrelevant or wrong search results[20][21][22] and in at least one case, inappropriately pornographic images displayed alongside search results.[23] Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Watch questioned the validity of Cuil's claim that it had the world's largest search engine index and criticized it for focusing on size rather than relevance.[24] Despite reported problems with search results, Net Applications reported that for the last three days of July 2008, Cuil beat Google and Yahoo in the amount of time spent on a site after referral from a search engine, a key metric for relevancy of search results.[25]
According to an interview with a Cuil representative, while other Web 2.0 launches using massively parallel processing might fail with a slow down or crash,[17] Cuil's architecture was responding with incomplete, "less-than-relevant results that then appear at the top of users' pages."[20][22] Cuil's VP of communications Vince Sollitto said the search engine was experiencing heavy first-day overloads and they were "busy putting out fires." Sollitto said Cuil "will only improve with time. It's day one. Traffic is massive. We're new. There are bugs to fix, results to improve."[17]
After the initial critical press coverage Cuil was alleged to have caused issues for some websites, owing to how the Cuil indexing robot polled certain sites. Website owners were reportedly saying the method was not "scientific in any way" and "actually quite 'amateurish.'"[26] Others reported irrelevant images associated with their listing in Cuil's search results.[27][28]

[adztaylor]

If you can't see the obvious, then your the blind one around here. Do you really think if they didn't have a monopoly in search they would be able to push Chrome this quickly?

They're leveraging a monopoly in one sector to get a monopoly in another just like MS. I am suprised they haven't been hit with anti trust suit yet.

They're not forcing people to download Chrome, people have a choice. Has it not crossed your little mind that Chrome is just that good?

[seashellz]

Interesting.

According to Net Apps Mac OS market share has dropped from 5.27% to 5.12% and Windows 7 is already up to 4%.

Mind you, these stats are questionable at the best of times I suppose.
I suspect the opposite is true
sales of PCs are in the toilet and that is where you find 90% of W7
and because of the long from over 'recession' many people will make do with 2005-2007 model PCs and XP;
Their dreamed-of mass upgrade cycle aint gonna happen;
again XP or Vista are more than good 'enuff' for most people in these days of 20% REAL unemployment (U6 + self employed who are under the BLS radar)
Windows is an antiquated OS at its EOL cycle-something BG hopes nobody notices as he re-sells XP over and over again; W7 is nothing more than XP v.3-gussied up with lotsa purty colors and Mac Rip offs

[SleepyHead157]

I've definitely noticed a speed difference on Chrome for Mac. Not to mention, ever since the Safari 4 update, whenever I open a tab, it slows down the browser and takes a few seconds before the tab opens. With Chrome for Mac, it's been super quick and prefer it over Firefox and Safari. It's been my default browser since I downloaded it. I used it as my primary browser back when it came out for PC as well. Can't wait till the add-ons for Chrome come for Mac, then there'll be no reason to use Firefox.

[AidenShaw]

Die IE DIE!!!! My solution is that if it's a company selling something, I'm not buying if I have to go to IE.

I feel the same about Flash - if I have to enable Flash to view a website most of the time I'll find an alternate supplier.

[IntelliUser]

No it's not.

Hell, Cuil.com is far superior in pure search. Not surprising as the founders of it were the main force behind Google Search.

Their advertising contracts with 3rd parties is what drove them to become the MSFT of Search.

Google is the best search engine. Period.

[aucl]

If you can't see the obvious, then your the blind one around here. Do you really think if they didn't have a monopoly in search they would be able to push Chrome this quickly?

They're leveraging a monopoly in one sector to get a monopoly in another just like MS. I am suprised they haven't been hit with anti trust suit yet.

yea, and it sucks that there is Search engine integration in OS x quite exclusively for google,

[dewalt]

yea, and it sucks that there is Search engine integration in OS x quite exclusively for google,

Well, if Apple did it, it's ok

[Minimoose 360]

Who cares. :)

[kirky29]

It'll take a lot for Chrome to replace Safari on my Mac. Safari is *perfect* for me in almost all ways.
Safari on Snow Leopard runs beautifully with Flash now, it's super speedy, looks beautifully designed and is just a perfect definition of Apple.

Although, Safari on a PC = No.

My views anyway!

[aucl]

Will an employer in the future have access to my search records? Do current emplyer have any special rights in this area? How do state/provincial privacy acts play into this? Do governments use my search records? Do they have a right to without just cause? Morevoer, what would just cause be?

Again, forgive my ignorance, but Google is pervasive and is used by everyone. If there was a real threat, would not official action have been taken already at perhaps the Federal level?


I am quite sure that if government agencies wanna they have access to that data, and maybe cause of that they keep still, ... but who knows probably i am just afraid of my BigBrother :eek:

[archurban]

safari maybe stable, faster when you use it at home with faster speed internet. but in my experience, there are lots of different situations when I take a trip. safari is slower (it's not like boom, boom). it even takes more time than firefox to load entire site. comparing to all internet browsers, chrome is a king of all. it's faster no matter what I have situation. it's literally showing site within second. when you go to Apple store, try to use safari. it's slower as hell. try to use chrome or firefox after downloading. it's really faster. I think safari doesn't make me impressed at all. yeah, it's simple. but I love my chrome more.

[aucl]

Well, if Apple did it, it's ok

Actually i do not care if it is M$, Google or Apple doing such things.
I wish there would be at least 3 "defaults" that can be set to change the search behavior.

Search engine name
Search URL
Search suggestion URL


The shocking thing is that these things are totally hardcoded into Safari and OSX :mad:

May the EU or anyone else give us a little bit more freedom by antitrust rulings

[archer75]

I hate safari in windows. HATE. And I use chrome now and love it.

However in OSX safari is quite nice after I get it tweaked the way I want.

[iVoid]

I'm surprised that that many people want to give their marketing data to Google that much. OS or browser provided by an advertising company? No thanks.

[aucl]

I'm surprised that that many people want to give their marketing data to Google that much. OS or browser provided by an advertising company? No thanks.

fully agree, and i think you missed the Search Engine

[combat]

All I can say is, it'll be a while until I take Safari off my dock. But when it came out, Chrome got a spot right next to it. I certainly hope Apple continues to improve Safari on OSX, the ability of it being native and 64 bit etc. should give it an advantage in the future hopefully. But I definitely like the customization and looks of Chrome.

[ArrowSmith]

Give it 12 months and Chrome will have 10% marketshare for Mac browsers. 50% in 3 years.

[FanboyE]

Im using chrome as my main browser on my mac, safari kept locking up on me and I had to force quit it pretty much every day.:mad:

[MacDaddy901]

Nothing compares to the functionality of Safari though. All other browsers seem 3-4 years behind Safari's UI. The only way to get me to switch is if they radically updated the UI or a definite speed advantage. I'm just not that impressed with Chrome so far.


And the fact the it has passed up Safari doesn't surprise me in the least. The advertisement are VERY prominent on Google and Youtube. And with so many Windows users that are frustrated with IE, the advertisements speak directly to them. Smart move on Google's part.

[*LTD*]

Im using chrome as my main browser on my mac, safari kept locking up on me and I had to force quit it pretty much every day.:mad:

That's definitely out of the ordinary. Did you try to find out why?

[ArrowSmith]

That's definitely out of the ordinary. Did you try to find out why?

Why do you choose to ignore data points that makes Safari look bad? This is why it's never good to just blindly follow one company.

[cocky jeremy]

On Windows, i use Chrome.. but i don't use Windows anymore. Luckily. On OS X, it's nothing but Safari for me. Nothing else touches Safari. Especially with Glims and ClickToFlash. Unless Chrome becomes faster than Safari, has some useful plugins AND 1Password adds support for it, i'll never switch from Safari. I see ZERO use for Chrome on OS X. IE sucks. Always has. And Firefox is becoming the new IE. Bloated and useless. I also like Camino and Cruz better than Chrome on OS X.

[Kristenn]

Oh well.
If Apple wants to reclaim it they need to make Safari competitive on Windows.

I adore Safari on my Mac, but I've never suggested it to any of my Windows-using friends. It just doesn't seem to be as great on that side of the fence.


Same for me. Safari on Windows is slower than IE imho. Which is pretty sad... then again. iTunes is faster on Mac than on Windows too.

Like how in my experience Office is slower on Mac than on Windows.

But I guess it all makes sense.

I might have to try Google Chrome. Just to see what it's like.

[jmj]

Until Chrome develops a plugin similar to ClickToFlash, I won't be using it over Safari. That's just something I can't live w/o at this point. Saves battery life and plus you don't have to watch YouTube videos in dreadful flash.

I use Chrome on Windows on occasion. The print function is my biggest gripe. There's no print preview or a shrink to fit option - and it often screws up the margins and goes all out of kilter. That's why I will continue using Firefox on Windows. Granted, Webkit runs circles around Firefox's crap rendering engine, but still...

[*LTD*]

Why do you choose to ignore data points that makes Safari look bad? This is why it's never good to just blindly follow one company.

If Safari keeps locking up on someone, that's definitely out of the ordinary. I'd be interested to know why. What are you talking about?

[ChazUK]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 1.5; en-gb; HTC Hero Build/CUPCAKE) AppleWebKit/528.5+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.2 Mobile Safari/525.20.1)

Until Chrome develops a plugin similar to ClickToFlash, I won't be using it over Safari. That's just something I can't live w/o at this point. Saves battery life and plus you don't have to watch YouTube videos in dreadful flash.

I use Chrome on Windows on occasion. The print function is my biggest gripe. There's no print preview or a shrink to fit option - and it often screws up the margins and goes all out of kilter. That's why I will continue using Firefox on Windows. Granted, Webkit runs circles around Firefox's crap rendering engine, but still...

This may help you:
FlashBlock
FlashBlock for Chrome. Block them all, or be selective with the embedded whitelist manager

https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/gofhjkjmkpinhpoiabjplobcaignabnl

To use this on mac OS you'll need to use a developer build but the Windows version would be fine. I can't wait for native extension support on the official release

[cumanzor]

So Google records my IP address?
Again, forgive my ignorance, but Google is pervasive and is used by everyone. If there was a real threat, would not official action have been taken already at perhaps the Federal level?

I completely agree with LTD here. There is a ridiculous fear and paranoia when comes to Google. The same deal with cloud services. People are worried about things they shouldn't be worries about. People complain about a lack of privacy... well I don't see google releasing your personal information to any bidder out there. They sell information that cannot be traced back to you, so please, to everyone that worries about silly things like this, get off your high horse, you are not that important.

[idsoftware]

Well In my personal experience and opinion,

Ive been using Firefox, Safari and Now Chrome latest versions.

What I can tell is the following.

Faster Browser
Safari

Faster but slower than safari
Firefox (Firefox is better in terms of extensible and plugins /add ons etc.


Chrome, its fast almost as safari, but its new to the contenders, however 1 thing I really like is the seamless integration with the Mac Style but I wont be using it as my primary browser yet.

One thing I thing apple needs to address is FLASH Player on Safari. like somebody else said it doent work properly at all.


Thanks All.
:cool:
ID

[*LTD*]

Well In my personal experience and opinion,

Ive been using Firefox, Safari and Now Chrome latest versions.

What I can tell is the following.

Faster Browser
Safari

Faster but slower than safari
Firefox (Firefox is better in terms of extensible and plugins /add ons etc.


Chrome, its fast almost as safari, but its new to the contenders, however 1 thing I really like is the seamless integration with the Mac Style but I wont be using it as my primary browser yet.

One thing I thing apple needs to address is FLASH Player on Safari. like somebody else said it doent work properly at all.


Thanks All.
:cool:
ID

I don't quite get that "review." Firefox is "faster but slower than Safari", and Chrome is "almost as fast as Safari"??

[jmj]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 1.5; en-gb; HTC Hero Build/CUPCAKE) AppleWebKit/528.5+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.2 Mobile Safari/525.20.1)



This may help you:
FlashBlock
FlashBlock for Chrome. Block them all, or be selective with the embedded whitelist manager

https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/gofhjkjmkpinhpoiabjplobcaignabnl

To use this on mac OS you'll need to use a developer build but the Windows version would be fine. I can't wait for native extension support on the official release

With ClickToFlash you can play YouTube videos in QuickTime. Firefox (and Camino) flash blocker works well, but it doesn't have the QuickTime feature. I think the buttons and favicons in Chrome on OSX are a bit clunky.

[lkrupp]

Quicktime, iTunes, and Safari don't run as well in Windows. It isn't Windows because it other applications fine. Apple made them as bad as Microsoft did with the Mac version of Office.

Every single one of the Windows users in my office uses iTunes on their PC at home. ALL of them. They use it because they like it. ALL of them. They tell me so. Apple has absolutely no rational motivation to make their applications "as bad as Microsoft did the Mac version of Office." Apple produces Windows versions of their software in order to lure Windows users into the possibility of considering a Mac and to make money.

Quicktime, iTunes, and Safari run quite sufficiently in Windows. You are simply wrong.

[ChazUK]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 1.5; en-gb; HTC Hero Build/CUPCAKE) AppleWebKit/528.5+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.2 Mobile Safari/525.20.1)

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 1.5; en-gb; HTC Hero Build/CUPCAKE) AppleWebKit/528.5+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.2 Mobile Safari/525.20.1)



This may help you:
FlashBlock
FlashBlock for Chrome. Block them all, or be selective with the embedded whitelist manager

https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/gofhjkjmkpinhpoiabjplobcaignabnl

To use this on mac OS you'll need to use a developer build but the Windows version would be fine. I can't wait for native extension support on the official release

With ClickToFlash you can play YouTube videos in QuickTime. Firefox (and Camino) flash blocker works well, but it doesn't have the QuickTime feature. I think the buttons and favicons in Chrome on OSX are a bit clunky.

I think there is a YouTube html5 extension to force YouTube to use html 5 (YouTube HTML5-ifier).

[albusseverus]

I'm surprised that that many people want to give their marketing data to Google that much. OS or browser provided by an advertising company? No thanks.

This is entirely the point. Your privacy is worth more than a few free internet services. More to Google and much, much, much more to you.

The price of anything from Google is too high.

I'm hoping the success of Chrome on Windows will pave the way for Apple to do Win Safari properly (not just well enough for iTunes to function, thanks Mr Jobs.)

Usage went up fourfold? Does that mean 8 people are using Mac Chrome now?

[Erwin-Br]

I've also installed Chrome on OS X. I'm very satisfied with it.

With Safari I had this annoying bug: Audio in Flash movies didn't play after I watched or listened to something in iTunes, QuickTime or VLC. I'd have to restart Safari before I could hear any sound being played.

This annoying problem does not exist in Chrome. So people who say it's Adobe's fault, not Apple's; explain this to me. Why does Flash run without problems in Chrome and not in Safari? :mad:

[doctor-don]

It's fast. It's 'snappy'. It lets you open up a new google-search tab from selected text. It'll default to Google UK if you want. It doesn't vomit each time a website has flash.

Functionally and practically, it's far far superior to Safari.

But it's BETA.

[kresh]

I completely agree with LTD here. There is a ridiculous fear and paranoia when comes to Google. The same deal with cloud services. People are worried about things they shouldn't be worries about. People complain about a lack of privacy... well I don't see google releasing your personal information to any bidder out there. They sell information that cannot be traced back to you, so please, to everyone that worries about silly things like this, get off your high horse, you are not that important.

I hear you. It's not that I feel that I am so important, but that Google is not very transparent about what they do with the information they collect.

Let me try and explain just one of the nightmare scenarios that worry me considering how Google collects information. Let's say that I have a Google GMail account. To set the account up, I use my real name and so on. Google keeps the ip address for 18 months that was used to create the account.

In my house there are 6 computers that I, my wife and our 4 kids use. Every-time a search is made the ip is tracked. Almost every website you go to uses Google Analytics, so the ip is tracked. Now Google wants me to use their DNS server which will associate my ip address to every website one of the six computers goes to.

Google can link/look up my real name and info from GMail and link it to every search made in my house and every website visited. So far, no harm.

On my computer I make a search for the uses of Vaseline. I want to use it to grease the shaft of my spin-wheel mouse.

My daughter makes a search for a college course for the dangers of anal sex.

My wife uses Google search, and Maps, for the best parks to take the younger kids.

My son searches for the lyrics for "Rape Me" by Nirvana.

Still no harm.

Two weeks later a child is abducted in our neighborhood. The child is sodomized and murdered. The police have no suspects, so they serve Google with a warrant under the Patriot Act looking for people in my area that may have been looking for information to perpetrate this heinous crime.

Google returns a search word list with my name with the following search terms used, vaseline, anal, sex, kids, parks, rape.

They show up at my door and I spend $10k plus defending myself for something I never even thought about.

Is it far fetched? Who knows, Google will not talk about it. Eric Schmidt, Google CEO, made some controversial remarks recently about no rights to privacy and the Patriot Act.

So we know that google tracks the ip addresses and can link all the web visits, searches, maps, and many more all to your real information that you gave them when you signed up for a Google account.

There are many more scenarios that I am not willing to put myself in by blindly adopting every Googlie thing that comes out.

[SimonMW]

I don't care. Chrome is based on Webkit, it is standards compliant, and that's all I care about.

[doctor-don]

I completely agree with LTD here. There is a ridiculous fear and paranoia when comes to Google. The same deal with cloud services. People are worried about things they shouldn't be worries about. People complain about a lack of privacy... well I don't see google releasing your personal information to any bidder out there. They sell information that cannot be traced back to you, so please, to everyone that worries about silly things like this, get off your high horse, you are not that important.

As a test, when I first used Gmail and saw all the ads based on what content I had in my mail, I sent my brother mail about Dad and his SEX-pertness - he was a therapist. :D
I used many variations and included the word SEX in every sentence. I also sent it to myself from a Yahoo mail account. NO sponsored links resulted - not one. Wonder what's going on with that. :confused:

[aucl]

As a test, when I first used Gmail and saw all the ads based on what content I had in my mail, I sent my brother mail about Dad and his SEX-pertness - he was a therapist. :D
I used many variations and included the word SEX in every sentence. I also sent it to myself from a Yahoo mail account. NO sponsored links resulted - not one. Wonder what's going on with that. :confused:

probably they filter adult materials like they do for search results, ...

[TMar]

Consider me one who will NOT try it out. I like Google's search engine. I like Google Maps. But where is this company going to stop? Microsoft is a mere mom & pop when you compare the two companies trying to dominate all computing 10 years apart. At least Microsoft charged you money for most of the stuff it sold. Google just seems to invent something and then throw it at us for free.

I know where the money comes from for the search engine. It worries me that Google is just using that money to develop all of this other stuff in order to route us all back to that search engine from EVERYTHING we do.

But you will use Mac because they don't spread themselves out? Computers, phones, home media (Apple Tv), media services (iTunes), mobile me, and they didn't buy a map company because they wanted to stick with Google.

[albusseverus]

I've also installed Chrome on OS X. I'm very satisfied with it.

With Safari I had this annoying bug: Audio in Flash movies didn't play after I watched or listened to something in iTunes, QuickTime or VLC. I'd have to restart Safari before I could hear any sound being played.

This annoying problem does not exist in Chrome. So people who say it's Adobe's fault, not Apple's; explain this to me. Why does Flash run without problems in Chrome and not in Safari? :mad:

Get ClickToFlash (http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/30682). Not only does it block all Flash for you, if you choose to play some flash, it will give you the QuickTime version instead, if it's available. Flash is on the way out, now. Adobe have pretty much shot themselves in the foot.

[Maserati7200]

Get ClickToFlash (http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/30682). Not only does it block all Flash for you, if you choose to play some flash, it will give you the QuickTime version instead, if it's available. Flash is on the way out, now. Adobe have pretty much shot themselves in the foot.
I just downloaded click to flash and installed it successfully. Why doesn't it actually do anything? Did i do something wrong??:confused::(

[RobDee]

...anyway, so I'm not surprised. Horrible grey blockiness...

[Cerebrus' Maw]

No it's not.

Hell, Cuil.com is far superior in pure search. Not surprising as the founders of it were the main force behind Google Search.

Their advertising contracts with 3rd parties is what drove them to become the MSFT of Search.

Cuil is quite easily to manipulate in regards to shadow domaining, link farms and other neferious page rank exploits. Run say a thousand search quries against it, and you will find some very... odd, results on the first page.

This is expected as they deal more with the content of the page, where Google deals with the releveance of the page within it's relationship for entire Web

But it does look nice at least.

For those that take the "Google is big, ergo, Google is bad" stance. Quick question. If a company made the greatest invention ever, I mean this thing changed your freaking life forever, but the company was, say, a fortune 500 company, would you ignore the invention just because it's from a "big company"?

Google is in it's position because its the best at what it does. This cant be ignored. And as any business owner will tell you, companies, no matter how big, can never ever stand still. They are always pushing, always straining, to either maintain their position at the top, or get to the top.

[Erwin-Br]

Get ClickToFlash (http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/30682). Not only does it block all Flash for you, if you choose to play some flash, it will give you the QuickTime version instead, if it's available. Flash is on the way out, now. Adobe have pretty much shot themselves in the foot.

Flash on the way out? Silverlight still has a long way to go to conquer the market, and HTML 5... Well... Ian Hickson, editor of the HTML5 specification, expects the specification to reach the W3C Candidate Recommendation stage during 2012, and W3C Recommendation in the year 2022 or later. :(

Meanwhile, the only people who have something against Flash are Mac users who present a measly 4% of the market.

I admire your positivity, but really... :rolleyes:

[aumnevergiveup]

for the first time i bought my macbook, the first application that i install is mozilla firefox :D

[albusseverus]

I just downloaded click to flash and installed it successfully. Why doesn't it actually do anything? Did i do something wrong??:confused::(

Did you set the Preferences submenu (under Safari/ClickToFlash)?

Silverlight still has a long way to go…

Silverlight who? I guess Safari and Chrome are wasting their time supporting HTML5 right now, then ???

I'm talking about an internet without Flash, today. I enjoy such a thing on my phone and ClickToFlash delivers it to my WebKit browser. Serenity.

[LagunaSol]

Ian Hickson, editor of the HTML5 specification, expects the specification to reach the W3C Candidate Recommendation stage during 2012, and W3C Recommendation in the year 2022 or later. :(

Screw the W3C. The Web doesn't have to wait for W3C and their glacial review/approval process.

The Web moves ahead. With or without the W3C's blessing.

Meanwhile, the only people who have something against Flash are Mac users who present a measly 4% of the market.

Really? Windows users have nothing against Flash and Flash-clogged websites? None of them? Really?

[Master Chief]

Chrome is pretty sweet... being Open Source as Safari should have been from the start. Enabling more and more people to step in. Chrome however has some annoying (minor privacy) issues, but the Google team is working on it.

Also; Chrome will soon be the next competitor to Mozilla Firefox. We all know this. Most of us keep quiet... while Asa Dotzler go out on a rampage. Ignoring the simple fact that his salary (what was it again $150,000?) is being paid by Google for over how many years already?

Sick and tired of the update notifications? Look here:
~/Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/GoogleSoftwareUpdate

p.s. Enter: launchctl list and look for google ;)

[ArrowSmith]

This is entirely the point. Your privacy is worth more than a few free internet services. More to Google and much, much, much more to you.

The price of anything from Google is too high.

I'm hoping the success of Chrome on Windows will pave the way for Apple to do Win Safari properly (not just well enough for iTunes to function, thanks Mr Jobs.)

Usage went up fourfold? Does that mean 8 people are using Mac Chrome now?

Explain me how Google violates your privacy? I have yet to see any evidence that they scan the emails to generate advertising. Gmail rocks.

[irun5k]

Meh, browser wars are so 2001. It has gotten to the point where I just don't care. I prefer Safari on OS X but I'm just as happy using Firefox, Camino, etc. I have no compelling reason to install anything other than Safari though.

Most people use browsers to browse and not much else. To most users, the browser is the window that contains web pages. It seems like this is quite a bit different from other genres, e.g. iPhoto vs. some other photo app.

[ArrowSmith]

Screw the W3C. The Web doesn't have to wait for W3C and their glacial review/approval process.

The Web moves ahead. With or without the W3C's blessing.


That's exactly what has happened up to this point with the different browsers instead of every company simply complying with W3C standards 100%. In fact whether companies abide by "open standards" is a business decision driven by profit potential. Only OSS geeks truly care about open standards, and they have day jobs.

[Cerebrus' Maw]

Explain me how Google violates your privacy? I have yet to see any evidence that they scan the emails to generate advertising. Gmail rocks.

Uh, while I am a staunch G supported.....

Send an email/have a conversation, and check the adds to the right of the page. IE if you have a convo about say computer games, you will get ads that point to gaming resources. etc etc

[blackhand1001]

If you can't see the obvious, then your the blind one around here. Do you really think if they didn't have a monopoly in search they would be able to push Chrome this quickly?

They're leveraging a monopoly in one sector to get a monopoly in another just like MS. I am suprised they haven't been hit with anti trust suit yet.

You seem to forget last year when apple automatically started downloading safari on any system with itunes, quicktime, or any other apple software and attempting to make it the default browser. Stop it with the apple Propaganda guys. Apple is not god and they are far from perfect.

[blackhand1001]

Screw the W3C. The Web doesn't have to wait for W3C and their glacial review/approval process.

The Web moves ahead. With or without the W3C's blessing.



Really? Windows users have nothing against Flash and Flash-clogged websites? None of them? Really?

Flash on windows flies on 8 year old machines. You can watch youtube smoothly on a pentium III 450mhz on windows. Apple needs to fix something in their OS or if its a problem on adobes end they need to push adobe in the right direction.

[AidenShaw]

Really? Windows users have nothing against Flash and Flash-clogged websites? None of them? Really?

Here's one Flash-hating Windows user. And not because Flash runs poorly per se, but that it bloats websites horribly and seldom for any actual user value. The web is simply much faster without Flash.

So happy that IE8 has a toggle for Flash (and other plugins). Install it, then disable it. When you really want it, a "couple of clicks to Flash" (wish I could put "Flash On/Off" as a single button on the toolbar).

Lately though, I've been using IE8 x64 most of the time - since there's no x64 Flash, it's nice and quiet -- bliss. When I want Flash, I just copy the URL and paste it into an x86 IE window.

ps: Silverlight is also disabled except when wanted, for the same reasons....

[clevin]

Really? Windows users have nothing against Flash and Flash-clogged websites? None of them? Really?

Really, its honestly not a problem on windows for most people, obviously there is no 100% of anything anywhere, we can only speak percentages and relativity. unless you just meant to make argument for the pure sake of being argumentative.

[LagunaSol]

Here's one Flash-hating Windows user. And not because Flash runs poorly per se, but that it bloats websites horribly and seldom for any actual user value. The web is simply much faster without Flash.

Whoa...I have now historically agreed with AidenShaw on two points.

*head explodes again*

[Maserati7200]

Did you set the Preferences submenu (under Safari/ClickToFlash)?

Never mind, I realized that I had to restart my browser for it to kick in :o

[iphones4evry1]

I still think Mozilla Firefox is the best. It just works so much better than the other browsers, it's more intelligent, more coherent, and has many more logical features. I guess, I'd say it's more logical and concise.

[inkswamp]

I suspect Chrome benefits from the same thing a lot of these Android-based phones do: pent-up geek enthusiasm. You see it with all those phones, huge sales right off the bat and then it slows to a trickle. I'm not surprised Chrome overtook Safari but how much further the momentum takes it and whether all those users stick with it remains to be seen.

I still think Mozilla Firefox is the best. It just works so much better than the other browsers, it's more intelligent, more coherent, and has many more logical features. I guess, I'd say it's more logical and concise.

Unfortunately, Firefox's Javascript speeds are abysmal. I mean, truly awful compared to IE and Safari. I wish they would get that sorted out because FF might stand a chance at becoming my favorite browser, but for the time being, it's definitely Safari.

[KnightWRX]

HTML 5... Well... Ian Hickson, editor of the HTML5 specification, expects the specification to reach the W3C Candidate Recommendation stage during 2012, and W3C Recommendation in the year 2022 or later. :(

Thank god they are not doing the specification all in one go then ;)

HTML5 will come in blocks. The audio and video tags are already being finalized and will be set forth as standards as soon as they are. The rest of HTML5 will follow, a few components at a time, until HTML5 is fully completed and ready for a candidate recommendation in 2012.

So we won't have to wait so long for it. Of course, you'd know this if you were actually following HTML5 and not just spreading FUD about it.

[noahrobd]

I just clicked on the link (from Google.com) to download Chrome for Mac OS X, beta, had a look at the Terms of Service, and I noticed a term I don't like and wanted to point out. You must agree to always receive software updates and allow Google automatically deliver them to you. So whenever an update is available it is NOT optional for the user whether to install it or not.

This is is in Section 11 of Terms of Service

11. Software updates

11.1 The Software which you use may automatically download and install updates from time to time from Google. These updates are designed to improve, enhance and further develop the Services and may take the form of bug fixes, enhanced functions, new software modules and completely new versions. You agree to receive such updates (and permit Google to deliver these to you) as part of your use of the Services.

[atsang]

as a qa engineer for web software, i pay attention to these stats very closely. we're always looking for what new browsers we need to test in and what browsers to "drop".

in my opinion global stats are a bit too general. if you look at north american stats, safari still garners almost double the usage as chrome. from gs.statcounter.com:

http://img.skitch.com/20091216-tq8mi23q9fmtudc3bbhx896xj9.jpg

take a look at safari and chromes growth rate over 1 year. both grow at the same rate.

http://img.skitch.com/20091216-f4d3f15chd5y8i6uejsw8kwghg.jpg

the reason why chrome is higher than safari globally is the fact that safari usage is nonexistent on every other continent other than Australia. Even Opera dominates Safari in Europe.

if your website is geared towards mostly English speakers, I'd look closer at breaking down browser stats by country/continent.

[lilo777]

Screw the W3C. The Web doesn't have to wait for W3C and their glacial review/approval process.

The Web moves ahead. With or without the W3C's blessing.



Really? Windows users have nothing against Flash and Flash-clogged websites? None of them? Really?

Really. Why not? It's Apple and Steve Jobs who have some strange beef with Adobe and Flash. PC software (be it from Microsoft or anybody else but Apple) has no problems with it and so do PC users. Really

While Appple fans wait till Web finally moved ahead, PC users simply enjoy their lifes ;)

[lPHONE]

i never use Safari anyway...
I like the flexibility of FireFox and being able to add any feature from Mozilla's candy store of plug-ins and extensions.
And I don't care if a "better" browser comes out at all. I'm in with FireFox- I like what they stand for, so they've got my full support.

[Shodan]

I used to be an avid fan of Chrome but ever since Safari 4 with the Top Sites bookmarking system, clean looks @ excellent speed, I haven't felt compelled to use Chrome at all.

Speed wise it is virtually no different, it has way less features and nothing beats Activity Monitor.

[SactoGuy18]

In Windows Vista (SP3) and Windows 7, the current public release of Google Chrome (3.0.195.38) is lightning fast in response and works very well with Flash videos. I've had no troubles with stuttering in Hulu, Crunchyroll and ESPN websites, all three of which use Flash to display videos.

There is some talk that Microsoft may be investigating a possible switch to WebKit as the primary layout engine for Internet Explorer 9.0.

I'm hoping once the final release of Chrome for MacOS X arrives it will be faster than Safari and offer better tab handling than Safari 4.0.x does.

[BrokenChairs]

Will probably have a look at Chrome, but at this stage Safari is doing the job for me. Now if Safari can get its RSS feed system like FF (drop arrow/folders) then I'll be even happier

[drlunanerd]

Chrome is being advertised this week in the UK, there are billboards up advertising it, and full page adverts in the newspapers.

I know, I couldn't believe it yesterday when I saw the Chrome advertising all over the Tube and newspapers in London.

Browser Wars 2: This Time It's Personal? :D

[star-affinity]

If they make Chrome scroll as smooth as Safari 4 does on Snow Leopard I'd be happy to try it as my default browser. As it is now I think it kind of feels better/quicker to browse using Safari mainly because of the scrolling.

I think this ”feel” of the web browser is pretty important considering how much tim is spent using one.

I've tried Goggle Chrome in Windows 7 and there the scrolling is much smoother than the Mac version of Chrome in Snow Leopard.

[star-affinity]

In Windows Vista (SP3) and Windows 7, the current public release of Google Chrome (3.0.195.38) is lightning fast in response and works very well with Flash videos.

Totally agree on that.
I'm using the current release of Chrome in Windows 7 ”Release Candidate” and it's super quick at loading web pages, even crowded ones and ones containing several Flash animation.

On Mac OS X there's this irritating delay (usually a little beach ball) the first time a page with Flash is loaded and that 32-bit Flash plug-in process starts up.

What I find strange/sad is that when I tried ClickToFlash for Safari (to get rid of the Flash loading) I still got this delay when loading some flash pages.

ClickToFlash here: http://rentzsch.github.com/clicktoflash/

[IntelliUser]

Really. Why not? It's Apple and Steve Jobs who have some strange beef with Adobe and Flash. PC software (be it from Microsoft or anybody else but Apple) has no problems with it and so do PC users. Really

Apple has tried to go against Adobe by not allowing Flash on the iPhone, but apparently the guys at Adobe don't seem to get what the problem is.

While Appple fans wait till Web finally moved ahead, PC users simply enjoy their lifes ;)
Sure, by being able to play flash well but doing everything else terribly. Great experience. :D

[Erwin-Br]

Here's one Flash-hating Windows user. And not because Flash runs poorly per se, but that it bloats websites horribly and seldom for any actual user value. The web is simply much faster without Flash.

*sigh* That's not hating Flash, that's hating how it's being implemented on -some- websites. That's different. I don't like these bloaty Flash sites either. Sites that are fully created in Flash, only for the sake of driving you nuts with flashy animations and other nonsense.

I'm talking about watching video's on-line. There's no reason why Windows users hate Flash, because it runs perfectly, even on old hardware. Only on a Mac it runs like ****. Probably because Adobe doesn't care about 4% of its users. (Maybe that's why Adobe's CS suite is more advanced on PC's as well? Full 64-bit support, for example?)

[Erwin-Br]

Screw the W3C. The Web doesn't have to wait for W3C and their glacial review/approval process.

Funny. That's exactly what Microsoft said when they developed Internet Explorer 6. :rolleyes:

[AidenShaw]

*sigh* That's not hating Flash, that's hating how it's being implemented on -some- websites. That's different. I don't like these bloaty Flash sites either. Sites that are fully created in Flash, only for the sake of driving you nuts with flashy animations and other nonsense.

It's hard to separate the two ("Flash" and the horrible implementations) ;).


I'm talking about watching video's on-line. There's no reason why Windows users hate Flash...

Flash videos often are DRM-like, websites embed them in wrappers that try to prevent downloads. I'd prefer higher quality downloadable open format videos over low-quality, DRM'd proprietary formats.

I also hate (the implementations) where you're locked into sitting through ads just to watch a short clip. CNN is one of the worst offenders here - I just don't click on CNN links with the video icon except in rare cases (like watching the plane land in the Hudson).


Probably because Adobe doesn't care about 4% of its users. (Maybe that's why Adobe's CS suite is more advanced on PC's as well? Full 64-bit support, for example?)

Adobe planned on OSX x64 support for CS4, but Apple changed its plans and dropped Carbon64. This meant that Adobe has to port CS to Cocoa - which was not possible in the CS4 release schedule. Adobe CS5 on Mac to be Intel-only, Cocoa, 64-bit native (http://cs5.org/?p=172).

[bobsbarricades]

I use chrome. And I use it because it doesn't crash. Safari sucks when it comes to flash sites or flash video. On top of that, my MBP has a go just *running* safari. It seems like a huge hog. To browse the internet!! -.-

[MadeTheSwitch]

My browser of preference is Safari. It just works better on my machine. Not to say it doesn't crash sometimes because it does, but not nearly as much as Firefox which has horrible stability from my point of view.

Chrome has a nice idea running things in separate processes, but Google already knows enough about me, they don't need even more access to my data. So doubt I will ever use it.

[inlovewithi]

Well sure, you get all the fanatical Google nerds downloading it, Chrome was bound to over take it. I honestly don't think Apple cares about the browser competition. And it really is irrelevant, anyways.

The fanatical google nerds. I've never heard of them.

[kghoops]

I've always used Maxthon. Version 3.0 of their browser is in Alpha right now but it comes out next year and will feature the use of both Trident (IE) and Webkit (Chrome, Safari) engines all in the same browser. It will use Webkit for most pages and automatically switch over to Trident when needed.

[charliehustle]

I've been using Chrome for a while and I have to admit, it's much better than Safari. Faster, and more stable. Seems like apple is getting lazy.

[hidehide]

Best browser in Windows: Google Chrome
Best browser in Mac: Safari

[hellojamie]

I really love Google Chrome on my PC, it's slick, clean, and the multi-tabs are great. Not that FF can't do the same, but Chrome just crashes less, runs quickly, and I love being able to easily save windows, bookmark things, and not have to worry about themes or extra FF crap. I switched over as soon as it came out (well, as soon as the fixed the security patch issues)- FF was crashing at least two or three times a week on me. I've had Chrome crash maybe, 2-3 times total. Sometimes it's laggy booting up out of hibernate, especially if I've got a ton of tabs open, but I think that's more my 4-year old machine than the browser.

I haven't tried it out on Mac yet- my white plastic iMac at school doesn't have the intel chipset and can't run it, and my new Macbook hasn't come in yet. But I'm really eager to try it as soon as I get a chance.

I don't see why Safari people wouldn't like it- isn't Chrome just a modded version of older Safari?

[AidenShaw]

Really. Why not? It's Apple and Steve Jobs who have some strange beef with Adobe and Flash. PC software (be it from Microsoft or anybody else but Apple) has no problems with it and so do PC users. Really

While Appple fans wait till Web finally moved ahead, PC users simply enjoy their lifes ;)

Why we love Flash [NOT]:

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/abstraction.png

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/abstraction.png

[adder7712]

Chrome is fantastic but it consumed 100% of my processor to view a Flash website. :confused:

[LagunaSol]

While Appple fans wait till Web finally moved ahead, PC users simply enjoy their lifes ;)

I'm trying to make sense of your post, but as both a Windows and Mac user, I can say that, while Flash does indeed run better on Windows (and Adobe needs to fix their crappy Mac software), it is not magically delicious. Not even close.

And by PC users "enjoying their lifes" I can only assume you mean "running their daily virus scan in the background while surfing YouTube Ballmer dance videos." Oh, and don't forget to get that Adobe Reader update as soon as Adobe releases it to patch the latest security hole (just one in a long history for Reader). I guess the baddies are busy exploiting that one even as we speak.

Enjoy.

[albusseverus]

Adobe has pretty much shot itself in the foot over Flash. It's about time we put Flash out of its misery.

I have a Flash-free phone (thanks Apple) and ClickToFlash (http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=download+clicktoflash&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8) not only de-Flashes the Mac for me (you have control over this if you need Flash for some reason), but it grabs the QuickTime version, if there is one.

A peaceful web experience. You ought to try it some time.

[twoodcc]

i guess apple needs to keep at work on safari. hopefully chrome will actually push safari development

[snugharbor]

Out of the following browsers: Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera and OmniWeb only Firefox runs on many of the distance learning software (such as WebTycho at the University of Maryland or Blackboard). This is not as narrow a market as you believe and until the others fix those problems Firefox I think we be dominant on Mac machines.

[KnightWRX]

Out of the following browsers: Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera and OmniWeb only Firefox runs on many of the distance learning software (such as WebTycho at the University of Maryland or Blackboard). This is not as narrow a market as you believe and until the others fix those problems Firefox I think we be dominant on Mac machines.

Yeah, you should write those websites and tell them that standards exist for a reason. If they follow standards, it will work on every browser.

The reason we got into the mess we did with the Web is precisely because browser vendors were fixing the mistakes of web developers. The trend has been moving to the opposite, thanks to a lot of work by the W3C, please don't try to bring us back to the web dark ages.

[cmaier]

Out of the following browsers: Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera and OmniWeb only Firefox runs on many of the distance learning software (such as WebTycho at the University of Maryland or Blackboard). This is not as narrow a market as you believe and until the others fix those problems Firefox I think we be dominant on Mac machines.

Actually, this is exactly as narrow a market as I think.

[adder7712]

Because Firefox has more users than other popular WebKit browsers and due to that, many websites will have no problem rendering with Firefox.