Chrome Getting Faster, But Does Anyone Care?

One of Google Chrome‘s best selling points is speed, and beta 5 of the browser is the fastest yet (for JavaScript anyway) according to Google’s benchmark tests.

I’ve never been one to pay attention to benchmarks when it comes to web browsers because it does not take into account ISP connection speed or any extensions/add-ons you have loaded.

I’m not denying for a moment that Chrome is blazingly fast, but how would it compare against Opera 10 with Opera Turbo enabled? My money would be bet on Opera being able to load stuff faster because Turbo does account for a slow or potentially slow internet connection. The Turbo feature comes bundled with Opera 10, by the way. No extra download required.

Firefox when run bare with no add-ons installed is actually quite speedy, but nobody runs Firefox that way. I don’t. At bare minimum I run at least six extensions. This causes the browser to be slower on startup and I accept that.

IE8, the slowest of the bunch, is even speedy if you run it lean. However I know very few who don’t run IE without at least one toolbar loaded in. I personally can’t stand toolbars, but I don’t deny the convenience of one if it’s done right. For example, many run the Yahoo! Toolbar because if you use Y! Mail, Y! Calendar and so on, having that toolbar installed is pretty darned convenient. Checking things like local weather and your eBay bids take nothing but a single click. Like I said, it’s convenient. In the end this does slow down IE and causes it to load slower, but the conveniece of what you get outweighs any load-time speed advantage.

Even though Chrome 5 is fast, how fast would it be in real-world practical use? Would it truly be any faster on a slower ISP connection? How fast would it be with a bunch of extensions installed?

Most people use Chrome only as a secondary browser?

The people I know that do use Chrome do not use it as their primary browser. Usually they load it to do one specific thing, and usually a Google thing at that such as YouTube or Gmail. The browser is launched then sits in the taskbar/dock/panel until needed for that one thing.

Then when they have to do the important stuff, like online banking for example, they use Firefox or IE instead.

This would lead one to believe that even though Chrome is fast, it’s simply not good enough to load anything outside of a Google product.

Chrome users: How do you use Chrome? Primary browser? Secondary? What do you use it for? Some stuff? All stuff? Let us know.

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richtea
True enough, Chrome is fast and if it is now faster still, well done. But FF can run the excellent NoScript, which makes it a better choice for security reasons. Chrome wins over FF with its simplicity and is a nice browser to use generally. The consolidated address/search bar is second to none. For ordinary web use, Chrome is hard to beat, and with its arrival, I would not even look at Opera again.
David Risley
As you know, I use Chrome as my email client, more or less. For web apps like Gmail, Goog Cal, RTM, etc.
However, I’m seeing more and more people ditch Firefox completely. Even my Dad just did that recently. Some of the more important extensions apparently have been ported over to Chrome (i.e. X-Marks).

http://www.menga.net Rich Menga
Being you’re a Mac user (I say that for anyone that’s not aware of that who reads this), Firefox runs like complete ass in OS X as it’s a big time memory hog. In Windows you at least have Memory Fox to take care of memory-muncher issues with Firefox – but even so the Chrome browser is lighter by nature without the need for an add-on like that.
Just out of curiosity, why not use Chrome’s bookmark sync and skip Xmarks altogether?

Lanks
I have been using chrome as my primary browser for 3 or 4 months now and am quite pleased with it. I only have two addons installed but that’s all i need, gmail checker and adthwart.
The only reason i would see someone using x-marks is if they want to sync with another browser aswell. Chrome’s bookmark sync also works for browser preferences and themes
Jin
I’ve been using Chrome as primary browser for over 5 months and I’m really satisfied with it. Before using Chrome, I used FF, IE,and Safari and I had no complaint using FF.
However, when I tried to use Chrome, I liked their simple UI, download manager, and the speed. I’m not the person measuring the time of web page loading, but it is smoother than other browsers. Thus, I feel comfortable.
By the way, I’m not sure why people are using FF or IE on important stuff like online banking. Does Chrome has any problem with SSL connection or security?

http://www.menga.net Rich Menga
Chrome has no problems with SLL or security, it’s a compatibility issue. Banking sites always work with IE. With other browsers like Opera and Chrome it’s hit-or-miss with things like fill-in forms, page scripting, page redirects, etc. because they were originally programmed for IE. Most of the time there’s no problems, but when wonky things happen, you go to IE and you’re back in business. Fault of it the bank’s site programming? Yes. They should have made them more compatible with other browsers, but didn’t.

http://www.flowers-page.com Flowers
As for me, I use Crome as a browser and i like it.
http://www.wesleycomputers.co.uk Dean Pugh
I use Chrome as my primary browser, have done for 6 months now. I like its simple interface, and like the fact that it instantly starts up for general browsing, and just seems easy and natural. I even convinced my colleagues to try it and they say the same. Plus I only really use Google Calendar so not as if I’m using it solely for Google apps.
When developing websites, I use Firefox, just because of the add-ons and tools work better in FF.