RHFtech Help Desk

Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) has fallen on hard times. Once it ruled the Internet, accounting for over 90% of all web page views. Those heady times are now history. The latest statistics for April 2010 from NetApplications show it with less than 60%. Mozilla Firefox is the second most widely used browser with 25% share, followed by Google Chrome at 7%.

Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome must be installed by the user. IE comes installed on Windows machines. Apple’s Safari is automatically on Macs, iPhones, iPads and iPod touch devices. Firefox’s and Chrome’s large and growing usage shares mean that users like these browsers better than the OS defaults. Firefox and Chrome have versions that work on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. In case you wondered, Firefox has been around since 2003, Chrome since 2008.

Both browsers are quite secure. Mozilla and Google update their browsers frequently to address security issues and to add new features. Mozilla tells you when it has an update. You decide whether to update or not. Chrome does not tell you, it updates in the background.

Firefox has a big advantage over Chrome. It has thousands of add-ons. These add-ons extend the browser’s functionality and allow the user to configure the browser to their needs. I always install Adblock Plus, to reduce the web’s advertising-induced visual distraction and clutter. It is quite popular having been downloaded almost 80 million times. I always install Foobar, which merges the address bar and search bar into a single bar, like Chrome. I also install Bartab, which delays loading all tabs but the browser’s focused tab when I start up Firefox. This means I can keep 25+ tabs open without draining system resources. Firefox also opens much faster this way.

Chrome is catching up but has a long way to go when it comes to add-ons. You can check out what is available for Google Chrome at its extensions pages. Many of the top Firefox add-ons are also available on Chrome. Chrome has better memory management than Firefox and launches pages a bit faster. (If you want a faster browser try the Windows-only Maxthon 3.0 beta, which is faster than Chrome.)

Chrome’s user interface (UI) is different than IE, Firefox or Safari. It is more Spartan in design. Safari, IE and Firefox use a traditional type of UI. Chrome does not. In Windows, it does not have a title bar or menu. Instead it has tabs at the top of the screen. It can be a bit disconcerting at first. All versions of Chrome combine the search bar and the address bar into a single “superbar” that lets you type a URL or do a search from the same place. I prefer this superbar, which is why I install Foobar into Firefox.

The Mozilla team is also experimenting with some new features that look promising. They recently started testing a Weave Browser Sync add-on. It securely keeps your bookmarks, saved passwords, browsing history and open tabs backed up and synchronized between your computers. Chrome can synchronize bookmarks but not the other data.

Mozilla recently introduced an Account Manager beta add-on that implements a new protocol for websites to integrate with the browser, so we can sign in and out right of different sites, like Google, Facebook, or Yahoo, from an icon on the toolbar. This holds promise. It is too early to tell whether it will work well and be useful.

Who do you love?
I use both browsers. I like Firefox better than Chrome.

An advantage that Firefox enjoys over Chrome is that Mozilla is not Google. Do you want Google knowing even more about you then they already do? Do you want to be more dependent on Google services? I don’t. If you still want to use Chrome but keep Google at bay try using SRWare Iron, a Chrome derivative, that cuts the Google tie-in.