Thursday Tech Tip – In which I bid adieu to Google Chrome and once again embrace Firefox

I’ll happily admit it – I’m an early adopter, and I like playing with new toys. I got my first TiVo in 1999, for example. So when I heard that Google had their very own fancy-pants web browser, called Chrome, I downloaded and installed it as soon as the servers would let me. I used Chrome for about a week, but soon gave up on it due to its lack of extensions and the fact that it choked on about 75% of the sites I used regularly.

About two months ago, while rebuilding my laptop, I thought to myself “Self, it’s time to try Google Chrome again.” So I bopped to the download page and installed the son-of-a-gun.

All was well for a while. I ran Chrome on my XP laptop at work, and my Vista desktop at home. I marveled at the speed at which it rendered Javascript heavy sites like Gmail. I loved the integration of Gears. I cheered aloud when tab isolation kept a bad page from crashing my entire browser.

But then…the troubles began. Webpages started to have broken images inside them, but only in Chrome.

Notice the lack of images in the NetworkedBlogs widget

Plus, worse, entire pages wouldn’t load due to random so-called DNS errors…but a refresh always brought the page up.

Chrome is claiming the server cannot be found, but other browsers on the same computer have no issue. And a refresh always loads it.

Slightly different error, but identical symptom

Enough was enough. I determined (through frantic Googling…no irony intended) that this was related to some potential issues with DNS caching. Disabling prefetching in Chrome should resolve this issue – but Chrome was already in a precarious situation as my browser of choice.

Things came to a head yesterday at work. I was cruising along in Chrome, with only about five tabs open (most likely Gmail, Yehoodi, Facebook, Google Reader, and possibly Clicky or even Good Old Rock). My laptop suddenly became very non-responsive. Opening Task Manager revealed that one instance of Chrome was using 1.5 GB of RAM. Mind you, this was after about ten minutes of use.

1.5 GB of RAM.

Outlook never gets that high. Even memory-leaky Firefox never gets there. Hell, even TweetDeck won’t hit 1.5 GB after only ten minutes.

I gave Chrome one more chance. I killed the process (Chrome wouldn’t shut down otherwise) and tried again.

Within 15 minutes, I was up to over 1 GB in memory on a single instance of Chrome.

Sorry, Google Chrome. It was a fun ride, but I’m not ready for you yet. Or maybe you’re not ready for me. Combining these issues with the lack of extensions (add-ons are one of my favorite things about Firefox), I had to call it off. I’m aware that there are ways around these things, and I know that there are experimental versions of Chrome that will let me install add-ons (of course, even when I set Chrome to use the dev branch, it never found these updates), but I just can’t play games with my browser anymore. This is where I live, people. This is my HOUSE.

http://www.mominreallife.com Rachel M.

hmmmmm, this may explain a LOT. I’m no computer whiz but I have been cursing my machine lately. I use Chrome religiously, following blindly (“It’s from Google, it MUST be good!”). I think I’ll see what happens when I go back to a different browser…..

Rachel M.’s last blog post..How I Met My Inner Decorator

Matt Stratton

I had the same thought about Chrome…I love teh Google, so I figured “Hey, they must have a sweet browser”. And, in general, it’s pretty slick. It’s just so not ready to be my primary browser. We’ll see in a few months.

Although hopefully Firefox will soon have tab isolation and a faster JS engine, so the point will be moot.

http://mpwilson.com/ Mike Wilson

Odd, I’ve never had the browsing problems you describe. I want to like it badly, but without plug-in support and with the memory issues (which I have experienced) it’s simply not up to speed as a firefox replacement.

Mike Wilson’s last blog post..:-)

Matt Stratton

I definitely only had those issues at home (not at work) so I imagine it has something to do with DNS latency from U-Verse (as the linked blog points out, IE and Firefox are just better at hiding it than Chrome is).

DJ Larkin

You lasted much longer than I did. I think I used it for about 2 hours before I gave up and went back to Firefox.

Matt Stratton

It just goes to show you that figments of the imagination and unicorn-obsessives can come to an agreement when it comes to web browsers.

I have NO idea what that means.

http://joyarna.blogspot.com/ Joy

I have Chrome installed, but only use it as an alternate browser (if FF has issues for whatever reason, or I want to be logged into two accounts at once). I too have found it to be a HUUUUUUGE memory hog. Plus, I can’t live without all my Firefox extensions.

Joy’s last blog post..Joyuna’s Etsy favorites, edition 3: Itty Bitty

Matt Stratton

I definitely missed my Firefox extensions when I was in Chrome-land. I’m very pleased to have them back! Which extensions do you consider your “must-haves”? I’m always curious about what other users consider essential.

Bryn

Me too, DJ. It’s sad. I want to love everything by Google, but I just can’t get there (yet) with Chrome.

Matt Stratton

Nor can you get there with Google Voice (yet). I just had to rub that in. Because I’m kind of a jerk sometimes. :)

http://www.justbloggled.com Staci

I only use Chrome to check my web design when I change it. I got a web site looking perfect on the other 4 browsers once, and guess where it didn’t render properly? Ding, ding, ding. Chrome. I had to end up shortening the length of the post that was on the page.

Other than for design, I rarely use it. I like all the bells and whistles that come with Firefox, even if it is RAM heavy. Seeing as my computer has nowhere near as much RAM as Google Chrome is using on your laptop, I’m glad that I never took a liking to it. I think that it would have permanently nuked my computer.

Staci’s last blog post..Quick! Someone Hand Me My Walker!

Matt Stratton

In the defense of Chrome, it only had that terrible runaway memory problem (at least of THAT magnitude) the one day. It’s theoretically possible that it could be blamed on Facebook, because, hey, it’s fun to blame everything on Facebook. :)

What’s your favorite bell or whistle in Firefox?

http://doocci.com Carl

I use Firefox mainly. But I use Chrome sometimes, but I can’t use it with WordPress because it will screw up my posts though. I used IE for years, and finally switched to Firefox. One of the few smartest decisions I have ever made.

Carl’s last blog post..I Should Become a Bra Designer

Matt Stratton

I never really had any issues with composing posts in WP using Chrome. Actually, this post was one of the few I did in Firefox and *not* in Chrome.

I will say that I am cautiously optimistic about IE 8. I haven’t really put it through its paces yet (I use it as my “corporate” browser at work, but not my “everyday interweb surfing” browser. It has promise, but it’s never going to be as lovely as our dear Firefox!

http://writteninc.blogspot.com Carmi

I totally get where you’re coming from. As nice as it would be to use a lean, mean browser that runs script-heavy sites like a hot knife through butter, Chrome forces too many compromises at this point in its evolution. It’s nowhere near ready to be anyone’s prime browser.

But I like to keep it around as an additional option for occasional use. Sometimes, even Firefox breaks certain functions on certain sites – like some options in my blog admin interface, for example. Chrome works in a pinch, then I go back to Firefox.

I also keep Safari 4.0 around for precisely this reason as well. When they’re free and easy to download and install, it’s a no-brainer to have ‘em on standby, just in case.

Carmi’s last blog post..Eight days gone
http://www.neonbubble.com/ Mark

My issue with Chrome which caused me to drop it was with videos. I’d bring up a page of video thumbnails and shift-click one to open it in a new tab. Switch to the tab. Watch the video; let’s say part-way through. Close the tab. Wait. Wait. Tab’s disappeared but I can still hear the video. Wait. Silence. Try to click another thumbnail. Wait. Wait. Awful. Clearly doing some garbage collection in the background but just so poor. And I’ve got a decent system CPU and RAM-wise.

Mark’s last blog post..What Are Tornadoes?

Thursday Tech Tip – In which I bid adieu to Google Chrome and once again embrace Firefox

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