Google Chrome: Pros and Cons

Before, I talk about features, pros and cons, and other aspects of Google Chrome, let me briefly share my experience with internet browsers. I've used the internet for almost two decades now and the web browser that I've used the most is Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE).

Over a couple of years ago I decided to take FireFox on a test drive and boy was I impressed by its functionality, performance and the array of add-ons. I continued using both, Internet Explorer and FireFox, but found FireFox to be much better compared to IE.

I've been doing a fair bit of blogging and writing Squidoo web pages over the past couple of years and FireFox became my browser of choice mainly because of its speed. Also, there were a few add-ons which made my life easier in my online world. However, over the past few months, I noticed FireFox becoming sluggish and tried various under-the-hood changes to enhance its performance. Initially, it seemed to work, but soon would keep returning to its sluggish state.

In the meantime, I had heard about Google Chrome and initially was skeptical about trying it mainly because I didn't want to be using so many internet browsers. But FireFox was beginning to slow me down, so I decided to give Google Chrome a try. I have to admit that I'm very impressed with Chrome's performance so far and mainly its speed. There are many other features that I like about Google Chrome which I will highlight in the next section.

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I'll take a slightly different approach here rather than just giving you a list of pros and cons. Instead, I'll cover some key topics and discuss how Chrome compares in those areas in a little more detail:

I don't know about you, but I like a lot of browsing space rather than a cluttered-looking browser. This is one of the other reasons I like Google Chrome. You probably won't even notice it's there because all you see is the website you're browsing.

One drawback of Google Chrome's simplicity is that new internet users who have used Internet Explorer (for example) may need some time to get used to not seeing menus and icons up at the top of the browser. I personally prefer it that way, though.

One of the main reasons, I decided to try Google Chrome is its speed. Before I started using Chrome as my browser, I read reviews on it from people using it. Based on actual tests done to measure the speed of Google's browser, it comes out a winner over Internet Explorer and FireFox.

I've tried loading same websites on both Google Chrome and FireFox, and in most cases, there was not too much of a noticeable difference in loading times. In fact, in some cases, FireFox loaded some of the websites a little faster.

However, in one area I found Chrome much better in terms of overall performance. I write Squidoo lenses (web pages, just like this one) and I find that as I edit, save and publish these lenses, the speed is much better in Chrome as opposed to FireFox. Also, when I'm browsing through Squidoo lenses, I find Chrome is superior to FireFox.

When Chrome was first introduced one of the main drawbacks (at least for FireFox lovers) was the absence of add-ons and extensions that provide flexibility to the users as FireFox does. However, in January 2010, Google changed that and introduced an extension gallery with over 1,500 extensions.

Today that extension gallery has grown to over 11,500 extensions. Though Google Chrome has come a long way in this area, it's not comparable to the add-ons that are available in FireFox. Part of the extension gallery are also themes that allow Chrome users to change the appearance of the browser.

This feature is not new to browsers, but what I like about Google Chrome tab browsing is its flexibility. You can easily create new tabs, move them around and open them in an entirely new window. The "New Tab" feature allows you to check which tabs you recently visited. This feature is useful if you accidentally close a tab.

But more importantly, Chrome architecture doesn't cause the entire browser to crash if one of the websites (on a different tab) crashes. The reason behind this that each tab is run independently thereby not impacting the performance of the other tabs. This feature however, may end up consuming more of your computer's memory.

Incognito mode opens up a new window and allows private browsing which does not leave any trace (cookies, tracking, history, etc.) on your computer as it operates as a separate, independent window. A Task Manager allows tracking of process management within the browser so as to track memory usage and option to terminate a specific website or plug-in.

A couple of other cool features - Chrome's Omnibox serves as both, an address bar as well as a keyword search box. Google Chrome also comes with a built-in translation application which helps translate websites in over 50 languages.

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Updated: June 3, 2012