Open Sauce Software
Tasty titbits from people using Linux and other open source software in business.
Friday 5 September 2008, 10:22 AM
Chrome is simple, but I want features!
Chrome is still my default browser, and there are everyday things I can't do so easily in it as in Firefox. Perversely. I think what I want is a Google Toolbar for Chrome...
The issues come down to a couple of things.
1. The browser is delightfully simplified -but I get less control.
2. It doesn't give me good streaming media
3. It doesn't have features I regularly use in add-ons like Google Toolbar - and there's no API for people to add them.
I'm still finding how to use Chrome best, of course. And some if it is my set-up. I have a five year old PC, running XP on 1.5G of RAM, using a below-average broadband service (1.5M now, but heavily contended in the afternoon), and with lots of stuff like IM and Skype running.
But here's some thoughts.
1. It doesn't play streaming media well for me.
Live Radio 3 in the BBC iPlayer stutters and gets into little two-second loops. Listen-again programmes and things like YouTube work well. The underlying problem may be my broadband, but Internet radio worked better in Firefox for me. .
2. Too many tabs and It seizes up.
Memory usage? Or unresponsive plugins?
3. Opening PDFs in Chrome is worse than useless.
Firefox is just as bad, but I can instruct Firefox not to open PDFs, but to download them. PDFs within Chrome open with a plug in, and are always unresponsive, but I haven't found a way to alter the way it handles content types, so I have actively remember to download them and open them locally.
4. Searching News, or searching within a site, and other types of search, take more clicks.
Searching News, Images, or searching within a site are drop down options in the Firefox Google Toolbar. They take a bit more work in Chrome - unless I'm missing some shortcuts.
If I want to search for News or Images, it's just a matter of an extra click, after I've done the vanilla Google search, but I'd like an option for these searches to show up in the box that drops down when I start typing.
Searching within the current site is harder. At the moment, I type in site:www.zdnet.co.uk and then my search term.
Is there an easier way to do this?
5. And then there's Adblock. Running a separate Privoxy proxy on my machine is not an ideal way to block adverts (though there is a certain amount to recommend it).
The issues come down to a couple of things.
1. The browser is delightfully simplified -but I get less control.
2. It doesn't give me good streaming media
3. It doesn't have features I regularly use in add-ons like Google Toolbar - and there's no API for people to add them.
I'm still finding how to use Chrome best, of course. And some if it is my set-up. I have a five year old PC, running XP on 1.5G of RAM, using a below-average broadband service (1.5M now, but heavily contended in the afternoon), and with lots of stuff like IM and Skype running.
But here's some thoughts.
1. It doesn't play streaming media well for me.
Live Radio 3 in the BBC iPlayer stutters and gets into little two-second loops. Listen-again programmes and things like YouTube work well. The underlying problem may be my broadband, but Internet radio worked better in Firefox for me. .
2. Too many tabs and It seizes up.
Memory usage? Or unresponsive plugins?
3. Opening PDFs in Chrome is worse than useless.
Firefox is just as bad, but I can instruct Firefox not to open PDFs, but to download them. PDFs within Chrome open with a plug in, and are always unresponsive, but I haven't found a way to alter the way it handles content types, so I have actively remember to download them and open them locally.
4. Searching News, or searching within a site, and other types of search, take more clicks.
Searching News, Images, or searching within a site are drop down options in the Firefox Google Toolbar. They take a bit more work in Chrome - unless I'm missing some shortcuts.
If I want to search for News or Images, it's just a matter of an extra click, after I've done the vanilla Google search, but I'd like an option for these searches to show up in the box that drops down when I start typing.
Searching within the current site is harder. At the moment, I type in site:www.zdnet.co.uk and then my search term.
Is there an easier way to do this?
5. And then there's Adblock. Running a separate Privoxy proxy on my machine is not an ideal way to block adverts (though there is a certain amount to recommend it).
PreviousComments on this post
You don't need a separate Toolbar - the search is integrated into the url field....
