Author Topic: Google Chrome: Time for a Second Chance? (Read 83,326 times)

CleverCat · « **Reply #25 on:** April 22, 2010, 06:42 AM »

Quote

and allow me to move the darned tabs from the very top of the screen.

This annoys me too!

zridling · « **Reply #26 on:** April 22, 2010, 06:46 AM »

I've used the Linux version since it arrived way back without problems. And, it has all the extensions I was using with Firefox. Here are my favs:

AdBlock
Same as Firefox. CTRL+SHIFT+K lets you kill the code for any ad. CTRL+SHIFT+L lets you unblock something.

FlashBlock
Invaluable for silencing Flash videos. Click the transparent outline to make video appear and play.

Personalized Web
Also serves as an ad and Flash blocker, but more importantly, you can customize your font selection here.

Smoothscroll
Make scrolling as smooth and as fast as you want.

Session Manager
Save browsing sessions of open tabs.

Chromey Calculator
Mimics all the functions of the Google Calculator. Handy when I'm on the phone with a vendor.

Quick Extensions
Opens a page that lists all your extensions and lets you manage them from there.

Untiny
Get the original URL of any shortened URL. It expands most bit.ly addresses in Twitter; others it's a copy/paste is all.

AutoPatchWork
Automatically loads the next page and inserts into current page when you reach the end of the page, as Opera does.

There are a dozen others that I use only rarely and don't need, but these I like and do the job of blocking everything.

daddydave · « **Reply #27 on:** June 08, 2010, 05:08 PM »

Well they did fix the decades-old (it seems) print selected bug, at least in the Dev channel.

It's come a long way extension wise, but still missing a few of my faves.

J-Mac · « **Reply #28 on:** June 09, 2010, 02:20 AM »

Quote from: daddydave on June 08, 2010, 05:08 PM

Well they did fix the decades-old (it seems) print selected bug, at least in the Dev channel.

It's come a long way extension wise, but still missing a few of my faves.

Oh, there's an annoyance that I forgot to mention: no print preview. Whose bright idea was that "feature"?

Jim

MilesAhead · « **Reply #29 on:** October 12, 2010, 11:18 PM »

Here's something interesting. Apparently Chrome pings home on start-up to get a unique id(RLZ whatever that means) and this behavior was not supposed to happen with chromium(since it is "non-branded" as they say in marketing land.) Well this user found it was still doing it in chromium. Supposedly the bug is now fixed.

http://www.listware.net/201008/chromium-discuss/30669-chromium-discuss-chromium-sends-data-to-google-upon-startup.html

wreckedcarzz · « **Reply #30 on:** October 13, 2010, 12:21 AM »

I've actually dove back in again for another go at Chrome, full in, and haven't launched Firefox in about 3 weeks except to grab some Saved Passwords that didn't migrate (?) over to Chrome. It has all but my rarely used FF addons, and I'm thinking about sticking with it. It does freeze a lot on my netbook (whereas Firefox runs great on it

), and you can't rid of individual downloads right from the Downloads Bar, and Chrome still uses twice as much memory as Firefox, with less addons and less tabs open (none with "active content"). If there was a BarTab extension for Chrome, tab loading wouldn't be so painful. I've had the whole app freeze on launches because I had > 10 tabs open.

BarTab, more control over downloads right-from-the-bar, and less memory usage, and I'll jump ship to Chrome for good.

Last second edit: I don't mean for this post to sound like a bash at Chrome. I rather like it in comparison to sluggish Firefox, minus the freeze-ups.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #31 on:** October 13, 2010, 02:29 AM »

I'm hooked on it myself now. With this chromium I don't get the auto updates so stuff shouldn't break mysteriously. It's running very stable. I like just unzipping instead of doing the install. Only thing a bit of a pita is if it does crash, you have to kill like 9 processes in Task Manager. But that's pretty rare.

If anyone wants to try chromium 8 instead of regular chrome you can download here:

http://build.chromium.org/buildbot/snapshots/chromium-rel-xp/

Your mileage may vary. I tried the mini installer and stuff kept crashing. But just unpacking the zip file and getting rid of regular chrome is working out great. The main reason I took off the regular chrome is I have everything set up to sync and I don't want any problems that might pop up in chrome with favicons or any of that to spread to chromium. I've been using chromium 8 for a few days and everything seems very smooth in both Windows Seven 32 bit and Vista64.

daddydave · « **Reply #32 on:** October 13, 2010, 09:36 AM »

I'm giving Chrome a third or fourth or fifth chance, largely because the latest Firefox beta broke all my search addons, and also because the Firefox folks seem intent on baking in features only useful to a handful of users, such as Personas and Tab Cheetos (or whatever they renamed it to).

However the search addons situation in Chrome is at least as bad actually, you always have to add the searches separately to the addon, there must not be an API to access the existing search engines in Chrome.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #33 on:** October 13, 2010, 08:37 PM »

It is annoying when something I'm used to in FF is not available in chrome. CheckPlaces can fetch favicons without opening a zillion tabs as example. otoh I have about 23 AddOns in FF and I can only do a couple more things than chrome with 7. And one of the 7 is Foxmarks, just to sync to FF now and then. Getting by with a 1/2 dozen extensions ain't bad.

Eóin · « **Reply #34 on:** October 13, 2010, 09:54 PM »

Don't forget to checkout Iron also, tracking free Chrome

I've been using it with Scroogle for a few months now.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #35 on:** October 14, 2010, 01:26 AM »

The first chrome flavor I tried was Iron. What put me off was that some of the extensions and other software for chrome didn't like the fact that things were in different folders. But with everything set up in Sync chromium is using all my extensions. The same may be so with Iron. When I was doing Iron I wanted to try to use my own ftp for storage, so I didn't set up the google sync. Chromium should be fine too as long as you don't use google search with the default string.

wraith808 · « **Reply #36 on:** October 14, 2010, 02:22 AM »

Quote from: MilesAhead on October 13, 2010, 08:37 PM

It is annoying when something I'm used to in FF is not available in chrome. CheckPlaces can fetch favicons without opening a zillion tabs as example. otoh I have about 23 AddOns in FF and I can only do a couple more things than chrome with 7. And one of the 7 is Foxmarks, just to sync to FF now and then. Getting by with a 1/2 dozen extensions ain't bad.

Foxmarks became xmarks, and is available on Chrome.

J-Mac · « **Reply #37 on:** October 14, 2010, 02:35 AM »

Firefox extensions I miss most in Chrome:

Scrapbook
Zotero
FireGestures (The gestures extension in Chrome is pretty lame)
QuickDrag (I highlight any text and then drag 'n toss it to open a new search for the term in Google)
Ultra Recall
Surfulater (Though I am using this one less and less)
Linkman
Ad Muncher
And last but not least: Tab Mix Plus

Chrome will be tough to take until they get moving with some of these. And no I won't blame extension authors for not porting their extensions to Chrome because Google doesn’t make it easy and in some cases they make it impossible to replicate these Firefox extensions.

Oops - almost forgot: one of the most exasperating missing features in Chrome........... NO PRINT PREVIEW!! What are they thinking with that??

Thanks!

Jim

MilesAhead · « **Reply #38 on:** October 14, 2010, 03:03 AM »

Quote from: wraith808 on October 14, 2010, 02:22 AM

Quote from: MilesAhead on October 13, 2010, 08:37 PM
It is annoying when something I'm used to in FF is not available in chrome. CheckPlaces can fetch favicons without opening a zillion tabs as example. otoh I have about 23 AddOns in FF and I can only do a couple more things than chrome with 7. And one of the 7 is Foxmarks, just to sync to FF now and then. Getting by with a 1/2 dozen extensions ain't bad.

Foxmarks became xmarks, and is available on Chrome.

I have it. Should have said XMarks. Slip of the memory. But I use google sync. XMarks I just use to sync FF from chromium. It would be so much easier to import and export a bookmarks.html but none of these browsers handle the import correctly from an .html file. You have to do way to much massaging to get rid of dupes, get the bookmarks toolbar into shape. I don't understand why that is.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #39 on:** October 14, 2010, 03:07 AM »

Quote from: J-Mac on October 14, 2010, 02:35 AM

Firefox extensions I miss most in Chrome:

...

It would be nice if SyncPlaces and CheckPlaces worked with chrome. But now that I'm using the built in sync for extensions and all the rest of it, the advantage of using my own ftp with that extension evaporates. Although I still don't understand why it would be so tough to let you log into your own ftp and sync. I suspect it's not all that difficult. Somebody must get a tenth of a cent every time one of us logs into the google server or something.

wraith808 · « **Reply #40 on:** October 14, 2010, 02:40 PM »

Quote from: J-Mac on October 14, 2010, 02:35 AM

Oops - almost forgot: one of the most exasperating missing features in Chrome........... NO PRINT PREVIEW!! What are they thinking with that??

Didn't even notice that, b/c I don't use it. If you want to sort of replicate print preview from *any* program, try fine print. The trial is unlimited, and if you don't want to use the features, just click bypass, and voila, you have print preview.

J-Mac · « **Reply #41 on:** October 14, 2010, 04:18 PM »

Quote from: wraith808 on October 14, 2010, 02:40 PM

Quote from: J-Mac on October 14, 2010, 02:35 AM
Oops - almost forgot: one of the most exasperating missing features in Chrome........... NO PRINT PREVIEW!! What are they thinking with that??

Didn't even notice that, b/c I don't use it. If you want to sort of replicate print preview from *any* program, try fine print. The trial is unlimited, and if you don't want to use the features, just click bypass, and voila, you have print preview.

Thanks for the comment but I shouldn’t have to install & use another software just to get print previews. You can also get previews with most printers but that requires opening up the Printing Preferences box each time I print in Chrome.

I find Print Preview necessary because of the way some web designers code their pages; many print terribly from a browser, or in some cases send a blank page before, after, or both.

Thanks!

Jim

MilesAhead · « **Reply #42 on:** October 14, 2010, 05:12 PM »

Wow! That is pretty basic. I found the "bug report" for it. Seems it was posted in 2008 and they are still working on it!!! Sheesh!!

http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=173

J-Mac · « **Reply #43 on:** October 15, 2010, 02:26 AM »

Quote from: MilesAhead on October 14, 2010, 05:12 PM

Wow! That is pretty basic. I found the "bug report" for it. Seems it was posted in 2008 and they are still working on it!!! Sheesh!!

http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=173

Did you read the comments there?

Quote

...this feature isn't vitally important to what Chromium is looking to accomplish.

Chrome's focus seems to be on improving the experience of using web apps, strong
security, stability, and (recently) a robust extensibility system.

Since printing sort of an "offline" feature, I'd imagine this feature isn't very high
on Google's radar, given the priorities mentioned above.

and...

Quote

If you really want this feature, be patient. It's going to come. If you can't wait,
use another browser. Complaining on the issue tracker is not going to get the feature
implemented any sooner so please refrain from spamming the 300+ people that have this
issue starred.

The code monkeys there seem to feel that printing from a browser is not a true primary function.

Printin'? PRINTIN'? We don’t need no stinkin' printin' in our browser!!

Doesn’t work for me...

Jim

MilesAhead · « **Reply #44 on:** October 15, 2010, 05:41 AM »

Yeah, some of the thinking is bizarre in some of these applications. I really like Splash Lite video player. I and a few other people have been bugging them on their forum for PGS subtitle support. The thing is an HD player without PGS subs support!! And they don't even respond!! It's really weird.

The other thing is they have this weird fashion sense of black background with navy blue controls. Like, I feel like a blind man with a cane mousing around until I happen to hit a control. One line of code they could have user adjustable background color!! But no!! That would be cheating!!!

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #45 on:** October 15, 2010, 11:29 AM »

Quote from: J-Mac on October 15, 2010, 02:26 AM

Quote from: MilesAhead on October 14, 2010, 05:12 PM
Wow! That is pretty basic. I found the "bug report" for it. Seems it was posted in 2008 and they are still working on it!!! Sheesh!!

http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=173

Did you read the comments there?

Quote
...this feature isn't vitally important to what Chromium is looking to accomplish.

Chrome's focus seems to be on improving the experience of using web apps, strong
security, stability, and (recently) a robust extensibility system.

Since printing sort of an "offline" feature, I'd imagine this feature isn't very high
on Google's radar, given the priorities mentioned above.

and...

Quote
If you really want this feature, be patient. It's going to come. If you can't wait,
use another browser. Complaining on the issue tracker is not going to get the feature
implemented any sooner so please refrain from spamming the 300+ people that have this
issue starred.

The code monkeys there seem to feel that printing from a browser is not a true primary function.

Printin'? PRINTIN'? We don’t need no stinkin' printin' in our browser!!

Doesn’t work for me...

Jim

That wouldn't work for me either. They must think "Printing" is strictly an Hard-Copy exercise. But I "Print" mainly to PDF and a preview is mandatory to be sure I've got the content I need without the garbage banners & etc.

*Shrug* ...I'm happy with IE9...Chrome just doesn't excite me.

superboyac · « **Reply #46 on:** October 15, 2010, 01:45 PM »

Quote from: MilesAhead on October 15, 2010, 05:41 AM

Yeah, some of the thinking is bizarre in some of these applications. I really like Splash Lite video player. I and a few other people have been bugging them on their forum for PGS subtitle support. The thing is an HD player without PGS subs support!! And they don't even respond!! It's really weird.

The other thing is they have this weird fashion sense of black background with navy blue controls. Like, I feel like a blind man with a cane mousing around until I happen to hit a control. One line of code they could have user adjustable background color!! But no!! That would be cheating!!!

Don't get me started, Miles....don't get me started.

Josh · « **Reply #47 on:** October 15, 2010, 02:10 PM »

Chrome might go to the wayside if Opera is successful with their implementation of extensions. Opera, in my opinion, with extensions could be superior to chrome and most other browsers if they do it right.

Opera 11 extensions discussion

superboyac · « **Reply #48 on:** October 15, 2010, 03:06 PM »

Quote from: zridling on April 22, 2010, 06:46 AM

I've used the Linux version since it arrived way back without problems. And, it has all the extensions I was using with Firefox. Here are my favs:

AdBlock
Same as Firefox. CTRL+SHIFT+K lets you kill the code for any ad. CTRL+SHIFT+L lets you unblock something.

FlashBlock
Invaluable for silencing Flash videos. Click the transparent outline to make video appear and play.

Personalized Web
Also serves as an ad and Flash blocker, but more importantly, you can customize your font selection here.

Smoothscroll
Make scrolling as smooth and as fast as you want.

Session Manager
Save browsing sessions of open tabs.

Chromey Calculator
Mimics all the functions of the Google Calculator. Handy when I'm on the phone with a vendor.

Quick Extensions
Opens a page that lists all your extensions and lets you manage them from there.

Untiny
Get the original URL of any shortened URL. It expands most bit.ly addresses in Twitter; others it's a copy/paste is all.

AutoPatchWork
Automatically loads the next page and inserts into current page when you reach the end of the page, as Opera does.

There are a dozen others that I use only rarely and don't need, but these I like and do the job of blocking everything.

Nice list. Man, I missed your Windows years! I probably visit your archived great software list more often than I'd care to admit.

TheQwerty · « **Reply #49 on:** October 18, 2010, 12:01 PM »

Quote from: J-Mac on October 15, 2010, 02:26 AM

Quote
If you really want this feature, be patient. It's going to come. If you can't wait,
use another browser. Complaining on the issue tracker is not going to get the feature implemented any sooner so please refrain from spamming the 300+ people that have this issue starred.

The code monkeys there seem to feel that printing from a browser is not a true primary function.

I don't know that I would take this comment as any indication of how the "code monkeys" actually feel. It's a sentiment often expressed in similar comments found in many of the "popular" issues on Google's trackers, and not just for Google products.

One of the problems with Google's tracker is that by default if you Star an issue you receive update e-mails for every comment posted. So you'll get a bug like this that a number of people want to see fixed, and it'll get posted on elsewhere, and people who don't know anything about issue trackers will flood the comments with "+1" and "I want this fixed too!" posts that get e-mailed to everyone who has starred the issue.

This then leads to some people who understand how the tracker works trying to get this flood to stop by posting something like the above, but that typically doesn't work. Plus the moderators have the ability to remove comments, and I don't believe doing so leaves any trace so you end up with comments like the one you quoted where it has some useful information but also a plea to stop the spamming.

In comment 66, there's evidence of this happening over a year after the comment you quoted:

Quote

I've locked this bug to non-committer comments, since someone flooded the help forum with links to this bug along with a suggestion that spamming it with comments would be helpful, when in fact all that will do is spam hundreds of people and make this bug less useful for anyone actually trying to work on it.

If you want to express interest in seeing this fixed and get email updates when something changes, star this issue.

I'm sure somewhere there's an issue report begging Google to make the option to e-mail updates a granular setting that can be applied on a per-issue basis, and it's probably been flooded with "+1" and "Yes please" comments by people trying to be clever.