If you are considering either experimenting or outright adopting Google Chrome, here are the advantages and disadvantages that are worth knowing about.
Not happy solely dominating the internet, Google hoped to dominate how the internet is accessed with their entry into the browser market, Google Chrome. The market is not an easy one to enter with both the traditional Internet Explorer already losing users thanks to the highly customizable Mozilla Firefox. Google certainly had little problem getting users to try their new browser and many who tried it, left their favourite browsers for good.
If you are considering either experimenting or outright adopting Google Chrome, here are some advantages and disadvantages that are worth knowing about.
Advantages of Google Chrome
- Address Bar Can Be Used to Search - My favourite advantage of Chrome over other browsers is probably the fact that its address bar doubles as a search bar. This not only means that you can type the name of a site rather than it’s full address, it also means that when you accidentally type the address of a site wrong, you are still brought to the correct site. This may not sound like a major feature but if you go back to Firefox or I.E. after using Chrome for long enough, it is certainly something that you will miss.
- Useful Google.com Functionality - Another advantage is that it cleverly incorporates a number of Google.com features. With Google Translate for example, you no longer need to go to the Google Translate site as Chrome simply asks you if you would like to translate content any time you visit a site that is not written in your native tongue. This was a clever move on Google’s part and something that I suspect lead to a lot of new users.
- Speedy Start Up - If you are a frequent user of Firefox, you will also notice how incredibly fast Google Chrome starts up. This is due to the fact that Chrome uses very little memory which is also incredibly advantageous for netbook users or for those with other less powerful machines. Although, there are many reasonable arguments for using different browsers, I think that this one feature, Internet connection speed, makes Chrome the obvious choice for all netbook owners.
Disadvantages of Google Chrome
- Not Compatible with Some Sites - While I.E. has lost many users due to the wealth of new features incorporated into the browsers developed by Mozilla and Google, the one thing that I.E. definitely has going for it is compatibility. Any website that was created and last updated prior to Google Chrome being released is not guaranteed to be compatible with it. Considering the fact that Google Chrome is still quite young, this can, at times, be an issue.
- No Warning When Closing Multiple Tabs - Mozilla users will require a bit of time to get used to the fact that when you close the browser while multiple tabs are open, no warning message is displayed. This seems like a very easy fix but highly irritating design flaw and not one that Google appears to be doing anything about.
- Invisible Tab Titles - Another downside of Chrome compared to Mozilla is the way in which it handles the size of multiple tabs. While Mozilla will only shrink tabs to a size in which the title remains readable, Chrome minimizes the tabs to the point that only the icons are visible. This makes finding a particular tab incredibly difficult. Mozilla gets around this issue by creating horizontal arrows that can be used to scroll to see other opened tabs “off screen”. In my opinion, Mozilla’s approach is far superior and its absence in Chrome is a significant disadvantage.
Copyright Anne Envisonite. Contact the author to obtain permission for republication.
Anne Envisonite - Having graduated from University in Journalism, I am now a full time freelance writer with a passion for I.T. You can follow some of my ...
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