Ok, I’ve got to admit that Chrome has lost a bit of its luster as far as I’m concerned. For instance, for one of my projects, I need to use Central Desktop, an excellent project management site. Unfortunately, it’s one of several sites that Chrome can’t handle. Not that Safari or even Opera can either. I’m revising my earlier assessment of Chrome. I now regard it as a souped-up version of WebKit, that still has most of the flaws that Safari does. That’s not to say it’s a bad browser by any means… it’s superb. But for my browsing as well as my Web development, I’m relying on Firefox again.
However, Chrome offers a lot of promise. According to marketshare.hitslink.com, Chrome seized 0.78% of the worldwide browser share in less than a month on the scene, a phenomenal achievement. If the Google staff commits to really developing it, with full plug-in capability, solidness in handling intensive Flash-based Web apps. and fixing the long-standing problems with WebKit (such as the alternate stylesheet issue), Chrome will undoubtedly go far. (Unfortunately, it will also probably go far if they do nothing and leave it at version 0.2 for three years. They’re Google, after all.) I really do want to see the Web improve and browsers improve, and Chrome can offer a lot.
However, this morning I test-drove “Minefield,” the development codename for Firefox 3.1, and I’m amazed. In my not-so-humble opinion as a Firefox fan, Firefox’s sole problem has been its speed. Minefield fixes that with blazingly fast page downloads and a new Javascript rendering engine which “may be the fastest on the planet.” Kudos to the Mozilla team!
Of that 0.78%, do they say how many users are constant users? As in how many simply jumped on Chrome, tried it, didn’t like it, and left it in the gutter for the golden fields of Firefox and golden waterfall showers of Internet Explorer?