Getting tired of all the Firefox hype? Try this powerful cross-platform web browser
One of the reasons Firefox became popular in the first place was that it was different from the norm. Computer users like to be seen to be using cutting edge software, particularly apps that do not ship with the operating system. Quite frankly, Internet Explorer 6 was hardly cutting edge and the lack of updates for a long period of time, somewhat helped Firefox gain a foothold.
It is therefore somewhat difficult to understand how Google are going to make inroads with their (rather decent) Chrome web browser. Sure it’s fast, yes it brought a couple of unique features and it renders web pages beautifully, but there aren’t too many compelling reasons to ditch Firefox or using Chrome alongside your existing browser. Perhaps the forthcoming Google operating system may help.
Google Chrome tries hard. The developers have brought us three major releases in just over a year. At this rate we’ll have Google Chrome v5 before Firefox v4 (planned for late 2010). Google Chrome only feels like it was announced a short while ago. After installing Chrome, the first thing will attempt to do is move across all your Firefox settings, bookmarks and so on, thinking that this will help you get started.
There are some unique features you don’t get in Firefox. For example, tab protection stops the entire browser from crashing if one particular web page causes Chrome rendering issues. That tab will fail and crash, not the whole browser.
Note that this is the Beta Preview of the forthcoming Google Chrome 4 and is now available for the PC, Mac or Linux platform. However, not all features are the same across each platform. As an example, only the PC and Linux version supports extensions (addons).
Final Verdict: Powerful, fast and interesting web browser worth a look if you are seeking an alternative
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