[yesicarry]

Tonight, I had the chance to talk to an Air Force I.T. Specialist at my work. He helped with tracing down probs. in my laptop and such.. But informed me on a web browser that is called Google Chrome.. More secure than Internet Explorer and Firefox..
Anybody here ever heard of it ?

[MGH]

Chrome is awesome! you can totally personalize it and add extensions that are made by 3rd party. I highly recommend it!

[DrumJunkie]

Chrome is a pretty good browser but I can't see where it's more secure than Mozilla Firefox. Chromes big deal is the cloud. The idea that all apps will be web based one day. So you don't need to run apps form a local machine (When the cloud comes to be). Google is trying to do the things similar to what people like AOL. MSN did some time back. Putting everything in one place creating a community where you don't have to get out on the web..Everything will be within the Google community/cloud. This will allow slower computer work like their newer counterparts being you wont need to install and run apps like MS office and the like. This will be great for older laptops and desktops. But leaving everything web based bothers me a little on a security standpoint. I can take measures to ensure security. I can't if it's all stored on cloud servers. And the big point? I'm not all that sure all these clouds will be free or open as the Linux community might say. Once a user is dependent on the cloud you will need to internet access to get to documents and the like. Working offline will be a thing of the past. But with prevelent access to broadband internet this might not be a big deal to many users.

I've used every browser that's come and gone over the last12-14 years and I'm a Firefox user. The thing with Firefox is you don't want to just install it and forget it. There are tons of tweaks to enable it to run and do the things you want it to do. So for the4 novis user it might not work near it's best and it is known for memory issues. But that can be fixed wit ha small tweak (Link).

As long as you're not using Internet explorer you will be better off so maybe looking into things like Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Mozilla Seamonkey is a smart move. You will find that well over 50% of the Windows updates you see as critical are to fix holes in Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, or that horrid medias player they have. I've refused to use any of these for years. Mozilla has a fantastic news reader called Thunderbird that has a similar interface but is much more secure. I've worked in areas of network security for a good while so I look long and hard at features any software has in the areas of security. Chrome does have some pretty decent safeguards though. The browser is not near as vulnerable for packet buffer overflow packets like IE is. With the way the internet is right now the Google Chrome browser will work quite well. I'm not as sure down the road but as it sits right now it will work better than IE ever did. You will do yourself a big favor by not using it. Micro$oft is not too willing to allow other browsers to get updates. But you can get around this by going to Softwarepatch.com and you get get updates there. You can actually download the updates and have copies to use later if you need to reinstall your operating system too. M$ does not allow for that easily. They also will put descriptions in plain english.

BTW...A real god media player to you so you can also run far away from Windoze Media Player is called VLC Player. It has a ton of features. You can even use vids as wallpapers. It loads really fast, plays most all formats, And will work across most all platforms.

The farther you can distance yourself from MS protects the better off you will be.

[cpttango30]

Chrome is the most secure browser it is also the fastest. It is the only browser this IT guy uses. PS world did a test where they got hackers together and had them attack each browser Chrome was the only one that didn't get hacked that is not saying it can't be done. But it is much better than both IE 7 or 8 and Firefox.

I dislike firefox for the reason that I feel like I am surfing the web in slow motion.

Google is really going to give microsoft a run for it's money if they bring out their android OS for PC's and not just phones and netbooks. I for one will switch asap. Google apps are great they are web based and work just as good or better than MS Office and open office.

[Bigcountry02]

Originally Posted by cpttango30

Chrome is the most secure browser it is also the fastest. It is the only browser this IT guy uses. PS world did a test where they got hackers together and had them attack each browser Chrome was the only one that didn't get hacked that is not saying it can't be done. But it is much better than both IE 7 or 8 and Firefox.

I dislike firefox for the reason that I feel like I am surfing the web in slow motion.

Google is really going to give microsoft a run for it's money if they bring out their android OS for PC's and not just phones and netbooks. I for one will switch asap. Google apps are great they are web based and work just as good or better than MS Office and open office.

Internet Explorer is the same at times (Slow)! I am thinking of loading Chrome.

[cpttango30]

The best thing about chrome for me is the book mark bar. They took it from Mac's Safari browser but I love it. The bookmarks bar allows you to place 10 to 15 of the most visited sites right a click away.

Another feature I use if the bookmark merge where you download and use chrome on different computers (ME I have it on my laptop, work, and wifes computer) It allows you to merge and sync all the book marks. To cut down on clutter and doubles I would download and set it up on your main computer then merge and sync to that one from all others then you have exactly the same bookmarks no matter where you go.

I use chrome at work for most of my free time browsing, there are some apps that I HAVE to use IE7 for and some that work in Firefox the best.

The biggest draw back is that some web sites don't display properly because the code was wrote for IE. I have found 1 maybe 2 web sites that don't like chrome.

[Mr. Bluesky]

On my PC, I use Firefox. As a computer science major, I don't see any specific advantages to Chrome, except for the "Ooh, pretty" aspect of it, which is something I couldn't care less about. Your IT fella is wrong, or infusing his personal opinion into his advice - Chrome is no more fast or secure than Firefox.

On my netbook (Read: Tiny laptop), I use Opera. Opera lets me do more using keyboard commands than either Firefox or Chrome, so I don't have to futz around with the trackpad. Speed dial is awesome. You set up a list of 9 sites, and ctrl+1 through ctrl+9 take you there instantly. No other browser does that.

EDIT: Decided to test it again, as I haven't in a while. You can try the test for yourself at: http://acid3.acidtests.org. Higher scores are, obviously, better.

Chrome:


Firefox:


Opera:


The latest release of Chrome is, indeed, slightly faster than Firefox. Opera used to require addons to pass, but I suppose the latest release is an improvement. Will be using Opera across the board from now on. I stick to what I said about Chrome security vs. Firefox. Google, in a remarkable display of douchebaggery, tested the unreleased Chrome against an old version of Firefox. You don't need to be Miss Cleo to know that Chrome was gonna win that one.

IE, just for the lulz:

[LegatoRedrivers]

As for the cloud computing discussion up there, it's more secure than you think. The thing that bothers me the most is that I live in Indiana...where random hail can come and knock out your internet for a couple hours on a 90 degree day. If you run a business, all your business applications require internet access to work, and your internet goes out? You're up the proverbial river of excrement in a Native American water vessel without any means of propulsion.

[Yunus]

I use Chrome as well for the speed of it. IE8 is my second choice. I used to only use Firefox but it really is slower than Chrome. Not only do webpages render slower but the initial load up time is much longer for Firefox.

I'm not sure if IE8 and Firefox have done this but Chrome's other advantage is that each window is it's own process. So if a Chrome window crashes it only takes down that window, if IE crashes you lose all IE windows.

I have to keep IE around because some websites or applications require IE and even with the IE add-on for Chrome it's still not perfect, if you have a new window open it still fails sometimes.