I have been using Mozilla‘s Firefox as my main browser for many years. It used to be quite fast but recent updates have killed its performance. The main reason I stuck with it is that it supported the Adblock Plus extension that conveniently stripped out all ads and saved me both bandwidth and money. At $8/MB even the smallest ads can drain your donor cash.
For some time Google’s Chrome has been a viable option for Windows users but it was only recently that they opened an extension page and released a version for Mac. If you want to use extensions you will (for some silly reason) need to install the Beta version and extensions do not yet work with the Mac version. Once the extensions are available my conversion will be complete for one simple reason: AdThwart.
Currently, the second most popular extension currently available is AdThwart which is the Chrome equivalent of Adblock Plus. While other extensions like IE Tab, Things To Do and Aviary Screen Capture are useful, the only really critical extension for me is AdThwart. (Kudos to Google for allowing an extension that will cut into their revenue stream.)
Chrome is already lightening fast to load and render, you can enter search queries in the address bar, importing you bookmarks from Firefox is one click during install and it renders pages beautifully. With AdThwart and the other extensions now available Chrome has just eclipsed Firefox as my browser of choice.
In the field tools that are lighter, faster and more reliable enable us to save more lives. I don’t hand out a lot of praise to tech groups/companies for their work but in this case I am happy to say that Chrome has just joined my shortlist of technologies that help us to do just that. Nice work, Google.
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