The Awesomesauce of Chrome

Topic: The Awesomesauce of Chrome (Read 19579 times)

The Awesomesauce of Chrome

2014-04-20, 19:54:37

Just the other day I noticed an icon in my Windows "trash can" or how is it called? The right bottom corner.
"Chrome - Notifications". It's empty. It upgrades itself smoothly and is very useful as a "workhorse" browser.
It has drawbacks, what do you think?

By the by, that icon is nearly the only English language one... Err... There's MSE, of course - also not "localised":up:...

Re: The Awesome Arse of Chrome

Reply #1 – 2014-04-20, 20:45:33

Re: The Awesome Arse of Chrome

Reply #2 – 2014-04-20, 20:50:56

TROLOLOLOL

Re: The Awesome Arse of Chrome

Reply #3 – 2015-01-23, 16:17:23

Eureka, we already have a thread on Chrome. I almost started a new one.

So, I see lots of people posting in Chrome. What is your ~~excuse~~ ~~justification~~ sorry, can't find the right word.

Why do you use it? Does it do something better than IE/FF? Is it somehow more convenient? Does it have a nifty feature/extension you can't live without?

How did you first get it? What made it a lasting relationship?

As for me, I heard about Chrome because I was actively following the development(s) on the browser market(s) at the time. As soon as I heard of it, I tried it at version #1. After a few days I uninstalled it and never looked back. About specific reasons later, if anyone's interested. I have meanwhile occasionally encountered Chrome in other people's computers but I still see nothing in it I would want or need.

Re: The Awesome Arse of Chrome

Reply #4 – 2015-01-23, 16:40:16

Chrome is faster than older versions of IE, provided you don't use too many tabs. I don't think my mother would care terribly much one way or the other. (Although, maybe IE bookmarks are easier to use than Chrome's… not sure.)

Re: The Awesome Arse of Chrome

Reply #5 – 2015-01-23, 18:03:09

Quote from: Frenzie on 2015-01-23, 16:40:16

Chrome is faster than older versions of IE, provided you don't use too many tabs. I don't think my mother would care terribly much one way or the other.

Yeah, as soon as it was released, I figured Chrome would make success among dumbusers as an IE replacement. As such, I thought Chrome would not gain a too threatening market share. How wrong I was. Part of it was due to my misunderestimation of the sheer amount of dumbusers that were soon to be unleashed on the interwebz. However, I also notice sophisticated users using it. I can understand dumbusers, but what the hell attracts nerds to Chrome?

By the way, I have put my own father on Opera 12. E-mail and internet conveniently in one window. He digs it (after I tweaked the interface and behaviour appropriate to his needs and capacity, of course).

Re: The Awesome Arse of Chrome

Reply #6 – 2015-01-23, 19:23:56

Here in the company where I work, workers and customers use Chrome to browse through our enterprise web application, and they feel Chrome runs JavaScript faster than, for instance, Firefox.

Re: The Awesome Arse of Chrome

Reply #7 – 2015-01-23, 20:24:45

Quote from: ersi on 2015-01-23, 18:03:09

However, I also notice sophisticated users using it. I can understand dumbusers, but what the hell attracts nerds to Chrome?

Extensions like Vimium are fairly interesting. But I don't get it either.

Quote from: Barulheira on 2015-01-23, 19:23:56

Here in the company where I work, workers and customers use Chrome to browse through our enterprise web application, and they feel Chrome runs JavaScript faster than, for instance, Firefox.

Depends a bit on the JS. Are they using a horrible framework like Angular?

Re: The Awesome Arse of Chrome

Reply #8 – 2015-01-23, 21:22:03

I use Chrome, it's my workhorse browser for the time being. Maybe I'll poke Firefox with a stick again and see if I get useful life out of it, or maybe Pale Moon. IE is good for--- downloading other browsers.

Re: The Awesome Arse of Chrome

Reply #9 – 2015-01-24, 13:06:52

Am I the only one who thought the thread title was a Futurama reference?

Re: The Awesome Arse of Chrome

Reply #10 – 2015-01-24, 14:27:00

Opera 12 still rocks.
But the world is running furiously towards a Chrome-a-like kind of hallucination.

There's a problem however for using Opera 12 at work, it's called bad code by website designers.

Re: The Awesome Arse of Chrome

Reply #11 – 2015-01-24, 19:41:06

@Macallan, Bender and Chrome? Nah, see about:robots in Firefox. ;-)

@ersi, Chrome wouldn't be able to gain momentum without huge investments done by Google in marketing and use of their de facto monopoly in search market and intentionally breaking their popular products for other browsers (especially Opera, using small market share as excuse)...
They invested more in marketing than in coding, reusing already available product (well, they did a lot, but had far easier start, especially that they almost completely removed UI ;-)).

Re: The Awesome Arse of Chrome

Reply #12 – 2015-01-25, 04:42:59

Quote from: Frenzie on 2015-01-23, 20:24:45

Extensions like Vimium are fairly interesting.

More interesting than Vimperator? Or more interesting than UZBL or DWB or Luakit? Of course not.

Quote from: Emdek on 2015-01-24, 19:41:06

@ersi, Chrome wouldn't be able to gain momentum without huge investments done by Google in marketing and use of their de facto monopoly in search market and intentionally breaking their popular products for other browsers (especially Opera, using small market share as excuse)...

This is how IE spread too. And this is the reason why web developers hate it.

Chrome sneaked into people's computers by being secretly attached to Flash and Java updates, and to Openoffice installers on Windows. But all this highlights my question. Everything you mention causes strong reactions with geeks. They would not use a sneaky software. Yet many use it anyway. What gives?

Re: The Awesome Arse of Chrome

Reply #13 – 2015-01-25, 08:45:30

Quote from: ersi on 2015-01-25, 06:42:59

Everything you mention causes strong reactions with geeks. They would not use a sneaky software. Yet many use it anyway. What gives?

There are many possible reasons, for example conformity.
Also if someone has to use it to have full access to their services (many companies use their services, because some of them are free) then user might become accustomed and do not want to switch to other browser even if he has freedom of choice (for example after returning from work).

While Chrome is extremely bare (some users love that it is too minimalistic) it is still good enough for many users and definitely it is fast.

For sure they wouldn't achieve domination on this market so quickly without abusing their power...

Re: The Awesome Arse of Chrome

Reply #14 – 2015-01-25, 10:20:42

Quote from: ersi on 2015-01-25, 04:42:59

Chrome sneaked into people's computers by being secretly attached to Flash and Java updates, and to Openoffice installers on Windows.

I knew that Flash and Java had turned into malware (yes, installing unrequested junk makes you malware), but OpenOffice?! Of course everyone's already switched to LibreOffice years ago, but still.

Re: The Awesome Arse of Chrome

Reply #15 – 2015-01-25, 10:35:42

Quote from: Frenzie on 2015-01-25, 10:20:42

I knew that Flash and Java had turned into malware (yes, installing unrequested junk makes you malware),...

There's a subtle distinction, if I remember my Windoze daze correctly. Flash was outright malware in the sense that it began updating itself behind the curtains. You accept the update and you won't see what else will be installed. Occasionally, it installed Chrome (and other similarly distributed junk) with the update this way.

Java updates always had a more explicit walkthrough when offering updates. Junk sneaked into the system with Java updates when you forgot to untick the junk at the right moment.

Quote from: Frenzie on 2015-01-25, 10:20:42

...but OpenOffice?! Of course everyone's already switched to LibreOffice years ago, but still.

With OpenOffice, what's so surprising? The same distributor as Java.

And I have my doubts about LibreOffice also. They share the same extensions and they tend to require Java. Simple extra dictionaries and spellcheckers should not require Java.

Re: The Awesome Arse of Chrome

Reply #16 – 2015-01-25, 11:33:02

Quote from: ersi on 2015-01-25, 10:35:42

Java updates always had a more explicit walkthrough when offering updates. Junk sneaked into the system with Java updates when you forgot to untick the junk at the right moment.

Either way, you're better off without it. Flash is the worse malware then. Fair enough.

Quote from: ersi on 2015-01-25, 10:35:42

With OpenOffice, what's so surprising? The same distributor as Java.

My shock was at the Apache foundation. The only software I recall it (optionally) including in the Sun days is Java. Now Java, I suppose that might've pulled in who knows what if you weren't paying attention.

Quote from: ersi on 2015-01-25, 10:35:42

And I have my doubts about LibreOffice also. They share the same extensions and they tend to require Java. Simple extra dictionaries and spellcheckers should not require Java.

LibreOffice has been removing Java dependencies, and even OpenOffice 3 already ran fairly well without having any Java installed.

http://en.libreofficeforum.org/node/7170#comment-29223

Re: The Awesome Arse of Chrome

Reply #17 – 2015-01-25, 14:16:05

Quote from: Frenzie on 2015-01-25, 11:33:02

LibreOffice has been removing Java dependencies, and even OpenOffice 3 already ran fairly well without having any Java installed.

http://en.libreofficeforum.org/node/7170#comment-29223

Good that they do, but there was no reason to make them dependent in the first place. Certainly not the disctionaries and spellcheckers. That was just malicious imposition.

Anyway, back to Chrome. One of the prominent "features" that turned me off immediately was the translation feature. Chrome wants to translate foreign pages and throws up a bar with the options Translate, Never this domain, Never this language.

There was no option Never throw up this freaking bar, EVER! Dear kind users of Chrome, has such option appeared? Is there perhaps an extension (giggles) to turn the translation bar off?

Re: The Awesome Arse of Chrome

Reply #18 – 2015-01-25, 15:19:49

@ersi, apparently some users like it...
https://github.com/Emdek/otter/issues/112

Personally I haven't seen it in Chromium at all or very long time ago.

Re: The Awesome Arse of Chrome

Reply #19 – 2015-01-25, 16:17:28

Quote from: ersi on 2015-01-25, 14:16:05

Good that they do, but there was no reason to make them dependent in the first place. Certainly not the disctionaries and spellcheckers. That was just malicious imposition.

Is that really true when you place it in an early to mid-'90s perspective? At the time it was simply a decent way of creating software that ran on a variety of platforms. Whatever dictionaries and spellcheckers you're talking about I don't know; to my knowledge anything bundled with LO/OOo has been Hunspell-based for almost a decade. There's definitely no Java requirement for that. I (probably) still have a late-'90s version of StarOffice on a CD-ROM somewhere. I got it for free with a magazine. I wonder how much it still feels like the latest release.

Quote from: ersi on 2015-01-25, 14:16:05

There was no option Never throw up this freaking bar, EVER! Dear kind users of Chrome, has such option appeared? Is there perhaps an extension (giggles) to turn the translation bar off?

Hah, I remember being annoyed by the same thing. Btw, I just visited Google Translate and guess what it said?

Quote

Try a new browser with automatic translation. Download Google Chrome Dismiss

Quote from: Emdek on 2015-01-25, 15:19:49

@ersi, apparently some users like it...
https://github.com/Emdek/otter/issues/112

Frankly the thought of an extension is pretty stupid too. In Opera you could add a custom menu entry if you wanted, but a bookmarklet will work in probably every browser. In Opera/Fx/Otter it's doubly useful because you can assign a nickname/keyword. For instance my QR code bookmarklet has a nickname of "qr" and if I had a translate bookmarklet it'd probably be something like "t" or "tr". You could also use custom search engines for similar purposes, and of course Opera has its built-in translation menu on text selection too.

What's missing here is remembering auto-translation for a certain site, I suppose. That's not something I've ever desired.

Re: The Awesome Arse of Chrome

Reply #20 – 2015-01-25, 17:28:14

@Frenzie, sure, let me run my What-if machine to describe possible outcomes. ;-)
Possibilities:

extension - we don't care at all,

built-in (Chrome way) - UI similar to that of one for asking for permission to use geolocation etc. (horizontal bar with question, and combo box to decide what to do next time with ability to kill it off completely),

built-in (Opera way) - special type of search engine, with custom action with menu to be placed anywhere.

Personally I would go for Opera-like variant (I'm considering categories for search engines anyway, as validators will work the same way anyway) although horizontal bar may appeal to some users...
I'm not planning to work on that topic until important stuff will be done.

Re: The Awesome Arse of Chrome

Reply #21 – 2015-01-25, 18:40:12

Quote from: Macallan on 2015-01-24, 13:06:52

Am I the only one who thought the thread title was a Futurama reference?

The title reflects the proclivities of the member that remains to be banned. I was about to change it to be something more in line with our other threads, but your comment gave me a little pause.

I am not sure what kind of software product Google Bender would be, but I would like to test it.

Re: The Awesomesauce of Chrome

Reply #22 – 2015-01-26, 19:07:32

@Macallan, sorry for total off topic (my only excuse is that I'm a bit drunk right now), but see beginning of "Starring" part (well, entire clip is worth watching):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTfBH-XFdSc
I have no idea why I needed so much beer to notice that such obvious reference to Futurama (watching that clip for the third time), I definitely need to re-watch entire series again, as I'm starting to forget names of secondary characters. ;-)

Re: The Awesomesauce of Chrome

Reply #23 – 2015-02-07, 12:52:59

the only reason i have chrome of my desktop / laptop is its the only browser right now to play Netflix on a linux system [shame no other browsers have the html5 codecs right now, i hope it will change soon]

The Awesomesauce of Chrome

Reply #24 – 2015-07-16, 18:37:26

if anyone is interested..

Its in the "History" file combined with browsing history. It looks like its in Sqllite format.

Vista:
C:Users<username>AppDataLocalGoog... DataDefaultHistory

XP:
C:Documents and Settings<username>Application DataLocal SettingsGoogleChromeUser DataDefaultHistory

Chrome never forgets..