Before this past month, I would have never given up my Mozilla Firefox. Undoubtedly the most powerful browser out there, Firefox suited all of my needs. Web surfing, blogging, and e-commerce were all made possible with Firefox until I experienced constant freezing, slow performance, and just plain frustration.

Yes, I hate to admit it, but I began to have problems with Firefox. Countless times I’d be in the middle of an article for Premiership Talk, and Firefox would just unexpectedly lock up and freeze. Sometimes Firefox’s problems even locked up my whole computer. Extremely frustrating to say the least.

So what did I do about it? I didn’t want to, but I finally gave Google Chrome a try. I had heard bad things about Chrome, but I figured if it’s Google, there’s got to be some cool features. So, after a month of using Chrome, here are my thoughts:

Advantages

Let me start off by saying the advantages to Google Chrome are quite numerous. Right out of the box the speed and simplicity of Chrome becomes apparent.

Speed

It’s fast. Perhaps my favorite thing about Google Chrome. Chrome’s speed is superior to Firefox’s in all aspects. The browser itself loads a lot faster on my machine, and individual web sites also load significantly faster.

Custom search bar

Google has really found a winner with their custom search bar. Unlike Firefox, there are no special toolbars in Google Chrome (that’s right, not even the Google toolbar). Instead, the address bar functions as an all in one customizeable search box. Chrome gives you the ability to define certain search engines or other searches as part of your personal Chrome search bar. By default, any words you enter into the address bar (not a URL, obviously) will be entered into a Google search when you hit enter. However, if you set custom search engines and keywords, you can unleash the full potential of this search bar.

For instance, for Premiership Talk I use Google images a lot. I’ve set my Chrome search bar so that if i type “images keyword” then it will enter that keyword into a Google image search. Alternatively, if I want to search dictionary.com, all I need to do is type “define word” and it will put that word into a dictionary.com search. Any search box on any website can be set with a custom keyword into your Google Chrome address bar.

To set custom searches, all you need to do is go to the site that you want to search, right click your Chrome address bar, and click “Edit Search Engines.” It will automatically recognize the search feature on the website, and you just need to assign it a keyword. It’s that easy!

Simplicity

I never thought I’d be praising the simplicity of a web browser, considering how many add-ons and other tools I had on my Firefox. However, switching to Google Chrome makes life a lot simpler without losing many useful things. While there aren’t any add-ons for Chrome yet, it comes with a few great features right out of the box. My favorite – although it’s quite simple – is that when you open a new tab, Chrome displays your most visited websites. It shows nine thumbnails of the websites that you visit most often – which saves a lot of time. When I open a new tab, chances are I don’t have to enter a URL because it’s right in front of me. Smart stuff by Google.

Displays code nicely

As a web developer, nothing is more frustrating than a browser that doesn’t display code well. Mozilla Firefox has always worked with every bit of code I’ve done, and I’ve never had any problems with other websites on Firefox. After I began using Chrome, I found that it’s not just Firefox that knows how to display code: it appears to be every browser other than Internet Explorer! Chrome displays code very nicely and very quickly. Explorer, on the other hand, often makes sites look awful because it doesn’t display things properly. No such problems with Chrome.

Disadvantages

Not as portable

One of the reasons why I loved Firefox was because I could use Foxmarks with it. Even if I was using another computer temporarily, I could login to Foxmarks and access my bookmarks. This also worked perfectly with Portable Apps. With Chrome, though, there is no such solution. As I recently purchased a new netbook I needed to access my Chrome bookmarks from my other laptop, so I needed to copy and paste the Application Data folder from one computer to another. Not much of a hassle, but certainly not as logical as Foxmarks. And now I can’t synchronize the two using the web…

Adblock Plus

If you haven’t noticed yet, the two disadvantages of Google Chrome is that it doesn’t have some of Firefox’s most useful add-ons. Adblock Plus saved a lot of frustration, as virtually no pop-ups got past it and visible ads were all erased. Google Chrome has a built in pop-up blocker, but it’s nowhere near the quality of Adblock Plus for Firefox.

I can’t Stumble anymore!?

That’s  right – Google Chrome isn’t supported by StumbleUpon. It’s a shame, because with the speed of Chrome Stumbling would be so much faster. It’s not a big enough reason to avoid Chrome, as no more Stumbling could mean increased productivity. Now where’s that graph that correlates productivity to the amount of Stumbles?

Conclusion

Overall, I am extremely happy with Google Chrome. I’ve already adjusted to life post-Firefox and don’t think I’ll be going back anytime soon. Chrome is faster, more efficient, and more organized. Google Chrome’s innovative search bar is a big enough reason alone for me to switch browsers. Go Chrome!

To download Google Chrome head on over to http://www.google.com/chrome.