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Google Chrome, as Extendable as Firefox?

Written by Josh on Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008

Have you heard about Google Chrome?

Sick of hearing about it yet?

Well I’ll keep this short and attempt not to describe any of the features, check just about any other tech blog if that interests you, or alternatively you could download it and try for yourself.

It’s a good browser now doubt, but the biggest factor in being able to turn initial interest into a sizable market share will be in the growth of community of developers and passionate contributors such as Firefox has enjoyed for the last few years.

Developers are the undisputed key to a platforms success, a fact proven true time and time again. The iPhone is just the most recent example.

Google Chrome has been designed as a platform for extensions and scripts, but the real questions is wether developers are going to get involved. I’m guessing a sizable amount will not be happy about Chrome and will feel a little protective perhaps of Firefox. However apparently the porting of Firefox extensions over to Chrome is not a huge task, so I will watch and wait with interest.

(Incidentally did anyone else notice how many Opera features Chrome has? Wow, you can drag a tag into a new window with Chrome, oh wait Opera could do that before.)

Update: I seem to be wrong. From ReadWriteWeb:

Google doesn’t yet have any architecture in place that would allow developers to program extensions for it. For Firefox, the extension ecology that developed around it has a been a major contributor to its success and many users who might prefer the speed and simplicity of Chrome over Firefox won’t be able to switch because they have become dependent on certain extensions they use every day.

During the launch, however, Sundar Pichai, a VP for product management at Google, promised that Google would eventually start supporting extensions and stressed that it was high on Google’s to-do list for Chrome. For developers, it would obviously be nice if Google used an extension architecture similar to Firefox’s. That, after all, would make porting extensions over to Chrome a lot easier. So far, however, Google has not made any announcements about the details of the extension API.

Tags: Google
Posted in Browsers, Chrome, Firefox

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Viewing 7 Comments

patrick 4 months ago 1 point
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i'm willing to try it out just to see if it works more efficiently than FireFox... if it's faster than Firefox and isn't IE, then i'll use it

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adondai 4 months ago 1 point
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Well I think you'll be happy then =) It's faster and more stable the FF.

IE8 isn't that bad though!

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Rarst 4 months ago 1 point
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>Sick of hearing about it yet?

I am most certainly am. :) Torn between posting my own thoughts after actually using it (unlike most) and letting it sit for a week or two.

And I also think Chrome feels bit like Opera in experience. Still it's very beta.

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adondai 4 months ago 1 point
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Chrome definitely has a lot of Opera inspired features! It was the first thing I thought when using it for first time... but I haven't really heard many comparisons... I think a lot of commentators have never actually used Opera because stuff like dragging tabs into a new window is an Opera feature... yet they talk about it being this amazing new chrome feature.

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balikitty 4 months ago 1 point
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I have been using Chrome since yesterday. I love the speed, and the tabs, its easy if
a page will not load, to shut it down, or "kill the page". Overall the browser is very easty to use, and is fast. Ive been using IE 7, and have had so many problems with Java hanging, and hanging,and hanging. If i have other sites still open, and try and close them while in IE, it takes at least 2 days. With Chrome, its much faster. Im not a firefox fan, but alot are. Ive been with IE too long. It gets slower each day. Chrome seems to be running very smoothe so far. And normally , i dont use any new browser at first, i always wait for the bugs to be worked out. Ive been wanting to change for a while now. Was attempting Opera 3 times, but keep reading about big security flaws. The only thiing about Chrome, I need extensions!! I cant have my stumbleupon toolbar up there! If I could have my extras, i would be very happy.

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Forex Day Trading 3 months ago 1 point
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I like Chrome. It’s simplistic design. BUT Firefox is like that until you add in the functionality - toolbars, delicious buttons, DIGG etc. I’m interested to see if they can keep the minimal approach when implementing these addons or just throw in tool bars to accomodate everything.

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adondai 3 months ago 1 point
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I personally think FF has perhaps the worst design out of all the browsers.
I actually really like IE8...

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