I’ve been touting Google Chrome for a while now and I still really like it but… Today I was developing a website for work and wanted to be able to use JavaScript (actually jQuery) to grab an HTML table and have the user download it as a CSV file.
I found a script to do it but it wouldn’t work no matter what I tried (on Chrome). I finally tried it on FireFox and it worked fine.
I started investigating and I found that Google broke that feature in Chrome 19. There are a few workarounds but the one I chose seems best.
I found out they offer a browser called Chrome Canary which they call the “bleeding edge” but it’s really just a beta of the regular Chrome.
I installed it and it solves the download problem plus it’s even faster than Chrome 19.
If you’re interested you can grab it here.
I guess that is one advantage to using IE. Everyone makes sure their website displays correctly on IE or you will lose more than half your viewers.
Of course, that’s not enough advantage for me to actually use it, though I hear that current versions are pretty secure.
I haven’t spent much time with Chrome (except the version that comes with Android). It seems like a lot of effort to set up and learn a new browser, when FF works pretty well.
What can you do better with Chrome than with FF?
Comment by Daryl — Saturday June 23, 2012 @ 10:25 pm
I mainly got tired of waiting for Firefox to launch. I would click on it and it took up to 30 seconds for it to start up.
Chrome just seems like a cleaner browser than either IE (of course) or Firefox and it’s a bit faster in it’s browsing.
I also like the fact that adding an Extension doesn’t make you restart your browser.
This guy says it pretty well as to the reasons I think Chrome is better.
Comment by Don — Sunday June 24, 2012 @ 6:21 am
As for IE I have told everyone at work to not use it because I won’t make special code just for people to use an insecure and outdated browser.
Yes, IE 9 is decent but it still requires web builders to add special code.
And yes if I was developing for the public I would have to make my sites work with IE but at work I don’t have to.
Comment by Don — Sunday June 24, 2012 @ 6:26 am
I know that Firefox has been spurred to be better since Chrome has started taking market share so I thought I should benchmark the newest versions of each browser.
I went to Mozilla’s benchmark site and ran it with Chrome Canary, Chrome, and Firefox.
Not surprising was Canary ran it faster than Chrome and Firefox and Chrome was faster than Firefox. Here’s the times they scored.
Canary: 4737.4 ms
Chrome: 5426.4 ms
Firefox: 6443.4 ms
The thing that is a bit surprising is that the benchmark is by the same people who make Firefox (Mozilla) so you would think they probably optimize it for their browser.
Just to clarify I think Firefox is a great browser and if someone is using it I don’t push them to dump it but if someone is using IE I do.
One last thought is Firefox didn’t start to come out with updates every other week until Chrome started getting market share. Chrome updates in the background which I usually don’t like but it seems to be okay most of the time. The issue I discovered yesterday is the fly in that ointment though and bothers me a bit.
Comment by Don — Sunday June 24, 2012 @ 6:57 am
Hi Don,
I am glad that my HTML to CVS thing using JQuery now (mostly) works for you. I also like that you don’t mind that the Data-URI technique does not work in IE.
Cheers from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Oliver
Comment by Oliver Doepner — Sunday June 24, 2012 @ 5:09 pm