Oladipo Ademola Esq

First, this is not a "technical" review. In this post, I’ll just point out some issues I have with the browsers and what stops any of them from having a permanent spot as my default browser.

My machine is a HP dv2910us, Intel Centrino 2 Duo, 3gb RAM, 250gb HDD with 112gb free.

Internet Explorer

The default browser that came with my operating system, has a couple of major annoyances.

The engine renders very slow compared to other browsers.

When I am saving a webpage, the save dialog is modal, I cant do anything until the page saves completely. In the event that a timeout occurs, the page saving hangs and sometimes, I am left at the mercy of IE.

A dialog to update Silverlight showed up recently and Microsoft decided that other tasks were not worth it until I clicked update.

Firefox

Firefox is the browser that has the highest probability of becoming (and staying) my default. Except for the fact that it is CPU hungry. I am not bothered about it using memory (I seem to have quite enough of that), my CPU is very precious.

Once I had Firefox consistently using 30% of my CPU. For a web browser, that is downright ridiculous. Some people say is it because of the plugins. I beg to differ. Even with no web page open (just a blank tab), fox here was a guzzling 5% of my CPU.

Safari

Apple’s darling browser. Simply put, it is out of place compared to other browsers running on Windows. Just cant use it.

It’s a different culture here. Apple take not.

Opera

This Norwegian software is a serious contender for the default spot. But no matter how hard I try to like it, I always seem to prefer IE. I have not had any experience with memory or CPU consuming, but then again, I have not had much experience using it.

Chrome

Newest kid on the block. It came in with a minimalist interface (I LOVE MINIMALISM) and unbelievable rendering speeds. But it also came with its problems. Not to repeat myself, I have done some earlier reviews.

Generally, Flash is the "biggest" problem of all the browsers.

After I received a facebook message from a friend of mine, early this morning, asking about Google Chrome. I googled and waited patiently for the download. I read almost all the available reviews (previews) and even set up a google alert to be notified of the download as soon as it was available.

15 minutes after the download link went live, I got my copy. It seems like the Chrome team must have been using using Picasa a lot, because there was some kind of resemblance in the loading.

Problem 1: Reload All/Refresh All Tabs

I came across the first problem of the new architecture. If you lose your Internet connection and all your pages turn to “Page not founds”, how do you reload all the pages without having to do it one at a time. Firefox has a lovely “Reload All Tabs” menu. Internet Explorer has a “Refresh All” menu.

Was it wrong for the Google team to assume that everyone has a steady Internet connection?

Problem 2: Restore Closed Tabs

Just discovered another problem. If I mistakenly close 2 or more tabs. How do I recover them? Ok, I go to history, but I cant open the history link in a new window. Or am I missing something? Yes, I was. You have to hold the “Ctrl” button to open a new tab. But what happened to the right mouse button we are so used to in the other browsers they are improving upon.

Still testing. Will report as I go along. Ouch, I can not save sessions.

Update

I believe the Google’s choice of not blending with my OS’ theme is a bad idea. Now Chrome stands out like a sore thumb.

Yet another update

Chrome seems to assume that I do not want to read a parts of a webpage after I might have perused it. My synaptic touchpad allows me scroll down but chrome does allow scroll up. The mouse wheel works. Thank God.

How do I find text on a page? Coming from a company who deals in search, this obvious omission is a crime. Found it