I am one of the recently converted. My go-to browsers were Safari and Firefox. I would use Safari for my general web browsing, you know, day-to-day stuff, and Firefox for the heavy developer troubleshooting. However, I've left both behind... In the dust.
Google Chrome is taking over, in July of 2012, 41% of internet users browse with Google Chrome; while less and less users are using IE and Safari.
I cant even gush enough here. There are so many intuitive, little things that make Chrome so great.
Chrome is stable. Like in the points above, if a tab crashes it will quietly close itself out, leaving the rest of Chrome alive and alert. And because Chrome auto-updates itself, you can rest assured that your web experience will be top notch, all the time, and that bug fixes will quickly be squashed without having to wait years for a new release to come out.
Chrome also has a built in task-manager, which outlines Chrome’s active processes. You can monitor how much memory and resources they are using, which can be especially helpful in development.
Finally, Chrome is secure. You’re protected from malicious activity.
Chrome has a huge developer base; there are a myriad of plugins available for just about anything. Best part is, most of them are free, and most of them can be installed instantly, without and restarting at all.
Chrome is so fast it’s mind-blowing. It starts quickly, it loads pages quickly, it runs apps like lightning, and you can have multiple tabs and windows without noticing any slow-down at all. I don’t pretend to know why, or how, but I absolutely love how fast it is; every other browser seems bloated and pokey in comparison.
Obviously most modern browsers are fully featured, and render the HTML, HTML5 and CSS how it should appear. But even IE9, Microsofts touted browser of the future, the one that was going to bring IE up to speed from the sorely lacking IE8, can’t do dropshadows – A CSS declaration that’s been supported in other webkit browsers for about a year prior to its release.
Some people may sour at the thought, but Google loves to integrate its platforms as much as they can. Chrome is no exception, you can tie just about any other google application back into Chrome. Some may find this intrusive, or too ‘Big Brother’, but you can’t deny that it’s neat, and that it’s useful!
Obviously most modern browsers are fully featured, and render the HTML, HTML5 and CSS how it should appear. But even IE9, Microsofts touted browser of the future, the one that was going to bring IE up to speed from the sorely lacking IE8, can’t do dropshadows – A CSS declaration that’s been supported in other webkit browsers for about a year prior to its release.
As a Firefox-first developer this was a must, and a major reason why I switched to Chrome.
The developer tools in Chrome are great – maybe not as fully featured – but for most of the necessities and the day to day processes I use, Chrome fulfills it perfectly. Sure, some days I do have to jump to Firefox to iron out some kink somewhere, but with all the benefits of Chrome it’s a small price to pay.
Chrome also works. I’ve said it before, but don’t scoff. Chrome is reliable, renders quickly and beautifully and has support for everything you could ever want to create development wise.
Lastly, Chrome is a great benchmark for mobile devices – Just size your browser window, and you’re almost always guaranteed to have the page rendered exactly that way on an iPhone or tablet.
