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Chrome vs IE8 : And the winner among the latest two is…

By Prashant Sharma 3 September 2008 9 Comments

Word of Caution : I strongly discourage any wannapreneur to even think of ‘building a browser’ as a startup idea bcoz there are just too many options in the “browser market” already and interestingly,every new browser is setting a new standard in this “over-crowded” market.

Microsoft’s latest installment IE8, and Google’s first web browser,Chrome(download from here,if not done yet),being the latest two in this sector are grabbing all the limelight these days.

chrome1.jpg

A browser is basically a “Gateway to Internet” to any web user and hence technology giants are right there,building simplified(for us,but complex for them) web browsers to gain/retain their market share in this unending “Browser War“.

IE8,despite being much improved and evolved than its previous version has been completely overshadowed by the recent launch of Chrome.After having our first hand-on experience with Chrome,the reaction was “Cool !“.

With due respect to months of MS’s efforts in building IE8,we have to confess…

Even the 8th generation of IE is of no match to Google’s newborn baby

ch.jpg

For the first time(since the time i dumped IE for Mozilla),i felt like dumping Mozilla for Chrome.According to us,IE8 is out of sight,it’s actually Mozilla which will suffer more,bcoz IE somehow manages to stay on desktop(default browser in Windows,however unused) butMozilla lovers will definitely give Google’s baby a place on their desktop because of cluster of reasons.

The majority of them are here but we have listed few of our observations right here.

  • Lightweight : It took us around one-fifth of the time spent in IE8 installation to install Chrome.Also,Chrome launches at a lightening speed compared to IE8 or even Firefox(relatively).Hence,it’s fast,damn fast…
  • Clean : It’s just so simple,link-free(even,no link to any google services) and gives one a lot of blank space to browse the web.It’s ironic to see that Google(who recently extended its deal with Mozilla for staying their default search engine) shows up your ‘recently visited sites’ as a default page on Chrome,which in itself is a smart move.
  • Menu-less : For the first time,a web browser has broken this convention(menu bar) and for the first time, it made us think,what the menu bar was doing out there at the top for years.A great way to provide more screen space to the users.

We also found a few areas where Chrome lacks a bit (which they may make up in the future)

  • Ill-compatibility : There are a few websites such as Lively(a Google service),which are still to find their way to Chrome.(Yes,Lively needs Chrome more than Chrome needs Lively).Some other sites are also having some issues with Chrome.
  • Firefox add-ons missing : We are just so addicted to firefox that lack of utility add-ons is making browsing a bit uneasy on Chrome right now

So,we have spoken up enough about Chrome(clear winner out of the two) and now would like to hear your opinion about this ongoing “Browser War“.

Poll it out right here !

9 Comments »

  • Mozilla kicks Chrome's ass...Gets TraceMonkey to the front | Tech StartUps - THE BIG BANG on the Web ! said:

    [...] that’s really getting interesting.We just made a comparison between Chrome and IE8 and the hot favorite(before Chrome’s launch) Mozilla is getting [...]

  • 'Don't forget to feed donuts to Chrome' says Google via Orkut ! | Startup Reviews|Tech news|Tech events|Tech tips said:

    [...] have earlier reviewed Chrome (by comparing with IE8) & wrote a lot of good things about this Google’s [...]

  • Hawk said:

    Chrome..gets hang…thats the only problem I had so far. So I am back to mozilla :)

  • Feroz Khan Hamid said:

    Google Chrome is the fastest browser I’ve ever used n my entire life. Its sooooo coooooooool & faaaaast !

  • Amit Sarda said:

    i am sure that this is only the first step, but chrome rocks. it is amazing!
    and yes …. even i wondered … what was the MENU bar doing in the top all these years. we never use it anywa.

  • Goutham said:

    Nothing is better than firefox

  • Simon said:

    firefox doesn’t work as 64bit application on windows xp64 – that is why I don’t use firefox.

  • ?_? said:

    Have you guys seen Ubiquity, FFox’s new extenstion? It’s the only reason I still run Firefox at times, seeing as how Chrome doesn’t consume insane amounts of resources like FFox,and it’s so much more sleek…

    Dragging tabs around is also fun! Try it! I hate the fact that if I save my password, people can see it though. That’s not done…it’s kind of stupid of Google. Rajiv I believe you don’t get it. If you save a password in Chrome, there’s a list of usernames for which passwords have been shown and a button “Show Password”, which when clicked when a username has been selected, reveals the password. Sorry, that’s just not on, I share my PC with my sis and all, and while the passwords saved are to inconsequential forums etc. I cannot just let people see what passwords I use. Thanks Namit for pointing this out O_O.

  • Anonymous said:

    Thanks your message has very much helped me:)

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