Chrome vs. Firefox YouTube throwdown

[Sir Ironside]

So, everywhere I look Google Chrome has been advertising that Chrome as been optimized for YouTube. So, I decided to give Chrome another chance.

My experience has been less than impressive. First I installed Chrome and ran it. The first thing I noticed was that Chrome had a dedicated button for YouTube in the upper right hand corner. When I clicked on the button it took me to an error screen. Fine. When I closed it and tried again a few hours later, the YouTube button was gone. So I decided to log on, manually and it was taking forever for YouTube to load until I gave-up and closed Chrome. (During this time it froze my computer and I had to wait until Chrome allowed me to do other things.) The next time I opened it and tried to log on to another webpage. It too took forever to load and when it did it was very sluggish.

When I logged onto Firefox it loaded YouTube, easily, fast and could handle any size of the stream/download, .

I don't know if anyone else had these problems, but you'd think that Google would have a working model before it rolled it out. Currently I only have Firefox (With a YouTube add on) and have uninstalled Chrome. Unless I start hearing good reviews of just how awesome Chrome is, from independent parties, I'm just not going to bother. I am happy with Firefox.

Firefox 3
Chrome 0

[Traveller]

Your experience isn't anything like mine. I switched to Chrome three years ago from Firefox because the Firefox code base began suffering from bloat which slowed it down to an unacceptable degree. YouTube works perfectly on Chrome, with none of the issues you mention. I even have an extension to download YouTube videos if I want to. The only complaint about Chrome is the absence of a bookmarks button, and I have an extension for that.

Lighter weight, less resource intensive, thus faster. Chrome ftw.

[Sir Ironside]

The only complaint about Chrome is the absence of a bookmarks button, and I have an extension for that.

Really? In the upper right hand corner is that 3 bar thing that customizes and controls things for Chrome. It lets you turn the bar on and off and makes it easy to manage your bookmarks. I don't need any extensions at all.

Going to give Chrome a fairer try as it might just be me having to get used to a new browser.

[Traveller]

You misunderstand. Accessing the bookmarks via the menu is inconvenient. Google expects you to use the "awesome bar" to search for bookmarks, and I prefer a tree-like view similar to what Firefox offered in the last version I used (6 or 7).

[Sir Ironside]

You misunderstand. Accessing the bookmarks via the menu is inconvenient. Google expects you to use the "awesome bar" to search for bookmarks, and I prefer a tree-like view similar to what Firefox offered in the last version I used (6 or 7).

I guess I did. After using the Firefox tree version I like the idea of putting my bookmark folders in the bar. Now instead of following a series bookmarks to get to the link I want I can just scroll across the top and each folder pulls down revealing what is in it. I can hide the bar or leave it on. To me it is a breath of fresh air.

I find the lack of a web search input area still weird.

What is an "awesome" bar?

[serleran]

Actually, both Chrome and FF suck but for entirely different reasons. IE still is well beneath either, however, in my terms of use.

Chrome can be very system eating, especially if you're using an older (like XP) machine with slightly dated Flash. Updating it tends to help but its still going to consume a high level of CPU and not let it go.

FF has undergone so many damn updates in the last while (its up to version 22 I think) that things either don't work or it's always updating itself.

At least Ghostery runs in both.

There are no browsers that are "fresh" and "fast" these days.

[Traveller]

"Awesome bar" is a Firefox term. From their blog, and introduced all the way back in Firefox 3:

Dubbed the “AwesomeBar”, it lets you use the URL field of your browser to do a keyword search of your history and bookmarks. No longer do you have to know the domain of the page you’re looking for — the AwesomeBar will match what you’re typing (even multiple words!) against the URLs, page titles, and tags in your bookmarks and history, returning results sorted by “frecency” (an algorithm combining frequency + recency).

Source: https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2008/04/2 ... firefox-3/

Chrome's implementation goes one step further and allows you to do web searches from the URL field of the browser. If you're used to a separate search field it will take a bit of getting used to, but the unification makes sense. Should you search for a page you have stored in your bookmarks, Chrome will let you know that. As for the bookmarks bar, I think it clutters things up to have it so I shut it off. I have always preferred a minimalist appearance for my browser, even when I was using Firefox. Thus why I sought out a bookmarks extension for Chrome as soon as I installed it. It has its advantages, mainly in the area of maintaining that minimalist appearance I prefer.

[Dracyian]

I haven't had too many issues with chrome, except that it likes to run a seperate process for each tab, which is both nice and an inconnvience depending on the resources of your machine. My laptop is a little old, while it was awesome when I bought it, it is slowing getting outdated.
One feature I really enjoy though is the ease of use with chrome, I can do just about everything I need to as far as searching, grabbing bookmarks and website travel by the address bar, I like that a lot, I do enjoy the homepage with your most popular tabs instead of just opening to a page so I can choose any of the six pages I have been frequenting with a single click and not have to type something in or go find the bookmark, and since it updates as you go you don't have to do too much clean up or maintainence on it.
Another cool feature for me, since I'm a sort of techie is the sync feature, I can see what tabs are open on my computer from my phone and vice versa. It will also tell me the tabs that I recently closed on my computers browser when I kick open my mobile browser. These to me make chrome worth keeping.

However on that same not, I was never a firefox fan

[Sir Ironside]

Well Chrome and Firefox showed no real difference in practically everything I use a browser for, except one minor difference.

There are some Flash browser games I like playing and they are unplayable with Chrome. It's a deal breaker for me, so I'm back with Firefox.

[Dracyian]

Well Chrome and Firefox showed no real difference in practically everything I use a browser for, except one minor difference.

There are some Flash browser games I like playing and they are unplayable with Chrome. It's a deal breaker for me, so I'm back with Firefox.

Did you look to see if they were in the google play store, I have downloaded games like those before to my browser such as the adventures of fancy pants and angry birds

[Zudrak]

Your experience isn't anything like mine. I switched to Chrome three years ago from Firefox because the Firefox code base began suffering from bloat which slowed it down to an unacceptable degree. YouTube works perfectly on Chrome, with none of the issues you mention. I even have an extension to download YouTube videos if I want to. The only complaint about Chrome is the absence of a bookmarks button, and I have an extension for that.

Lighter weight, less resource intensive, thus faster. Chrome ftw.

I switched to Chrome earlier this month because of the Firefox memory leaks. It is quite apparent on this here dinosaur (XP), but also at work my Xmarks extension became unusable and I have to access from Xmarks site instead of within Firefox. I don't use Chrome there because I'd have to install it and I don't have Admin privileges. Thankfully, those weren't turned on when I first started there and was able to get FF instead of having to use IE.

[NJPDX]

Although I don't use it for much else, Opera seems to be the most responsive browser in my arsenal when it comes to watching youtube videos or other flash based video. It's about the only thing works well on a woefully under-powered netbook I own.

[Zudrak]

Hmm. I used Opera in the past on my dinosaur at home. It worked well enough but FF had better extensions at the time. I might reinstall that on the old desktop for better performance.