Chrome Engineer: Firefox Is A Partner, Not A Competitor

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/chrome_engineer_firefox_is_a_partner_not_a_competi.php#.TvZmEeYkHTU.hackernews

by eror932 • 15 years ago

164 56 15 years ago

dmix2• 15 years ago

Firefox isn't quite on par with Chrome anymore. It still has a lot of benefits from its legacy advantage in the plugin area.

But I don't think this really matters to the consumer. Firefox has improved rapidly, mostly as a result of chromes competition. It stagnated for years until chrome came along.

It's like Android vs iPhone. Competition creates better products.

If there wasn't a good competitor to keep innovation going, it would be just like Windows in early 2000s.

mistawobin• 15 years ago

I can't speak for the average user, but I would argue that until Chrome gets the ability to add a separate search bar, it will never be on par with Firefox. Albeit, Chrome is much faster than Firefox, but without that search bar I just can't use it fluidly.

FreakLegion• 15 years ago

If you tend to use a lot of tabs (I have anywhere from 50 to 150 open at any given time), Chrome certainly isn't faster than Firefox (or Opera).

callumjones2• 15 years ago

Chrome is never going to get a dedicated search bar, the address bar in Chrome is designed to get you where you need to go. If you know the direct url that's awesome; but if you don't that's no problem as a Google search will take you where you need to go.

I feel this is much better than the Safari/Firefox way of handling things, where you essentially switch between two modes (usually by tabing) of either trying to find something or trying to hit a direct URL. Users don't want to operate in modes, they just want to find things.

jlarocco3• 15 years ago

I'm really surprised this is an issue for people.

For as long as I can remember, the first thing I've done when installing a new browser is remove the search bar and all of the toolbar buttons. Searching from the address bar is no more or less convenient than from the dedicated search field, and all of the other actions can be done faster using keyboard shortcuts or mouse gestures or, in my case, extra mouse buttons.

What's the appeal of having a separate search bar taking up space?

redthrowaway4• 15 years ago

The omnibox is a huge improvement over the traditional model. Rather than dismiss your opinion, I'd like to ask what you think is superior about the separate boxes.

baddox2• 15 years ago

That's funny, I couldn't stand to use Firefox (which I only do rarely for development) until I found out about a plugin that combines the address and search bar.

yzhengyu• 15 years ago

I respectfully disagree. I actually stopped using Firefox because my experience with Chrome's Omnibar convinced me to switch full time.

With how the Omnibar works, I no longer need to type in a full URL. It either searched for the site I wanted via Google, via my favourites or via my history and it would get it right almost 100% of the time.

sunir• 15 years ago

The average user has spoken. They voted with their feet. Chrome surpasses Firefox.

http://m.zdnet.com/blog/btl/statcounter-chrome-overtakes-fir...

spooneybarger• 15 years ago

I'd like to be able to get rid of the search bar in firefox et al and just have a single point of entry like chrome.

ootachi2• 15 years ago

You really think Firefox was ever going to be in a similar position to Windows? The two situations aren't even remotely comparable.

dmix2• 15 years ago

For the longest time Firefox was the only easy option in town.

Opera has always been a bit fringe like linux (while still being good). IE.. well enough said. Safari was a decent choice on mac for a couple years before Chrome.

Thats where my comparison to windows resides. It was the only decent option. It took OSX a big part of the 00s to reach mainstream dominance over Windows XP.

langsamer• 15 years ago

Firefox has become absolute bloatware. Opera is the only browser that is doing any kind of new innovation.

callumjones2• 15 years ago

I would say Chrome is doing some pretty innovative stuff with V8 (and open sourcing it to spawn amazing things like NodeJS) as well as Native Client & VP8/WebM.

eric-hu• 15 years ago

I use Firefox for development because of Firebug

I use FF for casual browsing because of Adblock plus

The plugins make the browsing experience for me

diminish• 15 years ago

Yes the same here, Firefox is my main development machine and chrome is secondary.

I wish a world where firefox+chrome+open source derivatives have >80% usage share globally.

akg• 15 years ago

I don't subscribe to the dogma about tools. You should use what ever gets the job done. I personally use Firefox for debugging (I love FireBug). I use Safari for general browsing, mostly because of the integration of Bookmarks and Reading Lists over iCloud. And I dabble in Chrome when I'm using a non-apple machine. I think all tools are good and bad, and picking one side just limits your options for productivity. My 2 cents.

eigenvector• 15 years ago

Why is this on the front page when the original Google+ post that this article summarizes is also on the front page?

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3389972

rdtsc• 15 years ago

> the primary goal of Chrome is to make the web advance as much and as quickly as possible. That's it.

ok what does that even mean? they are trying to make the "web advance" because if they won't, the desktop will come back and advance instead? or do they mean advancing new web standards and features to replace older non-standard technologies (say like flash)? ( i am not trying to be sarcastic just wondering the meaning is ).

jfarmer• 15 years ago

Google's business is built on the open web, so they need the open web to flourish. This requires new standards to compete with Flash and other proprietary technologies and platforms.

Pushing Chrome is a way for them to advance the state of the art. By building a genuinely better browser that has enough users it can't be ignored, it puts pressure on other browser vendors to catch up.

It's like a reverse IE strategy. You'll see Google (and Firefox) pushing for more technology built into the browser (e.g., BrowserID, canvas, etc.), but based on open standards.

Anyhow, I think that's what they mean.

InclinedPlane• 15 years ago

They are trying to advance the state of next generation web standards support as well as rendering and javascript performance.

Google is in the web application business. Their platform is essentially every browser in the world. It behooves them to push browser technology.

And so far they have succeeded. They have spurred Firefox and IE to advance faster than they would have otherwise.

redthrowaway4• 15 years ago

It's very simple: google makes money when people use the Internet. When more people use the Internet, google makes more money. Hence, google wants to make the Internet as good as possible so more people will use it.

xxiao• 15 years ago

Google guys are all with very high IQs, so they think the rest people with common sense are fools. Chrome vs Firefox, it's obvious the former eats the latter's lunch, which is fine to me, I use both.

Chrome Engineer: Firefox Is A Partner, Not A Competitor

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