Crenk Technology » internet browser

Firefox 4 Receives Over 6 Million Downloads in First 24 Hours

Steven Finch — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 13:30:19 +0000

Firefox 4 was launched yesterday and in the first 24 hours there was more than 6 million downloads. This compared to when Microsoft launched IE 9 which only received 2.35 million downloads in the first 24 hours.

We have extensively covered Firefox 4 here on Crenk:

It seems as though Firefox 4 is going to grow into becoming the second largest browser on the internet, or maybe even the largest! At the moment in the browser stakes Internet Explorer is still the largest browser, but Firefox is quickly catch, while Chrome is slowly gaining.

Firefox 4 in Numbers: Infographic – March 24, 2011
First 5-minute Impressions With Google Chrome – September 3, 2008
Tweetdeck Now Available in Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari and Opera – April 7, 2011
How to Enable WebGL in Firefox 4 on Ubuntu – March 31, 2011
Differences Between Firefox 3 and Firefox 4: New Features – March 23, 2011

Firefox 4 Receives Over 6 Million Downloads in First 24 Hours originally appeared on: Crenk
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Google Chrome browser 1 week later

Mike Panic — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 19:00:19 +0000

Last week I gave a first 5-minute impression of Google Chrome, the new browser that is supposed to be faster and better than anything else out there. A week later and what seems to be a hundred thousand reviews in the blogsphere later, everyone seems to like it, and no one seems to be using it. Less than 1% of Crenk readers are using it, more people are using Opera belive it or not.

What’s so great about it? Well it’s new and shiny, has a minimalist look and feel to it and consumes about 75% less memory than Firefox does, at least for me on my Windows XP box. Google really seems to have done their homework with regards to chewing up your CPU cycles and there appears to never be a memory leak. Additionally, you just need to type something in what used to be known as the address bar, as it now functions as a search bar and many other things. It’s also fast, but how fast? My seat dyno says slightly faster than Firefox, but to a normal user, it might only feel faster because it’s new.

What’s not so great about it? Well first and foremost, Windows only. As a Mac user, I once again feel like someone put me out in the cold. Lack of any add-ons that I’ve come to love with Firefox is also missing, but if you were coming from Internet Explorer you wouldn’t know what I’m talking about anyway. Dedicated search box is something I miss. Why you ask, since Google answers all questions on it’s own? Because it simply doesn’t. I’ve been using a Firefox add-on called OpenSearchFox for more than a year now; it allows you to add a drop down in Firefox to search any site that has search enabled on it. That means, rather than going to say Netflix and then searching, I can select Netflix from my drop down menu in the search bar and type in my query there. My other gripe is the lack of a status bar. I understand how important screen real estate is, but I like it, I’ve been using the status bar for more than 10 years in browsers, I’m used to it. Lastly, Chrome doesn’t work with all websites yet. One site that I order digital photos from requires a Java plugin, to upload the photos. I have the plugin installed in Windows but the browser doesn’t pick it up. I’m sure small kinks like this will iron themselves out but it’s still an inconvenience.

One of the most interesting Easter eggs is kind of a joke in Chrome. In the address bar type about:internets – then sit back and chuckle, at least someone around the Google camp has a sense of humor. Chrome is interesting, but it’s not a killer app for me yet, nor do I plan on switching. For now, I will use it to beta test website design and other various things on the Internet but Firefox will continue to be my primary browser.

First 5-minute Impressions With Google Chrome – September 3, 2008
Google Flattens Their Chrome Logo – March 16, 2011
Google Release Google Chrome 11 for Download – April 29, 2011
Improve your Typing with Typing Speed Monitor – October 24, 2010
Google Chrome OS Supporting PC Apps? – June 16, 2010

Google Chrome browser 1 week later originally appeared on: Crenk
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First 5-minute Impressions With Google Chrome

Mike Panic — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:04:49 +0000

Yesterday Google’s new browser, Chrome was announced so today I downloaded and installed it onto my work Windows XP box to see what all the fuss is about and check for cross compatibility on sites we work on. I spent about 5 minutes poking around, if I can’t figure out how to use a browser in 5 minutes, it’s too complicated for anyone but the most 733t 1337.

Download was very small; it then opens an applet and downloads the rest of the software. Installation requires Firefox to be shut down so Chrome can import all your bookmarks, favorites, history and passwords; this goes quickly and rather painlessly. Next you get a TOS about reporting options for crashes, I denied their request and the install was complete.

Upon launching Chrome for the first time an unusual question is asked, “Do you wish to keep Google as your default search engine?” It’s unusual in that, it’s a Google product and the first thing about this new killer app is to strip out Search, the one thing Google does very, very well. I selected to keep it.

All my bookmarks and history imported, what didn’t was my homepage. I’m a long time iGoogle user and rely on the RSS feeds to get me caught up quickly at a glance to what is going on with the sites I follow. Not there. Instead six white boxes stare at me. A little note tells you that these are your most visited sites. Nice idea, but not for me. I easily look at 50+ sites in six different tabs of iGoogle. There is no apparent way to set a traditional “homepage” only what Google wants you to see.

The other thing lacking is an option to show the status bar. I rely on the status bar while at work and home to see where any link will take my, by hovering over it. There are also several add-ons for Firefox that sit in my status bar that I’ve come to love, from what I can tell in Chrome, there is no status bar option.

On the plus side, it is fast. How fast? I don’t have scientific numbers or pretty pie charts, but it really feels fast. One site that I know uses a fairly common Java plugin to run an app wouldn’t work and there was no option to install it but everything else on the dozen or so sites I quickly browsed seem to work.

Is Chrome the next killer app? Hard to say now, Firefox has such a loyal, loving fan base to it, but I think this could compliment it very well.

Google Chrome browser 1 week later – September 10, 2008
Google Flattens Their Chrome Logo – March 16, 2011
Flock Changing Out Firefox Framework for Chrome – June 16, 2010
Google Release Google Chrome 11 for Download – April 29, 2011
Firefox 4 Receives Over 6 Million Downloads in First 24 Hours – March 23, 2011

First 5-minute Impressions With Google Chrome originally appeared on: Crenk
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