The Dark Side of Google Chrome

The Dark Side of Google Chrome (2 web pages).

Analysis of Google's motivations and how other browsers fare in comparison.

-- Tom

 

Thanks!

 

Interesting.
Opera is a sleeping giant

 

not very likely to wake up soon

 

Opera is a darn nice browser but will never become popular unless they simplify it. The average person does not want to bother with the learning process and yes, even though the long time users of Opera may not remember, there really is a learning curve for that bugger.

Acadia

 

Google love wrapping all your privacy up in a cookie and then echo it out over the internet. If the search engine does that what does the browser do and upto that we dont know about?
http://www.darkreading.com/security/privacy/218800199/index.html

I mean Google=Skynet
Ever used Tor with Google?

 

Every aspect of Chrome except for flash and the pdf reader are open source.

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/google-chrome-communication/


edit: "Chrome may have driven a browser revolution, but there is no denying that it is a tool of corporate interest and profit, in a much more obvious manner than Firefox is."

It then goes on to show that Google's motivations for Chrome are for profit.

OMG A COMPANY WANTS TO PROFIT? lmao no kidding? Same with Firefox (which is heavily funded by google and used to be comprised of mainly Google engineers.)

Basically, if this is the "dark side" of Google I'm not too worried -- a company wanting to make profit by providing the best product is about the least evil thing I can think of.

 

It makes money on the basis of user privacy information, it's your problem if you are not worried about that

 

No... not at all. You can opt out of adsense/ everything else. Google makes money through advertising, which is something that exists in every browser. This has nothing to do with browser -- adsense is a separate issue and also exists in every browser.

 

True, also take intoacount that FF stil gets millions of Google to provide the search with google page, evil is a relative statement in that context (beside the fact that chromium is open source as well).

 

Firefox is developed by Mozilla Corporation, all profits go to its owner, the Mozilla Foundation, which is a non-profit.

 

And it's still heavily funded by Google and, as with every other product, needs some kind of income to continue development.

So... what's your point?

 

Everyone can use Opera like they use Firefox or Chrome.
Where is the learning curve for those that are not interested on other features!?

The problem of Opera was not make their browser free before the Firefox appearance, and don't have a powerful company behind it like Google.

 

Chrome FTW!!
On a more serious note, when Chrome was first released (I installed it the same day it was released just out of curiosity), it WAS A LOT faster than other browsers. Now the gap is very small but people still love it

 

I began using Chrome eight months ago and uninstalled it today. In recent weeks I became increasingly dissatisfied with it. In v. 14, Flash crashed continuously, and in both 13 and 14 it was frequently necessary to manually reload several times a page to get it fully displayed. In effect, the browser became very slow for me.

Now my default is IE9, which does not show these problems and is fast. I also installed Firefox 5.0, because one financial site I need does not work well with IE9.

 

I know exactly what you mean! Have you checked out Iron? Its pretty good. I use chromium on linux compiled my self without the google nonsense in there. If you compile your self you also notice HUGE performance improvements. running dev build and loving it.

TOR with google = useless. I use scroogle (all the google results fetched for you over SSL).

I like google and alot of their products but still privacy is key (Why I block cookies and trackers).

 

I'm surprised there's a financial site like that. Robin A. have you tried Compatibility View?

As for this article, I find it unsurprising.

 

So I wasn't the only one with Flash issues in Chrome after all. It drove me nuts, I'd have to clear the data, close the browser, restart it, Flash works, Flash stops, reload page, page doesn't reload, rinse and repeat.

 

lmao

a) You can't get chromium without "google nonsense" because it's written by google.
b) Chrome doesnt' send any of your info to google -- read about it. What that guy was referring to was adsense.
c) https://google.com


@ DW

stop using Chrome 14... don't use a beta version of a browser and expect it to work.

 

Thats not adsense

google doenst like it if your cookies is not reachable. The Tor excuse is from Google is the queries and the page rank.
But basically they telling you we are going to annoy you to hell till we get your cookie. We want your machine id.

 

Both 13 and 14 do the same thing, and 13 is all but stable in name, minus the Flash issue.

 

I like Firefox exactly because it does not have a platform. I guess more people like the all-in-one approach. This might be easier but you pay for it with less flexibility.

I had no idea Chrome forced ads. I can't believe people would put up with this. I knew there was some reason I didn't want it.

 

Google is abusive, though. I say this, because there are certain situations where they force cookies, when they shouldn't be needed in the first place.

I exposed a situation a week or couple weeks ago. It's about Google Instant service.

I don't use Google Chrome, rather Chromium. Chromium has Google Instant disabled. But, Google has it enabled by default to every Chromium user.

If I were to use Google's search engine, I'd need to allow cookies just for the sake of opting-out from Google Instant. When I should opt-in, if I wanted it.

I don't want it... Why should I opt-out of a lame (for me) service I wasn't even aware of, until very recently?

Naughty Google.

 

I have Chrome installed as a second browser, and I don't see AD's. I added the AD Blocker ext. and there's no problem.

 

+1. I think it's a matter of competence. If one is keen on blocking content and using Chrome, there are blockers external to the browser that get the job done. It's just a matter of Googling.