Google’s new Chrome browser only came out a few weeks ago for Macs. So even though Chrome’s been out for a year for PCs, I’ve been using it for a few weeks. When I first downloaded it I liked it but then found two things I really didn’t like and seemed like deal breakers.
First, unlike Safari, which is my primary browser, Chrome organizes tabs at the top of the browser in a way that leaves very little space to ‘grab’ on to to move the browser around. if you have more than three or four tabs open at a time, it gets really unwieldy. Also annoying is no clear way to organize your bookmarks. But the first one is the one that really seemed like a deal-breaker on the user-experience front.
But then something funny happened. I kept using it anyway. And now I’m using it probably 2/3 or more of the time, probably more, with the rest of the time using Safari — but I’m not sure if that’s anything more than the fact that Safari is still set as my default browser.
Why I’m using it more I’m not completely sure. But it’s definitely a case where my first impression told me one thing but my own actions are telling me another. I think it’s that it just seems ‘lighter’, a cleaner, faster experience. But, again, I’m trying to reason back from the fact that I find myself using it more rather than finding particular features that I find superior to Safari or other browsers.
What’s your experience with Chrome? Positive and negative.
