First Germany, now France are warning their citizens to find an alternative to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.

Germany recommends users switch to Firefox or Chrome.

It’s true all browsers have security flaws, but to have 2 national governments speak out against your browser? That says something.

Whatever ultimately happens, Google’s browser share just got a shot in the arm.

Full BBC article by Jonathan Fildes is here.

Post from: The Chrome Voice "The Chrome Voice" is your source for news and information about the Google Chrome browser.

Another win for Chrome Browser: France and Germany warn against Microsoft IE

Looks like the world is jumping on the reports of the Google Chrome browser’s small market share drop over the last week.

The news was the opposite for “The Chrome Voice”.

Here at www.chromebrowser.com, we saw an increase of 4.62% for Chrome.

Sure we’re a small site with a very targeted topic, but the change has been significant. 

Since last week, the numbers actually show an increase for both Chrome and Safari, but a loss for IE, Firefox, Opera, Mozilla and Seamonkey.

Since I last measured on 9/17/08, here’s how things have changed:

• Chrome usage rose from 45.69% to 50.31%
   
• Firefox usage fell from 34.01% to 33.07%
   
• IE usage fell from 15.74% to 12.23%
   
• Safari usage rose from 2.03% to 2.66%
   
• Opera usage fell from 1.52% to 1.41%
   
• Both Mozilla and Seamonkey dropped from 0.51% to 0.16%
   

The 9/23/08 stats for www.chromevoice.com are:

It will be interesting to watch both the trend here at www.chromebrowser.com and the larger trends tracked by others world wide.

Post from: The Chrome Voice "The Chrome Voice" is your source for news and information about the Google Chrome browser.

Chrome Browser Shows 4.62% Growth In Market Share on www.chromevoice.com

Once you install this extension into Firefox, you can easily open up your current page in Chrome.

As an extra bonus feature, you can configure it so that certain pages like Gmail always open in Chrome.

Download the extension here.

Post from: The Chrome Voice "The Chrome Voice" is your source for news and information about the Google Chrome browser.

Firefox Extension: Open In Google Chrome Version 1.0

Call the Google Chrome browser a “pearl” or the “grain of sand”.

Call it a “harbinger of change”.

Call it a “break through” or whatever else you want, but one thing is clear, Chrome has lit a fire under the market.

Talk of market share, competing features and confident stances by existing browser makers have filled the web.

Here are some I found particularly interesting.

Gregg Keizer at “Computer World” world writes about how Firefox is adding a privacy mode (in response to Chrome).

Mary Jo Foley at “ZDNet” write about whether Microsoft should create a “lite” IE for time where you want to do a quick browse.

Matt Asay at “cnet” is raising up Microsoft’s SharePoint as the Microsoft’s real answer to Google, the Chrome browser and web apps.

There are reports on how Chrome is taking market share from Safari and Opera  but not IE (Brian Kraemer at ChannelWeb), and then there are reports on how Chrome is taking market share from IE (Gregg Keizer at Computerworld).

There’s even a mention of Chrome as a Firefox Killer (Michael Desmond at “The Redmond Developer”).

Beyond market share, there’s talk from Thomas Claburn at “InformationWeek” about the long road Chrome has before it’s welcomed as an enterprise solution.

With all the press stories pointing in all directions and the comments from the other browser makers on their view of Chrome, one thing is for certain, Chrome has definitely made it’s mark.

Read Greg Keizer’s “Computerworld” stories here and here.

Read Mary Jo Foley’s “ZDNet” story here.

Matt Asay’s “cnet” article about Sharepoint is here.

Michael Desmond’s “The Redmond Developer” story is here.

Thomas Claburn’s story in “Information Week” is here.

Post from: The Chrome Voice "The Chrome Voice" is your source for news and information about the Google Chrome browser.

Review: Chrome Has Lit a Fire Under the Market

How fast is Chrome?

When Google introduced Chrome, they talked about its speed.

Some people tried it after release and disagreed saying some existing browsers were just as fast.

Maybe they weren’t running the right application?

Here’s how you can see for yourself.

1. Start Chrome and an existing browser(I picked my fav Firefox) and then point them to:
http://www.oisyn.nl/wolfjs/wolfjs.html

(Note: be fair by shutting down all copies of your “existing browser” and then restarting fresh when you do this test.)

2. If you don’t see an image showing blue brick walls and a green looking door, find and uncheck the checkbox called: “Use <canvas> feature (does not work on IE):”

3. Use your arrow keys in  and look at the frame rate (frames per second or fps) showing under the window showing the blue brick walls. You will see a significant different between the fps for Firefox and the fps for Chrome.

4. To emphasize the speed differences even more, change the options:

• “Window Size”  to be “1024×768″
• “Subdiv:” to be “1″

Here are my FPS results at these settings:

• Chrome = average ~32fps
• Firefox = average ~6fps

Your results may show different numbers than mine, but I’m guessing there will still be a big difference.

I think this demo of Chrome’s speed speaks for itself.

And if you have any doubts about the usefulness of tabs as different processes, here’s another test for you.

While running the “wolfjs” application as above, open a new tab in each of your browsers and start browsing around.

Chrome was fast and responsive for me. Unfortunately, Firefox was sluggish at best, even becoming completely unresponsive at times.

Again, I think the results of this demo speaks for itself. Chrome is FAST.

Note: Special thanks to oisyn.nl for posting his “Wolfenstein-like” rendering test.

Post from: The Chrome Voice "The Chrome Voice" is your source for news and information about the Google Chrome browser.

Chrome’s Amazing Speed: See For Yourself!