It doesn't surprise me. Although I am completely against Chrome, I've been having to switch to it a lot recently.

3 of my Windows PCs (XP, Vista and 7), each running different recently versions of Firefox always seem to hang randomly. No G/Bing/Blekko search is able to come up with any solutions. Memory leaks have gone largely unaddressed and user experience on any Mozilla-based projects are nothing to brag about.

The loss of the G toolbar on Firefox seems to play a part in the exodus along with Mozilla's stagnation.

A real shame because FF was really a great product until a while after they got greedy with their multimillion $ contracts.

[edited by: Andem at 8:49 pm (utc) on Dec 1, 2011]

It depends who you ask... Chrome is already ahead of Firefox according to
[gs.statcounter.com...]

(stats for the month of November, 2011)

Andem, just create a fresh profile and if it works sync up your previous settings and export/import your bookmarks and other settings. Once you've got the new profile running copy the profile folder so you can paste it over a new fresh profile if you have to recreate. That's how I was able to fix Windows 98 and recover completely in less than ten minutes regardless of how bad a problem I encountered when it borked; too bad I can't do that with XP (and forget about Windows 7).

Windows shortcut, not sure about Mac/Linux...

"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -ProfileManager -no-remote

The problem with Firefox is Mozilla, they keep doing things that annoy users. A family member of mine refuses to update from Firefox 3.6 because they messed up her toolbars when Mozilla went totally mental and decided to copy Internet Explorer 9's utter complete chaos they call a GUI with buttons randomly moved all over the place. The rapid updates are utterly worthless too, I never write about Chrome updates as Chrome does not wait long enough to gain enough to excite me and now Mozilla is doing that as well.

...if you want a seriously good browser where the developers haven't lost their mind, update frequent enough but not for the sake of simply releasing an update and you get an actual GUI I highly recommend Opera. It's not yet my main browser but I use it daily and their team has really been making huge progress. Oh, and you can usually do what you want if you take 30 seconds to go to their forums, it's very responsive over there! :)

- John

Thanks for the tips, John. I've done all of that and more. Each PC has a different profile and I've tried everything on this Win7 PC from fresh installs to private browsing/clearing all history to uninstalling all addons/extensions. Connections hang most often when I am viewing google image results, making me think it might be my Internet connection opening too many connections. However, my Vista laptop hangs similarly no matter where I am since FF 5+. *sigh* I think I'll just downgrade the lot to 3.6.x.

now Mozilla is doing that as well

I have a huge beef with this. Since Mozilla switched to "rapid release cycles", not only their product, but the trust in stable and worthwhile releases has completely gone down the drain. This new release cycle has tarnished their brand beyond repair and as far as I can see, they have turned themselves in to the what Netscape ended up being, albeit in different times.

Andem: It doesn't surprise me. Although I am completely against Chrome, ...

It doesn't surprise me either - Chrome is a great browser and is difficult to beat for general everyday browsing IMHO. Why are you against it?

^ just go do some digging for chrome privacy issues / user tracking, you'll find more then enough reasons.

Interestingly, Google's gmail/calendar, etc., reports "you are using an incompatible browser" so I suspect they are driving people into changing browsers.

just go do some digging for chrome privacy issues / user tracking, you'll find more then enough reasons.

People who call it spyware are typically just repeating rumors and incorrect stories without merit and are therefore just exacerbating the rumors. Most of which I think stems from the auto-suggest search feature, which you also have in Firefox's search box (it's just that Google integrates the search and address bar into one). Honestly, I wouldn't care if Google knows where I visit. Do you ever stop to think that your ISP knows where you visit? Do you care?

In addition, Matt Cutts even addressed this in a blog post:
[mattcutts.com...]

I don't use auto sug in ANY BROWSER

Yes I do care, and when i want to hide I wrap myself up with encryption.

when I don't want to hide i still use scrapers, its just good common sense.


I've used chrome but NEVER in its packaging from goog, they've made it perfectly clear they aren't nice no matter how much drum beating matt cutts trys to do. no thanks.

webmasters using gmail on chrome, on an android powered tablet perhaps with adsense monetised sites with google analytics measuring conversion stat , other stats,,,,


Wow, now how can get there :)

yea really.... its poison put it down.



sad thing is WE are the ones that should be smart enough

Well, I will gladly drink this poison, as it's done nothing but serve me well for the past 3 years. It's a solid, fast browser that makes me more productive. No tin hat for me, thanks.

not really tin hat waring, just a healthy IT sec background.

Until someone shows me real proof that Chrome is doing something I should be worried about instead of just "My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend says Chrome has privacy issues", I just don't buy it. Over the years, not ONE person on this forum has been able to show me actual proof.

its only google who is forcing people to switch to crome by diplaying message on other browsers that the browser is not compatible with gmail or other google products. Otherwise there is no any other issue which make users think to switch from mozilla to chrome.

I think Chrome WILL overtake Firefox, mainly because Firefox is sooo buggy now. It is so bad that im wondering if some IE developers have hijacked development of FF.

I personally like Chrome because it does quite a lot well with a smaller memory footprint than the rest.

Until someone shows me real proof that Chrome is doing something I should be worried

well I can't do that just over forum posts, if I could sit down with you in an environment i could show you.

sadly this isn't that environment, all I can do is warn you. you listening or not is another.

Im not your sisters friends brothers uncles cousin.


my only advice is if you are THAT in LOVE with chrome just use another version that goog doesn't peddle you.

try srware iron.

Not that I want Google to dominate everything in my life, but Firefox is just too slow. Chrome pioneered the browser getting out of the way and giving you a wide window to the web. The other browsers have followed suit but it still leads the way.

And those disruptive updates on Firefox.. ugghh..

And those disruptive updates on Firefox.. ugghh..

The rapid update cycle works on Chrome because it works(*) away quietly in the background. I find with Firefox that users can't be bothered to update and don't update!

(*) Unfortunately when it doesn't work (ie. update) it appears to quietly fail in the background too and you are left with an out of date version... which you are unaware of.

All this talk of firefox and chrome. People are quick to forget alternatives, it all depends on what flavor you like; I prefer my browser to be a bit spicy - as such, I am an Opera user.

Its the best browser available today. Life Hacker had a feature article that ran speed tests for many factors and Opera was the big winner. Opera had features like session saving before firefox even existed. The developers at Opera (speaking of which, one of them invented CSS) continue to innovate with the newest version (11.60) being released just weeks ago, the browser has many features built in that are unique to it.

Had one of my guys create a walkthrough video here:
[youtube.com...]

i use opera as well.

I use FF/IE9/opera but opera gets used the most, others are for testing things or for plugin usage.