# I just love Google Chrome



## SatliteHD (Jun 9, 2008)

Its finally out of beta! I hit the about chrome button and then clicked update and got the new release. I have always used firefox since it came out but Chrome is much faster. I hope everyone gives it a try at least.


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## kwajr (Apr 7, 2004)

i use opera i think its the best i have ever used really llike the speededial tab


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## dave29 (Feb 18, 2007)

i have chrome and IE 8 installed on my laptop. while chrome is very fast, i still use IE8(i guess because im just used to IE and i dont like change)


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## mystic7 (Dec 9, 2007)

I can't believe people who don't trust Microsoft have no trouble putting their trust into Google. They've proven more than once to have sinister motives behind everything they do.


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

I love Chrome as well, but in my own testing, if I have multiple tabs open, the new Mozilla "Shiretoko" build and Opera 10 actually consume less memory for the same pages, and are almost as fast in general, and faster on some things (like Javascript) then Chrome. Also Chrome is still not 100% compatible with some web sites, like DBSTalk. When I'm using Chrome, the "Quick Links" menu doesn't appear at the top of the page, and there is no "advanced editing" available.

I do think Chrome is the best browser from a design and UI standpoint. It makes the most efficient use of the screen, IMO, especially on laptops, where screen real estate is sometimes precious.

/steve


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

mystic7 said:


> I can't believe people who don't trust Microsoft have no trouble putting their trust into Google. They've proven more than once to have sinister motives behind everything they do.


If you start Chrome in "incognito" mode, I believe you become virtually anonymous, as far as feedback to Google is concerned. You can do so by editing your shortcut as follows: _"...\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --incognito_

/steve


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## machavez00 (Nov 2, 2006)




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## Steve Mehs (Mar 21, 2002)

mystic7 said:


> I can't believe people who don't trust Microsoft have no trouble putting their trust into Google. They've proven more than once to have sinister motives behind everything they do.


Bingo. I love Microsoft. But you'll never catch me using a Google product, I hate that company wuith a pasion, and will never install any of their crap on my computers, or use their search or any other internet service. Google can rot in hell.


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## Sirshagg (Dec 30, 2006)

I LOVE chrome but can't really use it till it works with Roboform.


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## PatentBoy (Feb 14, 2007)

I believe Chrome, as with Safari, is built with the open source webkit project. I wonder how Chrome compares to Safari?


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## deltafowler (Aug 28, 2007)

mystic7 said:


> They've proven more than once to have sinister motives behind everything they do.


Please provide one example.


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## Ken S (Feb 13, 2007)

If you get a chance check out Firefox 3.1 (RC2 now). They have a new engine that really makes scripted pages fly.


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## mutelight (Oct 6, 2008)

Steve Mehs said:


> Bingo. I love Microsoft. But you'll never catch me using a Google product, I hate that company wuith a pasion, and will never install any of their crap on my computers, or use their search or any other internet service. Google can rot in hell.





mystic7 said:


> I can't believe people who don't trust Microsoft have no trouble putting their trust into Google. They've proven more than once to have sinister motives behind everything they do.





deltafowler said:


> Please provide one example.


I am genuinely interested as well. :lol:

Living just north of Google and dating someone that works there while having friends in multiple different departments, I can assure you that is in no way the case. I guess people will always have their wacky conspiracy theories.


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## Ira Lacher (Apr 24, 2002)

Found these; all I ask is, consider the sources:

Drudge Report

CNet News

Washington Post

Los Angeles Times


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

Ira Lacher said:


> Found these; all I ask is, consider the sources:
> 
> Drudge Report
> 
> ...


3 of the articles are a bit dated (2007 and 2005). I'm a staunch privacy advocate, but I actually think the Drudge report article, if true, is a positive. As long as the health-related query data is truly being analyzed in aggregate, and not per user, seems to me this could be socially beneficial... or am I missing something? Here's the full text from the above URL, since the site is slow:

_SICK SURVEILLANCE: GOOGLE REPORTS FLU SEARCHES, LOCATIONS TO FEDS
Tue Nov 11 2008 15:34:50 ET

GOOGLE will launch a new tool that will help federal officials "track sickness".

"Flu Trends" uses search terms that people put into the web giant to figure out where influenza is heating up, and will notify the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in real time!

GOOGLE, continuing to work closely with government, claims it would keep individual user data confidential: "GOOGLE FLU TRENDS can never be used to identify individual users because we rely on anonymized, aggregated counts of how often certain search queries occur each week."

Engineers will capture keywords and phrases related to the flu, including thermometer, flu symptoms, muscle aches, chest congestion and others.

Dr. Lyn Finelli, chief of influenza surveillance at CDC: "One thing we found last year when we validated this model is it tended to predict surveillance data. The data are really, really timely. They were able to tell us on a day-to-day basis the relative direction of flu activity for a given area. They were about a week ahead of us. They could be used... as early warning signal for flu activity."

Thomas Malone, professor at M.I.T.: "I think we are just scratching the surface of what's possible with collective intelligence."

Eric Schmidt, GOOGLE's chief executive vows: "From a technological perspective, it is the beginning."

Developing... 
_
/steve


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## Stuart Sweet (Jun 19, 2006)

I enjoyed testing Chrome, but as Steve points out, there are elements of vBulletin that it isn't compatible with. Some of the special tools I use here don't work.


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## durl (Mar 27, 2003)

Anybody concerned about how Google handles information?


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## deltafowler (Aug 28, 2007)

durl said:


> Anybody concerned about how Google handles information?


I sure am.
Please explain what information they gather and exactly what they do with it.


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## durl (Mar 27, 2003)

Google gathers lots about you and your internet activity, especially if you've signed up for any of their services, including Google Checkout which some online vendors require you to use.

And it seems to have a history of being reined in regarding how much information they hold and how they use it. But some of my main concerns are:

- It censors data in China. While Google's not alone there, it does make me wonder who influences their filters.

- It wants medical information online. I'm not a fan of that.

- The initial EULA gave Google a lot of control over how it used your information.

- Google had to modify Chrome's keylogging feature after privacy concerns. Combining the search and address bar raised a lot of eyebrows and Google was forced to cut back on the amount of information it holds.

Google is a hub for a person's email, documents, calendar, searches, images. It can obtain a comprehensive profile of you by linking all this information together. And we know that "private" information doesn't always remain private. Disgruntled employees sell this stuff for a few bucks.


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## deltafowler (Aug 28, 2007)

Just about any Internet entity will maintain some information on its users, especially with checkout and payment services.

I'd like to see a bit more proof than just some things you have picked up from e-mails and other forums regarding the other items in the conspiracy list above.


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## deltafowler (Aug 28, 2007)

By the way, your satellite tv provider knows where you live and they know what you like to watch.


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

deltafowler said:


> Just about any Internet entity will maintain some information on its users, especially with checkout and payment services.
> 
> I'd like to see a bit more proof than just some things you have picked up from e-mails and other forums regarding the other items in the conspiracy list above.


Same here. I'm not a Google shareholder (though I wish I was! :lol: ), but I don't think it's fair to paint them with an "evil" brush without some justification. Just my .02. /steve


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## tcusta00 (Dec 31, 2007)

Steve said:


> Same here. I'm not a Google shareholder (though I wish I was! :lol: ), but I don't think it's fair to paint them with an "evil" brush without some justification. Just my .02. /steve


Haven't you seen their cameras everywhere? It's all a big plot to take over the world. :lol:


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## durl (Mar 27, 2003)

deltafowler said:


> Just about any Internet entity will maintain some information on its users, especially with checkout and payment services.
> 
> I'd like to see a bit more proof than just some things you have picked up from e-mails and other forums regarding the other items in the conspiracy list above.


One of my major concerns is that so much data of various types is all together with one company. A hack could have serious impact. - http://www.itsecurity.com/features/famous-google-hack-jobs-051407/

- The original EULA for Chrome: "If you use the Google Chrome Browser you automatically give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty free and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services." To Google's credit, they modified this after people complained. However, my concern is that this was cleared at all by Google officials. Basically, the default for them was the ability to use anything you posted for their own benefit, and do so free of charge.

- A non-profit group, Privacy International, recently ranked Google at the bottom of Internet Service companies. - http://www.privacyinternational.org/article.shtml?cmd[347]=x-347-553961

- Google recently announced that it will be letting staff decide what should show in results. - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/12/googlewashing_revisited/

As a final, here's a site that details all the data that Google collects:
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-evil-side-of-google-exploring-googles-user-data-collection


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## deltafowler (Aug 28, 2007)

Google (Normal Search)

* Search Engine Result Pages
* Country code domain
* Query
* IP address
* Language
* Number of results
* Safe search
* Additional preferences can include:
o Street Address
o City
o State
o Zip/postal code
* Server log
o Query
o URL
o IP address
o Cookie
o Browser
o Date
o Time
* Clicks


Ooooooh!
I'll bet they even know what's in my fridge. :lol:


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

deltafowler said:


> Google (Normal Search)
> 
> * Search Engine Result Pages
> * Country code domain
> ...


This begs the question of how much information the competition gathers.

Since the whole internet business model is based on targeting ads to demographics, in order to deliver the most value to advertisers who support the free sites we visit, I suspect everyone would collect as much as they could, if they had the same technology.

So is Google evil because their programmers might be smarter than the competition's? /steve


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

Today's New York Times is reporting that Yahoo will limit personal data retention to 90 days:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/18/technology/internet/18yahoo.html?_r=1

"_Under the new policy, Yahoo will delete the last eight digits of the numeric Internet Protocol address associated with a search query after 90 days. It will also alter cookie data related to each search log and strip out any personal information, like a name, phone number, address or Social Security number, from the query. Yahoo also said that its new policy would extend to other types of data it collects, like page views, page clicks, ad views and ad clicks._"

Sounds like Yahoo may be collecting as much user information as Google. The article makes no mention of Yahoo messenger chat transcripts. /steve


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