I’m a [ Chrome | Firefox | Opera ] user…

 

Over the last few months my browser usage switched from pure Chrome to a combination of Chrome, Firefox and Opera, all running on Fedora 16 (x86-64). This may sound a little odd, but when you see what I use them for it may not sound so wacky.

  • Chrome: Used for anything Google (Gmail, Reader, Calendar, Google+ etc.) and general browsing.
  • Firefox: Used for anything to do with administration of my website. I switched to Firefox because I found Chrome on Fedora to be a little glitchy when posting HTML forms. About 1 in 10 posts hang indefinitely. I don’t see this behaviour on Mac and I guess it doesn’t happen on Windows or I would have read about it, but it seems consistently annoying on Fedora. I thought at first it was something I had done, but it happens with phpBB, WordPress and my own admin pages. I get the same behaviour on multiple machines also. In contrast, Firefox performance seems very consistent.
  • Opera: Since the whole Google social search stuff was introduced, I don’t really trust some Google searches when I’m logged in to my Google account. The search results seem too heavily weighted to my own website and those I visit on a regular basis. That’s fine if you never want to break out of your little circle of friends, but when I search I often want to venture into pastures new, not just keep visiting the same people. Since Chrome and Firefox are always logged in to my Google account, I use Opera as my impartial browser. ๐Ÿ™‚

So now I’m a triple-browser guy. ๐Ÿ™‚

Interested to know:

  • Has anyone else seen this hanging issue on Chrome? I’ve Googled for answers, but anything that sounds remotely relevant seems to relate to bugs in old versions.
  • Has anyone got a clever solution for the Google account issue? I don’t want to repeatedly log out and in, but if there is a more obvious solution I would like to hear it.

Cheers

Tim…

Update: Colin โ€˜t Hart mentioned the Incognito Window in Google Chrome. It does seem to give the correct (non-social) serach results, but it is a separate window, so not sure if it is a better approach than running Opera. Kinda like the complete separate of running Opera, but worth thinking about though.

Author: Tim...

DBA, Developer, Author, Trainer.

7 thoughts on “I’m a [ Chrome | Firefox | Opera ] user…”

  1. You could use an “Incognito Window” in Chrome for Google search. Then you can go back to being a dual-browser guy ๐Ÿ™‚

  2. Colin: Not totally sure Google doesn’t keep an eye on what you do in the incognito window. They only say it doesn’t get added to your search history. I just can’t see them passing up the opportunity to track you. ๐Ÿ™‚

    Just because you’re paranoid, don’t mean they’re not [ after you | tracking you ]. ๐Ÿ™‚

    I just tried the Google search, and it does give different result from the incognito window, so that’s an option. Having said that, it’s no more convenient that using Opera, since it is a new windows, not just a tab, so I may stick with Opera. ๐Ÿ™‚
    Cheers

    Tim…

  3. good afternoon,

    interesting that you mention this, it had the same concern regarding sharing, phishing etc.) so I am also a multiple browser guy for privacy reason. (IE for single sign-on at work, Opera for banking, Firebox for Google, and Chrome for general browsing).

    Next step for separation would be to have different VMs.

    cheers
    Eric

  4. Dont forget to cleanup cookies. An “independent” browser does nothing when you don’t delete your cookies. And even then google might track you using stuff like ISP, browser agent, installed plugins and stuff.

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