Firefox 4 Is Certainly Zippy, But Is That Enough To Switch Back From Chrome?
Firefox 4 Is Certainly Zippy, But Is That Enough To Switch Back From Chrome? | TechCrunch

		
		
If you’ve already downloaded the new Firefox 4 today, the first you probably noticed is how much zippier it is.  I pretty much had stopped using Firefox altogether because of the creekiness of its previous versions compared to Chrome, Safari, and IE9.  But the new Firefox 4, which Mozilla claims is 6 times as fast as before, puts it back in the same pack at least as the rest.  It’s been downloaded nearly 2 million times as of this writing (check the counter for more up-to-the-second numbers).






I’m sure there are plenty of benchmark tests that show one browser is faster than the other, and vice versa, but my initial reactions after playing around with Firefox 4 today and comparing it side by side with Chrome is that it is just as fast if not faster.  It depends on which website I visit.  TechCrunch, for instance, loads a second or two faster by my stopwatch.  Without the stopwatch, I can’t tell the difference. And that’s a good thing for Firefox, because speed is my No. 1 requirement for a Web browser.  Nothing else is nearly as important.  Sluggishness pushes users away.  So that’s fixed.
Firefox also supports all sorts of HTML5 and other modern Web apps.  If you want to check some out, go to its Web O’ Wonder page where you can test 360-degree videos, animations, in-browser games and other highly graphic apps.  You can se emost of them on Chrome as well, but these are tuned especially for Firefox 4.  The360-degree video, for instance, looks much better in Firefox and the panning around is much smoother.  But there are plenty of HTML5 apps that look better in Chromeor Safari, so don’t let canned demos sway you.
The new Firefox also has some new security features like a Do Not Track option for online ads, lets you sync tabs and browsers across to mobile browsers, and makes it easier to group tabs and see all open tabs in a thumbnail view.  I don’t know if the speed and other features are enough to make me want to come back.  I’ve got everything set up on Chrome so nicely and I am a creature of habit.  But if Chrome starts acting up or crashing my browsers, it’s nice to know I’ve got plenty of other options—and Firefox is once again on that list.


		

		
		
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		Erick has been discovering and working with startups his entire professional career as a technology journalist, startup event producer, and founder. Erick is President & Founding Partner at Traction Technology Partners. He is also a co-founder of TouchCast, the leading interactive video platform, and a partner at bMuse, a startup studio in New York City. He is the former Executive Producer of the DEMO conferences and former Editor-in-Chief of TechCrunch (where he helped conceive, lead and select startups for the Disrupt conferences, among other duties). Prior to TechCrunch, which he joined as Co-Editor in 2007, Erick was Editor-at-Large for Business 2.0 magazine, and a senior writer at Fortune magazine covering technology.

At TechCrunch, he oversaw the editorial content of the site, helped to program the Disrupt conferences and CrunchUps, produced TCTV shows, and wrote daily for the blog. He joined TechCrunch as Co-Editor in 2007, and helped take it from a popular blog to a thriving media property. After founder Michael Arrington left in 2011, Schonfeld became Editor in Chief.

Prior to TechCrunch, he was Editor-at-Large for Business 2.0 magazine, where he wrote feature stories and ran their main blog, The Next Net. He also launched the online video series “The Disruptors” with CNN/Money and hosted regular panels and conferences of industry luminaries. Schonfeld started his career at Fortune magazine in 1993, where he was recognized with numerous journalism awards.	


	
	
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