Google Chrome extensions: Not yet, but later

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--One of Firefox's initial claims to fame is the fact that the browser can be extended with a multitude of plug-ins, and even though Microsoft caught up with Internet Explorer, Firefox still has an extension edge over Google's new Chrome Web browser.

Google's Sundar Pichai speaks at the Chrome launch.

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET News)

For now.

"We don't have that in the beta today, but we definitely plan an extension API," or application programming interface, Sundar Pichai, a Google vice president of product management, said at the Chrome launch event here Tuesday. "It is one of the things we will get to next."

Firefox extensions cover a wide swath of abilities, from synchronizing bookmarks to debugging Web site performance to showing detailed exposure data for online photographs. The extensibility has attracted scads of programmers, too, which is strategically important for most computing efforts.

Google, no doubt, envies the Firefox extension assets. But it's hard to imagine the company mustering much enthusiasm for one of the most popular Firefox extensions, AdBlock Plus, which suppresses many advertisements.

Google has a strong focus on giving Web users a good experience--indeed, it said its studies show that users find the text ads placed next to search results an overall improvement. But Google's business depends on advertising, and its $3.1 billion DoubleClick acquisition is geared to give the company strength in just the sort of online display advertisements that AdBlock is designed to counteract.

Extensions shouldn't be confused with a related technology, plug-ins, which includes software such as Sun Microsystems' Java, Microsoft's Silverlight, and Adobe Systems' Flash. Existing plug-ins work in Chrome, Pichai said.

Click here for full coverage of the Google Chrome launch.

[AndrewRich]

Extensions are the reason I don't use FF. Mozilla ships an underpowered, unusable browser and expects the end-user to figure out which extensions are required to bring it up to the minimum standard of usability. Extensions which are written by third-party developers and will, likely as not, destabilize the browser even more. Give me a browser that does what it's supposed to do out of the box and I'll use it. So I use Safari and Opera.

[zelmoziggy]

I use Firefox for every website that doesn't require ActiveX and have never found it to be underpowered or unsuable, and the only extension I have installed is AdBlock Plus.

[BlitzBoy1120]

Look. Opera and Safari are great. But you mentioned safari? Firefox has a lo more security features right out the box without extensions than safari does. Also, with firefox you can customize your theme. You can't do that in Safari, and in Opera they aren't as appealing as Firefox ones. Firefox is faster, smarter, and more reliable than Opera. Ask people. Some will say Firefox, others will go with Safari/Opera. But remember, Firefox was editor's choice. How is it "unusable". In the beginning I've used it with zero add ons, and it i far from unusable. Its the one of the fastest browsers, if not fastest. Also, with extensions, anybody can contribute and awesome add on. What is a group of devs compared to thousands of devs submitting their work to Firefox? Firefox is great out of the box, and is even better when customized. Everybody has a different opinion, but that's mine.

[DarkHawke]

Sure you weren't looking at Chrome when you wrote that? Firefox is eminently usable "out of the box." The extensions are niceties, with only a very few actually adding important new features. Do either Opera or Safari come with something like NoScript included? For me, only that and Ad Block Plus are baseline requirements. The 20 others I run are all QOL features, just things that make what Firefox already comes with work better or allow me to customize how they work

[rob1400]

Google Chrome is nice. But by blocking all unwanted ads with AdBlock Plus, Firefox still beats Chrome by a wide margin in terms of speed. So Firefox is still my best choice.

[Kreuzer33]

Seems like Google is everywhere these days (as always). It should be a very interesting month for them, that's for sure. Let's see what the public thinks of the products before jumping to any conclusions.

http://kreuzer33.wordpress.com/2008/09/04/google-android-to-be-trimmed-with-chrome/

[Pretty_Prue]

I just started using Chrome and I love it. I don't know why it is not getting the great reviews, but it looks great and works fast. It's a really great hit by Google. I would recommend people to try it out before reading the reviews.

[MrChickenLeggs]

Chrome is INTRUSIVE - violates privacy big time. I will not recommend the browser to anyone.

I am really disappointed that Google would unleash such a highly intrusive product on unsuspecting users. Unfortunately most people do not have the technical knowledge to fully appreciate how intrusive this browser is.

Shame on you Google, Sayonara from me, I am moving to another browser that respects my privacy and intelligence.

[PanZer_06]

Why do you say it's intrusive? What exactly did it do?

[billyswordman]

Yeah, G Chrome is everywhere...Most of the post I read about G Chrome praise this brower for the speed and features. It allow us to ghost browsing. Another feature is it record our browsing history.

Billy Swordman

[Kre8te]

Chrome is a browser that prefectly fills the gap left by IE and Firefox.
Some people want a speedy browser without the crashes of firefox or the slowness of IE.

I like the way chrome has taken good ideas that are present within both IE and Firefox such as speed and isolated tabs that do not crash the browser.

I hope they don't bog Chrome down with extensions. I just want to have the best speedy browsing experience possible. Firefox 3 has really corrupted people's browsing habits. It makes you lazy and it's interface (even with themes) does little to improve the experience.

To sum it up, I would call it a safari clone that works perfectly with windows. I've tried to like Safari, but trying to force windows user to take up Mac habits is just out of order and will ensure it will never be popular with windows user.

[firefoxluva95]

Firefox gives you a choice, you don't have to use any extensions if you don't want to. Browsing is much faster when you don't have to waste time loading ads. Just thought I'd let everyone know. So the best speedy browsing experiences would be one without ads. Read the Google chrome EULA and you'll see they may introduce ads. Really? Opera, when it had ads was bad enough.

Isolated tabs will be released with the next major releases of Opera, Firefox and possibly IE. Nobody is missing out on anything. Also it is highly possible that Google's Chrome and Mozilla's Firefox will end up integrating each others innovations. Chrome was not meant to try to end any browser's life...except maybe IEs. Of course, in the browser war sense, I would say FF, Chrome, Opera, and Safari are in an alliance against IE.

[Diggy666]

Impressive that even without any extensions available, and still a beta (really an Alpha) product Chrome garnished a whopping 2% share of browsers as of yesterday.

www.twitter.com/A_F

[gerrrrry]

> and even though Microsoft caught up with Internet Explorer

Are you on crack?

[epitone]

Chrome is (mostly) great, but if they don't come out with an AdBlock equivalent I'll probably switch back to Firefox pretty soon.

[rosoft2001]

While using Chrome I found that a lot of sites sites don't work, due to missing plugins for the new platform. Sometimes just quitting the site is not an option so I created an easy way to open the page in your "old" browser. Just drag and drop the URL from the Chrome URL bar into the Mirror form and you can continue your Chrome browsing.


Download: http://www.zonator.com/mirror.zip

[abhi_here]

Here's another interesting tidbit:

I was surfing on the same website with 3 browsers. (Mozilla FF, Microsoft IE and Google Chrome). Guess which one used the least memory?

It was IE. :)

[BIGELLOW]

Try surfing the same 3 websites (in three different tabs) with 3 browsers (FF, IE, Chrome) and Chrome will always use the least overall memory. It was designed to handle tabbed browsing much better than the other browsers.

[ma.azucena]

I useing a google its pretty good so i dont have to change my browser.

[AshevilleLocal]

There is a FREE version of the Chrome Code by a german company. but without googleupdater, with ad-blocking, and without a number of privacy invading settings:

It is called:
SRWare Iron
http://www.srware.net/en/software_srware_iron.php

[potatoooo]

I wouldn't mind Google Ads, as they are unintrusive. If they made an addon, that blocked ads, but allowed Google ads by default, that would be great ... Of course I don't really see that happening easily as I'm sure other advertisers would be angry.