Browser Head to Head: Chrome vs. Firefox vs. Flock

By | December 2, 2008 | 27 Comments

An article on 3 web browsers: Firefox, Google Chrome and Flock. Safari and Opera were left behind.

Read the article.

There were few interesting comments on that article though. For example:

“Opera hasn’t changed, there’s nothing new or exciting, nothing to talk about. People don’t ignore Opera, they just don’t really care about it.”

While this is not 100% correct, I actually find it true when viewing all the “browser war” and/or web development related articles around the web.


About (Author Profile)


Vygantas is a former web designer whose projects are used by companies such as AMD, NVIDIA and departed Westood Studios. Being passionate about software, Vygantas began his journalism carrier back in 2007 when he founded FavBrowser.com. Having said that, he is also an adrenaline junkie who enjoys good books, fitness activities and Forex trading.

  • wut

    That tmsbrdrs guy is clearly delusional.

    He claims that Opera is standing still and not gaining or losing users, except for the fact that Opera’s user base has doubled in two years and increased more than 50% in the last year.

    Opera Mini has increased its user base by more than 300% in one year.

    He also claims that Opera hasn’t changed, which is crazy. Opera 9.5 was a huge change under the hood. I’m not even going to bother listing all the addition since 9.2.

    And it added stuff like global synchronization of bookmarks and stuff like that.

    It did full page text searching from the address bar before anyone else.

    It got a completely new skin.

    The mail client’s backend was rewritten to be much faster and better.

    Some people are clearly not paying attention. You can say that no one cares about Opera and you may be right. But claiming that it isn’t getting any users or that the browser itself is the same as it has always been is insanity.

    • tmsbrdrs

      An increase of 50% for a browser than barely has 1000 users isn’t that much. Opera Mini is in a different playing field, meaning it doesn’t count in this particular subject line.

      Opera hasn’t changed enough to acknowledge it. I looked at Opera quite a while back and the user experience is the same. In other words, you either like it or it bugs you enough so you never use it. Most people fall into the latter.

      Claiming it did something before anyone else is the sign of an Opera fanboy, whether you’re right or not. Opera, from what I’ve read, not only did address bar search before anyone else, it also did just about everything else modern day browsers do long before, such as tabbed browsing, such as private browsing, such as tabs on top (opera tabs are a strange beast).

      Every browser gets a new skin. It’s like giving a gang member a new suit. He’s still the same where it really counts.

      I’ve been paying plenty of attention, the browser is the same. It’s had some upgrades under the hood but it’s still not different where it really counts.

      A good example comes to mind. Imagine, if you will, a politician. He lies, he cheats, he has good intentions for filling his wallet and maybe getting enough good done to get reelected.

      He goes to an image consultant. The image consultant makes him look incredible in the public eye. He gets reelected. Is he the same politician?

  • Michael Johnson

    I wouldn’t claim no one cares about Opera (I do). But, yeah, it seems those doing browser reviews don’t care about Opera. I don’t know why… all the other browser makers keep close watch on what Opera is doing, since Opera is often the innovator that everyone borrows features from. Or bases plugins on :)

  • nobody

    Opera hasn’t changed. there are some new features, like link etc, but core of opera is still intact. it is a geek browser, that does not work with most advanced pages (who is to blame doesnt matter). it has not changed in 9.0 nor in 9.2 nor in 9.5/6. it hasnt changed – want to use full gmail? use FF, want to use full yahoo? use ff etc etc.

    same goes for developer tools – there is that dragonfly thingy, that is nothing more than advanced bookmarklet, that cant do anything more than normal bookmarklet. opera STILL has no developer tools that works. no net activity, no header review, nothing. and one still asks ‘why people dont test in opera’. because the CANT! and because opera takes YEARS to release working dev tools (it still hasnt happend!) they might also think, that opera in reality doesnt care. and this feeling is something that makes people ignore opera alltogether.

    while on the other hand, safari had envolved enormously in past year, it’s developer tools are SUPERB, not to mention ff’ firebug. that while great in version 2.0 is even more amazing in ff 3.0. you really still think ‘why people like ff more?’ maybe because ff makers gave them chance to.

    opera still hasnt got extensions, still hasnt introduced stuff like: autoupdate, autoform fill, as you type spell check etc. speed, once opera main seling point is now CLEARLY behind ff, safari and chrome. etc etc.

    why anybody should talk about underdog? the minor browser? 30mln users means nothing, when you look at the ~1% marketshare, stagnant.

    • emre

      I cannot believe the comments on opera browser that it is not cared by people or did not change at all. Have you really tried opera ever? I have been using opera since version 8 and believe me it is the most handy and practical browser I have ever used. Especially the Opera Unite feature is my favorite. It is an all in one tool for internet instead of installing a browser and adding tons of addons.

  • Nox

    @wut
    As far as I can see, those stats are something you have pulled out of your ass. (Translation for you: SAUCE PLOX!)

  • Alex

    nobody, you are my new hero.

  • Jyakotu

    @nobody
    Just what I’d expect from a Firefox fanboy. Half the stuff that people make extensions for Firefox, Opera can all ready do. Opera is still the browser innovator and the use of Opera has increased dramatically.

  • Zachary

    Opera hasn’t changed? Nothing new or exciting? Nobody cares?

    This is all complete bullshit. Opera is constantly upgrading and getting more features. Nobody seems to know that ALMOST ALL of the features that other browsers boast were pretty much taken from Opera because Opera innovated and used them first.

  • hello

    @nobody

    “Opera hasn’t changed. there are some new features, like link etc, but core of opera is still intact.”

    Actually, the core was mostly rewritten for 9.5, wasn’t it?

    “there is that dragonfly thingy, that is nothing more than advanced bookmarklet”

    This is false. It’s written using web technologies, but then again, so is Firebug.

    “opera STILL has no developer tools that works. no net activity, no header review, nothing.”

    That’s coming soon according to their blog.

    “speed, once opera main seling point is now CLEARLY behind ff, safari and chrome.”

    Not on real-world sites.

    “the ~1% marketshare, stagnant”

    Actually, this is wrong. It has far more. You are relying on Net Applications and others that have been caught editing their stats after the fact.

  • wut

    @Nox

    #As far as I can see, those stats are
    #something you have pulled out of your
    #ass.

    You could always educate yourself. But since you are asking, everything is from Opera’s quarterly financial reports:

    http://www.opera.com/company/investors/finance/

    Opera is required by law to give correct information to their investors, by the way.

    • tmsbrdrs

      However, Opera is NOT required to give them unbiased information. They can spin it however they want and, since spin can make anything mean anything, a companies own numbers about itself are rarely as true as they could be.

  • nobody

    “Actually, the core was mostly rewritten for 9.5, wasn’t it?”

    who cares? gmail, yahoo mail, most other webmails etc STILL do not work 100% in opera. and it DOESNT matter is it opera’ or google/yahoo’s fault – it is opera that doesnt work in common opinion

    “This is false. It’s written using web technologies, but then again, so is Firebug.”

    who cares, i told you that it CANT do more than advanced bookmarklet. firebug CAN do more, as it is linked directly to the rendering engine, that exposes many usefull information to debugger. opera does not do it, thus limiting dev tools functionality at start. and they will remain limited (useless) until opera changes its policy. that is not going to happen

    “That’s coming soon according to their blog.”

    if you swallow ‘comming soon’ BS, then i have nothing more to say. in that ‘comming soon’ meantime Safari managed to create, publish, polish and release dev tools of its own. and they rock compared to this opera rubbish.

    “Not on real-world sites.”

    like google maps, google docs (oops, opera doesnt work there) or gmail? or maybe yahoo mail (oops it doesnt work), or maybe.. list of mainstream sites that are slow or limited or both is VERY long. includes stuff like google, yahoo, ms, amazon, youtube.. what mainstream sites are faster in opera than in ff while having the same functionality?

    “Nobody seems to know that ALMOST ALL of the features that other browsers boast were pretty much taken from Opera because Opera innovated and used them first.”

    who cares? opera innovates, others take opera’ ideas and IMPROOVE IT. opera cant do that itself, if it could, we would have autoupdate already in opera.. yes, opera invented speed dial, problem is, that now it has WORST speed dial implementation of all browsers – ff extension is far better, chrome has it, ie8 has it, safari is going to have it. opera was first, but it had left speed dial development and it is now last when it comes to functionality. it is just that WITH EVERY opera functionality. EVERY SINGLE ONE. opera innovates, others implement and improve. sorry, but opera cant do the later.

  • Zachary

    Firefox Speed Dial is terrible. It should be called SpeedDial or Fast Dial, just Dial. Opera is the only one I’ve seen that’s instant.

    That being said, I can’t help but think you, nobody, really are a nobody. You waste your time pointlessly bashing a web browser (as in, something that allows a user to access websites, not something that will end the whole freaking world), all because you’re a generic Firefox fanboy who stands by Firefox (a goddamn web browser) religiously for no apparent reason. It’s people like you that makes me sick that the internet has become like it is now. It’s almost laughable how pointless your arguments are; I could do the same nitpicking for Firefox or Chrome or IE or whatever if I wanted to but I’m not some stuck-up imbecile whose whole life revolves around wanking over a certain web browser.

  • Keldian.-

    Hi guys, I haven’t pass over here on a long time indeed (former Peace_Destroyer)

    Just don’t bother on answering “nobody” at all, he’s just a bitter Firefox fanboy, and as such, he’ll never find a good thing about Opera – gee, he’s even capable of defending Internet Explorer as long as he can attack Opera! WTF!?
    Tieme and time again keeps saying thing like Google maps, Gmail and other stuff never works, so that must mean I must be some kind of enginner or something ’cause those services DO work for me: http://xs233.xs.to/xs233/08475/gthem2529.png

    And yes, I think a review which doesn’t take Opera and Safari into account it’s just a populist one, as it seems to just to compare browsers based on their presence in banners on Blogspot.com blogs and YouTube banners. *facepalm*

  • Zachary

    Yeah, should have said that as well. All the Google services work perfectly fine for me.

  • nobody

    and you goJoeGo (wub, zachary, probably also keldian) have too much time walking around religiously bashing anybody who is NOT an opera fanboy

    does html formating works for you 100%? can you use ALL newest gmail features? because i happen to know that you cant, even with newest browser.js hacks. does right click menu work for you (webpage one, not opera native) for stuff like setting directions on google maps – because im sure it doesnt.

  • wut

    @nobody

    ” firebug CAN do more, as it is linked directly to the rendering engine”

    As is Dragonfly. HTTP header viewing is coming, according to the Dragonfly blog. Oops, guess you are as ignorant as always :D

    “IMPROOVE”

    Nice English there, Stalin :D

    “now it has WORST speed dial implementation of all browsers”

    Works fine here.

    Never mind. We know that you are a Firefox fanboy who hates Opera because it’s smaller, faster and more secure. C’est la vie!

  • Zachary

    I’m religiously bashing non-Opera fanboys?

    1. That doesn’t even make much sense.
    2. Where the hell did you even get that idea?

    YOU came in here to bash Opera for absolutely no reason other than your Firefox-fanboy instincts telling you to do so. YOU are the only person here I’m specifically targetting, and yet you say I’m “religiously” bashing everybody who is not an Opera “fanboy”. Do you lack basic comprehension skills, or are you just too ignorant for your own good?

    The way you type and endlessly nitpick and babble-on about insignificant crap makes me believe you are simply a troll. You act as if “your” browser is just perfect and dandy; like it has never had a single problem. However, I, and many others, could very easily list a plethora of examples which would quite clearly show that this is simply not true. Personally, though, I refuse to stoop to your level (which appears to be rock bottom) and do so. Why? Because each browser is different; meaning people are always gonna find their dislikes in a browser and stick with their favorites.

    You, nobody, appear to be extremely biased in your posts.

  • anybody

    The only one religiously bashing something here is “nobody”, who seems to spend most of his day obsessing over Opera. Poor guy.

  • nobody

    “Yeah, should have said that as well. All the Google services work perfectly fine for me.”

    that is your quote

    and this is my question:

    “does html formating works for you 100%? can you use ALL newest gmail features? because i happen to know that you cant, even with newest browser.js hacks. does right click menu work for you (webpage one, not opera native) for stuff like setting directions on google maps – because im sure it doesnt.”

    so does it work 100% or does it work ‘just enough for you’? because, you know, these two things differ. i nitpick it because you, and others (esp certain opera fanboi) state, that opera ‘works excelent’, problem is, that it doesnt. on most of top 10 most important pages in the world. so i want you, to prove me wrong, and prove, that it realy works 100% on these sites – like google maps and right click -> set directions

    and btw, my main browser is safari, so shove off with your ‘rock bottom’ and ‘firefox fanboi’ etc remarks

  • effzee

    lol. i come back here after months and months and “nobody” is still bashing Opera like crazy. I don’t see much of anything constructive in your posts. You accuse opera’s fanboys – just take a long look at your own posts. Your rants are so childish, we all heard your opinion over and over. Do you have some issue with ppl having free choice and liking something you dont? Can’t you think of anything positive to say? What is your major malfunction? Get a life, dude!

  • effzee

    lol @ anybody i just read your post, seems to say much the same as mine. guess i’m not alone in my opinion.

    With the exception of IE I use all the browsers and don’t think any of them suck. I use Opera for my daily browsing since it’s most secure and fastest (for me). Site compatibility is no more an issue for me than with any other browser, amusingly I find that most rendering errors come from safari. As a programmer if a site works in Opera it tends to work in everything else.

  • Zachary

    @nobody

    It doesn’t matter which browser is your main one. You’ve been blindly defending Firefox since your first post. You’re still being a fanboy.

  • wut

    @noone

    Opera 10 alpha released today includes Dragonfly with network logging and DOM editing.

  • nobody

    it was released on 28th of nov as a dragonfly alpha 3.1 and it is still a far cry from firebug and safari’ tools. as in ‘it doesnt do what it is suposed to’. and it matters because, well, you do your job with tools that exist, not with ones that are ‘comming soon’

    but yes, i like fes new features in 10

  • wut

    @nobody

    The Moving The Goalpost fallacy, eh?

    No one ever said Dragonfly was COMPLETE by now. I just pointed out that it has stuff you’ve been whining about for years.

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