Google Chrome and Switching Costs

I am a big fan of the Google Chrome browser. What is so special about it?

1. Technology - no doubt that it is faster than other browsers. No matter in what you do. Also, i really liked the fact that you could have one tab in the browser crash, without bringing down the whole browser, as each tab runs in a separate process

2. Design - Google chrome was a very well thought out, and very well designed. For example, if you have a bunch of tabs open, and you want to close several of them, you can close one tab, and then the next, and then the next - without moving your mouse! The next tab's close button aligns with your mouse as soon as you close the last one. Also, whenever you open a new tab, it shows the most frequently sites you visit in a simple format on the screen, making it easy to go to your favorites

3. Offline - With Google gears, Google is embracing scenarios in which the user will be offline but want to use a web app. I am pretty sure that Google Chrome will be the first browser to adapt new features of Gears, as they are developed. One of my favorite web apps, Remember the Milk, uses Google Gears.


So I switched to the Chrome, but gave it up and moved back to Firefox. Why is that? Switching costs of third party apps/extensions. I use a Firefox extension called Read It later, which as the name suggests, lets you mark any page to be read later, come back to it easily, and remove it from the list when you are done. There was a Chrome extension; it just didn't work well enough. And so, I am back for now, to my dear old Firefox.