Killer Tech Tips

Guest Post by Gouthaman Karunakaran

Both Chrome 10 and IE 9 have come out this month and I think this is the best time for a post with totally frank comparisons that’ll help you decide which browser is for you.

Chrome 10 came out last week and one of the main things you are expected to find is a better JavaScript engine called Crankshaft. This means a lot to everyone because it could make your browsing faster than before.

Features like background pages, hardware acceleration and an “options” web page (instead of the window) also strive to make Chrome a polished, better browser.

I’ve have never loved IE much, but the latest version makes me wants to change my stance about it. It’s finally becoming more standards compliant, faster and secure. The UI has a streamlined look and its ability to pin tabs might just make you fall in love with it.

Without much ado, let’s have a little comparison between these browsers to find out which one’s right for you! There are some categories on which we’ll compare the browsers for the sake of clarity.

Extensions and Add-ons:

Google Chrome 10 definitely wins this category. With a huge repertoire of extensions, Chrome is simply the best browser I can see after Firefox on this front. IE on the other hand has an “add-ons gallery”, but needs a lot more love from the developers.

Winner: Google Chrome

Security:

Chrome’s approach towards security is very unique. Plugins like Flash (which cause a lot of problems) are built into the automatically updated browser which makes sure that you are on the latest possible version of Flash at all times. In the latest version, Chrome has introduced sandboxing into Flash and this makes it even more secure in comparison with other browsers.

Internet Explorer’s USP at the moment seems to be eye-candy and speed and they rarely mention anything about security at the download page. One thing that caught my eye is the ability to opt-out of tracking by various ad networks on the web. This is something new to IE, but it still doesn’t convince me like Chrome 10 does and yeah, there’s the Microsoft Proprietary SmartScreen filter and other usual features you were able to find in IE8

If it makes you feel better, Google Chrome could not be exploited by hackers at the pwn2own event.

Winner: Google Chrome

Speed:

ZDNet reports that Internet Explorer 9 is a lot faster than the latest build of Chrome or Opera and recalling from my experience with Internet Explorer 9 it’s definitely a lot faster than its predecessors. The browser even makes you disable all the add-ons in order to speed up everything!

Winner: Internet Explorer

Usability:

I’ve used all leading the browsers that we have today at one point of time in the past two months, but nothing is as usable as Chrome. Some of my favourite features are the ability to search something on Google just by selecting a piece of text on a page, pinning tabs and it’s awesome bookmark manager. There are more interesting features that are present only in Chrome. Check out this post by Abhijeet to learn more.

Internet Explorer on the other hand has achieved a lot on this front. The revamped user Interface looks very modern. Pinning websites to the taskbar is an interesting feature you might want to check out.

There are certain difficulties I faced when I started using IE9; as a Chrome user, I am used to the comfort of extensions which make my job easier and this suffered a serious setback when I was on IE. One thing I’ve always hated in IE9 is that the chrome of the browser keeps growing when you activate the add-ons you need.

If you are looking to display the favourites bar, it grows even bigger and wastes a lot of precious real estate and Chrome handles this in a better way.

Winner: Google Chrome

Compatibility:

Internet Explorer 9 is a windows-only browser while Chrome works on most of the popular operating systems around. If you are still on XP, the best thing to do would be using Chrome. Internet Explorer 8 is no longer the latest version of IE and it doesn’t support crucial web standards like the way IE9 does.

Winner: Google Chrome if you are on XP. IE 9 if you are on Vista/7 because of its awesome integration with the OS.

Before I conclude, I must admit that Internet Explorer has improved a lot from the days of IE6 and the jokes we played on IE will no longer hold true.

My recommendation would still be to stick to Chrome for now. Yes, IE offers more speed, but Chrome makes sense since it’s secure and updates itself automatically. If you are a corporate user, you might want to upgrade all the PCs to run IE9 instead of playing with a dead IE6.

Gouthaman Karunakaran writes the super cool PC Geek Blog. Do subscribe to his site for more tech updates. If you’re an Android fanboy, he’s got some good stuff for you as well.

Related posts:

1. 7 Google Chrome Productivity Tips
2. 7 Things You Didn’t Know You Could Do From Chrome’s Address Bar