Chrome vs. Firefox for SEO

[MatthewHamilton]

There has been much debate in my office around this question and I was wondered what you folks out there felt was the superior web browser to utilize for all efforts SEO? Personally I have found Chrome and her SEO-tailored extensions to provide me with wonderful and consistent utility in my link analysis duties. Thoughts?

[tedster]

I haven't tried the Chrome extensions - mostly because I am a creature of habit and do most of my SEO work using an accumulation of tools that have built up over many years, and only a few of them are Firefox extensions.

Something about using Chrome on a regular basis troubles me. The feeling may be irrational, but Google already "owns" too much of my life.

[idolw]

I was trying to avoid Chrome for everyday use but it is simply impossible. It is the very best browser available. Incredibly quick, has largest view area on the market and google service I use all the time work best in it.
The only drawback is the fact it is 100% spyware...

[Matthew1980]

Hi all,

The feeling may be irrational, but Google already "owns" too much of my life.

A lot of people are saying this, so it's by no means irrational.

There seems to be some debates recently about browser superiority, and for the most part FF seems to be coming in second now next to chrome, IE8/7 is considered too clunky for most people, and at least 90% of developers use FF for development testing (me included, but I am biased as I only use FF!)

I suppose at the end of the day it depends entirely on the end user as to what browser they prefer to use. FF seems to be the popular choice, but it seems to be getting a few bugs of late, hopefully though these will be addressed in the forthcoming FF4. Chromes user's seem to prefer the aesthetics of the UI and the speed of use especially with java/ajax, though I could be wrong about that, there was a thread on this issue today in the firefox forum.

As I said though, I am biased towards FF, since they sorted out the 'pause-while-typing' bug which was down to the JRE that's used in conjunction with FF, I have more or less no complaints about it!

So, I think as this will be down to user preference.

[EDIT]Hi there idolw:-

has largest view area on the market

FF with down to minimum tool bars & buttons up on the menu bar is by far the best value pixel for pixel! This also depends on your monitor size too, doesn't it?

Cheers,
MRb

[TheMadScientist]

Chromes user's seem to prefer the aesthetics of the UI

That's probably because they don't know about the FF Personas... :)

I've been using FF and don't see myself changing any time soon for a number of reasons, and I'm not too sold on a FF v Chrome choice significantly impacting the overall ability of someone to SEO a site.

[Matthew1980]

Hi there TheMadScientist,

FF personas are IMHO what lets it down, what's wrong with default, nice clean and readable! Like you, I have used FF for as long as I can remember, and have no reason to look for an alternative - also - I love the FTP plugin, genuis! all that's needed now is a text editor as an add on! I digress.

Cheers,
MRb

[arizonadude]

It is the very best browser available.

According to you maybe.

I hate it and don't use it for many reasons.

[kidder]

27 inch iMac here on my desk so I run firefox on the left and Chrome on the right, Chrome is very quick but I don't bother with any extensions at all. I don't even make use of many Firefox tools, maybe I should.

[rowtc2]

Chrome is faster than Firefox, but don't have many addons.

I think Firefox is slower because of addons, if i put addons on Chrome i don't know what will happend.

Other hand, i dont like monopol :) , i am still on Firefox.

No words about IE ? And CSS compatibilities who drives me crazy? :)

[tedster]

I think Firefox is slower because of addons, if i put addons on Chrome i don't know what will happend.

And since we're in the Google SEO forum here and not the Browsers forum, that's essentially where our discussion should focus -- how are Chrome's SEO add-ons compared to the one's written for Firefox and does Chrome's performance degrade noticeably as add-pons are installed. We already know that FF can have some problems, although from what I see it's mostly at launch, and not while in use.

[OnlineConnect]

I use safari I used to hate it but its a great browser now, sometimes I use firefox, very occasionally I use chrome, chrome for some reason I really don't like and I can't put my finger on it, I just don't like it.

[TheMadScientist]

FF personas are IMHO what lets it down, what's wrong with default, nice clean and readable!

@ Matthew1980 (and others of course)
I thought the same thing when I first saw them. In fact I thought 'wow, cool, quite a few people will use those, but not me...' and left the site.

Then I went back a few days later just to surf through designs because some of them are incredible, I'm on my third, and along your lines I 'nice, clean, readable'. I started off with ZedPlan you should check it out some time it just adds some color to the screen for me...

So, if there is a better browser for me to use for SEO it's FireFox, because I like to work with it. Livens up the office a bit... ;)

[MatthewHamilton]

I agree with the primal sentiment regarding not wanting to utilize a technology from "the man" to take on "the man". It certainly seems counterintuitive at best - although I simply love the simplicity and user-focus of almost all Google developed software and applications so will stick with Chrome until it shows itself to be anything but simple and user-focused. Thanks for the responses.