Eric Douglas Pratt

Life is good when elegant solutions are easy.

Welcome to my Internet. I keep it pretty clean and simple - just three pages. You can find out a little about me and browse through things past and present.

Reasons why Google Chrome is faster.

  1. Search right in the URL bar: open Chrome, type "bartley's", press Enter, boom, Google search results for Bartley's Burgers. Without pressing the down arrow to get to your friggin' suggestions.
    • YEA: Chrome, Firefox 3, IE 7
    • NAY: Safari 4, Opera 9
  2. Auto complete when typing URLs: open Chrome, type 'r', press Enter, boom, reddit.com. Ranks URL suggestions by most used.
    • YEA: Chrome, Safari 4
    • NAY: Firefox 3, Opera 9, IE 7
  3. Tabs open next to the current one: open Chrome, open a couple sites in tabs, go to the first tab, right-click a link, open in new tab, boom, tab opens next to that one, not at the end.
    • YEA: Chrome, IE 8 (wow!)
    • NAY: Safari 4, Firefox 3, Opera 9
  4. Press Tab key for direct search: open Chrome, type 'am', press Tab, type 'trace adkins', press Enter, boom, you're at the Amazon.com search results page for Trace Adkins.
    • YEA: Chrome
    • NAY: Safari 4, Firefox 3, IE 7, Opera 9
  5. Tab switch on mouse down: open Chrome, open a couple sites in tabs, press mouse button down on a tab, boom, tab is open, even before you release the mouse button.
    • YEA: Chrome, Firefox 3, IE 7 (wow!)
    • NAY: Safari 4, Opera 9
  6. New tabs open immediately: open Chrome, press Ctrl-T, boom, new tab. RFN. Not a second or two later.
    • YEA: Chrome, Firefox 3, Safari 4, Opera 9
    • NAY: IE 7

Years ago, Firefox won me over chiefly with plug-ins, tabbed browsing, and some security advantages. But using Chrome removed a bit of friction from the Web I hadn't realized was there. It felt like discovering I'd been driving with the parking brake on just a bit.

-- Stephen Shankland, "Why I switched from Firefox to Chrome", CNET News

Last updated 6 May 2009