I’ve been trying to use Google Chrome as my primary web browser for the past week.  I really like the clean interface with the tabs on top and looked forward to the promised speed bump over Firefox.  I also really like two addons, Friends Mural for Facebook and Mail Checker Plus.  They are really slick ways to interface with Facebook and Gmail that are seriously better than anything I’ve found for Firefox.

So more speed, better addons, what’s not to like?  Several basic things actually.  While several adblock style addons have are available that actually use the adblock filterset, they do not work nearly as well as adblock for Firefox.  Even with the addition of the adblock element blocker they do not display and adblocked page as cleanly as adblock in Firefox and many of the ads appear briefly before being blocked.  To add injury to annoyance, adblock seriously slows down Chrome making it seem slower than Firefox.

Comments on the Chrome adblock download page indicate that the fault lies with the architecture of chrome.  There is apparently no way to block ads similar to the functionality provided by Firefox.  Bummer.

The other major issue is continual freezes and lockups.  This may be related to any of the addons running, I have not tested.  But I am using the stable version of Chrome with adblock, adblock element blocker, Friends Mural and Mail Checker running and get constant lockups and freezes.  This seems to happen mostly when checking mail, so I’m going to tentatively blame Mail Checker Plus, but that may not be right.

I feel that one day, over time, the adblocking and other issues will be solved by the addon devs and the possibility for tight integration of the browser with the Google services I use extensively will provide a compelling reason for me to switch.  But today is not that day.