Why I’m Still Using Chromium for Mac over Chrome
After a long wait and much hoopla, Google finally released their Chrome browser for Mac OS X this week. I did install it because I prefer using Google’s slimmer and brisk browser. But after a day or two of using the official beta build, I dumped it in favor of Chromium. In a sense, you could say I’m still using Chrome because it’s built upon Chromium. However, Chromium offers at least two features over the current version of Chrome: native bookmark sync and extension support.
The bookmark support function is the same that’s already in the Windows version of Chrome, so with Chromium, I can synchronize my bookmarks between Windows and Mac. It’s extremely fast and only requires that you sign in using your Google account. Once you’ve done that, bookmarks are quietly managed in the background, so it’s a fire and forget feature.
Also native to the latest builds of Chromium is extension support. I’ve heard that this is coming to Chrome for Mac very soon, but with Chromium, you don’t have to wait. Simply tapping Window –> Extensions in the Chromium menu bar brings up your installed extensions. Alternatively, you can just type chrome://extensions/ in the Chromium URL bar to get there. Currently, I have only two extensions installed, but there’s already a few hundred available.
One that I’m using is similar to the Gmail Notifier for Mac application — it routinely checks my personal Gmail account for new mail and shows the number of unread messages. Clicking the icon opens up a Gmail tab in Chromium and takes me right to my inbox. I also installed a Facebook extension that allows me to see the latest posts on my wall with one click. An expanding window appears to show my Facebook feed and I can even make comments or like items.
Although I’m not a big user of extensions — which is partly why I haven’t embraced Firefox — there are already some of immediate value. And if can combine those with the speed of Chrome as well as native bookmark synchronization, it’s a win-win for me. Bear in mind that Chromium is really the development platform for Chrome itself. While it works just fine and is generally stable for my activities, there is risk of crashes and unsupported functionality. If you’re interested in giving it a try for Mac, you can find the latest builds right here. There are usually several new builds each day and Chromium doesn’t auto-update, so you may want to check back often. I installed my version again yesterday and I’m already 11 builds behind. ;) Or you can simply install this homebrewed Chromium updater and run it from time to time..
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does your Gmail extension still work when in incognito mode? if so, seems like that could be a security risk
None of the extensions work in incognito mode. I think its a deliberate decision by Chrome team
This is why we have a Dev channel. The next Dev channel release (within the next few days) will have the features that these Chromium builds do — but it is tested to ensure it’s not completely broken, and it autoupdates, two things that aren’t true about Chromium builds. Furthermore, when using the Dev channel, you can send things like crash reports to Google so we can squash bugs before they make it to a larger audience. With Chromium builds, we never see any problems you have.
Please, do yourself, your readers, and the Mac community a favor, and use the Dev channel instead of raw builds.
The best thing about Google Chrome extensions. They dont slow down the browser like what happens with Firefox. I used Chrome/Chromium even without extensions and now with the extensions and the same speed it simply rocks.
Bookmark sync isn’t even an option on the settings menu in Windows at present. See http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Chrome/thread?tid=1ef0ec6a13488bf5&hl=en
Curious.. Are you still using Chromium now that Chrome for OS X supports bookmark syncing and extensions?
No, I moved over to Chrome as soon as the extensions were added to the beta release last month.