Tag Archives: web browsers

Google Chrome 16 makes me a bit sad

I have been complaining about Opera for a long time now about how they removed a feature that I loved and used multiple times on a daily basis.

Google Chrome has done the same. Google Chrome 16 removed the optional parameter I could use to get back the old ‘new tab page’.

So basically, I am stuck with the ‘new tab page’ which has pretty awful UI for accessing the recently closed web pages.

I hate this small option at the bottom right of the screen. I wished Google had made a dedicated page for it just like they have for bookmarks, most visited pages and web apps.

Google Chrome pre-rendering functionality is cool

I have been noticing this happening a lot these days. Google Chrome has a feature named:

Predict network actions to improve page load performance

Google Chrome pre-rendering

This is accessible from the settings (chrome://settings/advanced). I am not sure if this is enabled by default but I have it on.

And it does work nicely. I have seen web pages opening up in instant. The browser tries to guess what page you might open next and loads it in the background.

Here is how it tells you that the current webpage was actually pre-rendered:

Google Chrome pre-rendering

Opera 11.10 tries to install itself as a default browser

I have set Google Chrome as my default browser. I update to every test build released by the Opera Desktop Team and almost all of the recent builds made Opera the default browser on my system.

This bug was fixed a while ago. Opera checks for the default browser setting on the system. If it is set to a competing browser, it would not turn this feature on.

Opera 11.10 tries to install itself as a default browser

But Opera 11.10 and all the RC editions had the default browser setting on by default. Very annoying.

Opera Browser updates are scary these days

I am pretty sure that PML would agree with me on this one. The company has been completely alienating their longtime users by making major design and UI changes with the aim of gaining new users.

While, Opera seems to be failing at gaining much on the desktop front, they seem to be annoying a lot of people who have been using them for years now.

I am one of them.

Every new update brings with it a whole range of new disappointments. They have ignored some major and minor annoyances totally. The focus has been on stuff that matters to few.

While, I appreciate the regular dose of test releases I get to play around with… I end up forcing myself to get used to the new annoyances.

Anyways… It still remains one of the two primary browsers I use all the freaking time. And I am glad I do not have to use Firefox anymore.