Google Chrome Vs Safari


There’s an interesting article over at Business Insider, about how Chrome is kicking Safari’s butt currently, and how that will lead to the downfall of Apple as a company. Maybe I should just pull out a quote at this point so you get the idea.

Last time, the software platform that killed Apple was Microsoft’s Windows. This time, the software platform that is threatening to kill Apple is Google’s Android/Chrome.

Oh, c’mon Henry Blodget. That’s a load of crap. I’m literally howling with some kind of D word. What could that be?

Apple fans howl with derision at the suggestion that this could be deja vu all over again.  Apple is CRUSHING everyone, they point out. The iPhone is way better than any Android phone. The App Store is miles ahead of the competition. The joy of Macs and iPads are the seamless integration of hardware and software. And so on.

DERISION! That’s the word I was looking for. But let’s just get to the crux of this argument:

Over the past 20 months, Chrome’s browser market share has gone from 0% to 7%.  Apple Safari’s market share, meanwhile, has gone from 3% to 5%.  (See the detailed share shifts here).

Extrapolate those trends for a few more years, and Apple will be left with the same thing it was eventually left with in the PC market: a niche.  Google, meanwhile, will be on its way to overtaking Microsoft and Firefox.

Alright, so the thing here is that Apple will eventually die out because they’re focusing on the hardware/software side of things with the iPhone and iPad, while Google supports a more universal standard. That’s what Microsoft did in the ’80s and ’90s, and that’s what Google is doing now.

Has Henry used Chrome? Has he used it on a Mac?

Let me state my personal opinion here: Google Chrome blows. I really, really want to like it, but it just breaks all the time. I’m constantly waiting for websites to load, watching the entire program freeze up, and getting more error messages that I thought were possible. I’m sure on a PC it’s just the bees knees, but right now I think it needs a little bit more spit and polish for the Mac before it’s ready to suit up in its Napoleon uniform.

But more importantly, even if Chrome did win the browser wars, we’re all going to need some device to access the internet. Apple builds those devices. As of right now, Google builds subs out a phone, and their browser is mediocre at best. If Apple has the machines to access the Internet, then they’re most likely going to use software they want to use – like Safari.

Is it something to be concerned about? Sure, I guess. But for now, I’ll be just fine with Safari. When Chrome gets its act together, I’ll be a bit more apt to agree. Until then, I still think that Apple wins overall, if not the browser wars directly.


Kossi Adzo

Kossi Adzo is a technology enthusiast and digital strategist with a fervent passion for Apple products and the innovative technologies that orbit them. With a background in computer science and a decade of experience in app development and digital marketing, Kossi brings a wealth of knowledge and a unique perspective to the Apple Gazette team.

14 Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  1. Funny. I’ve been using Chrome on OSX exclusively since an early beta and have never had any problems with it at all. It is faster than Safari in some cases and slower in others.

    The kicker for me is the way it does tabs–they make sense, whereas safari’s are upside down.

    I have had a single tab crash in Chrome–in Safari the whole app goes down.

  2. Why would apple care that much about safari, isn’t safari only to make sure the mac and iPhone OS always have an uptodate browser, I doubt apple cares what you use on a mac, as long as your using it on a mac. Safari doesn’t generate income.

  3. I suggest you try Chrome on a Mac again. It IS still a Beta. I switch between Chrome, Stainless, Firefox, and Safari. I’ve even tried Sunrise. For pure speed, Chrome is hard to beat.

  4. For me the best thing with both Chrome and Firefox is the ability to show web pages full screen. Firefox also has the button on the upper right to get rid of the tool menus. In Safari, those 5 cm of grey always fills up the top of the 13″ scrren on my MacBook even when I want to read lengthy articles. Why doesn’t Safari have this – even the finder windows have this functionality!

  5. Always used Safari. But google chrome works better and faster. Try to scroll apple’s page Ipad- Design (with all the photos and letters)- Safari scrolls bad and slow- google chrome is faster.
    Try to use the most aclaimed by apple HTLM5 on Youtube beta HTML5 version page. Safari acts slow. Chrome is faster and accurate. Chrome supports better HTML5. ( http://www.youtube.com/html5 )
    And never crashed for me.

  6. Has no one pointed out that Chrome and Safari are both based on webkit, which Apple created. As Apple and Google invest more into webkit both companies will benefit. So where is the problem?

    1. Careful there. The term webkit is an Apple name, but the code was first created by KDE (Linux) as the Konqueror browser, and Apple later took part in helping develop it by taking from the KDE KHTML library and furthering it along as a partner member in the open source project. Nokia, RIM. Google, Palm, and Samsung have also contributed to KDE’s original work as well as Apple.

  7. I love everything Apple, but Google Chrome is just a bit better than Safari. As David said, I like how the tabs work on Google Chrome. I dislike how on Safari, one must click File to add a new tab. And Andy, YouTube is part of Google, so of course part of Google Chrome is built around YouTube. Chrome is faster and overall superior to Safari. But this doesn’t mean the end of Apple. No profit is made of Safari-it’s a free download.

  8. This article seems highly biased. I run Google Chrome on my Mac and it’s much faster than Safari. Pages were taking forever to load in Safari until I switched to Chrome. I’ve never had it crash.

  9. Anybody that says they have problems with their computer is just faking it I’m serious. It literally loads in one second and pages have NEVER been faster. This won’t be the fall of apple though cause it’s just a freekin’ web browser. Google is beating Safari because they advertise it all over the internet.

  10. I’m glad I read this article, this guy is the only one that seems to know what hes talking about, glad I didn’t contaminate my Mac with this PC crap. I will continue to watch cromes development, but until it can at least match Mac’s power, i’ll be laughing at it.

  11. Chrome & Safari are both based on Webkit that means they both will render pages quite identically, though Chrome has the edge on speed and some Google services integration – in example the drag and drop image in to email body in Gmail feature.

    I guess this is Google’s trump card, if they really want to pull more market share to Chrome they can make things work exclusively with Google services on their browser and close source on those developments, but so far everything they do on Chrome remains open source, so its up to the other browser makers to follow up.

    A certain exclusive number of add-ons, the freedom of customization, and the familiarity I have grown accustomed with are the reasons why I doubt Chrome can ever replace Firefox on my dock and having another webkit browser in my Applications Folder just seems redundant as I am already happy with Safari backing up Firefox wherever it fails.

    So there really isn’t much place for Chrome on my computer, but for the average user especially on Windows, I can see how Chrome can easily be the favorite.

  12. Chrome way faster than Safari or FF for me (Mac Pro SL, latest versions of browsers). I did have trouble with it several months ago, but it seems better now, with only the occasional hiccup. I keep all 3 browsers on my dock and jump around. I do like FF extensions (esp NoScript), and use FF when surfing the darker places on the net.

  13. honestly, im a huge mac fan but i cannot use Safari anymore. its way too slow. Chrome is much smoother and its incredible how much of a difference there is. I dont know why Apple cant figure it the f^k out.