The Browsers: According to Twitter

Twitter is a web phenomenon that quite a few people just don’t get. To those people, it’s like an odd cross between an instant messenging client, email, and a chat room. To those that find it useful, it can help build and foster business relationships. Another excellent use is for getting a glimpse into the public opinion, and since much of the Twitter user base is pretty tech-savvy, quite a lot of the individual tweets are about Chrome and other web browsers. Let’s take a look at what’s being said on the Twitter sphere.

All of my research was done using the stock search.twitter.com Twitter search engine, and I grabbed any and all individual tweets that actually were an opinion, and not just a link to a story elsewhere. These tweets were all taken from the date this post was written, February 27th.

Twitter reacts to Google Chrome

• Just found the only thing I don’t like better about Google Chrome. No right click to view background image.
• does anyone else have the recurring problem of not being able to open new tabs in google Chrome for extended periods of time?
• try google chrome, fastest of all, crash proof, nearly
• I’m glad I switched back to Google Chrome. Best thing I ever did.
• Damn firefox is too slow, going to get Google Chrome it’s much better
• google chrome is like a pushy frat boy ; it started doing **** i didn’t want to do. i had to uninstall it. he seemed nice at first but… – Can’t say I know what this tweeter is talking about…
• I find I’m using Google Chrome more than Firefox now. It’s like 3x faster on initial load

The Consensus

Seems to me that the Twitterati are pretty OK with Chrome. Again, this is just a random sample, but the overall feel of this randomly selected group of tweets is pretty positive.

Safari 4 according to Twitter

Note: Our post breaking down the Safari 4 release is forthcoming

• Just DL’ed Safari 4, insanely cool
• having trouble with Safari 4 beta and Gmail. Weird. (Bad Request, Error 400)
• Safari 4 is a definite upgrade
• I’m liking the new Safari 4.0 UI improvements. Innovation is incremental
• Everyone should try safari 4 beta… its amazingly fast
• trying out safari 4 beta – looks interesting, finding it slow and buggy
• have you noticed Safari 4 runs pretty slow at times?
• Tabs are odd in the New Safari 4 Beta

The Consensus:

Once again, reviews seem to be pretty favorable. For a brand new browser, you would expect a few mentions of buggyness or odd quirks. I’m actually quite surprised my random simple didn’t pull a Tweet about how a couple of Safari 4′s features seem to look similar to Chrome’s (more on that in our review). Having used Safari a bit, I too, am quite impressed. Well done Apple. Moving on…

Twitter reacts to Internet Explorer 8

• I thought css tables were supposed to work in IE 8. Somebody lied to me.
• Try IE 8 or Google’s Chrome, FF crashes too much
• Trying out IE 8 Beta. Not too bad.
• Sorry Firefox, you sick now. IE 8 RC 1/ IE 8 with update on Windows 7 pawns you like the open source crap you are!
• Warning… The New IE 8.0 Beta SUCK!!!!
• I used IE 8 lastnight for a good amount of time. Dare I say I enjoyed it more than Firefox? DARE I????
• Safari 4 Beta > Internet Explorer 8 Beta.
• IE 8 RC1 gives problems in opening new tab with accelerators…won’ t open correctly, pc runs like crazy… anybody has that too?

The Consensus:

Tweets range from bewildered enjoyment through to outright rage about the new IE beta. Markedly less positive than Safari or Chrome.

Firefox and Twitter crowd

I fully expect most of these tweets to be comparisons to the newer browsers, as there is much more buzz about them. Let’s see:

• Completely psyched about the next release or final release of Safari 4. Will probably use it exclusivly. Until then? Firefox.
• If Firefox doesn’t work, my whole life makes no sense anymore. Good night, maybe he behaves normal again tomorrow.
• No matter how many times I look back into it Safari just can’t cut it as my primary browser. If only Firefox was faster it would be perfect!
• I tried FireFox but it seemed to take over my computer. Did I miss something? I just want it if I NEED it. Not all the time.
• Anyone else having problems with Firefox 3.0.6 crashing frequently and eating up memory? Any solutions?
• Me: Firefox, please switch tabs. Firefox: No. **** you, I’m going to crash now.
• My Firefox is anyhow confused. He doesn’t want to find CSS or images anymore. But only at random, sometimes everything works normally :/
• Can’t decide if I’d rather put up with Firefox’s incessant crashes, or IE7. Which is the lesser of two frustrations?

The Consensus:

Not Good! And that is very surprising to me. Firefox was the tech-savvy darling forever, but it seems its somewhat crash happy and slow for these tweeters. Part of me just wants to tell all these people that their use of extensions is almost definitely the cause of their woes, and that vanilla Firefox is a very good browser.

Conclusion

Well that’s it! Don’t let my comments and analysis confuse you, this is certainly a small sample, and not really worthy of too much merit, but its always fun to take a step back and see what the twitter-sphere thinks.