Ever since it was first released almost a decade ago, Google’s Chrome browser has been the most consistent piece of technology in my life. I’ve gone through a legion of phones, laptops, and headphones, I’ve jumped around between Android, iOS, Windows Phone, macOS, and Windows, but I’ve rarely had reason to doubt my browser choice. Things have changed in recent times, however, and those changes have been sufficient to make me reconsider. After so many years away, I’m returning to Firefox, in equal measure pushed by Chrome’s downsides as I am pulled by Firefox’s latest upgrades.

Because everyone using Chrome for everything is a bad idea

The browser you likely use to read this article scans practically all files on your Windows computer. And you probably had no idea until you read this. Don’t worry, you’re not the only one. Last year, Google announced some upgrades to Chrome, by far the world’s most used browser—and the one security pros often recommend. The company promised to make internet surfing on Windows computers even “cleaner” and “safer ” adding what The Verge called “basic antivirus features.” What Google did was improve something called Chrome Cleanup Tool for Windows users, using software from cybersecurity and antivirus company ESET.

Export them to another password manager with just a few clicks.

Extensions remain the Achilles heel for an otherwise highly secure browser.

In June, Google revealed that Chrome will stop showing all ads (including those owned or served by Google) on websites that display non-compliant ads "starting in early 2018." Now the company has committed to a date: Chrome's built-in ad-blocker will start working on February 15, 2018.

Google Chrome browser on Android is constantly getting better with new features being added each day. Google Chrome 63 recently rolled out to the stable channel and added support for Android Oreo‘s smart text selection feature. We also recently found evidence that the browser would soon support HDR video playback and a custom download folder, but we also discovered another feature that is rolling out to Chrome 64 and above: parallel download.

The proliferation of High Dynamic Range (HDR) video is the next step in improving video quality for all. HDR significantly improves the luminosity range and widens the color space, resulting in greater contrast and color accuracy. Android officially supports HDR playback support starting in Android 7.0 Nougat, though it’s up to individual devices to support a high color depth format and up to individual applications to support extracting HDR metadata from videos. It also requires a compatible display capable of producing the wider color space, of course.

The new Firefox is fast, it's secure, and it's full of clever little things that make web browsing better.

Google today announced Chrome is going to war with autoplay. Starting next year, Chrome will only autoplay a given piece of content when the media won't play sound or the user has indicated an interest in the media.

Google will reportedly debut a built-in ad blocking feature for its Chrome browser next year, and now we have the first concrete look at this addition to the web navigation software in action. In Chrome’s pre-release Canary app for Android, which previews and tests features coming later to the stable version, there is now a feature that allows users to toggle a built-in blocker for sites with intrusive advertising.

A company is going around buying abandoned Chrome extensions from their original developers and converting these add-ons into adware.

Microsoft's newest Windows 10 edition is designed to allow desktop apps that have been converted to packages for the Windows Store. But a provision in the Store policies blocks desktop browsers like Chrome. Is it about security, or something else?

The others aren't even close. One time market-leader Microsoft Windows' Internet Explorer is a distant third.

"Two years ago we launched Google Cast, an extension for Chrome that allowed you to show content from your favorite websites on the best screen in your home — your TV — using Chromecast. Whether watching your favorite show on Netflix, or sharing a photo slideshow at a family gathering, Google Cast makes it easy to extend the web to the big screen."

In May, Google circulated a draft proposal to effectively kill Adobe Flash by blocking the plugin and prioritizing HTML5 by the end of the year. The company is going ahead with that plan to “de-emphasize” Flash with a staged disabling of the plug-in through multiple versions of Chrome. Starting with Chrome 53 — currently in beta — in September, background Flash elements, like page analytics, will be blocked. Google notes that today 90% of the plug-in loads in the background and is used solely for things like analytics. This move is designed to encourage publishers and sites to switch over to HTML5 equivalents...

Microsoft decided to target Google's Chrome browser back in June with a new campaign designed to highlight how bad the browser is for your laptop battery life. While Microsoft's marketing effort was initially limited to a YouTube video and associated website, the software maker has started to take things a step further in its battery battle in recent weeks. Windows 10 users are reporting that the tips feature of the OS is generating notifications to try and convince people to switch away from using Google's Chrome browser.

The slow and inexorable slide to a world without Flash continues, with Google revealing plans to phase out support for Adobe's Flash Player in its Chrome browser for all but a handful of websites. And the company expects the changes to roll out by the fourth quarter of 2016. While it says Flash might have "historically" been a good way to present rich media online, Google is now much more partial to HTML5, thanks to faster load times and lower power use.

There’s a slight panic breaking out among Pirate Bay users, who are having a hard time accessing the site. Over the past few hours Chrome and Firefox and Safari have started to block access to Thepiratebay.se due to reported security issues. Instead of a page displaying the iconic pirate ship, visitors are presented with an ominous red warning banner.

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence wants to literally erase the names of mass killers from major web sites. To do that, the group is releasing a plugin for the Chrome web browser. "You can wipe away the killer's name and image from your screen, and replace it with something that truly deserves our attention -- the victims," the plugin description says.