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Chrome’s Crash Happy Attitude is Getting Old

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Google’s Chrome browser has been the first thing I install on new computers, but the recent crashing, buggy behavior and juvenile ‘Aw, Snap’ error messages are pushing me towards Safari or FireFox.

The last straw came this week when tab after tab in Chrome crashed throwing the , “Aw, Snap” error message that was funny when I only saw it once every three months.

Don’t get me wrong, humor is great. If I’m surfing BoingBoing and Chrome crashes with an “Aw, Snap” error I can chuckle.

Chrome Aw SnapBut, when I use Chrome for business — to write in a content editor, in Google Docs or to compose a long email and the browser crashes with nothing more than a stoner’s reply to a good burn, that’s enough to make me snap.

I put up with crashes, Flash issues and strange behavior in Chrome because I’m a heavy Google user that loves bookmark syncing, the available extensions and Android integration.

These features can only take me so far when I start to lose work and productivity.

After 4 “Aw, Snap” Chrome crashes last night in a 15 minute period I gave up and switched to Safari, tweeting my displeasure.


Once Safari has the single bar for search and URLs, it could be a good solution, but until then the best choice is FireFox, a browser that Google heavily supports.

Is the latest version of Chrome incredibly buggy for you? Have you considered switching?

22 Comments

22 Comments

  1. Jeb Hoge

    04/13/2012 at 1:49 pm

    No…not running into any bugs or unusual behavior at all.

  2. Chris Lu

    04/13/2012 at 5:00 pm

     Yes Chrome can be really buggy sometimes.  I had a huge problem with Flash crashes bringing down the whole browser a little while ago.  Literally crashes within minutes of each other.  Switched back to old faithful Firefox which is surprisingly good. 

    On a side note Have you tried omnibar addon for Firefox?  Chrome’s omnibar was one the things I couldn’t live without going back to Firefox, but luckily there is an addon that works just as well. 
    https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/omnibar/

    • Josh Smith

      04/14/2012 at 8:33 am

      Thanks. I will have to try that out.

  3. Terry Whitted

    04/14/2012 at 6:49 am

    yes, constant problems with Chrome lately, even on my igoogle start page. I’ve actually been using IE9. I know I know, it’s not “cool” to use IE and could seriously damage my geek cred, but I’m pretty happy with it these days. it does have the combined search/url bar.

  4. M@rc

    04/14/2012 at 5:51 pm

    I used to experience some crashes with flash sometimes, but it’s been a while since I haven’t had any issue. Last time I checked on the net for a solution to all these crashes, I read that uninstalling and getting a fresh start usually helps. I guess the update process isn’t always smooth…

  5. Edward Chaltron

    04/15/2012 at 5:18 am

    I’m running Chrome on a laptop, a desktop, and as a portable version and I haven’t seen any problems.  I did disable the Google Docs Viewer addon some time ago, as it was doing some very strange things.

    In general, however, Chrome is syncing all of my changes and running quickly and cleanly.

  6. gorkon

    04/15/2012 at 6:08 am

    I don’t seem to have a problem with Chrome. Chrome seems to work fine for my normal daily use and I use it with production systems and don’t have a problem. Are the sites flash heavy?

  7. gorkon

    04/15/2012 at 6:10 am

    I don’t have a problem with Chrome. I use it everyday and I don’t have any problems like you have. I wonder if the sites are flash heavy?

  8. JB

    04/15/2012 at 5:22 pm

    Nope. Chrome works fine for me. Of course, I keep extensions to a minimum, which seems to be a good rule of thumb for any browser because Firefox was annoyingly buggy like that when I used it; but it was probably because of all the extensions I installed on it. 

  9. Theo Benne

    04/23/2012 at 11:53 pm

    I “updated” my Chrome a few hours ago and it has crashed no fewer than 8 times since. I will persist for a little while but then it’s back to Firefox for me. I half-expected to find something from “Chrome” on here. Perhaps THEY can’t stay on the net long enough to read these comments.

  10. MSP

    04/24/2012 at 4:26 am

    I use the unstable version of Chrome, and I haven’t had problems. I wonder whether your problem might be to do with graphics acceleration drivers rather than Chrome per se.

  11. Christopher Regan

    05/04/2012 at 11:09 am

    Yes, confirmed along with my colleagues, Chrome has become very unstable.

  12. Kris

    05/15/2012 at 11:06 pm

    I’ve been using Chrome primarily because I use so many Google services and I figured they work best with Google’s own browser. However, I’ve discovered this logic is not founded in reality. Chrome gives me the stupid “aw snap” daily. I’ve switched to IE9 which has proven to be very fast, reliable, and easy to use. I’ll keep Chrome around as a backup, but I’m an IE9 fan these days.

  13. Dan

    06/06/2012 at 9:35 pm

    Oh gosh yes Chrome is being a problem for me lately. I’m writing this in the middle of the page restore after the umpteenth crash this week. For a while pages would die left and right, but now I don’t even get to kill pages before the browser crashes in the middle of reading something. For a while I got a ton of “please update your flash player” errors even though Chrome is supposed to handle all of that. I played with the add on settings and fixed that but I am getting very frustrated.

  14. Peter

    07/01/2012 at 2:50 am

    I’ve just gone back to Firefox on my (admittedly old) laptop at home. It’s been ten versions since I last used it and I have to admit, it’s much nicer than I remember.

    And it hasn’t crashed once in the few hours it’s been running. Which is a pleasant change.

  15. Don

    07/03/2012 at 8:26 pm

    so chrome was crashing and pages not loading or running right, so i did this……type in the Chrome Browser…. chrome://plugins…….hit enter….find Flash…now,.on top right, click beside (+)details,(makes the list on the left expand). if using Google Chrome…disable the ones for Chrome., theres either 1 or 2 of them, Disable both..and leave the ones for Adobe and Macromed Enabled….Good Luck!!! hope this will help some of you :P

  16. owl

    07/22/2012 at 6:03 pm

    I’ve been using Chrome for a while, I love all the little features and integration of little Google apps and programs. As of recently though it’s been driving my computer nuts, crashing itself and other things left and right, and nearly freezing my computer. I think it’s probably the nicest browser but too bad there’s so many issues to be worked out of it.

  17. John S

    07/25/2012 at 6:09 am

    I have better luck with Chrome then Firefox which maybe does not crash like it used too. But I still have many issues when trying to run Firefox under Windows 7 64 bit. But in all honesty I don’t think the browser wars have helped stability as all of the browsers are too busy scrambling to speed up their browser and add features. Not that I like IE 9 that much and it has its share of glitches. Its slow and steady approach seems to keep it more stable. My only gripe with IE 9 is not about the speed but about its rendering issues with web sites. I am tired of still dealing with Compatibility view at this stage of IE development.

  18. David

    09/30/2012 at 7:23 pm

    I have the mobile version and i swear, it crashes at least twice a day. Im forced to delete it and reinstall it everytime. If it wasnt for tab syncing, my phone would probably be out the window by now.

  19. Ger

    12/11/2012 at 11:36 am

    Pretty much consider myself to be a power-user.
    Abandoned Firefox since Microsoft got their hands on it and messed it up, but became a ‘googlist’ long time before that. Lately chrome frustrates me more & more: Flash issues all the time, gigantic memoryhog and freezing up/slowing down when having multiple tabs opened, but lately i’m getting too many crashes on several devices.
    On win7, but also on android 4 – mobile. On my android4 tablet chrome and google plus won’t even start up anymore !!!
    Now i can ive with the fact that i have to clear cache/cookies several times a day. What i can’t accept is that chrome crashes so often and won’t even operate ! It seems that my biggest fear has come true:
    Google is embracing the same arrogant attitude towards its users as Microsoft & Apple…
    Let’s hope that someone at Google, who can actually make difference, will notice this and put them back on track….

  20. MYOB

    06/28/2016 at 4:42 pm

    Error messages are not funny. Period. They are equally annoying, and when I see “Aw, snap!”, does it look like I have a smiling face trying to hold back laughter. Absolutely NOT! In fact, it makes it even more annoying. Go ahead and be comical all you want, but I am not on the internet trying to look for comedy by getting an error message. It is NOT funny, and it is equally just as annoying if it just a regular error message.

    In short, does it look like I am laughing. No! So Chrome, stop trying to be funny and fix your error messages. Otherwise, your techies are a failure and all deserve to be fired. Get your browser straight, and wipe that smile off your face! Utter disgusting sorry excuses for your employees! Disgusting!

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