Chrome for a Cause: Browser Tabs Become Donations
To encourage use of the Google Chrome Web browser and raise money for charity, Google will be donating money to five charities based on the number of tabs Google Chrome users open each day from December 15th through 19th. Though Google doesn’t say how much will be donated, or what the value of a tab is, it’s a clever way to bring people to Chrome and help The Nature Conservancy, charity:water, Doctors Without Borders, Un Techo para mi País, and Room to Read. To participate, install the Chrome for a Cause extension, which counts tabs but does not record your browsing history. It’s probably also best to make Chrome your default browser for the four days via the button in the Basics view of Chrome’s Preferences window; you can reset the default browser setting in Safari’s preferences afterwards, if you wish.
I want to call everybody to ditch Chrome and discourage to use it at all. Why? Because it installs an updater, which behind your back, even when Chrome itself is not running does nothing else the whole time than downloading updates. And there is no way to switch that off (at least not that I could find). Other browsers, like Firefox, Camino,... they at least only download when they are running and you can switch automatic updates off in the preferences. Perhaps those of you living in big American cities, you may wonder why this fuss, but those of you living overseas where your internet use is often charged by the amount of data you transport, this is a very, very serious issue. I have already had an unexpected Chrome update (or Adobe programs such as Reader, another crook in that respect) that consumed my whole monthly allowance in one day.
There's no question that automatic updating is an issue for people who have limited bandwidth or who are charged for bandwidth (this came up with Google Earth as well), but the simple fact of the matter is that you have the choice of using Chrome or not, as do people for whom bandwidth is not limited and might significantly appreciate not having to update their browsers constantly (Firefox is at 3.6.13 - that's 13 minor updates that require manual attention).
Google prefers that its applications be updated quickly and quietly, so they're more like Web apps, which are updated constantly. Other companies prefer to give the user more warning and control, but that requires more from the user and causes more distractions in busy work days. Neither is right or wrong; they're just different approaches. And as long as we're talking about browsers, you have plenty of choice for what to do.
Given your bandwidth limitation, I can't see you participating in Chrome for a Cause anyway.
149 tabs for me on the first day! Can anyone beat that so far?
149 Tabs open? You need help!!!
I opened 149 tabs (and closed most of them) in the course of a day's work.
Went over 200 the next day, but yesterday was only about 75.
I, too, hit 200 tabs the other day. It's all in a day's work. :)