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Chrome was so out of left field.

A desktop browser? Made by Google?! In an environment where people have celebratory launch parties for Firefox??

Of course, the business goals made sense, but I don't think anyone guessed it would overtake the market share so effortlessly.

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Come to think of it, google has pissed away so much user goodwill over the years. There was a time when they could do no wrong. I guess same as MS in early 90s. Now they are nearing a point where with every product release they have to prove they don’t suck and aren’t screwing the user. It’s a very difficult regime to operate under.

One of the boldest design decisions they made was to make the URL bar and search bar into one whereas every other browser (can't remember what Opera did) separated the two. That immediately hooked me from using Safari/Firefox. That and it felt faster.

It's the feature I hate the most. It made sense for them because having all your history reside with Google fuels their engines. It makes no sense for the user and gives worse results when trying to find something back.

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