IMHO, cloud print, the webui reimplementation of gui system toolkits (like the print preview dialog). There are some new features that make me a bit worried with the direction chrome is taking: the new NTP with a search box duplicating functionality already in the omnibar; the chrome app launcher (I want a browser, not a whole OS).

They've gone overboard with their value-adds, and there's a non-trivial amount of features that are not required for simple web surfing: sync, apps (& background apps), cloud print, themes, phishing/malware detection, omnibox stuff, etc.

None of that stuff appears on the default screen layout though. I mean, I agree some of it is useless cruft (but seriously: you put malware detection on that list?!?!). And that's true for pretty much all mature software.

But as far as "just give me what I want" I continue to think Chrome does it better.

I think the only strong argument on that side is one you don't make: on first run, Chrome stops and asks you to sign in to your Google account. I do that willingly, because I really like bookmark synchronization. But it's definitely not a "minimal browser" thing and if you're not a Google user it's probably pretty annoying.

When you're browsing, you don't see most of the stuff you mentioned. Chrome may present different options to you but these are opt-in and possible to hide permanent.

So you concede there's lots of stuff that many of us won't use? That's pretty much the definition of bloat. Hiding it doesn't make it go away.

I'm sort of just playing devil's advocate here though, since Chrome's "bloat" isn't an issue for me _yet_, though I am weary of it becoming the next Firefox (whose snowballing of features led to an amount of bloat which incidentally caused me to start using Chrome in the first place).

One, two, three... sure, you won't notice a new feature here and there. But, hundreds of features later and the app takes just a little longer to startup, a little longer to update, is slightly less stable than it used to be, has a few more attack vectors for malware, etc. It's more-or-less the principal of the matter, using the right tool for the right job and whatnot; when a web browser starts resembling some mismash conglomeration of functionality which just so happens to touch on web browsing, and all you really need and want is web browsing, then yeah, it's bloated.

> So you concede there's lots of stuff that many of us won't use? That's pretty much the definition of bloat. Hiding it doesn't make it go away.

I define bloat differently. It needs to a) unnecessarily add complexity to the core functions I personally use, and b) degrades performance. wget has tons of features that I've never used, but I don't consider it bloated. To me, hiding it well does in fact make for a bloat-free application.

Agree with your other points.

I'd just like to emphasize: when you're browsing, you don't see that stuff.

I do not see any of the additional stuff that the above poster mentioned. I use exactly one feature in chrome other than just it's web browsing at that is sync. Even then, I haven't interacted with sync since the first time I installed Chrome on my computer.

> I'd just like to emphasize: when you're browsing, you don't see that stuff.

This is strange since many people say Firefox is bloated but im my opinion it looks about identical to how Chrome looks like, so they seem to define bloat in some other way.

What you would consider bload, I'd call clutter. I de-cluttered my Firefox to this way that I only see the tab-bar, a command-bar and the web page.

To me, it was the UI and magnitudes of toolbars that would come with every addon (even the useful ones) that would then need manual disabling, and the need to restart browser over and over again (at times due to new addons being installed, disabled/enabled or browser updates) that pushed me to Chrome.

This isn't a problem anymore, however, and hasn't been for a long time - at least, not unless you really try.

Both chrome and firefox have excellent session restore, so even if you need to update (which you usually don't), you won't really notice. Even session cookies are properly restored, as are partially filled forms, though some pages' scripts cause the form restoration to fail.

Toolbars have always been rare, and they certainly are now; it's probably possible to still install a toolbar extension, but I can't remember the last time I did. That may be more a change in typical extension style than in the actual browser, however.

(I use both browsers daily).

Yeah, I am not saying it is. I am just saying that it was the reason I began using chrome extensively and slowly, exclusively.

All of that stuff can be turned off though (or in the case of apps & themes, not installed)

Sync, apps (in particular background and offline ones) and the omnibox are excellent features that I use all the time. Nothing wrong with having them.

just don't sync your account and don't use apps, and don't install themes (though I can't see how that could slow it down)

Adblock plus seems to slow it down quite a bit in some situations (loading a lot of tabs at once).