I don't trust Chrome anymore — here's what pushed me over the edge

For years, Google Chrome was among the first apps I installed on any new computer. It was the gold standard, being fast, reliable, and compatible with everything. It replaced Internet Explorer as the hero of the web. But slowly, the relationship soured. But after years of mounting frustrations, I finally took the plunge and migrated away from Chrome for good.

Manifest V3 was the final straw for my Chrome loyalty

It brought the end of ad blocking as we know it

Privacy advocates have always argued that Google is an advertising company that just happens to build a browser. Most of us shrugged that off because, well, Chrome is fast, familiar, and hard to abandon. But Manifest V3 really does change the landscape. Google frames it as a technical upgrade for security and performance. Yet the underlying mechanics point to a different goal: reducing user control in ways that closely align with an ad-driven business model.

If you haven’t followed the architectural shift, it’s a major one. Under Manifest V2, extensions like uBlock Origin acted almost like bouncers. They intercepted network requests as they happened and blocked ads and trackers before they even sniffed your screen. Manifest V3 takes that real-time authority away. Extensions must now hand Chrome a static, capped list of filtering rules, and Chrome decides what to honor. In effect, the browser now holds the veto power that once belonged to your chosen privacy tools.

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The fallout is noticeable right away. The strongest content blockers have lost their edge, becoming some of the best Chrome extensions that Google killed in their original forms. The developers behind uBlock Origin have already said that the fully featured version simply cannot exist under V3’s restrictions. We, users, are instead funneled toward stripped-down “Lite” builds that lack dynamic filtering. And that’s the very feature that stops sneaky scripts, reshapes messy pages, and blocks brand-new trackers the moment they appear. Any privacy tool that relied on real-time heuristics has been reduced to a shadow of its former self.

And at some point, it becomes hard to pretend this is all just a coincidence. Google is redesigning the rules of the web to make its advertisements harder to avoid. Firefox, by contrast, has doubled down on supporting the very capabilities V3 eliminates. So, sticking with Chrome is, in effect, accepting a browsing experience shaped by the priorities of the world’s largest ad broker, while other browsers respect your privacy more than Chrome ever will.

Chrome’s “privacy” is designed for advertisers, not users

The fox is officially guarding the hen house

If Manifest V3 felt like the nail in the coffin for user control, the Google Chrome Privacy Sandbox is the handful of dirt landing right on top of it. Google spent years promising to phase out third-party cookies (the little stalkers that follow you around the web), but in mid-2024, it tacitly walked that plan back. So now we’re stuck in this weird limbo: the old, invasive cookies are still alive, and Google is layering on a brand-new tracking system where the browser itself becomes the watcher.

The centerpiece is the Topics API. Instead of letting outside trackers piece together your interests, Chrome now studies your browsing locally, sorts you into categories like “Buying a Car” or “Finance,” and hands those themes straight to advertisers. It’s technically “more private,” but the vibe is unsettling. Your browser, the tool you rely on to explore the internet, is now playing a dual role, helping you surf while also whispering curated hints about you to Google’s ad partners.

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Other browsers have taken a different path. Brave and Firefox block both third-party cookies and these new sandbox-based tracking mechanisms outright, positioning themselves as genuine shields against the data economy. Chrome moves in the opposite direction. By using it, you are effectively consenting to become part of Google’s advertising pipeline.

Leaving Chrome revealed just how resource-hungry it really is

RAM is meant for running applications, not just for running Chrome

The last crack in my Chrome loyalty appeared every time I glanced at Task Manager. With just 12 tabs open (which I think is a modest number by today’s standards), Chrome was devouring over 4GB of RAM. From what I could gather, Chrome treats every tab as a separate process, meaning even moderate browsing sessions can consume significant system resources, as each tab, extension, and plugin gets its own slice of memory.

While Google has made efforts to reduce memory usage with features like Memory Saver and PartitionAlloc, the reality remains that this multi-process architecture is foundational to how Chrome works. It’s great for stability and security, of course, but it also means your computer pays a heavy performance tax.

Before long, I noticed my laptop fan running nonstop, pages occasionally “whiting out” because Chrome exhausted available memory, and other applications stuttering because the browser dominated the resource pool. When I experimented with Firefox or Brave, the difference was clear. These browsers use significantly less RAM, especially when multiple tabs are open. Brave, for instance, blocks ads and trackers by default, which further reduces resource consumption.

If you’re running a machine with 8GB of RAM or less, Chrome’s appetite can make everyday browsing feel like running through quicksand. Other browsers have already proven you don’t need to surrender half your system memory just to check your email and read a few articles.

I’ve ditched Chrome, and I’m happy about it

Leaving Chrome has saved me more than just system resources. It has given me peace of mind.

I no longer wonder whether the next update will cripple my ad blocker. I’m not spelunking through buried menus trying to disable yet another “privacy feature” that funnels my data into an ad system. I’m simply using browsers that aren’t financially tethered to my attention span.

So, if you’ve been feeling the strain with Chrome or value a browsing experience that respects your boundaries, I’d strongly encourage you to explore alternatives. The grass on the other side isn’t just greener, but it’s meaningfully more private.