Sorry if it sounds like I’m drinking the Google Kool-Aid here, but I switched from Mozilla Firefox to Google Chrome as my default browser for the very reason Google’s executives said we should: speed.

Years ago, Firefox won me over chiefly with plug-ins, tabbed browsing, and some security advantages. But using Chrome removed a bit of friction from Web I hadn’t realized was there. It felt like discovering I’d been driving with the parking brake on just a bit.

Here’s what coaxed me away: Chrome starts way faster than Firefox. Web pages load faster when I type in an address or click a link. The Omnibox–Chrome’s combination location bar and search box–often gets me where I want to go at least a keystroke faster, and I’m not terribly worried about sending Web navigation and search data to Google.

Individually, a few tenths of a second here or there doesn’t make much difference. But it adds up fast. I spend hours a day using the Web–not just browsing, but also uploading photos, issuing instructions to my bank, editing documents online, and posting comments. As the Web gets more complex and more deeply embedded in my life, waiting for it gets more annoying.

I hadn’t set out to convert to Chrome. I just wanted to see how well it worked, so I used it to run my personal e-mail while at work. Then I added in reading RSS feeds. After a few weeks, I noticed that I was manually copying Web addresses to Chrome and realized that my subconscious mind had made its decision. So last week, I set it as my default browser, despite a range of criticisms (see below).

After I told Mozilla Foundation Chairman Mitchell Baker about my experience, she sounded a bit crestfallen. “We’ve been increasing our focus on performance for some time. Maybe comments such as yours will increase that,” she said.

Faster stripped-down Firefox
More to the point, Mozilla suggested I try a fresh installation of Firefox, one that’s not burdened by those pesky extensions. I hadn’t been running a large quantity, but I started with a fresh reinstallation of Firefox 3.1 beta 1.

I have to say that Firefox picked up the pace a notch. But I compared it again with Chrome on many Web sites I use daily and a variety of others, and with the exception of Flickr and My Yahoo, I still found Chrome snappier.

Of course, disabling extensions is a shame, given that it’s one of Firefox’s big advantages. Google has promised an extensions framework at some point, and it’s the top-requested feature, with 381 people having starred it as a priority in Google’s issue-tracking system for Chrome.

Reinstalling Firefox also reminded me of a feature in the forthcoming Firefox 3.1 that I was happy to leave behind: tab-switching behavior. I’m a big fan of keyboard shortcuts, and use Ctrl-Tab hundreds of times daily to switch between browser tabs. I loathe the new Firefox mechanism, which switches to your most recently used tab rather than cycling one tab to the right, and showing a miniature preview version of the Web page instead of actually switching tabs. I don’t know if others’ brains work differently, but the new mechanism leaves me completely lost in a sea of tabs, forcing me to use the mouse, which slows me down.

I reverted to the earlier tab-switching feature by adjusting Firefox’s behavior thus: First, type “about:config” into the address bar, then move past the warning message, then type “ctrlTab” into the “Filter” box, then double-click first on browser.ctrlTab.mostRecentlyUsed and then on browser.ctrlTab.smoothScroll to set them to “false,” then restart the browser.

Meanwhile, though, Chrome cycles the way I like, and in another nice move, it opens new tabs immediately to the right of the page I’m reading when I middle-click to open a page in a new tab. That conveniently groups related tasks together.

Off-color remarks
Here’s what’s keeping me an active Firefox user, though: Chrome’s lack of support for color profiles.

Most images on the Web are encoded with a color scheme called sRGB, but there are others out there including AdobeRGB and Microsoft’s scRGB that can show a much broader range of colors. I’m a photography buff with an eensy-weensy photo business, so I prefer images to look as good as possible on the Web.

Apple’s Safari was the pioneer for color management, and Firefox added color profile support with version 3.0 if users manually enable it. With version 3.1, Firefox applies color profiles for images that have been tagged with one. As a result, images on my high-gamut monitor at home look fine in Firefox, but in Chrome they’re hideously garish and oversaturated. It’s a showstopper for me when I’m doing anything photo-related on the Web.

I recognize my color preference is at odds with Google’s performance push. Mozilla programmers found that supporting color profiles slowed Firefox 20 percent to 30 percent, though they reduced that number 4 percent to 5 percent with testing. Eventually, to get it lower, they went with a third way, applying color profiles only for tagged images, which caused only a 1 percent performance hit.

(Credit: Paul Ford)

But Google hasn’t even gotten to the stage of evaluating performance effects. “I don’t see how any sites could depend on this feature if it’s missing/disabled for 90 percent of users,” said Chrome Program Manager Mark Larson in a response to a request to add color management to Chrome, referring to the fact that color management is missing in Internet Explorer and not enabled yet in mainstream Firefox. “I’m all for it, but it’s definitely not a release priority.”

Other gripes
Chrome has other issues that frequently annoy me. Allow me to share.

• There’s no plug-in mechanism. I’m getting by, but there are some I’d like to have back.

• Bad support for RSS subscription feeds. In Firefox, a site with an RSS feed gets an icon in the address bar, and clicking it signs me up for the subscription. In Chrome, I have to hope someone manually put a link on the page, but usually I just move back over to Firefox.

• When I launch a new window, Chrome never starts it maximized, even if the last window was. This is a bit surprising, given Google’s laudable emphasis on showing as much real estate as possible. I always want my browser page maximized. On a related note, I miss Firefox’s maximized mode (hit F11 to try it out).

• Chrome doesn’t respect changing monitor sizes well. When I move to a dual-monitor setup, Chrome stomps all over Windows’ task bar.

• Selection and copy-paste issues. When I’m selecting text in Chrome, I don’t like how the blue selection box spreads wider than the text box. And when text is selected but I missed a few characters, I don’t like the inability to use Shift-right arrow keys to extend the selection a bit.

Read more at http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10107152-2.html

Strategists and experts say it’s back to Washington for the Arizona Senator.

John McCain won’t be standing before the American people on January 20 to be sworn in as the next president. Instead, the longtime Arizona senator will be returning to Congress, where it’s expected he’ll continue to reach across the Senate aisle and remain a powerful voice for the Republican Party.

Arizona senator won't be the next President but one strategist says 'he's still got many years of service ahead of him.'

“John is someone who has always served his country and he has his entire adult life, and I anticipate that after some time off, well deserved, and some time with his family, well deserved, he’ll be back in Washington, rolling up his sleeves and getting back to work,” John Weaver, McCain’s former top campaign strategist, told FOXNews.com.

“This is his last run, obviously, for national political office, but he’s still got many years of service ahead of him,” Weaver said.

Weaver said he thinks McCain will be a positive voice for Republicans who will find themselves in the minority in both the House and Senate when Congress convenes in January.

“John McCain will be John McCain. I think he’ll continue to be a maverick in the Senate. He’ll continue to be a voice of leadership and a voice of opposition to the coming administration. And his voice will carry a great deal of weight for both the party and the country,” said Michael Steele, former lieutenant governor of Maryland and chairman of GOPAC, a conservative political organization.

McCain has two more years remaining in his fourth term in the Senate, and there’s no reason to suspect he won’t run again — and win — in 2010.

“He’s won all of his elections by pretty good margins, even when he had some reasonable competition,” said University of Arizona political science professor Barbara Norrander. “He’s been able to win his elections handily, and most of the polls show him to be pretty popular — and not just with Republicans. With Independents and even some Democrats as well.”

McCain’s office confirmed that he’ll be back in Washington to finish out his term, but didn’t have any other information on the senator’s plans.

He will be 74 years old on Election Day, 2010.

The Republican candidate conceded defeat and congratulated President-elect Barack Obama on Tuesday night after a grueling and expensive battle for the presidency.

In exit polls, many Americans said McCain’s age was a bigger factor than Obama’s race when it came to choosing the next president.

“This is an historic election, and I recognize the special significance it has for African-Americans and for the special pride that must be theirs tonight,” McCain told supporters.

“Its natural tonight to feel some disappointment, but tomorrow we must move beyond it and work together to get our country moving again,” he said.

LOS ANGELES — Thousands took to the streets of Los Angeles and San Francisco on Wednesday evening to protest California’s passage of Proposition 8, a ban on gay marriage.

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Demonstrators marched through West Hollywood, Hollywood and Santa Monica where several protesters stopped at busy intersections, blocking traffic and prompting police intervention.

Nov. 5: Protesters march on the Sunset Strip during a

An additional group of about 500 protesters gathered near CNN’s Los Angeles bureau, where they were seen banging on the doors and walls, causing the Los Angeles Police Department to declare a tactical alert — requiring all available officers to respond to the protest — some of whom were brought in from other stations.

Television cameras showed one protester jumping on top of a police car at the intersection of Hollywood and Highland. He was quickly wrestled to the ground by police and handcuffed.

Several others were arrested when a group of people broke away from the larger demonstration that began in West Hollywood earlier in the evening.

Click for additional video coverage at MyFoxLA.com

Some of them were detained, but “the overall indication is that the demonstrators and marchers are peaceful,” Lee said.

In San Francisco, hundreds gathered on the steps of City Hall to protest approval of the ban.

Protesters held candles and carried signs that read “We all Deserve the Freedom to Marry” as part of the event, which was sponsored by groups opposed to Proposition 8.

Click for more on the protests in San Francisco

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom expressed frustration in the ban, but said he is hopeful it will be overturned in court.

The loss was a political defeat for Newsom, who’s been one of the most prominent advocates of same-sex marriage. However, he believed the effect on his gubernatorial aspirations is “trivial” and “irrelevant.”

City attorneys of Los Angeles and San Francisco, along with the American Civil Liberties Union, filed requests for the state Supreme Court to overturn the gay marriage ban on Wednesday.

Meg Waters, part of the Yes on 8 campaign team, told City News Service, “gay and lesbian couples have exactly the same protections under the law with civil unions.”

“Marriage has been defined as a man and woman since time began,” Waters said. “The people of California have voted twice, so I think the best thing to do is for everybody involved to figure out a way to move forward.”

Waters said she understands “how gays and lesbians may feel concerned about this.”

“If they stop and look at the situation, they have the exact same legal protections and rights under the law today they had yesterday,” Waters said.

“You can’t change the definition of something that existed forever because you don’t like it.”

The Yes on 8 campaign has “a great deal of compassion for gay and lesbian couples and support completely their right to live as they choose, whether it’s in a committed relationship and a domestic partnership or however they choose,” Waters said.

“We don’t believe that Proposition 8 hinders that at all,” Waters said. “We’re hoping very much to rebuild bridges to that community at some point.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Actor Tim Robbins was not happy when told he would have to vote by provisional ballot in New York on Tuesday, TMZ.com is reporting.

The actor and well-known liberal activist became enraged when officials at his usual polling location in New York informed him that his name was not on the register, the Web site reports. When poll workers asked him to fill out a provisional ballot, he reportedly refused, and an altercation ensued, resulting in cops coming to the scene.

Determined to vote, Robbins went all the way to the City Board of Elections to obtain proof that he was a registered voter, TMZ.com says.

TMZ.com later caught up with the “Shawshank Redemption” star, who told them that he was “not the only one [who had a problem voting.]”

“While I was waiting, according to poll workers, 30 people in the first five hours of voting have been taken off the rolls, so you do the math on that. Six per hour, per district across America…”

Before disappearing to finalize his Election Day business, Robbins told TMZ.com to “go vote!”

Click here see the video and read more from TMZ.com.

DEVELOPING STORY — Intimidation tactics, missing ballots and faulty machinery are plaguing some voters across the country as they go to polling stations to elect either John McCain or Barack Obama to be the next president of the United States.

FOX News' Rick Leventhal speaks to a reported Black Panther at a Philadelphia polling station.

In Philadelphia, FOX News’ Rick Leventhal received a report from Republican poll watcher Chris Hill that two Black Panthers had stationed themselves at the door to a polling station and were intimidating voters. One held a nightstick, Hill said.

Hill told FOX News that he went to talk to the men, and they told him white power didn’t rule there.

The man reportedly carrying a nightstick was escorted away from the polling station by police. Outside, FOX News found another Black Panther who said he was a certified observer. Police asked him and the FOX News crew to leave the polling station.

As of noon, FOXNews.com had received complaints from voters around the country that polling stations were not prepared, that voting lists were inaccurate and some voters were worried when they were asked to cast paper ballots instead of using voting machines.

Gregory Holden reported that the voting list at his polling station in Lugoff, S.C., had problems. “Many people who have always voted in this precinct are all of a sudden not on the roll,” he said. “They only have five machines and there are about 300 people in line. People are so discouraged some are leaving,” he wrote.

Francesca Lourdes, in Maryland, said that she voted with three others, and the polling station where their official voter registration cards told them to vote didn’t have them on the registers. She said they had to cast provisional ballots.

Watchdog groups and government officials are telling FOXNews.com that voters are reporting a range of problems and that some polling places aren’t able to handle the expected record turnout.

According to Wendy Weisner, of the Brennan Center for Justice and non-partisan watchdog group Election Protection Center, the group has been receiving calls from voters experiencing problems with machine breakdowns around the country.

In Virginia, there are reports from more than 40 polling stations that election officials don’t have paper ballots to distribute when electronic machines break down.

In Pittsburgh and Philadelphia there are reports from voters of machines breaking down and no emergency paper ballots being distributed.

Voters in Palm Beach County, Fla., are reporting that optical scan machines are breaking down.

An increasing number of problems are being reported with voting machines in Dayton, Ohio.

Election Protection had fielded more than 12,000 calls nationwide by 9 a.m., the group reported.

In New York City, voters began lining up as early as 4 a.m. ET, even though polls didn’t open until 6 a.m., said Valerie Vazquez-Rivera, a spokeswoman for the city’s Board of Elections.

“We have a system that is traditionally set up for low turnout,” said Tova Wang of the government watchdog group Common Cause. “We’re going to have all these new voters, but not a lot of new resources. The election directors just have very little to work with.”

Polls along the East Coast opened at 6 a.m. and by 8 a.m. one polling station in Atlanta had already run out of paper ballots, according to Clare Schexnyder, media spokeswoman for Georgia Election Protection, a non-partisan watchdog group.

“We had one location [in Atlanta] where all of the machines went down this morning and they didn’t come back up until 8:08 a.m. They had problems with cards kicking out and a voter not getting a chance to vote,” Schexnyder said.

About 2 million of Georgia’s 5 million voters had cast ballots in early voting, she said, but that still leaves 3 million potential voters hitting the polls on Election Day.

An election protection volunteer helped that voter cast her ballot, she said, but there were up to 100 voters in line at one point, waiting while the six machines were down. “They were voting with paper ballots during the time they were down and they ran out of paper ballots and had to switch to provisional ballots. They are provisional ballots that will be counted, but there was craziness at that one polling place.”

Virginia has also had its share of election mishaps, although the state is not yet reporting any incidences of fraud or voter intimidation.

Voters are turning out to the polls in record numbers in spite of the weather, according to Susan Pollard, a spokeswoman for the State Board of Elections. “Although a light rain is falling across the state, it does not seem to have dampened turn-out. Lines have been reported at some polling places; however, voting is proceeding quickly at many others.”

The rain is causing an unexpected problem — wet ballots don’t feed properly into optical scan machines.

“Poll workers are setting the wet ballots aside and drying them out and asking voters to dry off before they handle the ballots.To make sure you don’t have any problem with your ballot going through the optical scanner, be sure to dry your hands before completing your ballot,” Pollard said. “All votes will be counted.”

Three of the state’s 2,349 polling stations opened late, two due to human error. One, at a library in Richmond, opened 25 minutes late because the librarian with the keys to the building overslept.

While the North Virginia suburb of Arlington has had one wet ballot issue, so far county registrar Linda Lindberg describes voting as “smooth sailing.” She said 8,000 absentee ballots were sent to troops in Afghanistan and will be counted as a separate group “hopefully before midnight.”

To assure that every voter gets a chance to cast a ballot, the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division has sent more than 800 monitors to 59 jurisdictions in 23 states.

Several have had problems in the past with minority voters or with providing personnel at polling stations where Spanish or Native American languages are spoken.

In Cuyahoga County, Ohio, where the Feds have sent election monitors, voters reported 58 problems voting to OurVoteLive.org.

In Ohio’s Franklin County, Board of Elections spokesman Ben Piscitelli said officials again were dealing with typical glitches. “We’re taking care of things like that,” Piscitelli said. “But there’s nothing major or systemic.”

Schexnyder, from Georgia Election Protection, said she doesn’t expect the problems voters are reporting to keep them from casting their ballots, although many will wait.

“We’ll probably see problems all day as we see long lines, and any times you have computers connected to the equation, I think that every computer glitch we have is going to create longer lines,” Schexnyder said.

FOXNews.com’s Jennifer Lawinski and the Associated Press contributed to this report.