Loren Brichter, creator of the Tweetie (now Twitter) app and the pull to refresh interaction technique, created Chromeisbad.com days ago, after realising that completely removing Google Chrome and the Chrome Updater (also known as Keystone), solved all the performance issues he had with his MacBook Pro and his family’s iMac.

This is not a new development, it is not a Chrome “bug”. Most seasoned Mac users know that having Chrome installed on your Mac is the modern equivalent of having Norton Antivirus for Mac installed – it basically makes your brand new Mac into a years-old one, and an old Mac into one that seemed like its on the verge of its death. Getting rid of Chrome and Keystone has always been one of our first pieces of advice for anyone having performance issues on macOS.

Keystone, in particular, have been widely reported about in the news outlets for doing nefarious things to the system, being referred to by many (even some very very smart people) as malware. Just a year ago it was responsible for modifying system files that resulted in a large number of production Macs crashing.

If you need a browser that renders like Chrome, aka Chromium browsers, some of the popular ones to try are Brave, Vivaldi and even Microsoft Edge. I personally only use Brave on my Google Pixels and they run way faster than the built in Chrome (the ad blocking is a bonus).

Hit up Chromeisbad.com for the instructions to remove Chrome and especially Keystone, for it will sneakily reinstall itself in different parts of the system if you just delete it in the user library without removing Chrome (or other Google apps).

Have a brand new M1 Mac? Remember, DO NOT INSTALL CHROME.