Don't worry too much about that, it's only slower for javascript execution. The other features, including Chrome sync, unlimited tabs, "Request desktop site", more than make up for it.
The real stumbling block, IMO, is that without jailbreaking, links from other apps will always open in Safari.
I'm not sure what happens when multiple apps register for the same scheme.
I'm looking for a generic mechanism to let the user choose an app and pass an 'http' url to that app. I don't think I can do that with custom schemes, because each app would have its own scheme.
It could be accomplished via a custom file type if everybody standardized on it (say via a .url file of type text/x-url or maybe even text/plain). But I was hoping for something official.
The current way people do this is via the pasteboard, but the switching and pasting process feels awkward to me. I suppose that may be the best solution for now. Maybe apps should just handle things better if they're awoken with a new URL on the pasteboard (i.e. offer to take an action with it).
The first app or the last app (can't remember which) that registered for the custom URL scheme owns it.
> Maybe apps should just handle things better if they're awoken with a new URL on the pasteboard (i.e. offer to take an action with it).
This is almost how using custom URL schemes would work, but I think it's still superior to fiddling with the pasteboard though.
But you are right. There isn't a standard way to do it now. Most apps that expose or utilize this form integration has to come up with something themselves. Also see http://handleopenurl.com/
Safari on the iPhone in iOS 5 only gets 8. I wonder if Chrome for iOS gets any sort of tab recovery on crashes. It doesn't happened frequently, but it's annoying when I have to quit and relaunch safari for whatever reason and lose everything I had open.
The real stumbling block, IMO, is that without jailbreaking, links from other apps will always open in Safari.