Since I've been using Google Chrome--Google's brand new internet browser--as my main browser for a few days, I thought I'd waste some time giving my early impressions of the software.

_What I Like
Google Chrome is fast. Very fast. It responds well and everything loads up fairly quick. This is in comparison to FireFox 3 (my main browser, normally), which is ALSO quick...just not THIS quick. In the real world, though, this gets to be splitting hairs. Your NEW computer, for instance, boots a lot faster than your OLD computer--but chances are after the first few times you don't notice the difference and go back to complaining about how long everything takes.

Google did a good job "borrowing" from other browsers. It has little features that I like about FireFox--namely the spell check feature. There's plans for additional "borrowed" features (see: Plugins), but that's not in this beta, so I can't comment. I suspect that once extensions are implemented, we'll see a flood of equally useful tools that us FireFox folks are so used to.

The last "What I Like" bit I want to mention is the overall interface. I like my browsers very minimalist, and Chrome delivers. Their mission statement was to make room for the content and I must say that it feels a little bit like Internet Explorer in Full Screen mode. The status messages on the bottom are out of the way and auto-hide, and the URL and web search fields have been combined in a way that just makes sense and keeps everything simple. Since they're combined, though, it does loose the ease of use of FireFox's web search that lets you easily pick from different search engines (so you could search Amazon.com one moment and Dictionary.com the next). Google doesn't HAVE to be your default search engine for these searches, but to change it you'd have to go through preferences.


_What I Hate
I realize that my previous authoritarian relationships have made me paranoid, but I LOVE that FireFox (and Internet Explorer for that matter) let me keep my history clear. I'm not requesting full-on "pr0n mode", I just want the option to make my history go away automatically. I don't like seeing a list of every site I've been to in the last month whenever I type a new URL in--at the very least because the auto-fill also keeps my typoed URLs so I get sent to the WRONG site over and over.

For the MORE paranoid, it also displays your top visited sites every time you open a new tab. So now your boss gets to notice that you come by MySpace perhaps a little too often. Joy.

Really, most of what I hate is just the LACK of options in the preference. They're even missing basics such as handling pop-ups. Google Chrome simply blocks all of them, and though you CAN open a blocked pop-up, you can't seem to set a site as "acceptable" like you can in other browsers. I listen to Pandora in pop-up mode a lot and I'm getting sick of retrieving my blocked pop-up every damn time.


_The Conclusion
Google Chrome will likely become my main browser once it works out it's bugs. It's not fair to compare a 3/4 day old browser that's in Beta to ones that have been out for years (see: FireFox 3), but Chrome needs to tackle more browser basics before I can suggest anyone switching over. But let's be clear, there's a LOT going for this new browser and everything it's missing is fairly minor and will likely be fixed in the next release.