Google Chrome

There's a new browser about town, and it's called Google Chrome. Launched today, it's up against the established Internet Explorer which still dominates most desktops courtesy of Windows, and the preferable (in my view) Firefox. Of course there's also Safari, the Mac browser, Opera and a few others. but these really are the only serious contenders.

So what does Chrome offer to tempt you away?

Well it's quick. I downloaded and installed the beta from the link above, and typed in a search form the combined address/search bar. I'm not sure how or why, but it beats the pants of IE and Firefox on my Vista setup speedwise.

Then there's the aforementioned address/search bar combo. Just start typing in your search and up it comes with suggestions. This might get irritating after a while, but it works well.

A neat inovation is that after you've determined some favourite sites, any time you open a new tab, it shows a thumbnail of your most recently viewed favourites and it's a simple click to get to them. No different from a bookmark menu or links toolbar in many ways, but aesthetically neat I think.

I haven't dug too much deeper so far, but certainly my initial impressions are favourable.