Trying out Google Chrome

When I first heard that Google was releasing a new browser, I was a little annoyed.  I wondered if we really need another web browser.  Then I read the comic book style explanation behind the browser’s development.  It’s very well written and explains some complicated concepts in a very clear way that I think even a non-techie person could understand. After reading it, I couldn’t wait to download the browser and give it a try.  Will I switch from Firefox?   Probably not for a while, because I rely heavily on the plugins for web development that are available for Firefox, but there are also a lot of features that I really appreciate.

The installation was easy and it imported all my bookmarks from Firefox without a problem.  Some nice feaures of the browser include:

• a great start page that shows thumbnails of your most most visted sites, along with a search box and your most recent bookmarks
• one-click bookmarking
• a single bar for everything – search, address, history  
• lots of added security to keep malware from being installed and warn you of phishing sites
• popups will no longer be a problem
• Every tab you’re using is run independently in the browser, so if one app crashes it won’t take anything else down- you just close the tab

Sounds cool doesn’t it?  What do you think?  Do you see this as just one more step in Google taking over the planet?  Or, do you think it’s a good step forward in the “evolution” of the web browser?