Nine Reasons to Love Google Chrome

Google Chrome debuted this week amid great Internet buzz. Will it shove Windows out of the way? Is it Google's way of invading our privacy? Is Google after world domination? Is it really as fast as we've heard?

Lack of security was the main reason I switched from Internet Explorer to Firefox. Okay, there are the cool add-ons too. While Firefox meets my needs, I was curious about Chrome.

I gave Google Chrome a test drive and found 9 reasons to love it and formed an opinion about the rumors.

1. Yes, Google Chrome is fast. Pages load quickly and new tabs open and populate quickly. The folks at Google have solved the tab memory issue that plagues Firefox where you close tabs, but the memory is not fully released causing Firefox to become progressively slower - it's happened to me. Tabs in Google Chrome are completely separate - they run their own processes and when closed, return all of the memory. This segregation means that if one tab gets stuck or freezes, the entire browser doesn't crash. You just close the offending tab and continue.

If you want the entire story on Google Chrome's technological innovations, the Google geeks created a very cool online comic book that explains what they have accomplished. It's an informative and interesting read - an interest in comic books and technical specs is not required.

2. Google Chrome is secure. Google Chrome is more secure than Internet Explorer. Lack of security was the main reason I dumped IE and went with Firefox. If I move to Chrome I won't be sacrificing security. Chrome has a pop-up blocker and an antiphishing tool as I would expect. But it has one other feature that might appeal to your inner spy . . .

3. Google Chrome lets you surf anonymously. With its Incognito mode, you can surf and no traces of your browser session are stored - no cookies, no history, nada. If your thing is to surf sites that you wouldn't want anyone to know about, this feature is for you.

4. Google Chrome installs easily. I downloaded it, installed it, imported my favorites and cookies, put an icon on my desktop and began surfing - all in a matter of about two minutes.

5. Google Chrome is the portal for web apps. Google believes web-based applications are the way of the future and have designed their browser to run those apps seamlessly on the desktop. Apparently, in Google's vision of the future, we won't really notice a performance or interface difference between surfing the web and running a web-based spreadsheet program. With the ability to create shortcuts to these apps you can access everything you need (once commonly used apps migrate to the web or open-source web-based apps bankrupt Microsoft) from Google Chrome. As a bonus, Google Gears enables offline use of these apps so if you are temporarily away from your WiFi-rich environment, no worries.

6. Google Chrome's address bar is multi-functional. Google Chrome's one address bar (the futuristically named Omnibox) handles navigation, searching, and history and eliminates the cluttered look of separate bars for each.

7. Google Chrome has nerd appeal. Google Chrome includes its own task manager where you can see what programs are running, end processes that are memory hogs, and monitor system performance. The best bit is a link to "Stats for Nerds." It takes a geek to know one and the Google geeks honor us with this feature.

8. Google Chrome remembers. When you open a new tab, Google Chrome displays thumbnails of the last nine sites you visited as well as the last several sites you bookmarked along with a search box. That's convenient.

9. Google Chrome is sleek. The Google Chrome user interface is not at all cluttered. In fact, I felt a bit disoriented at first. Where were all the buttons? Where was the menu? Functions such as printing, finding words on the page, viewing source, and setting the home page are available by clicking two icons tucked neatly in an upper corner of the browser window.

In its current incarnation, Google Chrome is a basic no frills browser. One reason I'm hesitant to switch from Firefox is the "Morning Coffee" add-on, which opens tabs for the sites I always check each morning. I'm sure I'm not alone when I say I would need to see Google Chrome offer support for add-ons. I'd also like a way to manage my bookmarks and RSS feeds and to save tabs on exit. I'm also curious about why the Google Toolbar is not part of Google Chrome. I'm certain the folks at Google have that covered - after all, Google Chrome is still in Beta.

About those rumors - I've heard that Google will know every web site we visit and has an evil plan to take that information and use it to target ads and make a fortune from advertisers. There is a new book out, Numerati, where the authors opine that ultimately, thanks to data mining, our grocery carts will speak to us and lead us to deals on what we usually purchase. I don't have a problem with that and hope it happens. That's like having someone who has seen my grocery list clip grocery coupons for me so I can save money. I remember years ago some guy name Orwell wrote a similarly prophetic tome. If I wanted total privacy, I wouldn't be on the Internet. Period.

I'm keeping Firefox for now, but will watch with great interest the evolution of Google Chrome. It will also be interesting to see how Microsoft responds. IE 8 is currently in Beta 2.