Nothing excites the geeks like a new web browser. Especially one from the Church of the Google. It only seemed reasonable to take my first Google Chrome test drive on the super fast Microsoft network before I left work today.

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I used it for about an hour before coming home and installing it on my much faster workstation. I browsed my normal collection of sites and was impressed that, in about two hours of constant use, it never hung or crashed. Here are my initial impressions:

PROS:

  1. Feels fast especially on sites like Google Reader and Gmail.
  2. Lots of screen real estate.  When I launched Chrome for the first time I thought I was in full screen mode. Chrome reminds me a little of Opera before feature creep.
  3. It’s simple. No pre-populated favorites. Not even a single tie-in to Gmail or Google Docs. Like the comic above says, it feels like it was built to get out of the user’s way.
  4. The browser option are written in plain English and they don’t bombard you with crap you shouldn’t be changing in the first place. The tabs under options are even labeled, Basics, Minor Tweaks and Under the Hood.
  5. Excellent memory management. I love being able to see how much memory each tab is using and have the ability to shut down a single tab without crashing the entire browser. All browsers should handle tabs in this manner.
  6. When you open a new tab, Chrome shows your most visited sites, searches and recent bookmarks. Super helpful.
  7. Drag a tab to your desktop which opens it’s own instance of Chrome. This has been on my Firefox wish list for years.

CONS:

  1. Weird status bar behavior. There’s no persistent status bar at the bottom of the browser yet notices continually pop up even when you browse to another page.
  2. No plugins like I have with Firefox. I need my Mouse Gestures. It’s just too big a time saver not to have.
  3. “Home” button isn’t visible by default. Thanks for a follower on mine on Twitter, I got it turned on.

You have tried Chrome and what did you like/dislike about it?

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