It’s a been about a month now since Google released its revolutionary new web browser on the masses.  From the outset, a lot was said about it being a direct assault on Microsoft and how the move has brought the future of Mozilla’s Firefox project into doubt.

Well, those are nice topics….for geeks.  For the rest of us, all we care about is whether we can view web pages on our terms, and whether the browser we choose is able deliver those pages and the myriad of services and functions which support them.

With respect to all those things, I found Google’s first entry into the web browser market to be an excellent start.  It’s the fastest browser around, incredibly adaptable to the way I browse web pages, and it’s really quite stable.  One of the things which struck me about the whole approach Google took with the development of the browser was their insistence that just because a website might be misbehaving in one tab, that doesn’t mean all the other tabs we might have open should suffer.  Ideally, we should be able to shut down the errant pages or websites without shutting down the entire browser.  And for the most part, the engineers in Sunny Vale, CA seem to have succeeded.

It’s a little annoying that the password manager doesn’t perform so consistently yet.  For example, when I imported my passwords from Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer, Chrome doesn’t populate the login screens with those imported passwords.  It also seems to be a little hit or miss as to whether the browser will offer to store user names and passwords for new sites that I visit, too.

Still, I think Google has managed to speed up the future of web browser technology and apply some much needed heat to the traditional manufacturers of web browsers.

I keep reading that Google is planning on releasing beta versions of the browser which will be compatible with Mac and Linux platforms, but there is no news as to when we can expect those to come.  Likewise, there is no information as to when the next iteration of the Windows version of Chrome will be available, except that it’s "soon."

Other nice features with the new browser include things like a low profile toolbar and the ability to search straight from the address bar.  These 2 things have always seemed so obvious that I could never understand why Mozilla didn’t do it with Firefox or why Microsoft didn’t do it with Internet Explorer.  Still, with the Chrome browser I can actually see more of each web page that I visit without being forced to scroll downwards because of an invasive toolbar and I can search quickly and easily from one page to another without having to download and install somebody’s toolbar of the month and risk installing all the spy ware that comes with it.

Yes, I like the new browser, I recommend that everyone at least tries it, and I’m particularly pleased that there is another player in the browser market who, like Mozilla, has its end-user in mind.