If you follow me on Twitter, then you’ve already seen me write that with Chrome, Google’s (disclaimer: I own GOOG stock) shiny new browser, so far I like what I’m seeing. Chrome is a lean, mean beast and feels snappier, but haven’t run it long enough to benchmark if that’s the reality (Adrian Kingsley-Hughes offers a SunSpider JavaScript benchmark which shows Chrome on top). And yes it lacks features like plugins/extensions, but I’m sure that is on the drawing board.  This is going to turn off those who want to get in and customize. Also it’s Windows only with Linux and Mac OS X versions coming "soon."

What I like most about Chrome is that they stripped it back and will add what’s needed. Reminded me of how Firefox started out. If they don’t weight it down with too many BS features, Chrome could be a contender someday. In their Chrome intro video they emphasize wanting to move the browser space forward. Since talk is cheap, let’s look at interesting Chrome features:

- tabs that are independent processes. This is huge. Every browser should have this feature. Why have one website crash every other tab you have? Major kudos to Chrome for this feature alone, which they borrowed from the Internet Explorer 8 team but as a user, I don’t care. Hurry up everybody else and get this in your browsers now.

- locate the memory hogs. You can track memory usage by each tab by typing:

about:memory

Is your favorite website a memory hog? Now you’ll be one about:memory check away from finding out.

- no need for two different input boxes (URL and search query): Omnibox for multiple functions.

We’ve seen some creative uses of the location bar but Chrome is on the right track by recognizing that having more than one input form is just eating precious pixel space. Chrome helps utilyze pixel space.

- a useful local homepage. When you first load Chrome it will show your most visited pages. Maybe not the most innovative page on the planet, but different from trying to sell us something or advertise to us.

You can check your browsing history at any time by typing CTRL+H

- Incognito mode. Don’t want to have websites you visit show up in the history? Just open an incognito window. No sites you visit here will show up in the history a la Firefox’s Awesome bar or IE8 InPrivate Browsing.

Others talking about Google Chrome (updated)

• Google employee, Matt Cutts, informative as always helps to allay privacy concerns by sharing when Chrome phones home while Ina Fried reminds us to read the Chrome fine print.
• Walt Mossberg spent the last week with Chrome: "My verdict: Chrome is a smart, innovative browser that, in many common scenarios, will make using the Web faster, easier and less frustrating. But this first version — which is just a beta, or test, release — is rough around the edges and lacks some common browser features Google plans to add later."

Did this post make you go hmm?

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