There are conflicting opinions on Chrome.
Whatever your opinions, this is release major. It’s a game changer.
Based on my initial impressions, I really like this browser. It’s just the kind of next-generation thinking that’s needed in the browser space.
I don’t care about all the all plug-ins that aren’t available, because I don’t use them. And Chrome gives me enough toys that it more than makes up for the loss of a few plug-ins.
Walt Mossberg gave it a decent review, but sited a few things he didn’t like:
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. These omissions include a way to manage bookmarks, a command for emailing links and pages directly from the browser, and even a progress bar to show how much of a Web page has loaded.
Whatever. I don’t use bookmarks (believe it or not). A command for emailing links and pages directly from the browser? Again, this is a non-issue for me. How about simply CTRL-D to select the URI, then CTRL–C to copy it, then ALT-TAB to get to your email program? Seems pretty easy and fast to me. And a progress bar? Again, who cares. Chrome is so dammed fast I don’t really need one anyway.
As far as speed, Mossberg’s results, which showed that it wasn’t faster than Firefox, are directly contradicted by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes’ more scientific method of testing, which indicate that Chrome is blisteringly fast.
I haven’t run any benchmarks, but this thing really does smoke. Yes, it’s fast, but it’s also the user experience. You may not get a page immediately but you feel that it’s faster based on the browser presentation.
Matt Cutts at Google also has a nice roundup of common Google Chrome objections.
And yes, there is a new security issue (carpet bombing) but I’m certain Google will patch this very quickly.
Alex Eckelberry