With the release of Google Chrome (beta) this week to the masses, Google reaches into the browser market, hoping to pull out a healthy handful of early adapters. I’m always willing to try something new, especially when it’s free. So of course I headed on over to the Google Chrome homepage and clicked the big blue download button. The install failed miserably on not only my computer at work, but also one of my employee’s computers (both XP). After a few minutes on my laptop at home, I have a successful Chrome install and some initial opinions.

What is Google Chrome?
Google has their own description of Chrome:

Google Chrome is a browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier.

If you want some more in depth information about it, you can always check out the videos and other accompanying material or you could read the 38 page book if you have a free hour or two. In short, Chrome is the newest browser to jump into an already competitive market feet first.

Why should I care?
For most people, the answer to this question is pretty clear. You should care because you spend 95% of your internet time in a web browser. While you may be content with Firefox or Internet Explorer, a browser is really only as good as its competition forces it to be. For proof of that, you need look no further than Google Chrome. Any company would have to be stupid to come to the table with anything less when trying to take on the big dogs.

A new Development Market?
Developers like me have a whole additional perspective on the matter. Firefox opened the door for a slew of plug-ins and add-ons created by average Joes like me. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that a company like Google is apt to follow suit and with a fresh market, the possibilities are endless.

New browser, new features
So what if you released your own browser. I could do that. People are used to their own browser and you’re going to have to step it up if you want to shift their loyalty in your direction. The company that weened us from Yahoo searches knows this all too well and they’ve come prepared. Although Chrome is still just in beta, it offers up plenty already. For starters, it just looks smooth. One of the first things I noticed (even when it didn’t work right on my office computer) was the interface. It’s clean and it’s minimal. The menu bar is completely gone as is the status bar you would find at the bottom of other browsers. When the status updates (like when you mouse over a link and it shows you the URL it links to), the update shows just briefly over the bottom-most content and then fades back out. It seems a lot faster, too. Between my own site, Flickr, Google Maps, and everywhere else, things just seem to load fast and run smoothly. Another area I looked for improvement over FF and IE is memory consumption. Currently, with just this tab I’m writing in and a Flickr tab, Chrome is eating about 60MB of my memory. Firefox needs about 38MB for the same two tabs, and IE used about 31MB. Not very impressive fro Chrome. Others have reported impressive memory savings with Chrome, so your mileage may vary.

One new feature I was instantly impressed with was the home page. While the glimmer may eventually wear off and it’s not exactly world-changing, I liked that Google thought outside the box to make my browsing experience just a bit more convenient. The default home page comes equipped with a memory of your most visited pages, a search box, most recent bookmarks and most recently closed tabs. There are about 7 sites that I visit constantly, and even with auto-completion of URLs in other browsers, this is a huge time saver. For those worried about the privacy implications of all this, Google has already answered your concerns with their “incogneto window”, which is nothing more than a new browser window that ignores history and cache and all those things that can get you in trouble when you’re visiting sites you shouldn’t be.

Still offering fresh ideas, Chrome opens your history and downloads in a new tab and lets you search them. Again, auto-complete is nice, but as you can see above, Chrome lets you search the actual content of your history and returns a list complete with a partial text preview and thumbnails. Don’t forget downloads. If you want quick access to that file you downloaded, just look through the list or search for it.

Should I switch?
Don’t uninstall your default browser just yet. Google made a big first impression, but it’s still Beta. That said, you should definitely download it and play around. When the first stable release comes, you’ll already be comfortable with the interface. There’s still a few smaller features that Chrome lacks and a developer-supported library of add-ons is a must, however. When these things are addressed, I could see myself sending FireFox an “it’s not you… it’s Chrome” letter.

What about you? Have you tried Chrome? Any plans to? What are your thoughts?