I Love Google Chrome

I've got a favourite new browser and it's Google Chrome, launched earlier this month. I'm not a big fan of browsers generally--I see them as a just another tool--and I even suggested to a colleague new browsers really fail to excite in this day and age. I was dead wrong. 

You may have read that I quite enjoy Google Analytics and Google Apps, both of which bring you this site. I'm not Google's biggest fanboy: I rarely use gmail and I find most of their site interfaces quite bland (a minor criticism, really). But Chrome takes the cake. I'm actually writing this post from within Chrome. 

I'm not quite sure what it is. The first thing I noticed was the performance--the thing whizzes along. The start/history page when the browser is first opened is extremely handy as I tend to visit a lot of the same sites every day. It doesn't crash like IE does, bringing down all my tabs with it. It's quick to start, unlike Firefox. All the sites I've hit work fine and look fine except for a few minor rendering issues and JS niggles. The UI is so nice and simple once you figure out where all the usual things have gone. I didn't have to install Flash. I don't have to worry about my IE bookmarks being out of sync. Beauty!

Of course I'm a web developer and I'd be nowhere without my Firefox toolbars and even the IE Dev Toolbar. Not sure how that goes with Chrome as I haven't looked into it but for simply getting stuff done, this thing rocks. 

[Update: 

About a month in and I'm using Chrome for everything except testing and where integrated authentication will make my life easier at work. I absolutely love the omni bar and keep typing searches into IE's address bar. I also really love the start page and the way it remembers my frequently visited sites--so, so handy. 

Although I've seen the occasional error message pop up, Chrome has yet to crash, at the browser level or the tab level. I've also explored some of Chrome's development tools... um, basic but a good start. Support for FF plugins would be amazing Google!!! I'm also watching the Chrome stats creep up on this site and the other sites I look after... nothing big yet but I'm sold!]