Shiny New Chrome

I follow several technology sites which help me to keep up with the latest developments in hardware and software.  Much of it is just noise, but once in a while I see something that seems to be important both in what it does and what it means in the world of tech development.

This week Google released the first significant new browser in some time.  The new browser called CHROME is currently only available for Windows, though versions for Mac and Linux are expected soon.  I downloaded the beta release and installed it on several machines including my office computer, my home computer and a few of the Eee PCs.

In a few words…I LOVE it.  It’s simple, and fast Fast FAST.  It seems very compatible with most pages and web applications (Acceditation Plus won’t load on it…which probably speaks in its favor).  It works with a tab design similar to Firefox, but the tabs run as independent programs, so if a web page or app. won’t load or crashes, you can close that tab and the others continue running.

I don’t want to take too much time describing and analyzing Chrome, so I’m including two links.

This first link is to a short (5 minute) video demonstrating the key features of the program:

http://demogirl.com/2008/09/02/screencast-tour-of-google-chrome/

This second link will take you to the Chrome download site:

http://www.google.com/chrome/

Why is this important?  The fact that Google is releasing its own browser emphasizes its committment to “cloud computing.”  In this model, the browser takes the place of the operating system, and applications run on web pages rather than on local machines.  This further supports the development of new UMPC’s (or “netbooks” as they seem to be called now).  

Give Chrome a try.