Let's look at the obvious facts.  In the couple of days that Google's new browser has been available, Chrome has certainly proven to be a formidable foe for Microsoft, Mozilla, and all the rest.  Google has shown that they can play with the big boys.  Even though the browser is only in it's first beta release, the product is wowing Interweb junkies and browser-philes around the world.

I personally found it very easy to setup and start using.  The installation is very straight-forward and the interface takes very little time to adjust to for basic browsing.  My first impressions were very focused on a very large performance increase in loading websites.  When connecting to my internal firewall logs, I was able to load the page in less than a second.  This is a far cry from the 7 - 10 seconds that Internet Explorer has been taking to load the same pages.  The general consensus on the web is strikingly similar.  Chrome is blowing away the competition when put into any sort of performance tests.  Google seems to have also taken a cue from Microsoft and added in a stealth browsing feature called "Incognito".  This allows you to surf without leaving a trace of history or cookies on the computer you used.  Great for the office.

Sadly, there were some areas that could be improved.  For example, the download bar that irritates you by showing you everything you have downloaded.  Then there is the auto-suggest feature that relays your browsing habits back to Google - not just what you are searching.  Basically they have access to any keystrokes that are typed into the Omnibox.  This problem is easily rectified.  Simply right-click in the address bar and select "Edit search engines".  Then you can uncheck the box labelled as "Use a suggestion service..." and continue on your merry way.

There is also a stack of easter eggs hidden in the browser by way of the about pages - which are already common to Firefox users.  Simply enter any of the following into the address bar and a wealth of information will become available.

• about:cache
• about:dns
• about:histograms
• about:internets
• about:memory
• about:network
• about:plugins
• about:stats
• about:version

All in all I am very impressed with this browser and can't wait for the final release.  I strongly recommend that if you don't already have it, download it and try it out!