I've been using the Chrome browser since yesterday's release, and I still stand by my initial thoughts of the app itself: It is totally awesome. In this post I want to offer non-chromers a justifiable review of the beautiful app itself, and why they should be using it instead of their current web browser.

Granted, it is just another browser. You want it to load pages, allow you to use advanced AJAX sites and render pages correctly - and Chrome does this. It passes as a web browser, but then again so does IE6.

Design is a massive aspect of Chrome. This is evident from the moment it is started - the GUI of the browser is where it beats that of Firefox and Internet Explorer. In a video Google published on the YouTube channel the Chrome team mention content being the most important thing in a browser; that's why Chrome's GUI is minimal. The Chrome team had to get the balance between minimal and unusable right, and in my opinion they've hit the nail right on the head.

Using all of the Window space is basic, yet most software out there doesn't. Using the title bar for tabs is a great space saving solution, making it so the tabs are still easily accessible and can be used like any other browser's tabs, whilst maximising page content and minimising the user's awareness of the browser itself.

The fact that the application incorporates the Windows Vista Aero Glass interface is a small cosmetic detail that is only noticeable while it is in a window, but still adds to the design of the application. It feels less like a boxed in standard browser, and more like a free flowing app designed to be a beautiful addition to your desktop.

Speed is also a massive aspect of Chrome. I don't mean the actual browsing of pages, I mean the the actual application itself. Who cares about an extra milliseconds faster page loading if the browser takes about 30 seconds to launch?

On my PC you click on the Chrome shortcut - and it launches. I would say it takes about 0.1 seconds from clicking to launching, and that isn't an over exaggeration. Firefox takes about 1 second to pop up, along with IE7.

Chrome also introduces multi-process web browsing, meaning that each tab on Chrome runs in its own process on the host PC. Although this is more of a RAM hog up front, it makes sure that one tab doesn't bring down the whole browser if it crashes - I'm looking at you Java. This is a brilliant idea for someone like me who has 3GB of RAM to play around with, and most people with a fairly new PC will applaud the multi process system for being silent.

So... what does happen when something goes wrong? Well, you get a "sad tab". The entire browser doesn't stop responding - nor does your data in other tabs get lost. All that happens is that particular tab closes - leaving any other tabs you may have open and unaffected.

Also, as mentioned in the video demo of the browser, if you have a game open in one tab, the game cannot slow down other tabs because they are completely different processes, and do not depend on each other at all. This also contributes to data safety - as if you want to switch from a memory/CPU hogging game to another tab where you want to say, write a blog post about that game - you can, without the game having any effect on the other tab. Tab isolation is probably one of the best internal features of Chrome, one that sets it apart from the competition.

The graphical user interface of Google Chrome is consistent. It fits in with Windows, it fits in with the browser itself. For me Firefox just doesn't fit in or have a consistent theme, and doesn't really fit in with Vista. In comparison, Chrome looks neater and less clutered, and the buttons are just much simpler and more useful than that of Firefox.

I love Chrome, and I doubt I'll be switching to anything else soon.

Grab a copy, help beta test it, hell, use it forever. google.com/chrome.