I'm enjoying Google's new beta-browser, Chrome. It is faster. I like that it keeps all tabs together. I like that the address window doubles as the search engine window.

A few of the java functions that I use with the publishing page of the Speculist are AWOL. I had to manually insert the links on this post.

Like Opera, it seems to have a strange dislike for homepages - even the one I setup with Google. If there's somebody who's figured out a way around this, please let me know.

It indexes everything you surf. This is a plus when you half-remember something you saw three days ago and would like to get back to it. It may not be so good when you are surfing https sites. According to this article, bank account info and credit card numbers could all be easily retrieved later if someone stole your laptop.

Google could fix this simply by preventing Chrome from indexing https sites. I expect that they will have to make this fix for version 1.0. For now I would recommend using another browser for business or use Chrome's incognito browsing function (Ctrl-Shift-N).

This early beta has a few quirks, but Firefox and Explorer are on notice: Google is now a serious player in the browser wars.

UPDATE: The download and install is super-fast too. I was surfing in three or four minutes.