Chrome de la Chrome

Everyone knows that Google is no great shakes when it comes to new applications. They're neat, relatively simple, easy to use for the really average user; but I'm sure they cause more than enough frustration to developers,  tech savvy folk who want to be able to take stuff apart, see how it works and make it work for them in their own way. Which is why, when Google introduced Chrome, the browser to compete with its long-term friend Firefox, but more so with its long-term enemy, Microsoft, I downloaded it with fewer expectations than my more eager techie friends.

So far, I have been mostly satisfied. It isn't a huge step from going to a browser to a search page, but searching within the browser toolbar is surprisingly addictive. It's also nice to see clickable thumbnails of sites most recently visited, and have a bookmarking feature similar to the star system in gmail. 

Chrome is not without its problems of course. Personally, I haven't experienced the security issues that seem to have been the common complaint among most Chrome users. Shockwave Plug-ins frequently cause the browser to crash though, and the fact that many of my favourite music and videos don't play when I use Chrome is a little disappointing. I suppose it'll be some time before Chrome gains credibility (and hence, compatibility) with those media formats. 

Chrome's resemblance to the new version of Firefox is thrown into sharp relief every time the browser asks if I want to restore a previously active session, or when I download a new file. I am no fan of Internet Explorer, but I'm not fiercely loyal to either Firefox or Chrome. I guess I'm waiting for something a little bigger than this from Google.