Chrome Your Windows

Yesterday I downloaded Google's new web browser, Chrome.  I went so far as to bring my old Windows laptop out of its bag in the closet, slog through the Service Pack 3 install, and a slew of other updates in order to test drive Chrome.  I've gone back and forth from Chrome to Internet Explorer (7) to Safari.  Chrome seems to be faster than IE.  The Safari comparison isn't fair because it's on my iBook G4 which has 4x as much RAM as my Windows computer, a Toshiba Satellite which I've had for like 6-7 years.  Also, I'm not familiar with Windows shortcut keys so I can't switch through different windows as quickly as I can on my Mac.  I like to work with multiple browser windows as opposed to multiple tabs.  I like the expose feature (or whatever it's called) on OS X which lets me view all my open windows at once.  Yeah, with XP, I can just look down at the taskbar and see what's open but it gets crowded quickly and isn't as easy for me to find what I'm looking for.

Anyhoo, this is supposed to be about Chrome.  Like I said, it appears to be faster than IE and so far every page I've looked at has come up looking good and proper.  I LOVE how Chrome allows you to pull tabs out into separate windows and put them back into one window by simply dragging and dropping.  That's cool.  I also like how it allows you to easily convert something like Blogger to a sort of standalone widget.  In Google's words:

Many websites, such as email services, operate like actual programs, similar to those on your computer desktop. Google Chrome supports these web applications by providing a special window designed specifically for web applications.

Microsoft might be annoyed by the emergence of a Google web browser but there's an upside: Chrome encouraged me to step away from my Apple for a bit and get reacquainted with my Windows-based machine.