Google Chrome – To Love, or Not to Love?

You know that technology is really ingrained into our lives when all the headlines are filled up with Google Chrome-related news. You’d almost swear it was an Apple product! Even my mom, who’s not high on tech, asked me on the day of release if I used it yet. Somehow, the browser was newsworthy enough to appear on TV news, although I’m not sure what channel that was on.

Well, are people still excited about Chrome as they were on day one? Well, it’s hard to say, and it seems to be those who are happy, still have their reserve on why not to use it. For me, it might be the privacy policies, but I’m still waiting until the final launch before those are finalized, in hopes that they change for the better. Another reason might be the fact that it already has a DoS (thanks Don for the link) vulnerability. That sure didn’t take long, but it’s unsurprising. Other browser launches have suffered similar fates.

A few others are still pumped though, and even created some ‘top lists’, like Mashable!, who found seven things to really like about Chrome. My favorite might be Lifehacker’s list of Firefox extensions that enable the best features of Chrome… in Firefox, which you can see the link and quote for below.

In way of fun statistics, yesterday, our traffic saw Chrome usage of 5.44% of all visitors, while today, (first ten hours), we saw 3.34%. Small decrease, but is is a beta after all. It’s clear that there are fans though, and people will continue to use it until it drives them nuts with a killer caveat. I’m still waiting for follow-up beta releases though. Google might be doing something great here (minus the privacy policy, of course). If you haven’t already, be sure to goggle over our in-depth first-look.

Apart from a few specific issues (namely process management), many of Chrome’s best features are already available in Firefox 3, proving yet again the power of extensibility. From incognito browsing and the streamlined download manager to URL highlighting and improved search, let’s take a look at how you can bring some of Google Chrome’s best features to Firefox.