I’ve been using the Google Chrome browser for the past month or so. Verdict? It’s got its good points, things I definitely think other browsers would be wise to adopt in the future. But overall, it’s just too raw a product right now to switch to on a more permanent basis, especially when Firefox beckons me with my comfortable host of AddOns. That being said, there were some features of Chrome that I really liked and miss.

• The Omnibar. This was great. Figures Google, the kings of search, would make searching easier than ever. The single URL / search bar was more than meets the eye; once you search on a page, say Youtube.com or Amazon.com, you can then search that site directly from the Omnibar without having to navigate to that page or click a button. All you have to do is start typing the site, hit tab and enter your search query once Chrome recognizes it. Very slick feature.
• The Start Page. Chrome displayed a thumbnail grid of the pages you visited most, as well as recent bookmarks and recently closed tabs, and all relevant search bars. There are Firefox addons that emulate this, but none of them do it as elegantly as Chrome did.
• Blazing speed! This is something no addon is going to give you. Chrome was FAST! There was one major annoyance though; Chrome had trouble with Flash, particularly videos. Youtube videos would stutter or freeze up the browser.

In the end, I think browser competition can only be a good thing for the end user. Hopefully this leads to increased creativity in upcoming browser updates across all major browser platforms.