Now that Google has released Chrome for Mac, the war of the browsers is fully on. While Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser seemed to be able to hold its ground against Firefox, Google's assault seems to come to it from all directions, including challenging the undisputed browser leader on the Mac, the Safari browser. What does it mean to consumers other than more choices than before? Well, for one, it feels lightning fast. This is not a scientific comparison, but simply an observation. And since we use a lot of Google services which are optimized on Chrome, there are clear benefits to using Chrome for Mac.

Version 2 (which according to Google is only used to track the version numbers and does not necessarily constitute a milestone update) of the Chrome browser packs additional features and has solidified it as the standard Windows browsers for us here at Ampli2de. A 25-35% increase in speed (and trust me, this is a distiguishable speed increase), the ability to remove homepage thumbnails and a very useful full-screen mode (accessible by using the F11 key) are a step forward in making the newest browser a staple on the internet landscape. Below is a video showing the customary awkward Google employee demoeing Chrome 2. Enjoy!

Original article: (posted: April 12, 2009 19:07 ET by AmpliDude)

Much has been written about Chrome, Google's first foray into the browser world. Immediately after its launch in the fall of 2008, the public's initial reaction was neutral. Some were happy that IE had another competitor, other were sad that Firefox, Mozilla's other browser, might loose market share. Some liked its minimalistic look, other considered it basic and unusable. And arguments kept pouring in for days, without major changes in the browsers' usage patterns.

Today, a little over 6 months since the browser's launch, Chrome has taken over the top spot as the most frequently used browser in our company. This however, has been a gradual process. We still use Firefox extensively, and we still test on IE and Safari, yet, when it comes to browsing, coding or showcasing our work, we now tend to do it in Chrome. As to the question why that has happened, the answer is simple: it is (or at least it feels like it is) the fastest browser out there.

The main reasons behind its speed are a less complex user interface (compared to Firefox/IE), a smaller footprint, and last but not least, a significantly improved JavaScript engine (V8). V8, Google's open source JavaScript engine, is much faster than IE's, and significantly faster than SpiderMonkey, Firefox's own JavaScript engine. And although TraceMonkey, Firefox's latest engine has been benchmarked as faster than V8 in some circles, our own impression remains that Chrome still seems a bit speedier.

Another opinion out there is that the speed discrepancy is due to the fact that unlike Firefox, Chrome does not currently have a plugin engine and therefore a lot of time is saved when starting out the browser. And indeed, the Firefox plugin engine is a very useful feature, however, when browsing around, there is no need to have plugins loaded, or even enabled, so Chrome's model is taking advantage of that.

In addition, Chrome is also believed to be the safest Windows-based browser out there. If using it means reducing the risk of getting our computers infected with malicious software, that seems like another pretty good reason to continue to do so.