Chrome came out about a year and a half ago. I was all over it immediately, as it was made by Google and I’m all about new free stuff on the internet. While it was fast, there were too many bugs and no extensions. It definitely seemed like a good framework to build upon, but it wasn’t a finished project (this might have been due to me using the beta) and it was not nearly enough to pull me away from Firefox. I did like the quasi-ability to turn websites like Gmail into applications that have shortcuts on your desktop, but that was just a cool novelty.

So over the past year I stuck with Firefox, checking out Chrome one more half-assed time when extensions were added, but I yet again wasn’t impressed enough to switch my loyalties. I had my Firefox add-ons and all animated GIFs worked the way I wanted them to and I didn’t see a real reason to change. I don’t like change for change’s sake. That may be a problem in real-life for me in some respects, but I feel that when it comes to personal computing it’s not a bad personality trait.

But recently I had been getting a bit annoyed with the long wait for Firefox to load, and some freezing issues, and just general sluggishness. I took the opportunity with a fresh install of the retail version of Windows 7 to give Chrome a real shot. I imported my Firefox bookmarks, and when the ones I had on my bar in Firefox weren’t added to the bar in Chrome I actually bothered to drag all of them onto the bar in Chrome. And then I went as far to add some extensions. The result is that I don’t see myself going back to Firefox, even though some GIFs animate too slowly due to a minimum frame time hold (I’m failing to think of a better/more technical phase for it). I can live with more epic and suspenseful GIFs, just like I suffered the horrific framerate drops in Shadow of the Colossus. And then there’s some weird pop-up and full-screen streaming video issues on…certain sites — but once again, I’m able to deal. I’m only there to take care of business and back out of private browsing mode. Which does remind me that being able to have a private window open while having a regular window open is invaluable.

And now it’s time for me to mention some awesome Chrome extensions. I had plenty of Firefox add-ons, but I felt like I had some of them just to feel like I was getting as much as possible out of the browsers and barely actually utilized them. Meanwhile, I have a select few Chrome extensions and they are all awesome.

Adblock – I think we all realize this is necessary for internet browsing nowadays. I went as far to add the Adblock Browsing Button, though, for the few sites I wouldn’t mind seeing ads to support (yes, I realize they are based on click-throughs, but whatever).

Chromey Calculator – This extension is FUCKING AWESOME. It’s basically a miniature version of Wolfram Alpha, which means in addition to regular mathematical calculations, it can shoot back to you the circumference of the earth or the height of the London Eye or how many dollars equal one euro. So, so sweet.

goo.gl URL Shortener – This is really for anyone who posts on Twitter. By far the best URL shortener out there, only a click away. It even copies the URL for you automatically.

Google Dictionary – For those times when you’re reading an high-brow article or blog post by a particularly erudite internet denizen and need to know what the fuck they just said. Double-click and BAM — the word’s definition. God, I love Google.

Baseball Player Search – I love baseball more than Google though. While I had Fangraphs as a search engine in Firefox, the fact that I can choose which sites I want to search — and that it simultaneously opens up a tab for each one — makes this extension so much cooler.

Slideshow – You can get your Facebook stalker on more efficiently with this extension, by turning people’s albums into an easy to scroll through slideshow. It also works with Google Image Search, Flickr and Picasa.

I highly recommend everyone, PC and Mac users alike, to give Chrome a good hard look if you haven’t already. It’s much better than it was when it first was revealed, while Firefox seems to get worse.

Getting back to our eventual overlords at Google, their new browser doesn’t exactly set the world on fire. But it is pretty fast. But I can’t really notice it much on my sub-par Verizon DSL connection. So should I even use it instead of Firefox Beta 3? What are the advantages? I do like the homepage with a bunch of windows of your most visited sites, but I wish you could add more. On my 1920×1200 screen, the 9 windows take up maybe 1/4 of the screen. I could have 36 windows to choose from! I’m not even sure if I visit 36 websites.

I have no doubt this is only one of the many options Google has planned for this browser. If they really want to cut into Microsoft’s — and Mozilla’s — market share, they’re going to have to add some killer features. Features that anyone can utilize easily. For now, they’ve gone the simple route, making sure the browser actually works, and works quickly. Should’ve seen that coming from the company whose search engine distanced itself from the competition with its simplicity.

People who have a ton of Firefox extensions probably already know by now that Chrome is not for them — at least not yet. There’s no Adblock, no Greasemonkey, no Ubiquity. Me, I don’t even notice that Adblock is gone, and I have yet the chance to get accustomed to Ubiquity. And those were the only two I used at all. Maybe if I had some porn-fetching extension, I’d be more concerned.

So as it is, I think I’ll try out Chrome for the week. I guess I’ll just invest in the future of the browser. The interface is slick enough — what with its minimalist style — and I could get used to the incognito mode. That way I can watch One Tree Hill on Hulu without anyone knowing. I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what Google was thinking of when they added such a feature. Yep.

And right as I reach the end of this post, I realize you can add a desktop shortcut, start menu shortcut, or quick-launch icon for any web application (like Facebook or WordPress) — not just Google applications. That’s pretty cool. Maybe I know how I feel about Google Chrome now.

And I bet it’s pretty much the complete opposite of how Microsoft feels.

Find out for yourself if you haven’t already. Download Google Chrome here.

P.S. I know a few posts down I said that Ubiquity was the future of the internet. Man, I am such an IDIOT.