Google Chrome Hidden Gems

For a while now I’ve been jumping between IE8 , Firefox , and Google Chrome . The browser that’s pulling me in – is definitely Chrome. For starters it’s fast. I mean really fast – even after a solid couple of months of use with a large local cache.

Other sticky features include being able to just type my search terms into the address bar – and execute a search (not unique to Chrome of course IE8 and Firefox both do this). And then the little details – like the screen shot shown here. While visiting one of my regular podcasts with Chrome – just clicking on the MP3 file – from what I’m assuming is a progressive download – launched a very nice little audio player. I don’t know why it’s there – or what ‘auto-magical’ stuff happened under the hood – it just worked. I also like the dark theme  I found for Chrome and just ‘clicked’ and it was in – nice and dark and less painful to the eye – just like my dev IDE.

There are bigger issues and tectonic industry shifts at work here. I couldn’t write about them all with enough zest or knowledge to be of interest in this short post (like the future of Firefox now that the Mozilla Foundation’s largest funding organisation – Google – has their own browser) – suffice to say that for me at least- Chrome is sticky – and I’m using it more and more.