AR&D Reinventing Local Media

The new Web browser Google Chrome is here, and it has debuted to the mixed reviews you might expect out of a new project that is still in beta. Still, any time a major company comes up with a potential game-changer, we recommend having your Web and tech folks download it and poke around.

Here's what some of the reviewers and muckety-mucks are saying...

Walt Mossberg, Wall Street Journal/All Things Digital:

"Chrome is a smart, innovative browser that, in many common scenarios, will make using the Web faster, easier and less frustrating. But this first version - which is just a beta, or test, release - is rough around the edges and lacks some common browser features Google plans to add later."

David Pogue, New York Times:

"Chrome is open-source, meaning that its code is available to everyone for inspection or improvement -- even to its rivals. That's a huge, promising twist that ought to shut up the conspiracy theorists.

"For now, it's best to think of Chrome as exactly what it purports to be: a promising, modern, streamlined, nonbloated, very secure alternative to today's browsers. You should do exactly what Microsoft, Apple and the Firefox folks will all be doing: try it out and keep your eye on it."

Stephen Shankland, CNET:

"Google benefits materially from fast performance. First, when it comes to search, Google discovered when its search page loads fractionally faster, users search more often, which of course leads to more opportunities for Google to place its highly lucrative text ads. Second, a faster Web application foundation means that Google's online applications for e-mail, word processing, spreadsheets, and calendars can become faster and fuller-featured."

Om Malik, GigaOM:

"I installed Chrome and ran it on a quad-core desktop PC. Not only is it fast, but introduces an altogether different browsing experience than any I've ever had. For example today I had three windows open and when one crashed, sent a report to Microsoft and closed, the other two windows remained open and fully operative.

"Chrome was developed from scratch as Web 2.0 has evolved to include a wide range of browser-based applications, thereby bringing new architectural and user interface demands to the browser experience."

Check out Google's clever comic strip introduction to Chrome, download the browser and see for yourself. Unless, of course, you're a Mac user like I am. This beta is for PC only.