Speed Up Your Web Browsing with Google Chrome

When Google Chrome hit the streets a year ago, most people considered it something of a novelty. It was fast, sure -- but also rough around the edges and missing a lot of important features. Well, time flies, because Google just released Chrome 3, and it's starting to look all grown up.

Want to experiment a bit, but not necessarily commit to Chrome? You almost can't go wrong: It was fully installed (and had imported all my existing Internet Explorer bookmarks) about two minutes after I clicked the install button. With that kind of speed, it makes sense to install it as a secondary browser for non-mission-critical browsing.

This new version of Chrome has a number of obvious updates. The New Tab page is nifty, for example; you can drag page thumbnails around and pin them in place, making it a handy alternative to your bookmark list. The combination address box/search box now clearly labels results so you know which items are from your bookmarks, which are search results, and which are surfaced from your history. And the browser is also easy to dress up with themes -- a nice visual flourish.

Of course, Chrome's selling point is its speed, and Google claims that Chrome 3 is now more than twice as fast as the early Chrome beta.

Are you going to try Chrome, or stick with tried-and-true Firefox or Internet Explorer? Sound off in the comments.