Well, the big surprise news from the last day or two (at least to me), was the sudden surprise announcement of the beta for the new web browser from Google, called Chrome.

Based on the WebKits rendering engine and boasting improved performance and stability by launching each tab as its own process, I was suitably intrigued, and being a sucker for these kinds of beta tests, was quick to grab the beta first thing yesterday morning.

So far, I must admit, I’m very impressed. The cutdown interface takes a bit of getting used to, but focuses your attention on the webpage you’re reading. A welcome change in these days of being flooded by toolbars for various things. The fully draggable tabs are incredibly cool as well. The way they undock and re-dock with the main window is very smooth.

However, the main thing, is the speed. Its helluva fast. There are various benchmarks floating around, but basically it smokes even Firefox3 by a considerable margin. Despite its beta tag, its also been pretty stable for me as well. I’ve been using it since yesterday morning, and so far no crashes.