I downloaded the Google Chrome on my Dell Laptop and on my PC. I have been using Firefox for last 4 years and used Opera before that. Now let me get to the review.

It is a barebone browser in the sense that it does not offer any  options to add extensions / toolbars like Firefox. It has also very limited options to change the settings. Only the minimum options have been given. They also do not have a search box… imagine the biggest search engine shipping a browser without a dedicate search bar. Same as Windows shipping without the crappy IE.

Chrome imported all my bookmarks from Firefox 3.0 but did not import any passwords although it took permission to do so. A bug that the team has to fix. And it happened on both my systems. So I wont be blaming my PC or Firefox.

The page loading speeds appear faster when you use some sites like Google Reader but there are not many visible differences in other sites. One point though - Gears did not function properly with reader. Even after syncing I had to be online to read the feeds.

Gmail also loads pretty well and functioned without any trouble. I have had some issues with slow Gmail and other errors in Firefox 3.0 but did not find any such problem with Gmail in Chrome. So the guys at Google have worked hard there.

I though have started to miss my extensions in Firefox like Digg, Shareaholic, Weave, Better Gmail and my absolte favourite - Ubiquity. I have tons of extensions on FF 3.0 and would love to see the same functionality in Chrome. 

So Google you have a good browser but get it out of beta and fast. Release API’s and get the extensions working.