Google Chrome: Day 2

Now that everybody’s got a good look at Google’s Chrome, the general feeling is that the browser should be able to keep that initial luster. It’s super fast, but is not without its bugs. We imagine it won’t be long before Google patches a security flaw that could allow some hacker carpet-bombing.

Security

The security flaw does appear to be a mere oversight and is similar to flaws recently demonstrated in Apple Safari (WebKit) and Internet Explorer earlier this year. Both were patched relatively quickly. “Carpet-bombing” in computer terms is the act of peppering a person’s desktop with executable file popups; allowing it to download could cause an infection. 10-15 times faster than the latest versions of IE, Firefox, and Safari. Walt Mossberg’s test came out a little differently though; Mossberg complained of load times in general and declared Chrome faster than only the beta version of IE 8.

But still, the overall grade is good, maybe a B+ or A-. Mossberg writes, “My verdict: 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. These omissions include a way to manage bookmarks, a command for emailing links and pages directly from the browser, and even a progress bar to show how much of a Web page has loaded.”

Privacy

Meanwhile, back at the Googleplex, relays Danny Sullivan, Omnibox presents the option of searching Amazon only instead of the entire Web.