A trade publication just ran a story on Chrome 2 – Beta being released. If you don’t know, Chrome is a web browser like Firefox or Internet Explorer (IE). Chrome 2 requires Windows XP SP2 or better. (Download)

New Chrome 2 - Beta Version Browser

For months I have been using Chrome and IE 7 & 8 side by side. I had hoped IE8 would be faster. It is not. I have not put a stopwatch on it, but 8 seems even slower. Both are WAY slower than Chrome. After using Chrome for a time IE will drive one nuts.

I find that I am using Chrome as my primary browser. I have some issues with it. The biggest being the importing of bookmarks. It did not work well for me. I have loads of bookmarks. It would only import ‘some’ of mine. I see no rhyme or reason for which loaded and which didn’t. So, I’ve been doing a dance with IE7/8 of going to a bookmark, copying the URL, pasting it in Chrome and bookmarking it.

There is the ‘saved password’ thing too, those don’t transfer. Fortunately IE will allow one to export those. So, if you are lax in writing down passwords, it is not a disaster. Note: the conflicker scare should clue everyone into the fact that they should NOT save passwords to their bank, PayPal and other financial webs in their browser.

Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) - Some Nice New Toys

I will say I do love the bookmark manager in Chrome. It’s drag and drop editing. Slick. And the History window… it is different than IE’s. I don’t want to say it is better. I have found it easier to find the pages.

Chrome 2 is reported to be faster than Chrome. It’s JavaScript processing is supposed to be 100% faster than Chrome’s. I’ve not timed it. But it is fast getting pages on screen. Way fast for previously visited pages.

Plus it may be the safest browser going. It survived the Pwn2Own …competition… where hackers try to take over a browser. In fact it was the only one they did not touch. Now that is impressive.

Note: Quoting from Tipping Point, […]targets will be IE8, Firefox, and Chrome installed on a Sony Vaio running Windows 7 as well as Safari and Firefox installed on a Macbook running Mac OS X.  All browsers will be fully patched and in their default configuration as of the first day of the contest. The mobile device targets will include fully patched BlackBerry, Android, iPhone, Symbian and Windows Mobile phones in their default configurations.

The big difference in security is Google’s choice to have Chrome run its JavaScript and plug-ins within a virtual sandbox. Crackers attacking the browser have two layers of security to get through before they can reach your machine.

AND TADA… OMG! The “Tear Away” tabs… I <3 them. I can now move a tab to a new window! I use Alt-Tab so much to flip from App to App. I can now place pages side by side and Alt-Tab through them. I so like that.

Remember. This is a BETA version. It does crash from time to time. BTW, IE8 is not beta and it has crashed and locked up from time to time also.

Let me know how you like or don’t like Chrome 2…