I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately from folks who are interested in Google’s new browser, dubbed “Chrome”.  They want to know if it’s better, faster, taller, cures cancer…and if they should convert their firms over to it.  The answer to those questions is: Sort of, yes, no, definitely not and….probably not.

Chrome is very fast and it uses some interesting new (and open source, so expect them to become more commonplace) technologies to speed up the web experience.  It also has a new javascript engine which speeds up the way some web applications (including, not-surprisingly, Google’s) will load and run.

Chrome has some interesting technical features around how it handles multiple tabs to help make them faster (on multi-core machines), more stable and more secure.

Chrome’s “Omnibox” blurs the line between web addresses and web searches.  Chrome’s Application shortcuts isn’t exactly revolutionary but does let websites pretend to be local applications; at least in appearance if not in performance.

However, Chrome still falls short on a couple of points.  First of all some websites are still written for Internet Explorer and won’t work in Chrome.  Firefox users can get around this by installing the IETab add-in which will render the site in IE, even though you’re using Firefox.  But no such fix exists for Chrome just yet.  Basically Chrome uses the same web rendering engine that Apple’s Safari does and so sites that don’t render properly in Safari aren’t going to work in Chrome either.

Secondly, and perhaps more significantly, there’s no way to secure your saved passwords in Chrome and there are already utilities coming along to take advantage of that.  If you’ve got Chrome installed and you’ve saved any passwords in it go to the Wrench (Tools), select Options and go to the “Minor Tweaks” tab.  Click “Show Saved Passwords” and…well, it will.  In plain text.  The results may be a bit shocking, especially if you’ve done any online banking in Chrome.

Now I know what you’re thinking (O.K., I don’t, but it reads better this way) “But Ben, doesn’t Firefox do the same thing?  I can go to Tools, Options, Security, click the Saved Passwords button and see all my saved passwords in clear text!”  Yes.  But in Firefox, on the same screen, you can also check that box that says “Use a master password” which lets you password protect them.  Check that box (and you should) and anybody sitting at your computer (or walking off with it) who tries to access your saved passwords will be asked to provide one first.  Chrome doesn’t offer that rather important safeguard.  At least not yet.

Conclusion?  Chrome has some nice shiny bits.  It’s quick, it’s lean, it has some interesting innovations – most of which will likely find their way into the competing products in the not-too-distant future thanks to Google making it largely open-source.   It also has some significant limitations like being sort of lean on features, not as extensible as some of its competitors and a little free with displaying your stored passwords.