First impressions of Google Chrome, courtesy of Offspring

Son Michael has been working with the beta of Google’s new Chrome browser for Windows. Sadly, his ancient father is waiting for the Mac version to come out (there’s a sign-up box for notifications).

Here’s what Offspring has to say about it:

Today is the first beta release for the all-new web browser, Google Chrome. Unfortunately the beta release is not available to Mac or Linux users.

Currently being run on my Windows Vista Premium machine, the new browser is much faster and smoother than Microsoft’s beta release of Internet Explorer 8.

Unlike Internet Explorer and Safari, Chrome doesn’t shove the maker’s name in your face. All it says is Google in small text by the minimize button. It’s not ‘Chrome: brought to you by Google.’

On startup it looks like almost any other Windows-based web browser, except it opens with a visual history of the pages you’ve visited most often and most recently. The trapezoid browsing tabs offer a more aesthetically pleasing browsing experience than the standard rectangular ones. It also doesn’t have a million toolbars cluttering up the URL address bar, just your bookmarks and a link to sites you might enjoy based on your browsing history (Google is smart).

All it takes is a little Flash Player plug-in, some preference tweaks and you are ready to go with one of the best web browsers available.