Do you need a new web browser?  Probably most people are doing just fine with the one they have.  I happen to love Firefox 3.0, especially what they’ve done with the address bar and with being able to tag bookmarks, so I’m one of those people.  Others are using Internet Explorer version whatever-comes-with-the-computer and are none the sadder for it.

Then again, there are those of us who have to try every new thing that comes along, so with you in mind I’ll make an honorable mention of Google’s new Chrome Browser, that was just released today.  Although I don’t imagine I’ll switch from FireFox, Chrome has a few features worth noting. 

For one thing, the interface is very minimalist, giving you as much window space as possible for the site you’re viewing.  Like Firefox, the address bar integrates search so you can enter either a web address or a search phrase.  If you enter a search phrase you’ll go to your default Search engine — Google by default but it can be set to Yahoo or another engine.

One feature that’s gotten a lot of press and is somewhat interesting is the "Application Window" feature.  The idea is that — for web applications that you use all the time like gmail.com or other such sites — you can create an icon on the desktop that launches a super-minimalist window for that application.

For example, to create an icon to search Sacramento area real estate, first browse in Chrome to:

http://www.sacramento-home.com/Search.php

Then open up the page menu by clicking on the page icon in the upper right corner of Chrome:

Select "Create Application Shortcuts", then leave the default of "Desktop" selected:

When you click ok you’ll get neat icon on the desktop that brings you right to the search page every time!

Sweet, isn’t it?

Be the first one on your block!

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