Google released its Chrome browser three days ago, though we don’t have a Mac version yet (and there’s no word on when that may come). Regardless, I gave it a whirl on my Windows machines after reading what Google’s Sundar Pichai and Linus Upson had to say about the browser over on the Google blog. If you’re in a hurry, Google has also published a comic book-style description of the new browser.

One paragraph of Pichai and Upson’s blog post highlights the thinking behind Chrome’s development:

On the surface, we designed a browser window that is streamlined and simple. To most people, it isn’t the browser that matters. It’s only a tool to run the important stuff — the pages, sites and applications that make up the web. Like the classic Google homepage, Google Chrome is clean and fast. It gets out of your way and gets you where you want to go.

In other words, a browser meant to function as a platform for running software, which Google seems to see as it’s strategic advantage in the web realm.

What else is unique about Chrome? To make a quick list, it’s open-source, built on WebKit, includes a new JavaScript engine that Google has built, it isolates each browser tab to prevent one tab from crashing others (one thing I hate about Firefox!), and an “incognito” mode that will erase all browser history and activity when the browser is closed.

The features are there, and there’s solid philosophy and and strategy behind Chrome, but how does it work? The first two things I noticed were, 1) It’s ugly, and 2) It’s fast. I can get used to the ugly part, but I do hope Google invests a bit of resources into making it look at least a little better. I say this because it is fast and I think it could be a very strong browser in the future. Pichai and Upson’s post makes it clear that Chrome is very much a work in progress: “This is just the beginning — Google Chrome is far from done. We’re releasing this beta for Windows to start the broader discussion and hear from you as quickly as possible.”

Of course, Chrome communicates with Google. Users are bound to wonder exactly what sort of information Google is collecting.

Not this. I’m writing on Firefox right now.