Google says the release of its internet browser, Chrome, is simply to encourage more people to use the web more often, instead of outmoded means of communication such as the telephone.

For that, it says, speed is of the essence, and Google Chrome certainly shines in this respect.

But on first impressions, Chrome lacks that single knock-out feature that one might expect from a browser that has been two years in development at one of the world's leading web companies.

Indeed, many of its features are already available in other browsers – conve- niently packaged into one slick bundle.

Opening regular web pages on Google Chrome is noticeably faster than the most widely used versions of its competitors, Mozilla Firefox 2 and Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.

Pages load in a heartbeat, and navigation backwards and forwards between previously viewed pages is also smooth.

It does not feel quite the same leap forward as the 2004 launch of Firefox, which was a vast improvement on IE, but back then the browser market had lacked competition for some time.

Chrome's speed gap over the very latest releases of Firefox (version 3) and IE (version 8) narrows, but it has the edge in most cases.

Where Chrome is really designed to improve on its rivals is in showing complex, data-intensive web pages, such as Facebook, Gmail and Google Maps.

Google's own demonstrations of its browser have suggested Chrome is about three times faster than its main rivals at rendering such sites. But to the naked eye, Firefox looks just as smooth when zooming in and out of Google Maps or opening e-mails in Gmail.

Beyond speed, Chrome's main features include anonymous browsing – the very same privacy feature in IE8 that many interpreted as a way for Microsoft to impede Google advertising technology; an opening screen that offers pictures of recently or commonly viewed sites, similar to Opera's “speed dial” design for favourites; and underlying technology that promises to prevent crashes.

Chrome is named after the area at the top of a browser screen that contains the address bar, tabs, settings and navigation buttons.

By “hiding” lesser-used features, this area is na- rrower, leaving more room to show the web page and makes for a cleaner, simpler look.

The address bar and search box have been merged, while personal favourites are also found by googling words here.

This is reminiscent of Firefox 3's new “awesome bar”, which automatically suggests popular, bookmarked or visited pages as you begin to type. Chrome is not perfect in its current “beta” testing incarnation.

But its main contribution to its stated mission of making the web easier to use may be the decision to give away all of the Chrome source code for free. This will allow programmers to improve on Google's attempt at creating an internet browser.

谷歌(Google)表示，该公司发布网络浏览器Chrome的目的仅在于鼓励更多的人更频繁地使用互联网，而不是那些过时的通信手段，例如电话。

谷歌表示，为了达到这一目的，速度就成为了至关重要的因素，而Chrome在这方面无疑表现优异。

不过，就第一印象而言，Chrome缺乏一击制胜的功能。人们可能对这样的功能有所期待，因为该浏览器是由这家全球领先的互联网公司之一耗费两年时间开发出来的。

实际上，它的许多功能在其它浏览器中已经具备——Chrome只是将这些功能打包成一个豪华套装。

在Chrome中打开一般网页的速度，明显快于竞争对手最广为使用的版本——Mozilla的火狐2 (Firefox 2)和微软(Microsoft)的Internet Explorer 7 (IE 7)。

Chrome的页面加载可在瞬间完成，而在先前浏览过的页面之间后退和前进也很平滑。

2004年推出的火狐相对于IE有了巨大的改善，但人们并未感受到Chrome存在相同程度的飞跃。不过，那时的浏览器市场已长时间缺乏竞争。

Chrome与最新版火狐（火狐3）和IE (IE 8)的速度差距相对较小，不过，大多数情况下它都占据优势。

谷歌真正希望Chrome强于竞争对手的地方在于，显示复杂的、数据密集型网页的能力，例如Facebook、Gmail和谷歌地图(Google Maps)的网页。

谷歌自己对Chrome的演示表明，该浏览器对上述网站页面的展现速度比其主要竞争对手快3倍左右。然而据肉眼观察，当在谷歌地图中放大和缩小页面，或者在Gmail中打开电子邮件时，火狐表现得与Chrome一样平滑。

除了速度，Chrome的主要功能还包括：匿名浏览——与IE 8的隐私功能非常相像，很多人认为微软利用该功能来阻止谷歌的广告技术；在起始页面上提供最近或经常浏览网站的图片，它类似于Opera为其收藏夹设计的“快速拨号”(Speed Dial)功能；以及承诺防止浏览器崩溃的底层技术。

Chrome是以该浏览器屏幕的顶部区域命名的，该区域包括地址栏、标签、设置和导航按钮。

通过“隐藏”不经常使用的功能，Chrome的该区域变得更为狭窄，这就为显示网页留下了更多空间，并使得其外观更为整洁和朴素。

Chrome的地址栏和搜索框已被合并，在这个栏中搜索关键词时，还可以找到个人收藏的链接。

这使人想起了火狐3最新的“非凡的地址栏”，当你在这个栏中进行输入时，它会自动向你提示广受欢迎的、已收藏为书签的、或者访问过的页面。当前仍处于“测试”(Beta)阶段的Chrome尚未做到十全十美。

不过，对其所称的使命（让网络变得更容易使用），谷歌的主要贡献可能在于，决定免费公开Chrome所有的源代码。这将允许程序员们对谷歌创造一个网络浏览器的努力加以改善。