Safari vs. Chrome

A couple of months ago I updated my copy of Google Earth, and they downloaded for me at the same time the latest version of Chrome. I had a "backup" browser, that I tried when I ran across a MacOS or Safari-hostile site, OmniWeb, so it sat for awhile. But lately I've been getting the color wheel way too frequently in Safari, and when I do, it seems to last way too long; something as simple as switching tabs presents an opportunity to do the laundry while I wait. And my iMac is no slouch, and still under AppleCare, it should still be comfortably quick, and indeed, is in most areas. So I decided to give Chrome a road trial.

I'm actually quite pleased. There are some things about Chrome with which I'm not thrilled (e.g., where they put tabs leaves very little title bar to grab onto when you want to reposition the window) but it does seem noticeably peppier than Safari. I've been using it a lot, but I've not yet changed my default browser. Yet.

Now, I don't know if it's actually loading pages faster, or they're doing something that gives the impression that pages are loading faster, but they're doing something. I trust the fine folks in the Safari department down in Cupertino know what Google is doing right with Chrome and will adapt with the next version of Safari (maybe in Lion?).

Oh, and by the way, I'm not impressed with extensions. Most seem redundant. I do use AdBlock and Facebook blocker, tho.