From its early days as a fast browser, Google Chrome has grown into an innovative browser that is powerful enough to run its own OS. Chrome 23 comes with many exciting features like syncing, autofill and standards compliance, and continues to be a super fast browser.

You can download Chrome from the Google site and Installation is quick and uncomplicated. You will be asked if you’d like to send usage stats to them. There are several groups of data tracking options and you can configure them in Privacy Options.

The interface is almost the same but the Wrench button is now a 3 lined design. Clicking on Settings opens a new tab. There are several options available under the different advanced settings links. Now this part is a teeny bit confusing and you can get lost in the maze at first.

Extensions’ capabilities of altering the browser interface are pretty limited; placing the extensions on the right of the location box gives it a uniform appearance, but limits the customization functionality.

Chrome 23 is equipped with an array of browsing amenities: tabbed browsing, creating new windows, and Incognito (private) browsing; this disables all kinds of electronic breadcrumbs.

Chrome is based on the open source engine WebKit, but has a different JavaScript Engine, and some other differences from Android and Safari, like hardware accelerated 3D CSS, and enhanced security.

Flash is built in, so the capability of deleting Flash cookies is a nice touch. You also have the option to browse safely, with malware automatically being blocked.

You can launch apps from the location bar now, which means less use of the mouse. You can configure plugins like Flash so that it needs user permission to run, rather than auto load. You can disable JavaScript, and block sites transmitting malware and phishing; this of course, depends on Google’s efficiency at recognizing risky sites.

In-page search is smooth and intuitive. As you type, Chrome starts searching.

Tabs exist independently; if one crashes, the others still function.

All themes, choices, autofills, passwords, bookmarks and more are smoothly synced via your Gmail id, and you have support for multiple users. Remember though, that while many people will be able to login to Chrome, everyone will be able to access everyone else’s stuff.

You can organize your search engines and customization well; you can also set your default search engine from these: Google, Bing and Yahoo.

The Chrome managers for extensions, downloads and bookmarks all are opened in new tabs. You can look what’s inside and add some basic options like delete.

An awesome feature in chrome is auto updating. The moment a new edition of Chrome rolls out, your browser is updated. You also have automatic translation of web pages which is not something you see in most other browsers.

HTML5 implementation is the best in Chrome, in my opinion.

There are less stable versions, meant for developers; but Chrome 23 is one of the most competitive and quickest stable browsers we have seen in years; but keep in mind that your hardware (drivers and graphics card) also needs to be current.

Chrome’s no-nonsense design only adds to its appeal. It has now included support for hardware accelerated graphics to older computers (PC and Mac) thanks to its improved WebGL and Canvas2D support.

Heather Protz, a freelance writer for http://www.usaheadlines.com/ – offers full home security to help protect your family, assets from burglary and other crimes.