I’ve just been trying the latest beta of Google Chrome (2.0.169.1) and it’s noticeably faster than the ‘old’ general release, which was the fastest browser that I’d ever used.

For the software user, speed is a relative idea. Upgrade your Windows XP from 512 MB to a Gigabyte and you’ll see a serious improvement in how the OS and your software respond. Wait a week and you won’t notice it any more.

The previous version of Chrome that I used was much faster than Firefox, but once I got used to the speed, there wasn’t much to impress me, which is why I had it on my system, but only for testing purposes.

What makes this version of Chrome different is that the speed is really noticeable. If I use it for five minutes then switch back to Firefox, Firefox actually seems slow.

So am I about switch to Chrome as my browser of choice? No. Chrome are fixing a problem that I don’t have. Ask me to draw up a list of every single issue that I have with Firefox, and slow speed won’t be on there.

I’m using Firefox because it’s pleasant to use, reliable, configurable, and does everything I want a web browser to do. I’m only going to switch to a different browser if it does something that is (1) different, (2) useful and (3) regularly required. It’ll also have to do everything that Firefox does, and do it at least as well, if not better.

Dangling a cool new feature that I don’t need might convince me to use a new plugin, but I’m not going to go through the pain of transferring my settings and data to a new browser and learn how to use it. Offer me a seriously useful feature with benefits that make me sit up, however, and it’s probably goodbye Firefox.

Scratching an itch is immensely satisfying, yet scratching for the sake of it is unrewarding. Do it too much and it’ll start to hurt.