I’m testing out Google’s new browser, which is now in open beta (available here) and so far I’m impressed.

My initial reaction was, “WTF?  Why another freaking browser?”  But then I read the story behind it, about why they decided to create a new browser from the ground up, and … wow.  It made complete sense.

Who knows if it will catch on or not, but it has the potential to change everything.

Here’s the main advantage and why I’m at least partially sold on it:  They designed it from scratch for how we use the Internet now, as opposed to how we used the Internet ten years ago.  All the other browsers, you see, are struggling to accommodate what they were never designed to do in the first place.

Think of it.  The browser has become the universal application.  We use it for everything.  It was never designed to do that — it was supposed to display passive HTML.  Everything else browsers do now is because of features tacked on to the original design and concept.

The Google browser is designed from the ground up to be the universal application, almost — if you will — an operating system.  They designed it with the features of an operating system.  It’s built to run programs.

This is what I think may eventually happen:  Mozilla will adopt it as the new core for Firefox and this will be the basis for Firefox 4.  Microsoft will also adopt it and make it Internet Explorer 9.

If they don’t, they’ll forever be at a disadvantage to Chrome, and they’d be stupid not to because the code is all open source.