Just downloaded Google Chrome and did some very brief tests. Rendering engine seems equal to Safari 3.1, as expected. There will be a few minor differences somewhere; I’ll let you know when I find them.

Feels light, quick.

It features a quite slick-looking Firebug clone that includes a YSlow clone. Right-click and select "Inspect element" to access it. Haven’t tried to actually debug with it yet, but it looks promising.

The important points in the Google Chrome story, however, are not about DOM and CSS compatibility, and not even about debugging tools.

John Resig and Alex Russell discuss some ways in which this release could be the start of a new browser war. (Contrary to what Opera states, it hasn’t quite started yet.) I also have a few points to make, but that’ll have to wait for another time.

In order to find out which effect on the market it has, Chrome’s share will have to be measured. Updated browser detect. Detect it by searching for Chrome in navigator.userAgent.
Note to Google Chrome team: please make navigator.vendor read "Google" instead of "Apple".

Which version number does it have? I can’t put a browser without a version number in my Tables. navigator.userAgent says 0.2

Come to think of it, I haven’t yet found any way of disguising it as another browser to get around browser detects written by clueless web developers.

Come to think of it, I haven’t yet found a Preferences menu.

0.2 sounds about right.

But it’s definitely a promising start.