Now that Google Chrome is out of beta, it is time to draw some conclusions. As I already mentioned in my previous article posted on EZine Articles, Google Chrome was destined to succeed. The question is if it’s ready for its primetime and adoption by an enterprise.

Having followed new browser’s evolution, I must admit that Google has put serious efforts into Chrome’s development, and while there are still many annoyances, overall performance as well as user experience has been great. The browser is definitely a breeze to launch, with hardly any loading time which puts it in the lead compared to both Internet Explorer, and Firefox (sorry folks, no Opera or Safari comparison).

In all honesty, I have been trying to use Chrome exclusively since day one of beta launch, and it was a success for the most part. Once in a while however, I had to launch either Internet Explorer or Firefox for variety of reasons.

One of the strangest things is that Google Chrome seems to be having rendering issues with its own Google Apps. I should note that I have been using Google Apps for almost three years now. If you don’t know anything about Google Apps, you can find additional information here. The most annoying issue is working with tables in the word processor.

When you insert a table into a document, the mouse cursor conveniently resides outside of table margins and you almost have to guess which cell it is in. It only becomes clean when you start typing. However, if you want to format your table just a tad differently, trying to place mouse cursor within different cell may present a challenge. Likely, when you switch to Forefox 3, things truly start looking up. In short, Google should try to do a better job at least making sure that its web browser works flawlessly with its own online collaboration toolset such as Google Apps. After all, Google tries to secure leadership position within Software as a Service (SaaS) niche, and it was my understanding that Chrome was supposed to provide complete integration with Google Apps, amongst other things, allowing to create web application shortcuts on your desktop.

By the way, undeniably, Google achieved major milestones with its Google Apps offering, therefore, watch out Microsoft!

Additional issues include Chrome’s inability to properly display Outlook Web Access pages, meaning that the standard OWA sidebar seems to be in its place, however, all your folders line up at the top of the main frame and you have to scroll down just to see your Inbox items.

Does it seem like I am trashing this great product? Generally, we only criticize things that we truly care about. Positive criticism normally supports and enhances creative and development processes allowing us to solve problems making things better.

In my view, enterprise adoption of new technologies solely depends on its ability to see tangible benefits. For example, if we adopt Google Chrome browser, what kind of positive impact it’s going to have on our business. Will it save time? Is it more secure and reliable? Is it easier to deploy and use?

But the first question enterprise IT should ask is what issue we are trying to solve by introducing any new technology, in this case, new web browser. If there not no business issues, why make the change.

Bottom line is – if it isn’t broken why fix it. In years to come, Google must capture the hearts of CIOs, and present a compelling reason why any organization would consider going through deployment pains including user training and adoption, to switch to its new browser.

Until next time.