I really admire the way that Google can take a "solved" problem like Web Search or Email, add a little innovation, and end up creating a new use case that changes the entire industry. For instance, the ability to view emails in a threaded "conversation" view may seem simple, but after using Gmail for the last few years I can't imagine using email in any other way. When replacing our corporate email servers at work recently, I pushed towards using Google Apps for Domains primarily to get Gmail style email for my work account. Exchange 2010 will support a conversation view as well, but I don't think I could survive waiting 12 months for that feature (let alone having to support an exchange server).
Google chrome is another case where I think they have raised the bar. It still has a few quirky bugs or will crash when loading a random website, but I have been using it as my primary browser for almost 6 months now, and I'm hooked. I occasionally have to open Internet Explorer to view certain websites (Sharebuilder.com and MSDN.Microsoft.com mostly), and in the amount of time it takes to open a new IE browser session, load the page, and open another tab, I could have completed a 2K online marathon using Google Chrome. Chrome feels fast, has a simple minimalistic user interface, and "Just Works" when you try to move a tab to another monitor or search for something from the address bar. They pay attention to a lot of little details that make the overall browsing experience exceed your expectations. For instance, this is what my day looks like using Chrome:
For more videos check out the Chrome Shorts posted on YouTube. And for heavens sake: Just download it already! It still plays nice with IE or Firefox, and doesn't have to be set as your default browser, but once you start using it, you might never want to go back.
