In early September, Google released a new Web browser called Google Chrome. The launch was accompanied with a well-received comic book that answers most of the basic questions: why do we need a new Web browser? What’s new about Google Chrome? And so on. It’s written for a general audience and I definitely recommend checking it out.

I’ve been using Chrome alongside Firefox for about two months now, and while I like its clean, functional austerity, the lack of advanced features will keep it from being the my primary choice for Web browsing. Bottom line, most people would not benefit by installing Chrome, with one exception: if your primary email account is at Gmail, then using Chrome as a secondary browser, dedicated to email, will yield an immediate and noticeable improvement. This is due to its significantly sped-up rendering engine for complicated Web apps, like Gmail (or Google Docs). More details after the jump for those who are interested…
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This week’s tasty tidbits from the business and technology front, as well as other recommended links:

• Amid the Gloom, an E-Commerce War — Amazon and eBay are slugging it out for the hearts and minds of both merchants and consumers. The NY Times investigates the strategies behind both, leaving a strongly favorable impression of Amazon’s approach to long-term planning.
• Gmail: Stop sending mail you later regret — We’ve all heard of “drunk dialing” – a new tongue-in-cheek (but 100% real) Gmail feature keeps you from drunk emailing. Too funny!
• The Trouble With Using Product Integration to Write TV Shows — New York Magazine talks to a number of writers, including 30 Rock’s Tina Fey, about the increasing use of product placement.
• Why the Google-Yahoo ad deal is bad for the Web — From Slate: “Given Microsoft’s own sorry antitrust history, its promise to help the government fight the deal is something like Hannibal Lecter counseling the FBI on how to catch a serial killer. But if you worry that Google is taking over the world, it’s hard not to cheer for Steve Ballmer’s Lecter.”
• Browse the Artifacts of Geek History in Jay Walker’s Library — What happens when a nerd gets a lot of money and does something wonderful with it. Drool!
• Sequoia Capital CEOs meeting notes — A Silicon Valley venture capital heavyweight, Sequoia Capital, rounded up the CEOs of its companies and proceeded to scare the unholy bejeezus out of everybody. Get profitable NOW, they said in a presentation, because the coming economic storm is going to be difficult to weather.

With Columbus Day approaching on October 13, some lucky few of us—mostly at banks and in the government—are about to enjoy a three-day weekend. Most of us know that Columbus didn’t really “discover” America, but a fascinating book says that Columbus Was Last in a long line of explorers to visit the Americas. It convincingly details cases that are well-known, like the Vikings, as well as those that are much less renowned: Chinese explorers charted the Grand Canyon as early as 2,000 BC? Wow!

Unfortunately, the knowledge that Columbus didn’t really discover America has led some historians to overreact, and argue that history should throw him overboard. Similar indictments of Columbus have been built around the “accidental” nature of his Carribean landfall (in lieu of the intended passage to India) and, somewhat more seriously, his expedition’s atrocious treatment of Native Americans. This is all fair game, and deserves to be taken into account when we consider Columbus and his legacy.

When taking the measure of a man, though, it’s unfair to consider his failings while ignoring his achievements. From our modern vantage, it’s obvious that Columbus’s expeditions led to global revolutions in commerce, culture, and cartography. His voyages led to today’s globalized economy; ironically, Columbus was the flat world’s first global entrepreneur.

Taking the good with the bad, then, we can acknowledge that he was an imperfect man; one with strengths and weaknesses, virtues and vices—like everybody else. Unlike most men to walk the Earth—or sail the ocean blue—the deeds and the daring of Cristóbal Colón are still being discussed today. Even if most of us still have to go to work!