Rumours surrounding Google’s forthcoming Chrome 6 suggest that this version will attempt to predict our next browsing moves, with the aim of making our web surfing even faster.

The ‘predictive pre-connections’ will apparently be based on an analysis of user browsing habits over time. For example, If you enter a search term, it will automatically pre-load in the background the pages you are most likely to visit, which then reduces the amount of time it takes to display those pages should you fulfil the destiny that the great Google has mapped out for you.

There are obvious privacy issues afoot, but am I the only one disappointed that the technological genius of some of the world’s most powerful corporations is being put to gaining a couple of nanoseconds in my web browsing? Isn’t it fast enough already? We have already seen the decline of a generation now insatiable for instant gratification, where will it end? Besides which, Google announced in February that they plan to test out ‘ultrafast’ gigabit broadband offering speeds 100 times faster than most currently available. Doesn’t this make their ‘predictive pre-connections’ a little obsolete in the speed quest?

It seems to me that Google is selling out on positive technological progress in favour of pursuing petty one-upmanship against Microsoft and its Internet Explorer with a pointless new feature. Let’s see some useful innovations please Google, you’re far more likely to find people coming around to Chrome that way.