For the record, this option disables the phantom domain name lookups that Chrome does in the background. Basically, what happens under the hood if you dig around is that you get a bunch of requests something like this:
Code:
------------------------------------------
CONNECT_JOB (id=71154) [start=Thu Aug 25 2011 17:55:46 GMT-0600 (Mountain Daylight Time)]
------------------------------------------
t=1314316546660 [st=0] +SOCKET_POOL_CONNECT_JOB [dt=4]
t=1314316546660 [st=0] +SOCKET_POOL_CONNECT_JOB_CONNECT [dt=4]
--> group_name = "cpngackimfmofbokmjmljamhdncknpmg:65535"
t=1314316546660 [st=0] HOST_RESOLVER_IMPL [dt=4]
--> source_dependency = {"id":71155,"type":7}
t=1314316546664 [st=4] -SOCKET_POOL_CONNECT_JOB_CONNECT
--> net_error = -105 (NAME_NOT_RESOLVED)
t=1314316546664 [st=4] -SOCKET_POOL_CONNECT_JOB
------------------------------------------
HOST_RESOLVER_IMPL_REQUEST (id=71155) [start=Thu Aug 25 2011 17:55:46 GMT-0600 (Mountain Daylight Time)]
------------------------------------------
t=1314316546660 [st=0] +HOST_RESOLVER_IMPL_REQUEST [dt=4]
--> address_family = 0
--> allow_cached_response = true
--> host = "cpngackimfmofbokmjmljamhdncknpmg:65535"
--> is_speculative = false
--> only_use_cached_response = false
--> priority = 0
--> source_dependency = {"id":71154,"type":4}
t=1314316546660 [st=0] HOST_RESOLVER_IMPL_CREATE_JOB
t=1314316546660 [st=0] HOST_RESOLVER_IMPL_JOB_ATTACH [dt=4]
--> source_dependency = {"id":71156,"type":8}
t=1314316546664 [st=4] -HOST_RESOLVER_IMPL_REQUEST
--> net_error = -105 (NAME_NOT_RESOLVED)
--> os_error = 11004
--> os_error_string = "The requested name is valid, but no data of the requested type was found.\r\n"
------------------------------------------
HOST_RESOLVER_IMPL_JOB (id=71156) [start=Thu Aug 25 2011 17:55:46 GMT-0600 (Mountain Daylight Time)]
------------------------------------------
t=1314316546660 [st=0] +HOST_RESOLVER_IMPL_JOB [dt=4]
--> host = "cpngackimfmofbokmjmljamhdncknpmg"
--> source_dependency = {"id":71155,"type":7}
t=1314316546660 [st=0] HOST_RESOLVER_IMPL_ATTEMPT_STARTED
--> attempt_number = 1
t=1314316546661 [st=1] HOST_RESOLVER_IMPL_ATTEMPT_FINISHED
--> attempt_number = 1
--> net_error = -105 (NAME_NOT_RESOLVED)
--> os_error = 11004
--> os_error_string = "The requested name is valid, but no data of the requested type was found.\r\n"
t=1314316546664 [st=4] -HOST_RESOLVER_IMPL_JOB
--> net_error = -105 (NAME_NOT_RESOLVED)
--> os_error = 11004
--> os_error_string = "The requested name is valid, but no data of the requested type was found.\r\n"
It's not that Google is acting like the collective here, it's that most ISP's try to be 'helpful' and watch your DNS queries. When you go to a site that doesn't exist (usually a typo) they have "partnered" with some search company that they then happily forward your request to as a query. This company then turns your misspelling into a nice ad-filled landing page with your ISP's logo on it.
When Chrome does these requests first, it's EXPECTING garbage/failures to come back. If it gets a "real" IP address it knows that your ISP's DNS cannot be trusted. I'm not sure what it does at that point, I haven't reviewed that chunk of source code. Usually this happens very very quickly. According to my tools the CSC DNS server handles a lookup in about 50ms on average, my ISP usually handles it in about the same. The internal resolver on your computer is practically instantaneous. Granted, there is a lot of caching and things that go on in this process, but it's still very fast for non-authoritive lookups.
I'm still determining if I'm having page load issues after changing this setting. I'm going to keep hunting for the root cause of this because no other site I frequent has this problem (and that's a LOT of sites and I use Chrome almost exclusively at work/home/play/etc). This could be some obscure bug that needs to be reported to the Chromium team.