Google Chrome for Mac Web browser reaches beta release
General users can now download the public beta of Google Chrome for Mac, as the Web browser software was finally made available Tuesday.
Chrome for Mac has been a long time coming, more than a year after its Windows counterpart first debuted in beta. Though it was originally intended to release in the first half of 2009, the product hit numerous delays.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin admitted this year that Chrome's absence on the Mac platform was an embarrassment for his company. The company worked to ensure that the beta version of the browser would reach a deadline of the end of 2009.
The download, available direct from Google, is 17.6MB. It requires Mac OS X 10.5 or later, and only runs on Intel processors.
"We've been working hard to deliver a first-class browser for the Mac — it took longer than we expected, but we hope the wait was worth it!" the development team said on its official blog. "We wanted Google Chrome to feel at home on the Mac, so we've focused on uniting our clean, simple design with subtle animations and effects to create a snappy and satisfying browsing experience on OS X. As you might expect, the speed of Google Chrome for Mac is something we're very proud of. If you have a Mac, try installing the beta and see how fast it launches — there's hardly even time for the icon in the dock to bounce!"
The company also released a Mac-specific video tutorial to accompany the launch:
As it is a beta, Google Chrome for Mac lacks some of the features that have been present for some time in its Windows counterpart, such as Google Gears for offline support of Web applications like Gmail. However, recent reports have suggested Google will move away from Gears in favor of HTML5, the next major version of the core markup language of the World Wide Web.
But it does feature exclusive Mac-style animations when the Bookmarks bar is opened, and is integrated into the system Keychain and spellchecking.
Google highlighted the following features of its browser along with the new Mac release:
Speed: Google Chrome loads pages and runs web applications in a snap.
Stability: Google Chrome is built for stability. If an individual tab freezes or crashes, the other tabs are unaffected.
Omnibox: Use the Omnibox to type both web addresses and searches in Google Chrome.
New Tab page: Visit your favorite websites easily from the New Tab page. When you open a new tab, the sites you visit most often are readily available.
Chrome for Mac has been a long time coming, more than a year after its Windows counterpart first debuted in beta. Though it was originally intended to release in the first half of 2009, the product hit numerous delays.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin admitted this year that Chrome's absence on the Mac platform was an embarrassment for his company. The company worked to ensure that the beta version of the browser would reach a deadline of the end of 2009.
The download, available direct from Google, is 17.6MB. It requires Mac OS X 10.5 or later, and only runs on Intel processors.
"We've been working hard to deliver a first-class browser for the Mac — it took longer than we expected, but we hope the wait was worth it!" the development team said on its official blog. "We wanted Google Chrome to feel at home on the Mac, so we've focused on uniting our clean, simple design with subtle animations and effects to create a snappy and satisfying browsing experience on OS X. As you might expect, the speed of Google Chrome for Mac is something we're very proud of. If you have a Mac, try installing the beta and see how fast it launches — there's hardly even time for the icon in the dock to bounce!"
The company also released a Mac-specific video tutorial to accompany the launch:
As it is a beta, Google Chrome for Mac lacks some of the features that have been present for some time in its Windows counterpart, such as Google Gears for offline support of Web applications like Gmail. However, recent reports have suggested Google will move away from Gears in favor of HTML5, the next major version of the core markup language of the World Wide Web.
But it does feature exclusive Mac-style animations when the Bookmarks bar is opened, and is integrated into the system Keychain and spellchecking.
Google highlighted the following features of its browser along with the new Mac release:
Speed: Google Chrome loads pages and runs web applications in a snap.
Stability: Google Chrome is built for stability. If an individual tab freezes or crashes, the other tabs are unaffected.
Omnibox: Use the Omnibox to type both web addresses and searches in Google Chrome.
New Tab page: Visit your favorite websites easily from the New Tab page. When you open a new tab, the sites you visit most often are readily available.
Comments
will check this out
Favicons on Bookmarks bar are
Does not play well on YouTube pages with HD content
Seems about as fast as Safari
Tabs on top are nice, they seem to stand out more
Will stick with Safari, but if I had to use any other browser it would be Chrome.
... As it is a beta, Google Chrome for Mac lacks some of the features that have been present for some time in its Windows counterpart, such as ...
I don't' have the details handy, but the last I heard the Mac version will lack *most* of the major features that made it into the Windows version over a year ago.
While you do mention that it has one missing feature, you make it sound like that's it. This article seems like glowing praise for Chrome rather than an actual review or even an introduction. You should have got Daniel to write an article that gives the development some kind of context, some background into the why's and wherefores of Chrome development, and who they are aiming to unseat with this product.
Hint: it begins with an Moz...
I don't' have the details handy, but the last I heard the Mac version will lack *most* of the major features that made it into the Windows version over a year ago.
While you do mention that it has one missing feature, you make it sound like that's it. This article seems like glowing praise for Chrome rather than an actual review or even an introduction. You should have got Daniel to write an article that gives the development some kind of context, some background into the why's and wherefores of Chrome development, and who they are aiming to unseat with this product.
Hint: it begins with an Moz...
As AI stated,
As it is a beta, Google Chrome for Mac lacks some of the features that have been present for some time in its Windows counterpart, such as Google Gears for offline support of Web applications like Gmail.
Where in the English language does it, i.e., "such as," imply, "that's it?" Certainly not it all the years of schooling or teaching that I can remember.
Google apps all seem to install a software updater these days. It's almost surreptitious, it does not appear in your startup items but it's there. And was not mentioned anywhere on the Google QSB site which is what installed it for me.
Firefox is a real resource hog.
Opera? Haven't tried that in a while. Maybe will take a look.
I can't find any browser I like these days. IE is insecure. Safari likes to start a daemon process that downloads sites in the background, even though my Internet connection has a download limit. Gee, thanks Safari.
Google apps all seem to install a software updater these days. It's almost surreptitious, it does not appear in your startup items but it's there. And was not mentioned anywhere on the Google QSB site which is what installed it for me.
Firefox is a real resource hog.
Opera? Haven't tried that in a while. Maybe will take a look.
I agree with you here, no real "perfect" browser. Each has features I want, but not a single one has all of them.
Opera was fast and such, but I found it to be incompatible with a larger amount of websites and so uninstalled it from my computer, to the point where a good number of pages didn't load correctly (aka how things were arranged on the page), if at all. Personally, I stick with Firefox and Chrome (Windows) though each have their own set of issues.
I can't find any browser I like these days. IE is insecure. Safari likes to start a daemon process that downloads sites in the background, even though my Internet connection has a download limit. Gee, thanks Safari.
Google apps all seem to install a software updater these days. It's almost surreptitious, it does not appear in your startup items but it's there. And was not mentioned anywhere on the Google QSB site which is what installed it for me.
Firefox is a real resource hog.
Opera? Haven't tried that in a while. Maybe will take a look.
Camino? You should have no problem with Chrome, either.
I can't find any browser I like these days. IE is insecure. Safari likes to start a daemon process that downloads sites in the background, even though my Internet connection has a download limit. Gee, thanks Safari.
Google apps all seem to install a software updater these days. It's almost surreptitious, it does not appear in your startup items but it's there. And was not mentioned anywhere on the Google QSB site which is what installed it for me.
Firefox is a real resource hog.
Opera? Haven't tried that in a while. Maybe will take a look.
I find Firefox particularly slow on the Mac compared with Windows. It seems to get worse with each update. All I have installed in extensions is Adblock Plus.
On topic, Chrome is superb but definitely feels incomplete. I mean, it still doesn't have a bookmark manager. I just cleared a ton of bookmarks, Safari and Firefox have synced and all is well. I don't have an option to sync or delete the bookmarks in Chrome without doing so individually.
Will stick to Safari.
Clean look, but not as elegant as Safari
Favicons on Bookmarks bar are
Does not play well on YouTube pages with HD content
Seems about as fast as Safari
Tabs on top are nice, they seem to stand out more
Will stick with Safari, but if I had to use any other browser it would be Chrome.
32-bit Chrome gets ~500ms. 64-bit Safari is 50% slower at ~750ms.
I quite like the FavIcons in the Bookmark?s Bar. I have tried to replicate it as I only want a unique icon to denote the link or folder. This gives me a lot more items to click on in my Bar. I understand that many don?t want this, but i wish it was a Safari option. I may have to jump to Chrome for good.
HD YouTube videos work fine for me. Are you using the Flash 10.1 Beta?
As AI stated,
As it is a beta, Google Chrome for Mac lacks some of the features that have been present for some time in its Windows counterpart, such as Google Gears for offline support of Web applications like Gmail.
Where in the English language does it, i.e., "such as," imply, "that's it?" Certainly not it all the years of schooling or teaching that I can remember.
Segue? Will it ever get Google Gears? I thought they halted advancement of it in favour of HTML5?s local DB caching. I would expect to see that feature before GG.
I do wish it had the flash blocking capability of Firefox's plugin or built-in like Camino. I tried Camino out and liked it except for the fact that when scrolling thru web pages the text looks really bad and it doesn't scroll as smoothly as Safari does.
Just like cars, there is no perfect one. At least any of these options are way better than slow IE.
General users can now download the public beta of Google Chrome for Mac, as the Web browser software was finally made available Tuesday.
Speed: Google Chrome loads pages and runs web applications in a snap.
Just as fast as Safari? Nor sure but it appears to be so.
Just ran a couple of Speedtests. Upped my download speed significantly. Other than having the tabs on top, which most of us here really wished Safari would allow, we are running comparisons now.
First impressions are that it is fast. May take just getting a little used to, however, not quite sure what is missing that would make me hesitate using it.
I like Chrome and am glad it's finally on the Mac side. Safari is good too but it annoys me how I can't tell the browser to open links in tabs automatically without having to right-click and click open in tab. You can set Chrome to do it automatically which is one of my favorite features.
I would like that option but I’ve looked and can’t find it in Chrome for Mac.
edit: Scratch that, I thought you meant in the background. As Sgt Zeppelin posts below, you can do it.
Could really do without it opening the sites I most visit automatically, ahem.
Been using the pre-beta for a week or two and it's pretty solid. Can't really see settling on just one browser for my work though. Safari is fast but doesn't work for router and website admin stuff. Firefox is a turd to start but works ok otherwise. Chrome seems like a nice compliment to both. Competition is good!
I like Chrome and am glad it's finally on the Mac side. Safari is good too but it annoys me how I can't tell the browser to open links in tabs automatically without having to right-click and click open in tab. You can set Chrome to do it automatically which is one of my favorite features.
I do wish it had the flash blocking capability of Firefox's plugin or built-in like Camino. I tried Camino out and liked it except for the fact that when scrolling thru web pages the text looks really bad and it doesn't scroll as smoothly as Safari does.
Just like cars, there is no perfect one. At least any of these options are way better than slow IE.
defaults write com.apple.Safari TargetedClicksCreateTabs -bool true
Copy and paste that into Terminal and Safari will automatically open the link you click in new tabs instead of windows. You can switch back to the old behavior by changing "true" to "false'.
I've been using both Safari and nightly Chromium builds. I like certain parts of both browsers, so whichever one adds the features I want from the other first will probably become my browser of choice.
Nothing beats Safari on a Mac!
[/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT]
Just as fast as Safari? Nor sure but it appears to be so.
Just ran a couple of Speedtests. Upped my download speed significantly.
Other than having the tabs on top, which most of us here really wished Safari would allow, we are running comparisons now.
First impressions are that it is fast. May take just getting a little used to, however, not quite sure what is missing that would make me hesitate using it.
It significantly increased my download speed too, but the upload speed went down, though not noticeably.