Google Chrome for Mac Beta Released
8 Dec
As anticipated, Google has finally released an official beta version of its Chrome browser for Mac. The initial beta version, termed Build 4.0.249.30, requires Mac OS X Leopard or Snow Leopard, and is only compatible with Intel-based Macs. In addition to the Mac release, Chrome for Linux has also been promoted to a beta version.
Chrome for Windows launched as a beta version in September 2008, with Google co-founder Sergey Brin admitting only days later that the lack of a Mac version at the time was “embarrassing”. At the time, he hoped that a Mac version would be available in only a “matter of months”, and the company announced in January that it was targeting a Mac release for the first half of 2009.
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.
