Google Chrome for Mac
If you’re looking for a free Christmas gift, Google Chrome for the Mac was released yesterday, more than a year behind the Windows version. Better late than never. If you’re a Mac user, you’re probably aready used to getting late releases, or no release, for major software built for Windows. That’s one of the prices you pay to “think different.”
Is the release of Google Chrome on the Mac something you should even care about? Good question. If you use only Safari on a Mac, you will not notice a big speed difference. According to MacWorld, Chrome and Safari load pages at about the same speed, which is FAST. Not surprising since they both use Webkit to render web pages.
If, however, you use FireFox on Mac or Windows, or use Internet Explorer on Windows, you will notice a big speed difference. Pages load much faster. And Chrome launches instantly. This is a BIG improvement over IE launch speeds and even bigger for Firefox. My main complaint about Firefox is its painfully slow launch speed. I mean REALLY slow.
Another nice thing about Chrome is its simplicity. I don’t like cluttered application screens with toolbars and ribbons that take up a lot of vertical real estate at the top of the window. I want to see web content, not toolbars. Chrome has a beautiful interface, but if you prefer, you can download skins that match your personality.
And Chrome implements tabs in a unique way. When you launch a new tab, it launches next to the current tab. In Firefox and Safari, a new tab launches at the end of all open tabs. I like being able to control the location of a new tab.
Like everything else about Chrome, the installation was fast and simple. It asked me if I wanted to import settings from Safari or Firefox. I chose Firefox and Chrome imported all my bookmarks, passwords, and any settings that have a match in Chrome.
And one of my favorite things about Chrome: the URL and search fields are the same. You can type anything into Chrome’s URL/Search field at the top of the screen and Chrome will figure out if your entry is a website address or a search query.
Chrome is an important new browser and worth a look. There are some features missing from the Mac version of Chrome. For example, you cannot delete your cookies, as least not directly like you can in other browsers. And you can’t edit your existing bookmarks. Lets hope we don’t have to wait a year for the missing features to be added to Google Chrome for Mac.