Monday, October 26th, 2009...1:30 am

Get a Taste of Google’s Chrome on Mac OS X.

You can try out the latest update to the “Alpha” version of Google’s Chrome web browser for Mac OS X. I have been using a stable version this ultra-speedy, WebKit-based browser in Windows for months, and liking it. I was not sure what to expect when I found a handy link to the Developer version of Chrome for OS X at, of all places, the anti-Apple tech site, The Inquirer.

That there is a not-so-well-known link to a Mac version of Chrome is not new news. The Chromium Developer project has had an available download for some time. I had myself tried using (what was then called) Chromium many months ago. With its similar looking, yet different colored dock icon—shades of blue and grey— than the stable, public release of Chrome for Windows, it crashed endlessly and rendered pages awfully. That was many months ago.

Google Chrome in the OS X dock
Maybe this is all new to just me, and I missed the earlier boat, but there seem to be some massive improvements in this latest “alpha” release of Chrome for Mac OS X. It looks refreshing to see the actual red-yellow-green-blue Chrome logo sitting in my dock. This is a light-weight, screaming-fast browser. It is no Safari (yet), it seems not-finished, even if more mature than its “alpha” label. It is impressive where this browser is at, in terms of development, considering one cannot even get a beta-release at this time. I am of the opinion that Google could (and maybe did) have this browser ready to release as a stable, public offering for the Mac OS X many months ago—but on Apple’s request has delayed and dragged-out the initial release so Apple could build some more momentum for their own web browser, Safari. It seems to me this has been hinted at by Google co-founder Sergey Brin in a few recent public comments about the progress of Chrome on OS X.

It appears that last Friday, October 23, or sometime thereabouts, an updated version of the Google Chrome for Mac OS X “alpha” was released. Maybe this is all new to just me, and I missed the earlier boat, but there seems to be some large improvements in this latest “alpha” release of Chrome for Mac OS X. It looks refreshing to see the actual red-yellow-green-blue Chrome logo sitting in my dock. Chrome’s colorful logo has made itself quite at home on the desktop of my Windows VM for some time.

This is a light-weight, screaming-fast browser. It is no Safari (yet), it seems not-finished, even if more mature than its “alpha” label. It is impressive where this browser is at, in terms of development, considering one cannot even get a beta-release at this time. I am of the opinion that Google could (and maybe did) have this browser ready to release as a stable, public offering for the Mac OS X many months ago—but on Apple’s request has delayed and dragged-out the initial release so Apple could build some additional momentum for their own web browser, Safari. It seems to me this has been hinted at by Google co-founder Sergey Brin in a few recent public comments about the progress of Chrome on OS X.

The Good:

  • Lightning-fast! Feels faster than even Safari.
  • Slick, minimal, user-friendly UI…it feels Mac-ish.
  • Lightweight, no feature-bloat.
  • Renders CSS 3 (unlike IE8 & Opera).
  • Easily import settings/bookmarks from Safari
  • No cyan-blue browser window color!

The Bad:

  • Unstable, The browser will crash.
  • A few quirks in the page rendering.
  • No real Ad block mechanism (imagine that)
  • Few Features / Few plug-ins
  • Mac version currently lacks privacy features

I get the feeling there will be a more-publicized “beta” of Google’s Chrome for Mac OS X released any day now. When Google’s co-founder publicly expresses a bit of apprehension (towards Apple?) about the delay/slowness of “the development” of Chrome on OS X  and a fairly-tight alpha release of Chrome for OS X appears in the same week…Chrome for Mac OS X seems imminent, if only a beta. Only time will tell.

UPDATE: 11.15.09 The developer build of Chrome has been updated to version 2.0.245.0, and has taken a swat at many of the bugs currently in the browser. Google notes that this development build still lacks privacy features and is not appropriate for consumer use. A list of known issues are available for the development Mac version. As you can see from the list below, many bugs have been eliminated but some still remain.

Mac OS Known Issues: While we have made tremendous progress in the last few months, Mac Chromium is still a work in progress. To that end, there are many features that are either partially implemented or missing altogether. Don’t worry, we will get there! Bugs have been filed for each of these items so there is no need to create a new report for anything in this list.

Chromium Features

  • App Mode is not implemented.  Issue 13148.
  • The Bookmarks manager is not implemented.  Issue 13149.
  • Importing bookmarks from other browsers is not implemented.  Issue 13153.
  • The Task Manager is not implemented.  Issue 13156.
  • The Bookmarks toolbar is not populated, though sites will show up in the Bookmarks menu in the menu bar if you star them.  Issue 8381.
  • You can create a new window in Incognito Mode but there is no visual indication in the window adornments.  Issue 12536.
  • Clear browsing data is not implemented (but is on ToT).
  • Full screen mode is not implemented. Issue 13205.
  • Most preferences are not implemented. Issue 13151.
  • No warning about hung tabs is displayed when a site gets stuck in JavaScript that takes a very long time to execute. Issue 13152.
  • Spellchecking does not use the OS X dictionary. Issue 13206.
  • Dragging and dropping URLs to or from the browser is not implemented. Issue 13155.

Web Content

  • Internet plug-ins (most notably Adobe Flash) are not implemented. Issue 10809.
  • Printing a webpage is not implemented.  Issue 13158.
  • Passwords will not be saved or pre-filled on webpages. Issue 11745.
  • Sites with HTTP authentication dialogs are not accessible.  Issue 12043.
  • Sites with invalid certificates may not be accessible.  Issue 11983.
  • Popups are not blocked when visiting a site that uses them. Issue 13160.
  • Gears is not supported.  Issue 13161.
  • Many common keyboard shortcuts do not work in text areas on webpages.  Issue 11831.
  • IME does not work for non-Roman text input. Issue 11952.
  • Renderer processes will sometimes say “Not Responding” when viewed in Activity Monitor and spindump will try to sample them.  Issue 11319.
  • TIFFs can not be viewed.  Issue 12030.

User Interface Glitches

  • Omnibox does not support pressing tab to narrow the search to a specific site.  Issue 10944.
  • Omnibox does not show a lock icon when on an SSL site. Issue 14899.
  • Resizing the window is not smooth and can sometimes appear “detached” from the window. It will eventually catch up. Issue 12501.
  • Bars (bookmark, infobar, download shelf, etc) shrink the content area instead of growing the window. Issue 14900.
  • Creating a new tab then very quickly typing a URL can result in losing what you typed. Issue 13109.
  • Visual glitches occur when scrolling or interacting with a page while the Find bar is displayed. Issue 10887.
  • Downloads work correctly, but there is no visual indication in the tab itself of when they start or complete. See the Downloads tab for status. Issue 12500.
  • Scrollbars are always enabled even when the window is in the background. Issue 12507.
  • Tabs are lacking context menus. Issue 14920.

    Download the latest version of Google’s Chrome web browser for the Mac OS X from MacUpdate.

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