Chrome
Chrome Download
I’ve recently upgraded my MacBook Pro to a newer model. Previously, I had purchased the first generation MBP back just months after Apple released the new model back in 2006. It’s served me well, had the mother board replaced, twice, has been dropped several times, jostled around in a back-pack, travelled as much as I did, helped me make a lot of money and then, it finally kept over-heating. It still runs, but if you run YouTube or anything that pushes the graphics, it just shuts-down.
I digress… so, with the new shiny model having sat on my desk for 3 weeks now, I’ve been much more inclined to get back to having fun with my computer. With 8gb of RAM and a hugemongous hard-drive, I’m back to trying all kinds of applications.
Just a few days ago, I’m logging into my GMail account and get presented with the announcement that Chrome is now available on the Mac OSX platform, about time! So, instinctively, I hit the download button and fire it up. I’m met with the fastest launch of any browser installed on my system. Now, it could be the blazing fast new machine, but, I tested a browser launch war. Chrome won hands-down.
So, what makes it so special? Basically, it’s super light-weight, whicked fast, simple and has a few cool features.
- Google Search (Well, any search as you can specify your favorite) is integrated right into the URL field at the top.
- Did I mention it’s blistering fast?
- Rock solid. Supposedly it’s in “Beta” for MacOSX, but it seems more stable than FireFox, my other favorite browser.
- Download Manager – With security checks.
- Popup blockers that are smart. Meaning, if a site has a Java popup or something related to the site, it seems to be smart enough to differentiate. Haven’t tested this fully.
- Kind of goes without saying, all of the Google apps rock in Chrome. They’re fast, responsive and have no issues. IE… GMail, Picasa etc…
- Great looking theme system and the start page with cached history of recent sites is actually useful.
Downside:
- Certain plugins I use on other browsers aren’t supported. IE… XMarks my book-mark sync tool. I’m a little lost without it in Chrome.
- No cool add-ons just yet. I’ll be patient.
- Can’t come up with anything else negative to say.
There you go. If you’re into Macs and want to run the fastest browser out there, give Chrome a spin. I’ve used FireFox for years and it’s still pretty much my GOTO browser.
