Google Chrome for Mac Review

A very neat web browser with nicely designed tabs. Tabs remind me a little bit of those in the Opera web browser.

Straight away you can notice the difference of Goggle Chrome for Mac with the one for Windows in the fact that the "classic" top toolbar with File, Edit, ... is still present. Probably it is not so easy to remove the top toolbar for an OSX applications.

The Bookmarks bar is located just underneath the address field, and bookmarks look well organised and easily accessible. All the bookmarks that haven't been placed on the Bookmark bar, are still available by clicking on "other Bookmarks" folder link. I found it quite convenient that you do not have to go to the top toolbar to access all your bookmarks.

A very nice improvement is that all the message alerts appear on the top of the web page that is being viewed (like the "Allow Pop-up Window Alert" in other browsers) or on the bottom of the page (like Facebook chat "New Message"). This reduces the irritation from your browsing being interrupt by nasty pop-up messages.

Performance

First performance improvement that every Mac user will notice, is how fast Google Chrome loads. Ones you click on the icon the Browser opens instantaneously, it is a big improvement compared to Firefox and Safari.

When a blank pages is open you Can see most recently viewed pages, similar to what you get in Safari but without any glitches in loading the previews of the pages. From this Google Chrome Menu you can access previously visited tabs, choose whether you want the websites listed or view them as icons.

The transitions between the pages are very soft and pleasant to the naked eye.

Zoom in and zoom out leave the quality of the page without relocating the items on the page.

Downloads are viewed as a webpage in a separate tab which is great in my opinion, as it allows you to locate your downloads easily from the same application window, rather then having to open a new pop-up window like in Safari and Firefox. The fact that you can search for downloads you made like in a search engine is also a big advantage.

Add ons

There is a number of Google Chrome themes that can be installed in a few seconds. This is quite an improvement compared to the other Mac Browsers, especially Safari.

An interesting New Option called "Incognito" allows you to view websites without leaving any traces (Cookies, History). This is fantastic in terms of being able to securely visit websites that might be trying to collect personal information about web users.

Issues

Flash videos on some of the websites (example: www.tf1.fr) are running in a sort of a slow motion mode.

The Dot Net Nuke website development application does not work correctly with Google Chrome Mac Beta, so you will have to continue using your old browsers if you use this content management system

Overall I think the browser is very good and I will continue using it. Since it is a Beta version improvements will be made. So I personally recommend to all Mac users to try it out.