Google just launched the beta version of its browser “Chrome” for Mac users. As this is just the beta release, Mac users will have to bear with some lack of app support and limited functionality but they’ll be getting lightening speed with features like Google search right from the address bar. Such features are badly missed in Safari and Firefox for Mac so a large number of users are expected to download Chrome for Mac and use it as their default browser on Mac OS. Importantly though, Chrome for Mac requires OS X 10.5 or later and users will not be able to use Google Gears, using Chrome. This means limited access to Gmail app and other apps that run on Google Gears.

Another drawback that Google Chrome has at the moment is lack of add-on support, something that Firefox has in large numbers. However, having Google at its back, we can expect Chrome to have a big database of extensions and themes some time soon. So all those Mac geeks out there, you can test Chrome for its speed and performance and hope that it comes out of beta soon, although Google products spend a handful of time in beta version. Happy Browsing!