Take Google Chrome for a test drive

ARTICLE OUT OF DATE: YOU CAN DOWNLOAD CHROME DIRECTLY FROM GOOGLE HERE

We’ve all been waiting for it. As Google Chrome for Mac and Linux veers right around the corner, many of us will take a sigh of contentment to finally be able to run it on an operating system other than Windows. Even Google co-founder Larry Page called the lack of a Mac version embarrassing, mentioning that he has to use VMware on his Mac just to run it.

The good news is we have a precompiled, binary version of the latest build for those who want to have a feel of Chrome on a Mac. Except that it hasn’t even reached an open beta, so it will be buggy. Manu from TechSutra has a low-down on what does and doesn’t work:

What Works

• Basic websites, Gmail
• Bookmark pages
• Most visited sites
• Open link in new tab
• Open new tabs
• Omnibox
• Back, Forward, Reload
• Full screen browsing
• Open link in new window
• Drag a tab to make a window
• Launch new tab
• Cut, Copy, Paste
• Keyboard shortcuts
• about:version, about:dns, about:crash, about:histograms

What Doesn’t Work

• Plugins (No flash -> No YouTube)
• History (You can view it through this link chrome-ui://history/ ; you will also be able to do a full text search there)
• Bookmarks bar
• Find
• Print
• about:network, about:memory
• Web Inspector
• Input methods such as Kotoeri (Japanese)
• Preferences

No flash — probably the single most handicapping absence, but if you have no need for that then the browser is pretty much fine to use on a day to day basis. With a sleek OS X interface like this, why wouldn’t you?

Click here to download.

Related posts:

1. Get rid of Flash and opt-in to HTML5 on YouTube and Vimeo

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 16th, 2009 at 7:56 pm and is filed under Mac Apps. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.