Chrome for the Mac has lost its beta label, Google considering it ripe for primetime.
In market-share terms, the browser has also sped past Safari, largely due to its uptake on Windows. But how does the app fare on the Mac?
The answer is: very well. In fact, with one exception, Chrome hits a home run in every major area of importance for a web browser.
First and foremost, it's stable. Total crashes are incredibly rare, because each tab is a separate process. If a tab crashes, the rest soldier on.
WebKit
The browser is also standards-compliant and very fast, since it uses WebKit – the same core as Safari.
Chrome is extensible, with many useful plug-ins available, and it's simple to use. The interface is intuitive and efficient, notably the combined address and search bar (something we wish Apple would steal).
The browser's ability to define keyword shortcuts for search engines is another plus over Safari.
Although more Mac-like than Firefox, Chrome nonetheless has some poor interface elements, such as its skinny, hard-to-hit title bar, tabs that are just a few pixels wide when many are open, and a status bar that can't be made permanent and crops the address of the link you're hovering over.
But the good far outweighs the bad in Chrome, to the point that it's now the Mac's best browser.
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Your comments (3) Click to add a new comment
enfant_teribl
July 14th 2010
3. Craig - did you mean that Safari 5 was best Mac browser now, or Chrome?
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craiggrannell
July 14th 2010
2. This review was indeed written before Opera 10.6 arrived, and it was also penned before Safari 5 was released. On the latter, I've used it enough to retain the 'best Mac browser'; on Opera, I've no opinion yet. However, given that Opera 10.5 and before irked me with Very Obvious Port issues, it'll take a lot to convince me that 10.6 is the Mac's best browser. (Chrome also suffers from portitus, but its niggles are, to me, less annoying that Firefox's and Opera's.)
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si_smith
July 14th 2010
1. Meh, Opera 10.60 on Mac is WAY better (and WAY faster). You don't seem to have reviewed that yet.
I would agree that Chrome on Mac is better than Safari (but that's not hard to achieve), but it's still way behind Opera in terms of features, stability and speed.
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