Google promoting Chrome to Mac users

Stephen Withers
Friday, 18 December 2009 10:57

IT Industry - Development

With the Mac version of Google's Chrome browser in beta, the company is trying hard to ensure Mac users are aware of its existence.

Visit Google's home page from a Mac browser such as Safari, Firefox or Camino and you'll see a small box in the top right corner of the window reading "A faster way to browse the web Install Google Chrome".

The button leads to the main Google Chrome page, which plugs the new browser's key features and provides a download link.

Google Chrome runs on Mac OS X 10.5 or later, and requires an Intel-based system. The beta was released earlier this month.

While some key features such as extensions and a bookmark manager are missing from the Mac version, what is there has received generally favourable responses from users.

And figures from Net Applications' Market Share show Chrome has passed Safari in terms of usage.

Google's new browser accounted for 4.40% of measured pageloads during the week beginning December 6, compared with 4.36% for Safari.

Chrome's share of Mac browser use rocketed from 0.32% to 1.3% once the beta was available.