If, like me, you have been using the beta version of Google chrome for mac, you will be pleased to learn that Google have now released the final version. Chrome for mac is only available for intel based macs, OSX version 10.5 or later. Being a long time Firefox user, I've been noticing a slowdown in performance lately that has been causing a little frustration, especially when it comes to developing. A pet peeve of mine is having to wait for the browser to finish loading pages - it's simply lost time that i could put to better use.

Chrome is without doubt much faster than Firefox, with very impressive page load times, even with slower pages. With the addition of a few of my favourite tools available (FireBug and Web Developer), Chrome is possibly looking like a replacement for my long term love affair with Firefox. The only downside is that FireBug is only available as a Lite version - which means that there are some critical features missing (javascript tools), but for general day to day use, you could substitute other dedicated tools instead. Of course, it's also possible that an updated version of FireBug for the Crome platform might surface in the future, but this is probably just fanciful thinking, as there are no reports of this as yet.

Chrome also comes with a nice bookmarks migration tool to easily import bookmarks from your other browsers, and includes up to the minute support for HTML5 and the emergent new web technologies. Bundle this with a with a nice clean interface, and you have an improved web experience.

So, if you've yet to try it, or haven't updated form the beta, I recommend to give it a go.

/DM