Chrome to have 500+ extensions by weekend. Chrome for Mac gaining extension support as well.

Are you an plugin person? Users of Firefox no doubt know about and/or use one or many of the countless plugins available for Mozilla’s mobile crawler. Everything from easily finding torrents to listing email messages in the browser title bar can be had with these browser add-ons. On the Google/Chrome side, end users have been clamoring for plugins (“extensions” on Google’s side) since the browsers release a little over a year ago. As is customary, Google has been working at break neck pace, though it doesn’t always seem that way. But that’s all water under the bridge as they say because Google officially announced and released “extensions” for Chrome.

For the grand unveiling, 300 extensions were primed and ready for consumer consumption with today’s total to eclipse 500. So they’re moving fast — very fast. Should Mozilla and Firefox be worried? In a nutshell, they should at least be checking over their shoulder every couple of hours. You see, Google’s extensions are more or less simple web pages shrunk down and formatted to fit whatever icon/page/or pop-up the develop chooses. The benefit of course is small footprint and minimal impact on browser speed. One other crucial point to mention is that the installation of extensions in Chrome does not require a restart of the browser — something that has always bugged me about Firefox. In regards to speed, I’m sure it’s something Firefox power users will appreciate as we all know how sluggish FF can get when it’s bags are full of plugins all vying for some one-on-one time with your processor.

What’s the state of affairs for Mac users? I mean, it did take an extra long time for said users to get their own “official/beta” product. According to one software engineer, Erik Kay, extensions for Mac will go live by “this weekend” — now that’s more like it. One thing to note however is that extensions for Mac will only be available for the time being on the developer channel of Chrome — not the beta channel. Even still, that last month or two of using developer builds of Chrome Mac was pretty painless and uneventful for me. Uneventful in the sense that I didn’t have any problems. As always though, if you’re a “beginner” in this whole computer world, maybe sticking to the Chrome beta for a while longer is your best bet.

One slightly humorous thing to highlight is that Chromium (the open source core that Chrome is comprised of) for Mac developer builds already feature extension support. When the browser was going through the inner confines of Google software engineer cubicles and offices, somewhere along the way the ability to install extensions was turned off. It’s still fully supported to run them, it’s just that you’re presented with a greyed-out box if you try to install an extension at the moment. But there’s a super easy way to enable the Chrome extension install button if you simply can’t wait until Friday.

Now that you’ve had a few days to spend with Google’s new Chrome for Mac baby, how do you like it? I’ve received a few tweets so far that several aren’t too impressed by it. That’s understandable when comparing it against Firefox and Safari both of which have a much larger feature set and are just as fast if not faster. But give it a little time folks. Chrome 1.0 was fast. Well, we thought it was until we saw charts comparing Chrome 1, 2, and 3. The point is, it will take a little bit longer to truly wring out the performance and features for the Mac version. But if Chrome for Mac can become anything like it’s Windows counterpart, the wait will be well worth it. Feel the same?
TechCrunch

Google Chrome for Mac within days…maybe even hours….

The few Mac users out there actually waiting for the official beta won’t have much longer to wait. The evidence is in the “Mac Chrome Status Page” — or what was the Status page. It has since been revamped and now displays “Mac OS X Roadmap”. The weeks and weeks of waiting will soon be coming to a close. I guess those last 8 bugs that were keeping Chrome in that developer stage weren’t so bad after all. (Or the devs never slept, ate, and wore diapers….) Of course, also seeing verbiage that states “Stable/Feature Parity” is always a sure bet that official Mac Chrome goodness is just over the horizon. Could tomorrow be the day…?

TechCrunch

Chrome for Mac to come in a tad underweight…

I can’t wait for Google Chrome on Mac. Almost since day 1, it replaced Firefox as my main Windows browser and over the last couple of weeks each build release has inched closer and closer to perfection. Granted, I use perfection loosely, merely using it to describe a “finished”, stable product. While we can expect a Chrome 4 for Mac of some sort in the next couple of weeks, it will be far from perfect, finished, or full featured. Features such as bookmark manager, mutli-touch gestures, gears, app mode, task manager, and several more have been pushed back to Chrome Milestone 5. Some features such as Gears are being completely left out with Google instead favoring HTML5 tools and services. Am I harping on Chrome? Maybe a little. While I use it on my Mac now and enjoy it thoroughly, many people will find the missing features a sore point and reason to wait for the next major release. I’ll be honest, most of the features mentioned above aren’t that big of a deal to me. Still, after looking at everything Chrome for Mac won’t do out of the box means it is an extremely bare bones browser in the beginning. What do you think: Should Google have waited and added a few more features, sacrificing several more weeks or months delay? Or is it Chrome for Mac FTW!! — ?

TechCrunch

Chrome OS revealed!

Google junkies and all around simpletons with curiosity bouncing off the charts in regards to Google’s Chrome OS can finally have some visual treats to munch on. Taking a quick glance above, you can see that it’s a lot like the Chrome browser. To some that’s good, to others it’s bad. It’s highly effective though. After going through several different live blog events, the ease at which you switch between browser tabs and applications tabs really does blend the whole desktop/cloud line. But there’s more to know, so come on in…

Finally a date: Chrome beta for Mac coming mid-December!

Those who frequent not only Gadgetsteria but many other tech blogs, with a feed reader list in the triple digits, don’t sit back and wait for even official beta products. No sir/mam. As soon as a developer build, alpha, or some other unofficial “you-probably-shouldn’t-use-this-yet-but-you-will-anyway” build becomes available, we jump on it. What can I say, if you’re like me, you love living life on the edge. Digital edge that is. I’ve been keeping close to the Mac Chrome beta for many, many weeks and have watched it mature from an unusable proof of concept to a now nearly fully functioning browser. Mind you it’s still a decent ways away from release as performance isn’t nearly as fast the windows counter parts. And what’s the point of releasing a “light weight” browser if it isn’t very “lite” on it’s feet?

So how do we know that Chrome for Mac is set to launch (as a beta) in mid-December? It all has to do with browser actions. Currently the Windows and Linux versions are the only versions that support said feature. Wipe the building tears from your eyes and don’t turn around heading for home just yet. Nick Baum, Google Chrome’s Product Manager had this to say in regards to browser extensions and delaying the Mac version so that it wasn’t the lone duck, sitting between it’s two sister browsers lacking the aforementioned feature.

We realize this means dropping Mac support for a couple of weeks, but we already have people working on that,” Baum said. “If you prioritize the Windows and Linux versions, we’ll bring you cross-platform parity as soon as we can!

So could it be ready now? More than likely if you get a developer or nightly build now, you’re pretty close to the final beta product. But I’m a stickler for having the latest numbers and even a .0.0.1 change will somehow seem all that much better in my mind. December isn’t far at all. Excited yet?

Cnet

Latest Google Chrome 4.0 beta brings 30% speed increase, cross-computer bookmark syncing

I love Google Chrome. So much so that I even use the nightly builds on my MacBook Pro. On my Windows machine, it’s Google Chrome 4.0 beta all the way. It’s extremely fast and efficient. But it’s getting faster. The latest build, Chrome 4.0.223.16 brings a 30% speed boost compared to previous versions. Now again, Chrome is already fast so a 30% boost in this sense is roughly a couple tenths of a second. You’re not going to notice it like you would going from say IE 6 to Chrome 3.0. Regardless, just walk away knowing it’s fast. But speed isn’t everything. If you’re like me, you use several different computers with one or more not actually yours. Syncing bookmarks between these different machines was impossible unless you used Opera 10 which features native support for cross-computer bookmark syncing or a plugin for IE 8 or Firefox. The latest version of Chrome beta is going the way of Opera and has officially added cross-computer bookmark syncing. Saweet!

A small caveat to some will be having to actually have a Google/Gmail account set up as that is how the bookmarks are synced. Much the same as their Google Talk service, Chrome uses XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol) to get various computers to share those bookmarks you so desperately love and spent time looking for. As far as the actual syncing goes, any additions/removals are “synced within seconds” according to Google software engineers Idan Avraham and Anton Muhin. If you’re looking to tweak the sync times yourself you’re out of luck. As of now, such a custom option isn’t available. But do you really need it faster than “near instant”. I can’t fathom anyone wanting to slow it down either. So to me, no custom option is ok.

The software engineering duo also comment on the Linux and Mac versions. Specifically, the Mac version is currently chugging along at 4.0.223.11 and is has an official “release title” (not actually released mind you) of “P1 M4″. This cryptic code is just a simple tracker used by the company as to progress and severity/number of bugs remaining. The “P” stands for priority with the 1 obviously meaning high priority. The “M” as you may gather represents “Milestone”. Right now the P1 M4 release has “P1″ bugs in the 20′s region. Mike Pinkerton, a developer working on the project says that it is a primary goal of the team to reduce the number of “P1″ bugs down to a number countable on one hand. That would be fantastic since an official beta couldn’t be that far off after could it? I’m excited. The Google team is excited. Are you?

Slashdot > Computer World

Chromium coming to Mac before ball drops into 2010?

If you haven’t been following the daily builds of Chromium for Mac, you may not realize just how far along the browser has come. In it’s current form it has pretty much replaced my need for Safari on my Mac, though occasional crashes and glitches to rear their ugly head from time to time. Though such things are expected on a beta product that isn’t supposed to be released until 1H of 2010. Contrary to earlier reports however, Chromium Mac users may be getting an early Christmas present from Google in the form of a shiny new browser.

Meeting earlier in the week, Google employees Eric Schmidt and Sergey Brin were heard discussing several pertinent matters in a “state of technology and markets” meeting. While a release date for Chromium for Mac wasn’t mentioned or even hinted at, the urgency that the two seemed to convey on getting a Mac version out there could highlight an uptick in development at Google HQ. Pushing out a new Mac version of Chrome sure would make Christmas a lot more merry wouldn’t you say?

9to5 Mac > WSJ

Chrome version 3 officially released.

While some of you may still be chugging along on Chrome 1.0, or, if you’re like me running a beta build of 4.0, the announcement of version 3.0 becoming officially declared “stable” will have multiple meanings. For some, it will be time for a big update. For others, it will be old news. Regardless of which category you fall in to, Chrome has accomplished quite a lot in the year (plus a few days) that it’s been available. With dramatic speed improvements — 150% in javascript since beta 1 to be exact — Chrome is becoming quite the contender. But speed isn’t everything now is it. Bolstering that pep in it’s step is 3,505 bug fixes, fully implemented theme support, improved omni box, a slightly redesigned tab/top bar/tab page, as well as more HTML 5 support thrown in to make a great browser even better. Though it isn’t all peaches and cream as Linux and Mac users are still left out in the cold — that is if you don’t take advantage of nightly builds of Chromium for said platforms. In the past year, have you taken the plunge and wrapped your little fingers around Chrome(-ium) or are you waiting for that next update just over the hill?

Source: TechCrunch

Just in case you were wondering…Chomium latest build *barely* misses perfect Acid 3 test

While many people could care less about acid3 tests and numbers, it is no doubt a reliable way to determine whether or not a browser will render the content of the web correctly or not.  As websites become more feature rich and packed full of content, having a browser that doesn’t follow proper HTML rule and displays everything in a jacked up manor is not a pleasant site to say the least.  While Chromium for Mac is still in a very early stage, it has come a great ways since it was first revealed a couple months ago.  But how is it in real world use and every day workability?