After what seems like a lifetime of waiting–but was really a little over fifteen months–Mac users can finally get their hands on a beta version of Google’s Chrome browser. Many of us have been running various rough drafts of OS X Chrome and its open-source cousin, Chromium, for months. But this is the first one that Google deems to be finished enough for wide use. And it’s part of a big Chrome news day that also includes betas of a Linux version and Firefox-like extensions.

But Chrome for OS X is missing some of the key features that make Chrome’s Windows version such a distinctive browser, including App Mode and built-in Gears offline technology. It also doesn’t yet support Chrome’s new extensions feature. And the user-interface doesn’t match the delightful minimalism of Chrome for Windows. It’s partially OS X’s fault, since Mac apps are required to have a traditional menu bar with several obligatory menus. But I still pine for the way Chrome for Windows brings the tabs up to the very top of the screen, and tucks all options into a grand total of two menus.

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If you use a Mac and have been looking forward to an OS X version of Google’s Chrome browser, your patience is about to be rewarded. As TechCrunch’s MG Siegler reports, the Chrome team is stomping out the final handful of bugs it’s planning to eradicate before it ships its first OS X beta. I’ve been waiting for the beta for fifteen months, since the arrival of Chrome for Windows and the first word that a Mac version was in the works.

But MG’s story left me feeling kind of glum about Chrome for OS X. He details some of the features that the first beta will lack, at least in complete form:

• The bookmark manager
• App Mode, which lets you launch Web apps such as Gmail in streamlined browser frames from a desktop icon
• Gears, the Google technology that lets Gmail, Remember the Milk, and other Web services work even when you’re disconnected from the Web
• Full-screen mode
• Bookmark syncing
• Extension  support

And I’ve already grumbled about the fact that Chrome for OS X inexplicably needs nine menus to accomplish what Chrome for Windows does in two of ‘em. Basically, it looks like multiple things that I thought made Chrome Chrome will be missing from its Mac incarnation.

I don’t mean to be too churlish–especially since some of the missing stuff may get added back in before Mac Chrome leaves beta status and becomes an officially shipping project. I’d love to see Chrome reach feature parity on both platforms soon, in the way that Firefox is just Firefox, whether you’re in Windows, OS X, or Linux. Or at least to get the word that parity is the long-term goal.

For now, Chrome is my main browser when I’m in Windows (which I am the majority of the time at the moment) and I’ll still reach for Safari when I’m on a Mac. I’m okay with that, since I tend to be a promiscuous browser user anyhow. (I’ve also gone through Firefox and Flock periods recently, and dabble in Opera from time to time.)

But if you’d told me fifteen months ago that it would still be unclear in late 2009 when Mac users would get all of Chrome’s goodness, I would never have believed you…

Over at Cnet, Steven Shankland has taken notice of some info on a mailing list for Google Chrome developers that suggests that Google’s browser may arrive in an OS X beta in early December. If so, fifteen months will have passed between Chrome’s Windows debut and its appearance on the Mac. (Developer versions of Chrome and its open-source doppelganger Chromium for Mac have been around for quite awhile, but the most recent ones I’ve tried have been almost ready for prime time–but not quite.)

I still don’t understand why Chrome for Windows has an admirably sleek two menus, and Chrome for Mac needs nine of ‘em. Other than that little mystery, I’m very much looking forward to Chrome finally becoming a cross-platform browser.

Here at the Web 2.0 Summit, a surprise guest dropped by this afternoon to be interviewed by cochair John Battelle: Google cofounder Sergey Brin. An audience member asked him a question that was on my mind, too: Exactly what’s going on with Google Chrome for the Mac, which still hasn’t shipped well over a year after the Windows version debuted?

Brin didn’t get defensive: “The timing…has been one of the disappointments of the Chrome project for me,” he said. (Then he said he was sorry the Windows and Mac versions hadn’t shipped simultaneously.) He also noted that he’s using Chrome for Mac himself in pre-release these days–even though it crashes more than he’d like. At another conference last week, I saw Google VP Bradley Horowitz using Chrome on a Mac, too; I suspect that there are legions of Chrome for Mac users at the Googleplex.

As Brin noted, Google doesn’t make it easy to find the pre-release version of Chrome for Mac–actually, it actively discourages non-developers from doing so. But he encouraged those in the audience here who were jonesing for Mac Chrome to download and use it. You can do so here.

Sergey’s right: Chrome for Mac is useful right now, but still needs work. My main problem with it is that it occasionally fails to load sites until I’ve pressed refresh a few times. I also can’t figure out why the Mac version of the browser has nine menus, vs. two in the Windows edition; it rankles me a bit, since Chrome’s outstanding quality is its simplicity. Even so, I’m spending a fair amount of time with this rough draft–when I’m on a Mac, I use it maybe a third of the time. But I’m still champing at the bit to get a version that’s truly ready for prime time. In 2009 if possible…

Can you convince someone who doesn’t even know what a Web browser is to switch to a new one? Google appears to be trying, with a new Web site and video, which I learned about in this post by MG Siegler.

The site is, of course, a thinly-veiled promotional vehicle for Google Chrome. Although it’s an extremely soft sell–and since there’s no shipping version of Chrome for the Mac yet, the version of the site I just perused on my MacBook Pro has links to Opera, Safari, and Firefox (but not Flock or Camino, alas).

The video’s narrator says that most people don’t know what browser they’re running, or what a browser is. Can that possibly be true? Did Google do research on the matter? I dunno. But I do know that there are such people as folks who use computers every day but simply aren’t interested enough in technology to keep track of such things. One of the smartest people I know thinks her browser is Google. (Hint: She gave birth to me.)

Another question: How many people who are only dimly aware at best just what a Web browser is know how to download and install a new one, as Google suggests?

Alternative theory: Even if Google is serious about the idea that many folks don’t dump IE because they don’t know they’re using it, maybe the site and video–which are either soothing and straightforward or patronizing, depending on how you look at them–are meant more as goofy fun and a conversation-starter than as sincere outreach to the Web’s most blissfully ignorant users.

Today, Google announced a plug-in for Internet Explorer that usurps the IE browsing engine’s role, rendering pages with Google Chrome instead. The plug-in, called Google Chrome Frame, targets Web developers who must program around IE 6′s proprietary quirks.

Internet Explorer remains the world’s dominant Web browser, but many of its users are running archaic versions of the software –to the frustration of Microsoft and its critics alike. Older versions of the browser do not support the latest standards, hindering what users can do on the Web.

Google argues that Chrome’s Webkit and JavaScript engines will seamlessly bring IE up to par, awhile preserving the interface that people are accustomed to in IE 6 and IE 7. Microsoft has largely solved its issues with standards support with IE 8, but Google Frame targets it as well.

Of course people will have to install the plug-in, which requires a 10MB download. Web developers will also have to modify their HTML code to invoke the plug-in. Nonetheless, it’s a new approach to getting people to upgrade their browsers.

Google is using an attrition strategy to bring IE users on board with Chrome. I could not imagine why any corporate IT folks would install this plug-in; they keep IE installed for compatibility reasons. Microsoft has also enabled legacy support in IE 8.

Google Chrome Frame is a neat technology, but I don’t expect that your mother will end up using it unless it is bundled with software that people widely use. Google might attempt to leverage its Web properties, but many people are a creature of habit. My father is still using AOL, and my attempt to move him to Gmail failed.

One year ago today, Google released Chrome, a day after the news–at once startling and inevitable-feeling–leaked that it had decided to get into the browser business. (Lest we forget, Chrome remains the only major software product ever to be announced via comic book.)

Back on September 1st, 2008, I hadn’t yet had the opportunity to try Chrome and knew very little about it, but was so excited about the news that I cranked out a post called Ten Questions About Google Chrome. A year later, it’s easier to answer most of them. Shall we? (I skipped recapping question #3, which involved me wondering whether Google had given Mozilla a heads-up it was working on a browser.)

1. Will Google stop promoting Firefox? It’s been known to use the Google homepage to tell IE users they should be running Firefox, and it distributes a version of Firefox with the Google Toolbar built in. You gotta think that it’ll redeploy some or all of its Firefox-boosting energies to drumming up interest in Chrome.

One year later: Yeah, it stopped promoting Firefox. The companies still have a mutually beneficial relationship, since Google remains Firefox’s default search engine, and revenues from the ads displayed with search results helps fund Firefox development. And you can still get Firefox–optionally–as part of Google Pack. But Chrome is now Pack’s default browser, and there’s no question which product Google is rooting for in Browser War 2.0. (Hint: It’s the one with “Google” in its name.)

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If you buy a new Sony VAIO computer, you’re going to get a new browser. No, Internet Explorer isn’t going anywhere. But Financial Times is reporting that Sony has signed a deal to preinstall Google’s Chrome on its PCs. Chrome-equipped machines are making their way to customers even as we speak.

I’m not sure whether Chrome is now the default browser on new Sony computers–the FT doesn’t explicitly say so, although Download Squad does–but it’s an interesting development. For years, Microsoft has benefited hugely from the fact that IE is the default browser shipped on most of the world’s personal computers. Some folks discover IE this way and continue to use it because they like it; many others keep on running it out of sheer inertia.

Sony is only one manufacturer, but the FT reports that Google says it’s working on similar arrangements with other companies. What if it were able to strike deals with, say, HP, Dell, and Acer? Maybe by cutting them in on the advertising revenue it gets from searches performed with Chrome’s toolbar and default homepage?

For a browser that’s nearly a year old and which is backed by the most powerful company on the Web, Chrome has failed to catch show explosive growth–Ars Technica says that around two or three percent of Internet users run it. (The Technologizer community is apparently a lot fonder of Chrome than the Internet at large–about eight percent of you visit the site via Chrome.) It’s still not entirely clear to me whether Google sees Chrome as a side project, a prank, or a core component of its mission. And it can’t pummel IE into submission until it’s caught up with Firefox (which, according to a new report, is used by more than 23% of all Internet users). But if any browser company is in a position to nudge IE out of its position as the world’s default browser, it’s Chrome.

Meanwhile, I kind of like the system Microsoft came up with to pacify Europe’s concerns over IE: a ballot screen that lets Windows 7 users pick whatever browser they prefer. Wouldn’t it be cool if Chrome, Firefox, Flock, IE, Opera, Rockmelt, Safari, and any other worthwhile browser that came along all got an equal shot at being the world’s most popular browser–based on quality alone?

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Chrome bookmark syncing is coming.

Are your iPhone e-mails gone?

Microsoft introduces a 720p Webcam.

Apple sells 25% of songs.

Exploding iPhones are “isolated cases.”

Update on Twitter hacker defense.

Verizon’s making progress on LTE.

Pre developers can sell apps.

Flickr users love the iPhone.

Satisfaction: Apple slips, others gain.

Google has released a new beta of the Windows version of its Chrome browser. The company says it’s faster, and it’s also added basic skinning, an improved New Tab feature, tweaks to the Omnibox address bar, and more HTML 5 support.

I say “the Windows version,” but that’s the only version of Chrome to receive a formal release to date, more than eleven months after Google got into the browser business. Developers builds of the OS X version are increasingly polished, though. Wouldn’t it be cool if Google celebrated the browser’s first birthday by finally bringing it to Mac users? (For now, Chrome is the browser I use most often these days when I’m using one of my Windows PCs; when I’m on a Mac, I’m usually a Firefox person.)

Today, Google fired a new salvo in the browser wars, announcing an upcoming synchronization service for its Chrome browser. A preliminary mockup of the service will be released to developers later this week, with general availability possible later this month, according to reports.

The service will first deliver bookmark synchronization –something that’s already possible with Firefox via plug-ins as well as Opera. Google will add other types of browser data incrementally. If Google carries out its plans effectively, Chrome will provide users with a seamless user experience across many devices. Other browser makers will have to follow.

Netbooks, which have the focus of Google’s most ambitious development efforts, will be an obvious beneficiary. The synchronization service will also give a boost to OpenID, which Google users to authenticate digital identities (with its own proprietary twist).

All in all, Google is continuing to blur the line between desktop software and the cloud. It is not alone in its thinking–I’m convinced that Microsoft, which is often perceived as its biggest competitor, will eventually follow suit.

Last year, I detailed Microsoft’s Midori operating system development plans. While Google has not announced anything as ambitious as Midori, it is going down the path that Microsoft laid out in the memos that I reviewed.

One of Microsoft’s principal  design motivations is to support the ability of users to share resources remotely, and for applications that are a composite of local and remote components and services. The Web browser is just beginning to enable the application side of that vision.

Here’s one of those breaking stories that’s stunning at first–until you think about it, whereupon it feels like it was always inevitable. Google announced tonight that it’s working on an operating system for PCs, turning a hypothetical scenario that’s been around for years into reality. Almost by definition, it’s the most direct attack possible on the Microsoft hegemony, since it puts Google into competition with Windows itself.

Google isn’t revealing much in the way of specifics, other than that the OS is an open-source project based on its Chrome browser with a Linux kernel, and that it’s working with multiple hardware manufacturers to bring it to x86- and ARM-based netbooks in the second half of next year. It says the goal is to build an OS that boots in seconds and runs Web apps really well.

Like many big Google announcements (such as the unleashing of Chrome itself last September) this one prompts more questions than it answers. Such as the first eleven that popped into my head…

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Was it really fewer than five years ago that Firefox 1.0 debuted? Its arrival ended the dismal period in which only one browser–Microsoft’s mediocre Internet Explorer–seemed to be viable. With Firefox, Mozilla proved that millions of people were itching to adopt a better browser. And today, we find ourselves with multiple better browsers:  Not just Firefox, but also Google’s minimalist Chrome, Apple’s flashy Safari, the ever-inventive Opera, the highly social Flock, and even the no-longer-calcifying Internet Explorer 8.

All of which means that Firefox 3.5–which Mozilla plans to formally release today–is no longer a shoo-in for the distinction of being the favorite browser of browser fans. (As I write, Firefox 3.5 hasn’t replaced 3.0 yet on the Firefox home page, but the Windows and Mac versions are live on Mozilla’s FTP site.)

After having spent months with various pre-release versions of 3.5, though, I’m convinced that The Little Browser That Could remains the best choice for the widest array of folks. That’s as much for the virtues that Firefox has possessed for years as for new stuff: Version 3.5′ s improvements are about better speed, useful tweaks to existing features, catchup with other browsers, and early support for emerging Web standards. In other words, the browser sports no knockout new features. But the moves Mozilla has made are smart, and they’re more than enough for Firefox to keep pace with its fast-evolving rivals.

After thr jump, a look at what’s new in rough order of importance. Continue reading this story…

Lotsa Pre news this Friday…

Pre is rife with Google.

An interview on Pre design.

Pre/Sprint exclusivity: how long?

Don’t use Mac/Linux Chrome!

Acer’s Android netbook runs XP.

So does this Chinese phone.

T-Mobile’s G2 known as MyTouch.

Best Buy’s Windows 7 plans.

FTC takes down rogue ISP.

Wave? Makes me think Jobim…

Nice detailed Google Wave overview.

Verizon will get the Pre.

Steve Ballmer demos Zune HD.

Palm Pre syncs with iTunes.

Palm Pre very first impressions.

Review: Google’s developer conference phone.

Chorme for Mac: still coming.

Eighteen Android phones by December.

When it comes to advertising, Google believes in eating its own dogfood–it uses its own ad platform to promote some of its own services, but it’s rare to see Google self-promotion off the Web. But not unheard of: There used to be billboards in San Francisco touting the GOOG-411 information service, for instance. And Google blogged today it’s going to try advertising its Chrome browser on TV, starting this weekend.

Here’s the ad, which was produced in Japan, originally for online use:

It’s fun to watch for sure. But although I’m a Chrome fan, in part because of its uncluttered feel, I must confess that I didn’t get the point of the ad until I read Google’s post. It’s saying that Chrome is simpler and more streamlined than other browsers. Wonder what percentage of couch potatoes will figure that out–or even understand that Chrome is a Web browser?

I was going to say that this may be the first time a browser has been advertised on the boob tube. But then I found this Internet Explorer 7 ad–also a rather oblique sell, and apparently from A Country That Isn’t The U.S.:

And the Firefox community produced scads of user-generated, TV-style ads for Mozilla’s Firefox Flicks contest a few years ago, although I’m not sure if any wound up on TV:

Any guesses as to whether browser market share will perceptibly change based on Chrome’s exposure on TV? (Side note: Around seven percent of Technologizer visitors use it.)