Google Chrome is finally available as an official beta for Mac. Not surprisingly, Google takes their own approach to browsing, namely dispensing with a search box and including that functionality in the address bar. Other little touches include:

• a status bar that only appears when there's an actual status, saving a few pixels of screen real estate;
• tabs on top (which Safari 4's beta had but unfortunately lost on the official release), saving more screen real estate;
• minimalist design;
• skinning/themes; and,
• tabs that open next to the tab you're in when links are set to open new browser windows.

That last feature is particularly useful as I'll no longer have to search for the new tab at the end of the tab bar rainbow, if you will. A feature missing from the official beta that was in the pre-betas is full screen mode. I hope that returns in v1.

I enjoyed the pre-Beta releases very much and even used Chrome to develop two customer sites (JbIT and Matt Anderson) on the Squarespace platform. I've also used it to tighten up my own site a bit. As with my default Safari browser, Chrome is based on the webkit engine, yet it rendered things a bit differently here and there, making it quite useful as I coded (I suppose I should be wary of a browser being too forgiving when it comes to handling code).

Looking forward to added functionality with the v1 release. Go Google.