Google Chrome Exits Beta Phase for Mac, Linux

Google launched the new and improved Chrome for Windows, Macintosh and Linux environments. While the Windows version of Chrome wrapped up its beta in 2008, the Macintosh and Linux versions of the Web browser have lingered in the beta stage for some time in typical Google fashion.

“After a bit of evolution and lots of work from the team, we’re thrilled to introduce a new stable version of Chrome for Windows, Mac and Linux,” wrote Brian Rakowski, Chrome product manager, on Google’s official blog. “Since last December, we’ve been chipping away at bugs and building in new features to get the Mac and Linux versions caught up with the Windows version, and now we can finally announce that the Mac and Linux versions are ready for prime time.”

The new version of Chrome allows users to synchronize bookmarks and other browser preferences over multiple systems. The update also comes with enhanced HTML5 capabilities and an improved bookmark manager. Google also said it plans to enable Adobe’s Flash player for Chrome after the full release of Flash 10.1.

Google is also touting the new Chrome update as the fastest version yet. According to Rakowski, the updated browser improved by 213 percent and 305 percent in Javascript performance by the V8 and SunSpider benchmarks since Chrome’s beta release in September of 2008.

According to Google, Chrome has more than 70 million active users. The browser has steadily gained users and market share since it was first introduced in 2008, and is now widely viewed as a legitimate contender in the browser market.