Google Chrome for Mac Alpha Beta Beta Beta Beta... BETA.

I was just about to download and build the latest Google Chrome build for Mac (as it's been a few months since the last attempt), when I ran across this fella's pre-built package he made available for us nerds. While it's really almost identical to Safari 4 beta's, it's still pretty heartening to see an alpha-quality browser that beats the tar out of the current Firefox, IE7 (and 8!), Safari 3 and Opera 9's. Here's a quick look:

 

  

Pretty boring, eh?

Obviously still very early in development, current builders haven't put a lick of effort into the interface at all. There is no tab support (thus no per-tab processes to test), no keyboard shortcuts (i.e. cmd-L for the location bar, etc.), and basic things like printing doesn't work. But what I can say about it is that it's wicked fast (I'd say just as fast as the current WebKit nightlies), JavaScript-heavy web apps load in a heartbeat, and the rendering is pixel-perfect (interestingly enough, this build of Chrome supports CSS rounded corners, which the current Windows release of Chrome, 2.0, does not!). It even scores a full 100/100 on the Acid3 test (current WebKits also score 100, Safari 3 scores Firefox 3 scores 71, and the upcoming Internet Explorer 8 gets 23, I believe).

Again, it's very early, and most of what defines Chrome as a new generation browser isn't there yet, but the meat n' potatoes are. Now, we just wait.

C'mon Goog, get the lead out!