Chrome, Google’s web browser, is now available as a beta download for computers running Mac OS X or Linux. 

The beta version of Chrome for Mac doesn’t yet feature the full functionality of Chrome, for example it lacks the bookmark sync, bookmark manager, and a cookie manager. But it does have a couple of unique Mac features like Mac-style animations if you go to the Bookmarks bar. “We look forward to future releases of Google Chrome for Mac, which will fill in the gaps and provide a fast, clean browser for your enjoyment on Mac OS X,” said John Grabowski and Mike Pinkerton, software engineers for Google Chrome in a post on Google’s blog.

“We took a hefty dose of goodness from the Windows version to build a fast, polished browser for Mac -- with features such as the Omnibox (where you can both search and type in addresses), themes from artists, and most importantly, speed,” Grabowski and Pinkerton stated in the blog post.

Along with the release of the beta version for Mac OS X, Google also released the beta version for Linux users yesterday. “Just like Google Chrome for Windows and Mac, we focused on speed, stability and security, but we also wanted a high-performance browser that integrated well with the Linux ecosystem,” explained Brian Rakowski, product manager for Chrome at Google.

Both the Linux and Windows versions of Chrome can now also be adapted by making use of “extension” programs, for example the Google Mail Checker extension, which displays the number of unread messages you have waiting for you in your Gmail inbox.

You can download Chrome for Mac if you are running OS X version 10.5 or later on an Intel based system and download Chrome for Linux, which supports Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora and openSUSE distributions.