FAQ: Google polishes up its new browser, Chrome

Google ended one of the Web's longest-running rumors this week when it released Chrome, a Web browser it's been working on for the last two years.

But while the news was all over the Web -- from Computerworld to just about every other technology site and blog that had a keyboard to shake -- the debut is only part of the story.

How, for instance, will Google's push into building a browser affect Windows, Microsoft's golden goose? Will other browser makers just roll over and play dead? Hint: don't count on it.

Those questions, like the ones that follow, simply scratch the surface. We're certain to revisit Chrome and Google's plans for it, in future FAQs. But this one will get us going.

Where do I get Chrome?

You can download the beta from Google's Chrome page, which will only offer the download if rendered on a Windows XP or Vista machine, or in a virtual machine on a Mac or Linux running XP or Vista.

Chrome, a 7MB download, is currently available only for XP and Vista.

What languages?

Out the gate, Chrome is available in 39 languages, including English, Chinese, German, Japanese, Russian, Spanish and a slew of others.

But nothing for the Mac? What's up with that?

All we know at this point is what Google's disclosed, which isn't much. "We're hard at work building versions for Mac and Linux," the company's heads of engineering and product management said Monday when they confirmed that Google would be shipping Chrome.

However, Google iscollecting e-mail addresses from Mac users who want to be notified when a Mac OS X-specific version is available, hinting that a Mac edition is closer to shipping than one for Linux.

Chrome will run on a Mac using Apple's dual-boot Boot Camp utility, or in a virtual machine created with the likes of Parallel's Parallels Desktop for Mac or VMware's Fusion.

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