Google brings Canary builds of Chrome to Mac OS X

Google has announced that it is making its Canary builds of Chrome available on Mac OS X. Previously only available for Windows users, the Canary branch of Chrome is aimed at eager early adopters and developers who want to help Chrome's development by providing feedback and reporting bugs.

Chrome development is currently split into four channels. The stable channel is designed for everyday use. It is updated with new features and fixes once they've been thoroughly tested in the Beta channel, which is intended for users who like to try out the latest features but don't mind a few bugs.

Google Chrome Canary on Mac OS X. As its name implies, the developer channel (also known as the Dev channel) is targeted at developers and, according to Google, "can be very unstable at times, and new features usually require some manual configuration to be enabled". The Canary build of Chrome is a sort of "pre-Dev" version that is updated more frequently than the Dev channel and is not tested before being released. As such, it can't be set as the default browser, but it can be installed alongside any of the other channels of Chrome.

In a post on the Chromium Blog, Software Engineer Mark Mentovai notes that Canary data remains separate from any other Chrome installation, adding that users wishing to keep their data, such as bookmarks, extensions or themes, synchronised can do so via the built-in browser Sync settings.

Google Chrome Canary is available to download for Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" or later. However, PowerPC-based Macs are not supported. The latest stable release is Chrome 11.

See also:

• Chrome 11: Google's web browser learns to listen, a report from The H.
• Chrome and Chromium to change their UA calling cards, a report from The H.

(crve)