Today Google released their highly anticipated Google Chrome web browser for the Mac platform in official Beta form. The Windows version has been available for over a year.

The new web browser looks a lot like Safari but differs in certain design areas. For example, Chrome moves tabs to the top of the browser and instead of having a URL field and a search field, Chrome combines the two into one “Omnibox”.

The new Google browser is being advertised as “lightning fast” and is in direct competition with Safari.

Google had highlighted the following features of the browser with the Mac release:

Speed: Google Chrome loads pages and runs web applications in a snap.

Stability: Google Chrome is built for stability. If an individual tab freezes or crashes, the other tabs are unaffected.

Omnibox: Use the Omnibox to type both web addresses and searches in Google Chrome.

New Tab page: Visit your favorite websites easily from the New Tab page. When you open a new tab, the sites you visit most often are readily available.

Google Chrome is available as a free download and supports Intel-based Macs running Mac OS X 10.5 and later.