By Gregg Keizer

Computerworld | Aug 29, 2014 6:59 AM PT

 

The promotion of the 64-bit Chrome for OS X to the "Beta" channel followed a move earlier this month by Google to push the browser to the rougher-edged"Dev" build. It also came on the heels of Chrome 64-bit for Windows making it to the more-polished "Release" status on Tuesday.

Google trumpeted the 64-bit Chrome for Mac as faster to start, less of a memory hog and more secure.

"Most programs on a modern Mac are already 64-bit apps," Mark Mentovai, a Chrome software engineer, said in a Thursday blog. "In cases where Chrome was the last remaining 32-bit app, there were launch-time and memory-footprint penalties as 32-bit copies of all of the system libraries needed to be loaded to support Chrome. Now that Chrome's a 64-bit app too, we expect you'll find that it launches more quickly and that overall system memory use decreases