The emergence of Chrome from beta yesterday fueled a number of good stories and I'd like to highlight a few for your reading pleasure heading into the weekend.

If you think Google hasn't learned a thing or two about the security foibles of Microsoft's Internet Explorer, think again. eWEEK's Brian Prince drilled down into the sandboxing security bump that Google gave Chrome as it took it from beta to version 1.0. Prince writes:

In Chrome, HTML rendering and JavaScript execution are isolated in their own class of processes. Running each tab in Chrome in a sandbox allows Web applications to be launched in their own browser windows without the ability to write or read files from sensitive areas. Plug-ins are run in separate processes that communicate with the renderer.

However, Chrome still has soft spots because, ironically, it depends on Windows, and "there is the possibility of a flaw in the operating system security model itself."

Read the piece if you haven't already for other issues, as well as this one on security in Google's new Native Client technology.

ReadWriteWeb's Marshall Kirkpatrick meanwhile was brave enough to dive into the boring Chrome EULA, which seems to change every week. Kirkpatrick notes:

Part of the original Chrome EULA required that you had to give identification or contact information to Google and you were required to keep that information up to date. We're thankful that's no longer required; Google knows more than enough about us already.

Four other changes include the removal of age restriction, (so people of all ages can view explicit material through Chrome), the elimination of the ban on automated access, no more secrets and the inability to leave Chrome. Ever.

For those of you that really believe Chrome isn't designed to supplant Firefox as well as IE, Google Operating System's Alex Chitu discovered that Google Chrome is replacing Firefox as the default browser in Google Pack.

That can't make the Firefox folks, already stinging from the suggestion that Mozilla isn't on solid ground, comfortable.

Finally, VentureBeat's MC Siegler tries to guess when Chrome for the Mac will appear. My money's on February 2009.

Which will appear first? Chrome on Mac or Chrome on Linux, and when?