Wahey! Google showing more Mac love is always a good good thing. I often wondered why Google didn’t put more effort into Mac applications, considering how close Google and Apple work together. Well today I can finally quit wondering and bask in the warm light of Google Desktop for Mac OS X! Still in beta, Google Desktop for the Mac gives you the power of Google.com on your desktop, allowing you to search your local files, web history and even your Gmail email while offline. They are even nudging in on Quicksilver’s territory, allowing you to use the Quick Search feature to launch applications and files. Helloooooo!

Read more: Google Desktop for Mac | Google Desktop for Mac (Thanks Wolfgang)

For the Mac users who are still concious after seeing the new Mac Pro announced yesterday, I bring you the new contender in the OS browser-wars. Shiira, the Japanese browser that can, has finally made their re-designed version 2 release a downloadable beta for public consumption. After a few days usage I’m quite quite pleased. The pagedock is very cool and puts a whole new spin on tabbed browsing (page browsing now?), the performance is pretty much up there with Safari and the feature-set is quite comparable to Safari, with a few nice additions. I have to admit, if it weren’t for the web development plugins, I wouldn’t be using super-mega memory hog Deer Park (or Firefox) on my Macs at all, considering how horribly they perform (yes yes, I’ve used Camino as well). Remember this is still a beta release, so expect some instability and some sub-menus still in Japanese, but, don’t let that put you off.

Read more: Shiira 2.01beta now available for download

Microsoft is allowing users to test-drive a beta version of Office 2007, currently in production and nearing release (someday). Users are able to take an interactive look into the newest version of Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint and all of the other old favorites included in the Office suite. If you don’t feel like opening IE 6+ in order to take the interactive test drive, Microsoft also enables users to download the latest crippled beta release of Office 2007, with saving and printing functions disabled.

[Test-drive Office 2007 Beta]