Google has released a Mac OS X version of a plug-in that lets people use its Google Earth software as a browser plug-in.

The move means a smaller but significant crowd can rely on web pages that employ the sophisticated aerial viewing options the software provides. But Mac fans should brace themselves for a 47MB download from the Google Earth API page.

Google Earth now works as a Safari or Firefox plug-in on Mac OS X. (Credit: Google)

The size is large because Google provided a universal binary file that runs on both PowerPC-based and Intel-based Macs, a Google representative said in a forum posting about the availability of the Mac version. "There are also some other space-saving changes that we may look into later on," he said.

Digital Earth Blog, which surfaced the forum post, points to a few sites such as EarthSwoop and Mini Flight Sim where people can try the plug-in.

Google also announced a new Google Earth plug-in game, Puzzler, and some bug fixes in the Windows version of the Google Earth plug-in.

In other Mac news, Jason Toff, an associate product marketing manager for the Google Mac Team, announced on the Google Mac blog that the Mac-specific Google page is no longer just available in English. The site now works in German, French, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Taiwanese, Dutch and Italian.