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Google touts even faster Chrome browser

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May 21, 2009, 3:49 PM EST

Google's Chrome has been available for less than a year, nevertheless updates to the web browser have been incessant since last September. You may recall the browser made the official 1.0 stable version in a matter of weeks and now it's the 2.0 betas that are getting the most attention.

The most recent update (2.0.181.1 Beta) is touting further speed improvements, especially for JavaScript execution where Google claims up to a 30% improvement over the last stable version of the browser. Along with that come feature enhancements and additions like form autofill, a full screen mode, and the ability to customize the new tab screen.

Although Chrome has been able to gather a considerable following in a short period of time by anyone's standards, it's still playing fourth/fifth place lagging behind Internet Explorer, Firefox and depending on where you get your stats, Opera and Apple's Safari.

In the meantime, we expect Google to continue playing the performance card as one of Chrome's prime qualities, but what do you think it will take for more users to make the switch? A video showcasing the latest Chrome features after the jump.

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User Comments (7)

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jimmy5
on May 21, 2009
11:17 PM
Does it still have the bookmark tab on the right side? If so, forget it, I'll wait until they come into the 2000's and make the look customable... When it can do what IE can do but faster then I will switch.

riffmaker
on May 22, 2009
5:46 AM
Originally posted by jimmy5:
Does it still have the bookmark tab on the right side? If so, forget it, I'll wait until they come into the 2000's and make the look customable... When it can do what IE can do but faster then I will switch.
When it can do what IE can do I'll throw it out of the window(s)

tcashon
on May 22, 2009
6:58 AM
I like the whole idea of the browser being fast, but I just find the user interface so.......ugly. If they could spruce it up a bit I would definitely use it. I'm with the guy above, I'd like some appearance customization.

phantasm66
on May 22, 2009
8:08 AM
Definately faster with java script .

jimmy5
on May 22, 2009
9:30 AM
lol at riffmaker..true, but I have no problems.

Ya, it's ugly looking...
Being just fast is not the most important thing, I arranged all of my toolbars to the way I like them. It's just an ease of use thing.
I tried it for a few days and I didn't really notice a speed difference worth switching for, maybe I don't do what it's fast at.
Another thing is when I imported all of my favs it didn't import the little icons so I had little "blank pages" until I go and visit that page again for it to reload.

-Kestrel-
on May 22, 2009
11:03 AM
For me to switch, it will need to have available the same reliable addons I use in Firefox, and offer me something besides more speed. Reliability would be a good start: FF crashes inexplicably fairly often, even with a vanilla install.

kcee
on May 24, 2009
3:17 PM
Google need to start addressing comfort issues and start making Chrome customizable. Stop 'improving' the core - which is good enough now - and introduce, say, an ability to fix zoom level (which at the moment I have to change every time I start Chrome, and on each new tab), plug-in functionality etc. Google need to stop navel-gazing with Chrome & start looking outward a bit if it wants wider acceptance.

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