Google has released version 11 of its browser. The update brings hundreds of bug fixes as well as many features that have been available on the Chrome beta and dev channels to users interested in using Chrome's latest builds (plus, a new logo!). Chrome 11 also addresses 25 security vulnerabilities in the WebKit-based browser (a record for the company): 16 rated as High, six rated as Medium, and three rated as Low.

The new Chrome version is slightly faster and adds features such as speech input through HTML, which allows users to "talk" directly to websites. The addition of support for the HTML5 speech input API isn't too much of a big deal since few websites use it, but the search giant has made sure Google Translate is already putting it to use. If you're translating from English, you can click on the microphone on the bottom right of the input box, say whatever you want to have translated, and choose the language you want to translate to. Clicking on the Listen link will have result in the text being read out loud to you.

The latest stable build (11.0.696.57) is available now for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. Those who currently have Chrome installed can use the built-in update function under the About Google Chrome menu item.

The release is light on new features because Google is no longer concerned about using version numbers to mark a significant development milestone. The search giant has promised to accelerate the release cycle for Chrome and push out a new stable build every six weeks. Chrome 10 was actually released just over seven weeks ago; this is the first time that Google has slipped behind in its schedule. Apparently users like these frequent releases: the browser's market share is already over 10 percent.