Google releases new developer and beta versions of Chrome

Jos

Posts: 3,073   +97
Staff

Keeping up with its breakneck development pace Google released new versions of Chrome yesterday for beta testers and developers. The beta release officially hit version 10, bringing a notable speed boost of 66% on the V8 benchmark suite over the current stable release, while also incorporating an early implementation of GOU-accelerated video decoding, which on supported video cards can reduce CPU usage five times when viewing full screen video.

Aside from improvements to JavaScript and video playback, Google has also revamped the settings interface, which now appears in a tab as opposed to a dialog box and includes a handy search feature you can use in case you're not sure where to find a particular option. Just enter a keyword, like "password" for example, and Chrome will display anything related while making the options directly available from the search results.

Google also made some security improvements, with a new mechanism for disabling outdated plugins, and introduced additional password syncing features that allow users to synchronize saved passwords across multiple computers and have them encrypted with a secret passphrase.

Meanwhile, those in the developer channel received the first preview of version 11, which offers enhancements such as a new implementation of the XSS Auditor to assist web authors in finding code segments that are vulnerable to cross-site scripting attacks. Google isn't talking much yet about its plans for Chrome 11, but according to Cnet, one interesting feature on the way is the so-called chromoting that will allow users to control "legacy PC applications" running on other computers. The feature is expected to work like a remote desktop application only from the browser itself.

Permalink to story.

 
I know a lot of people don't see the point to an even faster browser, but I for one am glad Google keeps pushing the envelope of Internet browser speed.

The web has slowly transitioned from static HTML pages over the decades to dynamic content that depends heavily on the capabilities of the client. Websites are becoming more sophisticated, relying heavily on javascript and plug-ins (for better or worse) to do things that were unthinkable a decade ago. Such websites are actually beginning to resemble compiled programs in terms of interactivity, features and design; this becomes more apparent every year.

However, Web pages aren't compiled code though, they interpreted on the fly. In a sense, the *browser* is the 'compiler' and performance will never resemble an actual offline compiler. That means to do truly amazing things, speed matters and Google definitely has it right. It may seem kind of silly now, but Google really is paving the road to a more rich and interactive web... once again for better or worse.

I like Chrome for what it is and use it as my primary browser, but I think Firefox is and always has been a better browser, overall. I hope FF4 pulls it together because 3.x hasn't been very tasty.
 
i open up chrome today and go to options and it loads a new tab ! not what happened before with the 9.~ version. its cool tho, automatic updates surprise me sometimes tho
 
I've been using Chromium daily builds for some time now, and although I do get the occasional bugs, chances are they get fixed the next day or so. Really like to get the features as they roll out, so basically this is ancient history for us. :)

Come join the dev-channel (if PPAs are out of reach to you of course :) )!
 
Wow, a 66% speed increase. That is hard to imagine considering chromes speed. In my opinion speed is the only advantage that chrome has over Firefox but it is enough for me to use nearly as often as Firefox. I believe Firefox(4B11) is a much better browser aside from the fact that it has a large lag in boot speed after boot my computer compared to an instant start from chrome.
 
I had long abandoned Firefox for Chrome but recently decided to give it another shot with the latest beta. I set it as my default browser, used it for about a month, and though at first it felt much snappier compared to version 3.x it still gave me problems whenever I had many tabs open. Boot times have improved but it still made my system sluggish after a while and also crashed a few times.

I'll certainly try it again when the final version is out but I don't see myself ditching Chrome anytime soon. For me, its speed and stability (even with the beta) far outweighs the couple of add-ons I've had to leave behind with Firefox.
 
I just have to put my two cents in...hee hee

I started using chrome the day they released the first beta and I have never looked back. Part of it is I never liked IE and I liked FF but chrome fills my needs. I have a Multi monitor setup and chrome works great for that.

Keep up the good work Google!!!

Rancid~
 
My Chrome browser just upgraded itself to Version 10 Beta. It's as fast as ever. I also use Opera 11.01 as the primary browser in my other desktop and I would say the both browsers are just about running neck to neck at this point. Of course, search is always faster with Chrome since the browser is also the search engine :).
 
Finally we are moving to the age with Chrome where people won't try to convince other people and themselves how Firefox or Opera has just got to be the best browser in the world and that Chrome is just a pathetic attempt for Google to steal the Web Browser market.

I started using Chrome since 0.4 Beta, kept using it mostly out of fanboyism but it has since evolved so much that I could easily dump Firefox as my default browser. And it just keeps getting better. So much, in fact, that even Mozilla is implementing some of Chrome's ideas (eg. releasing 4 new versions annually, condensing the url & tab bars, improving the startup time, etc.).

Now that MS has also started to really push IE my Peacekeeper tests show how it's actually _faster_ than the latest nightly Firefox. That's a _huge_ improvement from the previous "IE Platform Preview" release(s) and it makes me wonder if the MS folks actually started copying some other browsers code (eg. if it was BSD licensed).

So all the major browsers (Opera, Safari, Firefox, Chrome, IE) are now evolving faster than ever before but Chrome is still overally at the top of the pile. If GPU acceleration doesn't count (it's not even all that useful yet in today's web) Opera comes next - not too far behind, even.
 
I too started using Chrome pretty much as soon as I heard of it's existence. I just wanted to try it but ended up never using IE again except for compatibility reasons, and now it's been a long time since I've visited a site that does not support Chrome.

I started with Netscape as my first browser in 95, but it crashed a lot, then used IE as it was faster (it half loaded with the OS). I dumped IE for Firefox as soon as it was stable. I also tried Safari and Opera and liked them but kept Firefox as my default.

Things that I like about Chrome is it's simplicity and speed, I like the search/URL combo, the size of the browsing window is also great due to the their making use of the top of the window for tabs and no toolbars everywhere like IE.

I will very likely stick with Chrome for a long time.
 
Back