Keeping up with its promise to accelerate the release cycle for Chrome and push out a new stable build every six weeks, Google has released version 7 of its browser. The update brings dozens of bug fixes as well as several features that have been available to beta and developers build users for several months. That includes an updated HTML5 parser, support for directory upload and an HTML5 File API, which allows for web-based content to read files stored locally on a user's system, full AppleScript support for Mac OS X UI automation, and new options for managing cookies.
The update also addresses a total of 11 security vulnerabilities in the WebKit-based browser, including one that Google rates as critical and five high-risk issues. The critical bug involves a flaw with the form autofill functionality that can crash the browser, while the high-risk bugs involve URL spoofing, memory corruption, elements issues and other crashes.
The release seems a bit light on new features compared to past versions and it doesn't seem that Google is too concerned about using version numbers to mark a significant development milestone - at this pace we'll be using Chrome 15 one year from now. But as long as they keep the browser lean and fast I can't say I'm too concerned with this either. The latest stable build (7.0.517.41) is available now for Windows, Linux and OS X. Those who currently have Chrome installed can use the built-in update function in under the About Google Chrome menu item.