I have been following all Google Chrome updates till now very closely because I firmly believe that it has the power to tackle the Firefox steamroller head on. Not only has it proved to be faster than other browsers but recently Google also released the support for third party add-ons and extensions.
Slowly but steadily, they have been giving us more reasons to stick with them. Knowing very well that its USP lies in its faster speed, Chrome has now put in some more improvements and the new version claims to be 30% faster than before! If you already have Google Chrome installed, it’ll be automatically updated to this new version or you can download the new version at google.com/chrome. Let’s have a look at some of the updates:
- Awesomely Increased Speed: New updates to their Javascript engine, V8, and using the muscle power of a new version of WebKit enables Chrome to load interactive pages even faster. The engine also performs superbly fast when you have lots of tabs open.
- Cooler and better New Tab Page: Now you finally have the options to remove thumbnails from the New tab Page in Google Chrome.
- Full Screen Mode: To help you get the full force of a video or online .ppt behind you, this feature removes the title bar and the rest of the browser by hitting F11.
- Form Autofill: This feature helps in removing redundancy in filling forms by showing information that you might have previously entered into similar kind of form fields.
- Bugs, what bugs? Google Chrome has apparently fixed more than 300 bugs that might have been giving you frequent crashes.
What can we expect in the future?
Let’s see. Maybe more user generated add-ons. And why hasn’t Google till now given us obvious features like an integrated Google toolbar? Or a subscribe in Google Reader button? They must be in the pipeline somewhere.
All this has made me stick to Chrome for now. Will you do the same?
Let us know in the comments.
Aditya – speed is important but innovation in the browser itself is also. I reckon that with the current ecosystem state around the Fox, Chrome will continue to be only a low single digit competitor. take for example the new tab feature set. great – so now you can remove some of the thumbnails – but can they actually deliver anything close to what a small firefox extension New Tab King (http://www.newtabking.com) is offering?
–shelly
@shelly
As i said, Chrome is reaching steadily but surely. As soon as the develooper’s user generated add ons start flowing in, Chrome is gonna get some many extra functions!