Google Chrome 2, now out of beta, is less about exciting new features and more about better performance. There's nothing impressive about adding full screen support, form filling or full-page zoom, since all of these features are already available in most browsers.
"Making the web faster continues to be our main area of focus. Thanks to a new version of WebKit and an update to our JavaScript engine, V8, interactive web pages will run even faster. We've also made sure that JavaScript keeps running fast even when you have lots of tabs open," reveals Google Chrome's blog.
Google's own benchmark shows that the new version runs 30% faster than Chrome 1.0, but it's probably a better idea to test the application for yourself.
Version numbers are not important and you don't even need to know that the browser has been updated: since it always runs the most current version, the new features are enabled gradually as they're developed, like in a web application. "A note on version numbers: we're referring to this as Chrome 2, but that's mainly a metric to help us keep track of changes internally. We don't give too much weight to version numbers and will continue to roll out useful updates as often as possible."
Faster, Stronger, Better would be a spot more impressive if you managed to stop tweaking whats avialable and work on what's not at all- say, for us Mac and 'nux users, je?
"we want chrome for mac osx!!!! " "if you managed to stop tweaking whats avialable and work on what's not at all- say, for us Mac and 'nux users, je? "
It's in development, it'll be here soon enough.
Stopping the development and improvements on the Windows version won't make the Mac/*nix versions come out any faster. They have a team working on them, shutting down the other teams won't do them any good.
It seems chrome is moving towards success. So many bugs are fixing daily in chrome. Recently i am not gettig so many errors while using chrome. However still few errors are there, hope chrome team will fix it soon. I often send all chrome bugs to chrome support team to fix it. Looking forward for 99% bugs fixed chrome.
Full-page zoom definitely is an improvement, however regarding the claim 'faster, better, stonger': Gmail opens faster in Firefox (loading it as application using the Prism addon) than Chrome 2.0.
@Anonymous: Use the portable version: http://ftp.hosteurope.de/mirror/stadt-bremerhaven.de/Chrome/Portable_Google_Chrome_2.0.172.28.exe (unofficial version, use it at your own risk)
You can disable autoupdates from Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services, although I dont see why would you do such a thing... You like heaving old and buggy browser? Then use IE :)
Why is there so much buzz about this browser??? What does it bring to the table that isnt already there in spades? Ohhh right. The magic "g". Seriously ... Who Cares? As a web dev this is just another pile of quirks to support.
As other anonymi have observed, Chrome will NOT be on my PC as long as it silently calls home for updates. I don't care if it's from the Benign Empire of Google or not. Despite what you all may think, Google programmers can screw up and produce a flawed update. On my machines, I decide whether or not fixes will be installed after doing the best I can to determine if they are safe. Let me be more explicit: There's a name for software that silently downloads code without the user's permission; it's called MALWARE!
Chrome TEAM PLEASE ADD support and integration with gmail account and the bookmarks and other personal stuff to be accessed from anywhere and any computer when i am connected to gmail. Refer to Opera sync feature....that i miss a lot with chrome...
BTW it is the best and the fastest browser on the market. So Continue the good work.
Chrome 2 faster? Yeah. It feels like it is. Better? Than what? v1? Yeah but not better in terms of features compared to IE8 (my default browser) and Firefox. Stronger? As in it won't crash on me more than it did in v1? Hope hope so.
Chrome has potential to be a great browser but for now it's just a nice browser.
May be you should all start donating the money to Google, like all those open source software out there.
Waiting from community, preying to God, they might release a new version. May be they would not plant some information collector in the program. Yes, may be they will release a patched one. May be the group who made it has not stopped working in it. God I should be in so much of a mess.
About donating, I love Firefox, I don't know how that company runs, it is one of the best browsers I have used.
Well, to me Chrome means. I can say , another fast Google searching browser, better Orkut support, better you tube support.
Right now, I am not that worried about invasion. Ask me why, I got options, I have Opera, I have Firefox, and IE. There is more in the line.
Google is only trying to help the way it knows. It may be using many the information about the user. I am not worried about that at this point of time. Well I know they would never touch my credit card info.
Chrome has the same problem that firefox has, which is that all instance of the browser share the same session data. That means that you can't be logged in the same site with 2 different account, in 2 different browser window.
IE does not have this problem. This is a must to me. Can't use Chrome nor Firefox while this problem is not fixed.
@digish wrote "... I love Firefox, I don't know how that company runs, ..."
It used to run on large donations from Google as payment for making latter's search the default. I don't know but I suspect that's true today, if so then perhaps Chrome's some of sort of insurance policy because Fx is becoming too slow and bloated.
@digish also suggested "May be you should all start donating the money to Google"
Yeah why not -- our governments are already doing it on our behalf for the banks, car companies, airlines, defence industry, insurance companies, mortgage financiers, agribusiness conglomerates etc -- might as well do it ourselves in this case, at least it'll cut out the bureaucrats.
People have echoed most of my thoughts already, but I'll sum them up all the same:
1. Chrome brings nothing new to the table. Browser choice is a good thing, for sure, but without good standards compliance it is just another ball-ache. And Chrome seems quirky. Nobody is perfect, but at least Opera and Firefox seem to make an effort.
2. Greater integration with Google's other services risks tying users into Chrome, just as Microsoft Exchange ties users to IE.
3. Finally, Google are far from saints. From changes to the Adsense tracking policy, through degraded privacy and onto international censorship, the old motto of 'Do no evil' no longer stands true. Corporations demand dominance, and dominance demands, at the very least, compromise.
Personally I think that Google controls too much already, long since already. If they take control of my browser too then it's 1984 all over again (says I, posting this from a Google account!).
@Josué Ochoa: Different benchmarks, different results. According to V8 Benchmark Suite (version 4), Chrome 2 is 30% faster than the last stable build of Chrome 1. There are many JavaScript benchmarks and you should never think that one of them offers the real results.
Overall I like Chrome but I find that it breaks allot of web pages that work fine in Firefox, IE, and Opera. Most of the Chrome bugs are in webKit though and you will find the same problems in Safari.
Overall, the Chrome UI is much better then Safari and it seems to render fonts more consistantly. Fonts in Safari seem too bold.
It also works good in netbooks. The only thing I would warn about though is do not install google desktop on your netbook( google will include this by default when you download the browser), the indexer will kill your little CPU and shrink your battery life.
It may be faster on start up than Firefox but it's a very boring browser, otherwise. I'll wait the extra fraction of a second for Firefox to load. But thanks for the effort, Google.
