Google's Chrome leaves beta

Author: Gareth Halfacree
Published: 12th December 2008
Comments (12) Stumble
Google's Chrome leaves beta

The new 1.0 build of Chrome is around 50% faster than when it was first released as a beta, and includes improved security features.

In what must mark the shortest beta-to-release cycle for any Google product ever, the search giant has announced that its open-source browser Chrome has grown up enough to be called a fully-fledged 1.0 release.

According to CNet, the move to launch a full release of Chrome was announced as part of the Le Web 08 conference in Paris by vice president Marissa Mayer and confirmed by representatives from the firm yesterday. The move has surprised many Google-watchers, as it comes so soon – just 100 days – after the initial public beta was launched.

The new build is available directly from Google on the Chrome homepage, and a small quantity of existing Chrome users will receive it automatically via the internal update mechanism over the next few hours. Assuming that all goes well, the remainder of the estimated 10 million users will get the update automatically later today.

Google claims that this latest build of Chrome includes “tons and tons of bug fixes,” mainly centered around video and audio playback within the browser. The engine has also befitted from ongoing speed enhancements, with product development vice president Sundar Pichai claiming that this latest build is around 1.4 to 1.5 times faster than the original beta release of Chrome.

Add in to the mix improved bookmark management tools and security and privacy enhancements and you're looking at a far more polished product than the beta release, although even version 1.0 is missing some features many users consider must-haves in a web browser: autofill capabilities for web forms and support for RSS feeds within the browser. Pichai claims these are in the pipeline, however – along with official builds for Mac and Linux platforms.

Has its graduation to version 1.0 got you excited about Google's entry into the browser market, or are there still fundamental features that need to be added before you'd consider switching? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
Quote Horizon 12th December 2008, 09:16
my only dislike about the browser is that I can't reopen old tabs that I've closed very annoying, they stopped the crashing and the A/V problems I've experienced have quietly gone away. I hope they open it up so user can use third-party applets.
Quote Bauul 12th December 2008, 09:45
Chrome is a blessing for my girlfriend's old 1.2Ghz laptop with its whopping 512Mb RAM. As all the other browsers get more and more memory hungry, something so streamlined and quick is awesome.
Quote dyzophoria 12th December 2008, 10:30
I just hope they didnt rush this one just to prove that none of their apps are stuck at beta, its just reminds me too much of their android phone OS, that was riddled with weird problems
Quote proxess 12th December 2008, 11:10
And a Linux release?
Quote Mentai 12th December 2008, 11:39
Wow, 1.5x faster on the fastest browser already? Nice. I'll be grabbing this :D
Quote UncertainGod 12th December 2008, 12:51
Once the extension support gets integrated I'll be all over this browser.
Quote iwog 12th December 2008, 12:55
Quote:
Originally Posted by Horizon
my only dislike about the browser is that I can't reopen old tabs that I've closed very annoying, they stopped the crashing and the A/V problems I've experienced have quietly gone away. I hope they open it up so user can use third-party applets.

ctrl - shift - T
Quote nukeman8 12th December 2008, 13:08
just updated chrome and its made mine worse.

surfing the net using chrome and it crashes (use to it by now) however it didnt give me the choice of reopening what i looking at, my load times seem longer, might be me thou
Quote sheninat0r 12th December 2008, 20:08
This is good news, but I [and others like me] am still waiting for a Linux build. Hopefully now that it's in 1.0 it should come soon-ish.
Quote Cupboard 13th December 2008, 00:59
I wondered what it was doing earlier saying it needed to finish installing - obviously it had just updated itself.
Good good, I am pleased that they think it is "finished" for now. Thanks for that shortcut iwog :)
Quote StephenK 13th December 2008, 02:06
Great news. I've been using this on my EeePc instead of Firefox for a while now. Quite speedy already but I won't say no to 50% faster :D
Quote The_Beast 13th December 2008, 06:36
I might just have to give it a try
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