Google Launches New Chrome Version

Google is launching the latest stable release of its Chrome Browser for Windows. This version comes with the heavily requested extensions and bookmark sync features.

"Bookmark sync is a handy feature for those of you who use several computers — say, a laptop at work and a desktop at home," explains product manager Nick Baum. "You can enable bookmark sync to synchronize your bookmarks on all of your computers so that when you create a bookmark on one computer, it's automatically added across all your computers. This means that you won't need to manually recreate the bookmark each time you switch computers." There's a step-by-step guide here for using bookmark sync.

Google recently launched its extensions gallery in beta, and it now has over 1,500 extensions.

Baum appears in the following video explaining how to use extensions on Chrome: 

For developers, Google has integrated some new HTML5 APIs like LocalStorage, Database API, WebSockets, etc. in the new stable release. These are elaborated on here. In addition, Google has improved the performance by 42% from its last stable release (400% from the first one), the company says.

Google says that for Linux users, extensions are enabled in the beta channel, and for Mac users, they're working on bringing extensions, bookmark sync and other features to the beta version soon. Users of the current stable version of Chrome for Windows will be automatically upgraded over the next week.

Have You Read This?

> Chrome Cruises By Safari

> Chrome Ad Campaign Nets Positive Results

> Digg Launches New Extensions for Firefox and Chrome

Interesting Chrome Extensions On the Way

Google has opened up the Chrome Extension Gallery (beta) to developers. This means that anyone can now upload their extensions. Google says it is making the upload flow available early so developers have time to publish their extensions ahead of Google's full launch.

"Once an extension is uploaded, our gallery takes care of packaging and signing," says Google software engineer Lei Zheng. "Updating an extension is also incredibly easy — all a developer needs to do is to upload a new file in the gallery. Finally, to further help developers, in the next few days, we plan to open up the gallery to a small group of trusted testers. They will provide developers with insights and bug reports that will help them polish their extensions ahead of our beta launch."

Google provides the following tips for uploading extensions:

- Upload a ZIP file of your extension directory, not a packaged CRX file.

- Include a well-designed product icon in your manifest (more info).

- After uploading your extension, you will need to provide a detailed description, as well as screenshots or a YouTube video of your extension in action.

The review process is fully automated in most cases. Google will manually review ones that include an NPAPI component and all content scripts that affect "file://" URLs. Developers will have to give Google additional information for these types of extensions, for security reasons.

Information about how to write extensions for Chrome can be found here. Google says all types of extensions are welcome, as long as they comply with their terms of service.


Have You Read This?

> Link Signaling Google Chrome Extensions Surfaces

> Google Chrome For Mac May Hit Beta In December

> New Google Chrome Release Includes Bookmark Sync

Link Signaling Google Chrome Extensions Surfaces

Google Chrome might be compared to a racecar; both are fast, but lacking in amenities.  It looks like Google's about to give Chrome users the option of adding air conditioning, stereo system, and cup holder equivalents, though, as extensions may become available in the very near future.

Last night, Lee Mathews discovered that an interesting little change had been made to the page Chrome displays when you open a new tab.  He wrote, "Up until now, the corner of the page featured a small graphic which linked to the Themes Gallery.  Today, that image was replaced with . . . links to https://chrome.google.com/extensions."

Unfortunately, at the time of Mathews's find (and of this article's publishing), the link just redirected to Google.com.  Loyal Chrome fans can't yet spiffy up their browser, and developers and would-be users also remain out in the cold.

Still, Google doesn't make a happy of sprinkling useless links all over the place, and since we've been expecting Chrome extensions for about six months, a full launch could occur at any time.

Chrome's market share - and Google's reaction to ad-blocking extensions - will bear close watching following that point.

Have You Read This?

> Google Chrome For Mac May Hit Beta In December

> New Google Chrome Release Includes Bookmark Sync

> Google Releases Latest Version Of Chrome