The Google Chrome team are in the process of implementing some changes to the user interface, in the aim of streamlining the toolbar.

Changes include displaying either a magnifying glass, or a globe icon in the URL bar to help determine what the browser is doing with the user input. Secure sites will now display the padlock icon at the start of the URL, rather than at the end of the URL bar.

Reasons for the changes, and a list of other planed changes can be seen on the Chromium blog.

These changes are starting to make their way into Chrome Dev Builds.

The Chromium team has sure been working hard, with Google Chrome 6.0.401.1 hitting the Dev Channel for Windows, Mac and Linux users.

This means Chrome 5 is now feature complete, and will continue to make its way from the Beta Channel to the stable release.

Not much has changed so far, with a list of changes available in the Google Chrome Releases blog. There is however one known issue with this build; hitting enter in some form fields does not submit the form. This bug is expected to be fixed in the next Dev Channel update.

Current Chrome Dev Channel users will automatically receive the new update, while new ‘daring’ users can get details on how to get this latest build from the Chromium website.

Google has removed the http:// from new development builds of it’s Chrome browser.

The change was noticed when a user posted a bug report in the Chromium issue tracker, to which a Chrome developer replied and stated that this is a new feature, and not a bug.

Currently when you copy and paste a the URL from these development builds, the http:// will be missing, but this is expected to change in the new future.

https:// and ftp:// are still displayed for security reasons, but some argue this is inconsistent.

This feature will eventually make its way into the standard browser.

Google has pushed out version 5 of Chrome to the dev channel for Windows, Mac and Linux.

Not much has changed so far, but Windows versions will now use the default download folder for downloading files, while the Mac version is now more stable with extensions.

Linux versions now include support for desktop notifications, along with improved support for complex text such as Arabic and Hebrew.

Being development versions, they are prone to instability and crashes. There is currently one known bug in the Mac version, which will crash the browser when a user clears the cookies.

Users can jump on the dev channel version of Google Chrome by following instructions on the Chromium website.

With the release of Google Chrome 2 just out the door, Google has started work on Chrome 3, with the latest developer build being version 3.0.182.2.

The latest development build fixes a few bugs, as well as adding new features. A full list of changes can be found in the release notes.

Users wanting to test out this release can change their browser to the developer channel.

Google Chrome may soon have full-screen mode. An avid user has spotted that the versions available from the Dev Channel now include full-screen support.

To enable full-screen in the development release of Chrome you just press F11, much like any other browser.

This much anticipated feature should make it’s way in to the public release of Google Chrome in the coming weeks.

Google has just opened up Chrome’s dev channel. The dev channel gives early access to new features and bug fixes. Google promises to release Chrome updates to the dev channel frequently, providing webmasters the ability to test their sites and script with the latest version of the Chrome browser.

Google does warn however that dev channel releases are prone to be less stable than their Beta cousins released on the main Google Chrome website.

To subscribe to the dev channel, you simply need to download and install the Google Chrome Channel Chooser. Full details and installation instructions can be found on the dev channel website.