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.

The Chrome development team have today announced a new partnership with Adobe which bundles Adobe’s Flash with Google Chrome browser.

The latest development builds include Adobe Flash Player 10.1.51.95 (10.1 beta 3), and allows Chrome users to receive updated Flash updates automatically without the need of user intervention.

“The traditional browser plug-in model has enabled tremendous innovation on the web, but it also presents challenges for both plug-ins and browsers. The browser plug-in interface is loosely specified, limited in capability and varies across browsers and operating systems. This can lead to incompatibilities, reduction in performance and some security headaches” explains Google.

This move will ensure participating plug-ins are always up to date, increasing browsers security, while also integrating plug-ins tighter within the browser ensuring they become more stable.

Mozilla is also in on the plan, with Google using Mozilla’s next generation browser plug-in API. Other plug-ins such as Adobe’s PDF reader are expected to come further down the track.

Adobe’s Flash Player can be found from today with today’s dev channel update for Chrome; version 5.0.360.4 for Windows and Mac and 5.0.360.5 for Linux.

Google has pushed out a small update to Google Chrome, taking it to version 4.1.249.1045 on Windows.

The update fixes a crash bug, and adds a new option to disable the new translate feature. This release also closes a security hole which was rated as low and would crash the browser upon receiving a bad FTP response.

Information on these two crash bugs can be read in issues 38857 and 38845.

The update will be pushed out to Windows Chrome users automatically, or alternatively, you can download the browser from the Google Chrome website.

After day 1 of Pwn2Own, web browsers appear to have taken a big hit, but Google’s Chrome appears to have come out unscathed.

It didn’t take long, with Safari 4 on Mac OS X Snow Leopard the first victim thanks to the work of Charlie Miller. Millers set up a remote exploit at a web site through which a conference organisers MacBook was taken control after surfing to it.

Internet Explorer 8 on Windows 7 was next, with a similar exploit allowing Peter Vreugdenhil to take control of an organisers laptop once they browsed to a website with the infected code.

Firefox 3 was also exploited on Windows 7 using a memory corruption vulnerability, with another exploit that allows a remote attacker access to a users PC.

Both Opera and Google Chrome were not hacked, with Charlie Miller stating “there are bugs in Chrome but they’re very hard to exploit. I have a Chrome vulnerability right now but I don’t know how to exploit it. It’s really hard. They’ve got that sandbox model that’s hard to get out of. With Chrome, it’s a combination of things — you can’t execute on the heap, the OS protections in Windows and the Sandbox.”

All systems were patched and updated to their latest versions, with the exploits used to remain a secret until browser makers can update their browsers.

Google has pushed out Chrome 4.1.249.1042 to Windows users.

Not much was changed in this release, with only one change solving an issue with some extensions not installing from the Google Chrome extensions gallery. This fixes issue 38220.

The update will be pushed out to all Chrome users, while new users can download the browser from the Google Chrome website.

Google has pushed out Chrome 4.1.249.1036 to Windows users, which adds several privacy features and closes several security holes.

Users now also have the option to translate pages using Google Translate if the page they are visiting isn’t in their native language. A great time saver for many.

This latest release closes 9 security holes, 5 of which are rated high, 3 medium, and one low. More details on these security issues can read on the Google Chrome Blog.

The update will automatically be pushed out for Windows users, while users can download the browser from the Google Chrome website.

Google Chrome developers have pushed out new code to Mac beta users allowing them access to bookmark sync and browser extensions, just over a month after these features made it to the dev channel.

Chrome 5.0.307.7 brings many new features to Mac, and also included updates for Linux users.

Mac users now have access to these new features:

• Extensions
• Bookmark sync
• Bookmark manager
• Cookie manager
• Task manager

The team have also worked hard to ensure the browser is more stable, while having better support for plug-ins like Adobe Flash Player.

The new updated will be pushed out to existing users, or can be downloaded using the links below:

• Windows: http://www.google.com/chrome/eula.html?extra=betachannel
• Mac: http://www.google.com/chrome?platform=mac
• Linux: http://www.google.com/chrome?platform=linux

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.

Google has pushed out an update to its Chrome browser on Windows, taking it to version 4.0.249.78.

The update now includes extensions and bookmark sync in the stable version on Windows.

The update also addresses 11 security issues, 4 of which were rated as high severity, 2 medium, and 5 low.

New users can download Google Chrome from the Google Chrome website, while the update will be pushed out to existing Chrome users.

Google overnight has updated the development channel version Google Chrome, this time turning on extensions for Mac.

This is new version is in addition to the beta version, which Mac users have been able to test for the last few weeks.

Almost 1,400 extensions are currently available for Chrome users.

Mac users wanting to test out extensions can install the developer build of Google Chrome from the Chromium Developer website, noting that this is a development build and is prone to bugs.

Beta users of Google Chrome Mac will have to wait until current code migrates from the Dev to Beta channel to test out extensions.