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 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.

YouTube has announced that it is dropping support for Internet Explorer 6 on March 13. This comes just weeks after Google announced that it would start dropping support for the browser on Google services this year.

Internet Explorer 6 users are currently presented with a nice message urging them to upgrade to a newer browser.

“On March 13, we are dropping support for your browser. You’ll still be able to watch videos after this date, but new features may not work properly” reads the message.

This gives users two weeks notice, though it may be of little use to many IE6 users, who are stuck using the browser on corporate networks.

More Google services are dropping support for IE6 later this year, but no firm dates have yet been given.

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

After news last week that Google will be removing support for Internet Explorer 6 in its Google Sites and Google Apps applications, a spokesperson from Google has also confirmed to ComputerWorld that the company also plans to drop support for IE6 from Gmail.

“We plan to stop supporting older browsers for the rest of the Google Apps suite, including Gmail, later in 2010,” said a Google spokesman.

The move seems a little risky, with Internet Explorer 6 still holding 20% of the browser market according to statistics from Market Share by Net Applications.

Microsoft has also weighted in on the debate. “We support this recommendation to move off Internet Explorer 6,” said Microsoft spokesman Brandon LeBlanc.

Full repercussions of this decision will not be known until later in this year when Google offically drops IE6 support. It is hoped that this move could help speed up the rate in which corporations are moving to newer versions of Windows and Internet Explorer.

A cut-off date for Internet Explorer 6 is still not known.

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.

Time appears to slowly be running out for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 6 (IE6), as Google has announced plans to drop support for the browser in its Google Sites and Google Docs applications.

“Many other companies have already stopped supporting older browsers like Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers” said Google Apps Senior Product Manager Rajen Sheth.

Not to feel left out, Google is also dropping support for Firefox 2, Chrome 3, and Safari 2.

“While you’ll still be able to access these Google applications, newer features may not be available and some features may even stop working” said Sheth.

Support for these older browsers is due to end on March 1st. Web users are urged to upgrade their web browsers before this time.

Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) has told Germans to avoid using any version of Internet Explorer after a security vulnerability lead to attacks against Google, Adobe, and other large organisations last week.

Microsoft has hit back at claims, noting that the attacks could be avoided if the security zone settings were set to high.

“Using Internet Explorer in ‘secure mode’, as well as turning off Active Scripting, makes attacks more difficult but can not fully prevent them,” BSI said in a further statement.

Microsoft has acknowledged the vulnerability, which is present in all versions of Internet Explorer, including IE8 on Windows 7.

Microsoft is expected to release a patch in the coming weeks.

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.