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 has just bumped Chrome up a version, with the latest release now bring 2.0.172.28.
The new release is now 30% faster than the previous release according to Google.
Chrome 2.0 also adds new features, including full screen mode, form autofill, and the ability to remove thumbnails from the New Tab page.
The release is available to new users from the Chrome website, and existing users will be upgraded automatically.
With the latest developer build of Google Chrome being released this week (version 2.0.180.0), evidence has surfaced showing that extensions and plug-ins are on their way for the browser.
Release notes show that developers have implemented “extensions window & tabs API events.”
“The extensions posse would like to point out that as of today’s dev channel release, extensions are starting to be a bit more useful. We can now put little bits of UI (user interface) in the chrome of Chrome, and some of the APIs (application programming interfaces) are starting to come together,” said Google programmer Aaron Boodman. “There is still quite a ways to go, but if you’re interested in building extensions for Chrome, this might be a good time to start taking a look.”
Google has also updated Chrome Extension HOWTO and included some sample extensions, including a gmail checker.
You can download the latest developer release from the Chromium website.
Google is set to run an advertising campaign on television in the United States, in a bid to steal market share away from rival Microsof’s Internet Explorer.
Currently, Google Chrome holds almost 1.5% of the browser market share, while Internet Explorer is streaks ahead at 66%.
“We designed a Google TV Ads campaign which we hope will raise awareness of our browser, and also help us better understand how television can supplement our other online media campaigns,” said a post on Google’s corporate blog.
The first advertisements are expected to air over the weekend.
The Google Chrome team has created a slew of new videos to promote their browser.
You can watch each and everyone of them from the Google Chrome YouTube channel. The 11 featured videos are all new, with 42 videos now in the channel.
Google has released a new version of Chrome over night patching a high-severity security hole.
The flaw, discovered on April 8 by IBM, allowed for cross-site scripting attacks through the use of malicious JavaScript on a website.
Google Chrome program manager, Mark Larson, describes how the flaw could work. “An error in handling URLs with a chromehtml: protocol could allow an attacker to run scripts of his choosing on any page or enumerate files on the local disk under certain conditions.”
“If a user has Google Chrome installed, visiting an attacker-controlled Web page in Internet Explorer could have caused Google Chrome to launch, open multiple tabs, and load scripts that run after navigating to a URL of the attacker’s choice. Such an attack only works if Chrome is not already running” wrote Larson.
The patch will be pushed out automatically to current Chrome users, and will take the browser to version 1.0.154.59. New users can download the latest Google Chrome directly.
Google has released software called O3D which aims to bring accelerated 3D graphics to the web browser.
O3D is a plug-in available for all major browsers on Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms.
The technology works by allowing developers access to a computers 3D hardware simply by using JavaScript.
The plug-in is available from Google today, and the website includes live demo’s and a video showing off the technology.
Google has joined the European Union (EU) case against Microsoft as a 3rd party.
“This is because Internet Explorer is tied to Microsoft’s dominant computer operating system, giving it an unfair advantage over other browsers. Compare this to the mobile market, where Microsoft cannot tie Internet Explorer to a dominant operating system, and its browser therefore has a much lower usage” explains Google’s Sundar Pichai.
The case against Microsoft is good, and will take many months to be heard.
Opera has released the final version of Opera Mini 4.2 for Google Android phones. Opera Mini 4.2 final brings back a lot of the regular features which were disabled in the early beta.
New features include the ability to upload and download files, save pages, and zoom in and out with a double tap.
Users will also be pleased to know that the password bug has now been fixed, and your passwords will be hidden as you enter them in.
Currently there is only one Android phone, T-Mobile’s G1 phone. You can download the browser from the Opera Mini website.
Google, as promised, has turned off the anti-phishing tool used in Firefox 2 as of 20th January. The anti-phishing tool would block sites suspected of hosting identity theft scams.
Recent Firefox build 2.0.0.19 and 2.0.0.20 have had this feature removed, but there are still thousands out there using earlier versions.
Mozilla is urging Firefox 2 users to upgrade to Firefox 3 as soon as possible. Firefox 3 includes a newer version of the anti-phishing protocol provided by Google.
Firefox 2 users can upgrade to Firefox 3 by selecting ‘Check for updates’ in the help menu, or can download the update manually from the Firefox website.