Google has a new beta release available for the Chrome browser with some new features. Among these, is a new user interface, which was previewed on the developer channel in June, including changes to the toolbar and omnibox.
Google software engineer James Hawkins talks about a couple of the other new features on the Chrome Blog. "One of my favorite features, Autofill, helps you fill in web forms automatically with information that you specify, such as your name, address, phone number, and the credit card number you use for shopping online," he says. "Autofill builds up and saves this information for you over time, so that you can fill in long web forms with just a few clicks without typing in the same information over again. For your security, any personal information stored in Chrome is safely stored and kept private until a user chooses to share the information with a website. Additionally, your credit card information is never saved without first asking you explicitly."
"We also continue to bring more synchronization capabilities to Chrome," he adds. "In addition to syncing bookmarks, preferences, and themes, you can now choose to sync your Chrome extensions as well as your Autofill data (excluding credit card numbers) through your Google Account. With Chrome’s sync features, you can personalize your Chrome experience and access your painstakingly curated set of bookmarks, preferences, themes, extensions, and Autofill data from any computer you choose, as long as you’re signed in to your Google Account on Chrome for that computer. To start syncing, go to the the ‘Sync’ section of the “Personal Stuff” tab in Chrome’s options."
In addition to the new interface and these features, the new beta is faster. Google has always placed a great deal of emphasis on speed with Chrome, and they continue to do so. Hawkins says its 15% faster on both the V8 and SunSpider benchmarks. You can see the progressions on these visually here.
Google recently announced that it intends to release new stable versions of Chrome every six weeks.