Let the Browser Wars continue unabated! Google Chrome saw its tenth incarnation delivered in beta format today, and the search engine company — is that even accurate anymore — is boasting about some major speed improvements for the ever-gaining Chrome browser.
Over at the Google Chrome blog, the browsing speed improvements have been posted, and they are impressive. However, speed isn’t the only thing Google’s excited about. Synchronization of user information is another big component, as Google’s efforts to be the web user’s one-stop site for damn-near everything continues; not that you can fault them for this approach.
Facebook, Yahoo and Microsoft all have similar ideas.
As for the increased browsing speed, especially in relation to Javascript and GPU-related improvements, the entry has more:
This release also includes a preliminary implementation of GPU-accelerated video. Users with capable graphics hardware should see a significant decrease in CPU usage. In full screen mode, CPU usage may decrease by as much as 80%! This means better battery life so you can keep going and going like that pink bunny in the commercials.
The Chrome developers have also introduced some other features, of which, they document in the following video:
While I am a Chrome user, I haven’t installed the current beta, so I have no valid opinion to offer. Unfortunately, Twitter is lacking in that regard as well. There’re a lot of Tweets about the release, but not much reaction. One thing’s for sure, however: The speed at which these full-version updates occur is pretty ridiculous.
Twitter user Jeff Self (any relation to Bill?) noticed too:
Chrome 10 is in beta now? About time, Chrome 9 is getting pretty long in the tooth. Its been out, what a month now?
Jeff Self
JeffSelf
The first stable edition of Chrome launched in December of 2008, which essentially makes it a 2009/first-of-the-new-year product. In two years and two months time, Google’s browser has gone through ten “new version” updates, almost five a year.
Meanwhile, 25 years later, Windows in on version number seven — at least, if you go by their numbering system. Many thousands of updates have happened in that quarter of a century, but the version numbers change is more infrequent. In fact, Internet Explorer is only on its eighth edition, and that sucker’s been around since 1995.
Not be outdone by Google’s fast counting, Microsoft recently launched the beta version of IE 9. Of course, by the time they get to 10, Google will probably be in the beta process of Chrome XXL.