Google Chrome celebrates one year anniversary by releasing Chrome 3.0

Posted on 16-09-2009

On September 2, Google Chrome finished a whole year since it launched to the world in that unexpected comic book format. To celebrations the occasion – albeit two weeks late – Google has unveiled the new stable version of their browser, Chrome 3.0.

The version numbers seem to be ticking by faster than we can report them, with Chrome 2.0 being launched just four months ago; still, who’s complaining? According to StatsCounter, the browser already has 7.39 per cent of the market share in India, making it a force to reckon with.

So what does the new version have in store for us? Google Chrome Product Manager Anthony Laforge wrote a long post on of the official blog about the same, and here are the salient points:

Faster browsing: This new release of Google Chrome is faster than ever, improving by more than 150 per cent in Javascript performance since the very first beta, and by more than 25 per cent since the most recent stable release.
New Tab Page: The speed-dial on the New Tab page of Google Chrome has been one of its most popular features and now it's more customisable too. You can now rearrange thumbnails of your most-visited websites by simply clicking and dragging your mouse. Additionally, you can pin thumbnails to a spot so they don't disappear even if your browsing habits change. What's more, you can hide parts of the page you don't want to see, or even opt for a simple list view of all your most visited Web sites.
Omnibox gets icons: The address-cum-search bar 'Omnibox' of Google Chrome has gotten a much-needed tweak to help users distinguish a search result from a Wiki page and a site you entered from a bookmar in its drop-down menu. The solution? A simple little icon at the start of the URL.
HTML5: "We're very excited about HTML5 becoming standard in modern browsers, and continued to add HTML5 capabilities to this stable release. We're particularly excited about the <video> tag in HTML5, which makes embedding videos in a page as simple as embedding regular images. The <video> tag also allows video playback without a plug-in," Laforge writes.
Themes come to mainstream: While the Google Chrome Themes were initially started as only an option for beta testers, the new Chrome 3.0 will let anyone avail of the theme gallery to spruce up their browser.

The one big disappointment, of course, is the lack of extensions in this new release. Looks like Google still has some creases to iron out there.

You can grab your copy of Google Chrome 3.0 here, or simply go to the ‘About’ section of your Chrome browser and update it automatically.

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