Google releases Chrome 12; announces no further support for older browsers

Google has released the next stable build of its browser – Chrome 12. Improvements since Chrome 11 are numerous, addressing everything from security to privacy to performance.

According to Google, Chrome 12 is more secure than ever before, using Safe Browsing technology, which has improved malware and phishing protection. It also includes a warning system that alerts the user when downloading certain file types – the system will not note the URLs or the files themselves.

Chrome 12 also gives users greater control over the data stored on your machine, including control over Flash Player’s Local Shared Objects (LSOs). Chrome 12’s graphics abilities have been improved as well, including support for hardware-accelerated 3D CSS.

Chrome users will get their browsers automatically updated over the next few days. In the meanwhile, Google had some other announcements up its sleeve, including the news that its sites (Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Talk, Google Docs, and Google Sites) would not longer support older browsers after August 1, 2011. This means that IE7, Safari 3, Firefox 3.5, or earlier browsers will not be supported, and Google will no longer test compatibility for these platforms before introducing new features.

This is just one of the latest moves by developers to try and make their users upgrade their browsers, with Microsoft, Mozilla, Opera, Google, and Apple all struggling to ensure the transition. This latest announcement by Google contained the vision:

“…new browsers are more than just a modern convenience, they are a necessity for what the future holds… Each time a new version is released, we’ll begin supporting the update and stop supporting the third-oldest version.”

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