Google surprises, moves Chrome from beta

Robert Hallock 15 Dec, 2008 at 11:22am ET Article published in Tech

google_g While Linux and Mac OS clients remain MIA, Google has lifted the beta tag from their Chrome browser.

According to the statement made by Engineering Director Linus Upson and Sundar Pichai VP of Project Management, this fifteenth version will reach more than 10 million users who have downloaded the browser in just 100 days. “In just 100 days, we have reached more than 10 million active users around the world (on all seven continents, no less) and released 14 updates to the product,” it reads.

The statement goes on to list some of the enhancements that have found their way into this latest mint:

Significant enhancements to both video and audio playback.
JavaScript execution is 40-50% faster than the first beta’s.
New bookmark management (import/export) and privacy tools.
Refined menu for the browser’s privacy options.

The authors explain that the browser has been removed from beta because it has met internal stability and performance goals. But Google is quick to say that development on their new product is far from done.

We are working to add some common browser features such as form autofill and RSS support in the near future. We are also developing an extensions platform along with support for Mac and Linux.

Google requests that you try Chrome again if you’ve previously panned it. Your mileage may vary.

Comments

15 Dec 2008 ~ 11:37am MiracleManS Since it was first released, I've basically used Chrome for all my "normal" browsing (aka anything not work related). It has continually gotten better and the speed with which it loads the sites I use is fantastic. I still use Firefox for video at the moment as some of the add-ons and video players are easier to configure, but for standard, speedy browsing (especially Google sites), chrome is sweet.
15 Dec 2008 ~ 11:40am Thrax I still greatly dislike Chrome. It's a gigantic stick to the face of my workflow.
15 Dec 2008 ~ 1:52pm primesuspect I have fully switched over to Chrome, and as of Wordpress 2.7 and Chrome 1.0, the little niggling things that were causing me to have to use firefox have gone away. I'm fully Chromed out now.
15 Dec 2008 ~ 2:11pm jared 100% Windows, 100% fail.
15 Dec 2008 ~ 5:33pm Snarkasm I gave it a shot when it first came out and immediately junked it - scroll speed was OFF-THE-CHARTS fast with my laptop's scroll.

I gave it another shot when it came out of beta and immediately junked it - scroll speed remained off-the-charts fast, and I'm now noticing 50% processor usage on a newly-opened session with 4 tabs. No thanks.
15 Dec 2008 ~ 6:21pm Linc

Snarkasm wrote:

I'm now noticing 50% processor usage on a newly-opened session with 4 tabs. No thanks.

I frequently have to kill a chrome.exe process that hogs too much processor, and after I do it says in my Campfire chat window and Gmail that Shockwave has crashed. Doesn't kill any of my Chrome windows though.
15 Dec 2008 ~ 6:34pm Snarkasm These shouldn't have been anything even that taxing - I'm talking iGoogle, gmail, a forum or two, and maybe woot.

Way too high for the number and content I was seeing, at least. Even Firefox takes a week or two with 20 tabs to start spiking into the constant 40 and 50% usage.
15 Dec 2008 ~ 6:49pm primesuspect At the risk of sounding like Snark-defending-Vista, I'm gonna say I have no idea what you guys are talking about - I've had no issues of the sort.

Chrome runs fantastically well on my older system.
15 Dec 2008 ~ 6:51pm Thrax I'd assume his Chrome is running poorly because Vista is gobbling up all the system resources. Might want to check that out.
15 Dec 2008 ~ 7:00pm jared Thrax: 1, Snark: 0

:o
15 Dec 2008 ~ 7:28pm Snarkasm You guys are hilarious!

Srs though, Firefox with 20 tabs runs on 12% processor; one thread of Chrome's was at 40% with no sign of going down.

Still, I'd give it another chance if they'd change/give me a way to control the scroll speed. It's sadly unusable at the current speed.
15 Dec 2008 ~ 7:51pm jared It's sadly unusable in OSX or *nix. And by that I mean at all.
15 Dec 2008 ~ 7:52pm Snarkasm As I noted... from your first post.
15 Dec 2008 ~ 8:25pm fatcat and gmail is still beta...wtf
15 Dec 2008 ~ 11:04pm Linc I'm running XP, and all I keep open is Gmail, Reader, Calendar, and Campfire. Sometimes I go to processes and see a chrome.exe doing 20-40% of my system. *shrug* Sure hurts the folding until I catch it.

//edit: I just found one doing 40% on this system and showed Brian. Same deal: killing it didn't close any of my 4 windows, but it now says Shockwave crashed.
15 Dec 2008 ~ 11:10pm Ryder Sounds like the shockwave plugin is causing issues in Chrome.. Adobe needs an update