Google releases Chrome 4.0 beta

Posted on 3 Nov 2009 at 11:20

Google has released version 4.0 of its Chrome browser for Windows, which introduces the bookmark sync feature first rolled out in a developer-only preview version in August.

While Google's Anthony LaForge showed huge excitement for Chrome's latest feature addition in a video explanation, it's hardly new. The popular Xmarks extension has been around for quite some time and expanded beyond just supporting bookmark synchronisation in Firefox on different computers to synchronising bookmarks across multiple browsers as well.

What's more, Chrome's bookmark synchronisation doesn't extend to Google's bookmark service, which is linked to iGoogle and the Google Toolbar - we presume this will be added at a later date, but it would give Chrome a leg up on other browsers.

Chrome 4.0 also adds the ability to accommodate extensions, but it's not enabled in this version. This is another feature which has left Chrome behind competing browsers, but its other innovations are what draw users to it.

Speaking of other innovations, Chrome 4.0 introduces other significant features, although it's not clear whether they'll arrive in the beta or stable versions. One such feature is Google's Native Client, which allows JavaScript applications to take advantage of the PC's processor through a secure mechanism. WebGL is another significant addition - it does the same as Native Client, but with hardware-accelerated graphics.

Together, these two innovations have the potential to dramatically improve web-based applications - something Google is banking on for its Chrome OS.

Author: Tim Smalley

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