Google Chrome 5 Beta
Not long ago Google released the latest beta version of Google Chrome 5 for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux and is packed with some new and clever features. These features include Flash integration, JavaScript engine speed boost, HTML specifications such as Geolocation and drag-and-drop and expanded sync capabilities.
HTML 5 Support
Even though HTML 5 isn’t officially ready yet, Google will be implementing some of the new features. Google Chrome will introduce drag-and-drop capabilities for files, Geolocation, which will be used for Googles MyLocation feature and offline application caching. Google Chrome beta will also offer Web sockets, which will allow web-based applications to communicate with their host servers faster and easier.
Adobe Flash
Chrome 5 beta will be integrating Flash Player into the browser so users will no longer have to worry about downloading or updating the latest version of Flash. This means that users will be able to start watching videos on Hulu, Megavideo and YouTube as soon as they open up the browser. Google also say that the integration of Flash will make it more secure for users and Flash updates will be handled through Chrome’s automatic update.
Expanded Sync
Last year Google released bookmark sync for Chrome, which allows users to store Chrome bookmarks in a cloud and access them from any computer with chrome. Chrome beta 5 will expand the ability to sync themes, web content settings, language settings and start-up settings.
To use expanded sync, users have to click a wrench icon in Chrome and if they have an account with Google they can login to their account through a pop up window and Chrome will save all the settings to their Google Docs account. This will mean that users can use their own personal browsing settings on any computer that is running Chrome.
Incognito Mode
This feature allows users to browse the web without Chrome remembering their browsing or search history and block cookies. Incognito Mode also stops any extensions from running. With Chrome 5 beta, users can choose what extensions they would like to run while using Incognito Mode.
Improved Speed
Google has also improved the speed of Chrome with an enhanced JavaScript rendering engine with a 30 – 35% speed increase over their previous versions of Chrome. While the results may sound good, there are no official results as to whether this speed increase will make browsing faster.
If you want to give Chrome 5 beta a try then you can download it from Google now but will be buggy and likely to crash more than the stable releases of Chrome.
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Posted By: Oli
I’ve been interested in web design for a while and I went to university to study a degree in media and graphics. While at university I developed my design skills using Adobe Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver and Adobe After Effects.
