| Mozilla, Google and Microsoft are going head over heels to create the ultimate browser that takes the world into the second decade of the 21st century. Today, Google released the first beta version of its Chrome 6 Web browser. It has some much needed improvements. Along with the typical speed improvements, it includes improved syncing, an Autofill tool for forms and an improved user interface. |  |
Syncing has always been the best part of Chrome. What it now includes is support for Autofill data and extensions. You can still use Chrome’s existing ability to sync bookmarks, preferences and themes. Your Google account is the source of all synchronised data, which makes reinstalling Chrome, or accessing your bookmarks when away from your computer very simple. Firefox and Internet Explorer won’t be able to implement syncing as easily, since users would have to sign up for new accounts to store their data. Chrome has an advantage here as users already have Google accounts.
The Autofill feature allows you to quickly fill in Web forms with information like your name, address, phone number and even your credit card number. The information is saved over time by Autofill as you fill out other online forms. Google software engineer James Hawkins confirms, “personal information stored in Chrome is safely stored and kept private until a user chooses to share the information with a website.” He also stressed that Chrome only saves credit card information when the user permits it to do so. You can view a demo of Autofill in this video hosted on YouTube.
User interface of Chrome 6 has also been improved. Speed-wise, the beta offers 15 per cent faster performance on the V8 and SunSpider benchmarks, which both track javascript performance According to Hawkins, the Omnibox (Chrome’s address bar that handles search and other tasks) is now “more approachable." The Chrome 6 also has a few more new options in the settings menu, including Zoom and Edit (cut/copy/paste). Download Chrome 6 and try out all these feature.
This launch comes on the same day as Mozilla's release of the Firefox 4 Beta 3 with multi-touch feature, which we reported earlier. The search giant had previously launched the Google Chrome Canary Build, which they termed as the most experimental and risky version of the browser yet, as a teaser to this launch.
Do you think Chrome 6 has a fighting chance against Firefox 4 and IE9?
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