14 DAY TRIAL // Development on Google Chrome is going at a steady pace slowly building up to what may be a very good product. While the browser has been launched almost a year ago, has been out of beta since spring and reached its third iteration, at least in the development branch the browser is far from complete. The underlying technology is already solid but the presentation leaves some things to be desired but this is slowly evolving as well with a much improved theming system.
The latest developer releases include a new way to install themes inside the browser just by clicking on the links to the theme file. The developers have made a couple of themes available at the Chromium source repository, Camo and Snowflakes, and if you click on the browser will ask you if you want to install the new theme.
Chrome has had theme support for a while but installing them was not for the faint of heart as you had to first enable extension support, which is still pretty much in alpha, and them install the themes manually. Of course, it would be expected that this wasn't too much of a problem for most of the ones using the developer builds as these aren't intended for the every-day user but it wasn't an option for the majority of users.
Basic theme management is also now included in the browser, though it's still in the very early stages, in Options under the Personal Stuff tab with an “Reset to default theme” button and a “Get new themes” one. The new themes button leads to an non-existent page for now but there is further evidence that Google is working on a theme repository with a thumbnail in the default new tab/new window page.
Google has big plans for its browser but, currently, the lack of some basic features are keeping many from using it. This is by choice as most of the development effort is still focused on the underlying technology with Chrome being the fastest browser in many areas. The focus on speed and simplicity is also apparent from the minimalistic interface, one of its biggest selling points, but the scarcity does have its drawbacks with many waiting for extension support, Firefox's biggest advantage, and other features common in other browsers but still lacking in Chrome.
The latest releases of Google Chrome are available for download here.