14 DAY TRIAL // Google Chrome 12 is almost here now that its open source twin Chromium has already advanced to this version number. Those that are on the bleeding edge of Chrome development will notice that the latest versions are labeled Chromium 12.0.7xx. This is completely expected, Chrome 11 is heading to the beta channel now that Chrome 10 has graduated to the stable one.
Last week Chrome 10 was made available for everyone. Users running a beta channel versions are now on par with the stable channel and will be so for next couple of weeks.
In the mean time, Chrome 11 has started down the road towards beta status, with the release of Chrome 11.0.696.3 dev. This build, once more bugs are squashed, will eventually become the Chrome 11 that most people will run, in about six weeks' time.
With the dev channel version locked while the beta is being prepared, spearhead development will continue with Chromium and Google Chrome Canary.
Chromium 12 signals a new cycle in the development schedule of Chrome, this branch will eventually lead to Chrome 12.
Of course, as anyone who follows Chrome development more closely will tell you, there are no big differences between the latest Chromium/Chrome 11 and Chromium 12, it's merely a version number update. Most of the new features and capabilities will be landing in the coming weeks.
One change that has already been implemented is the new Chromium logo that probably precedes a similarly revamped Chrome logo. We'll have to wait for Chrome 12 to land in the dev channel to see how the new logo will look like, if, of course, there actually is one.
Some though, taking cues from the new Chromium logo, are speculating on what the Chrome one might look like and some designs seem rather plausible.
There are more tangible updates as well in the latest Chromium 12, a new history tab is in the works, accessible via chrome://history2 rather than the usual chrome://history. The new history page is also available in Chrome 11. There are several new experiments in the about:flags section as well, which have been previewed here.
Chromium 12 is available for download here.
