Chrome 15 now comes with a redesigned New Tab page

Sep 23, 2011 10:14 GMT  ·  By

A week after it introduced a new Stable version of its open source browser, Google is pushing two of its successors to the next level. Chrome 15 graduated into Beta and Chrome 16 is now available to early adopters for testing via the Dev Channel. Testers can access Google Chrome 16.0.889.0 Dev, but only as long as they’re running Windows or Mac OS X. Although it’s tradition for Chrome releases to be synchronized for all supported platforms, there are exceptions, and Chrome 16 Dev is not available for Linux due to a severe bug which still needs fixing.

Chrome 16.0.889.0 Dev should be a tad more stable compared to Chromium 16, according to the Mountain View-based search giant, since it features fixes for a number of issues impacting reliability.

Google also revealed that multi-users (multi-profiles) are now on by default in Chrome 16 Dev, and that users should no longer come across an incompatibility issue when attempting to retrieve files from a FTP server.

V8 3.6.4.0 is the new version of the updated JavaScript engine in Chrome 16 Dev, Google revealed, although as usual, the company is shy when it comes down on sharing details on improvements.

In addition to Chrome 16.0.889.0 Dev, Google also launched Chrome 15.0.874.24 Beta for Windows and Mac OS X, as well as Build 15.0.874.21 for Linux.

“Javascript Fullscreen API is now enabled by default; Chrome Web Store items can now be installed inline by their verified site and Omnibox History is now an additional sync data type,” Karen Grunberg, from the Google Chrome team said.

One aspect of Chrome 15’s evolution is bound to be the most visible to end users, namely the overhauled New Tab page.

Chrome 15.0.874.24 Beta now enables customers to easily access their preferred websites, applications and bookmarks right from a newly launched Tab.

“Your apps, bookmarks, and most visited sites now appear in three different sections on the page. You can flip between these different sections by clicking the section labels at the bottom of the page or the arrows at the side of the page. Chrome will remember the last section you flipped to and return to it when you open a new tab,” revealed Evan Stade, Google Software Engineer.

Google Chrome for Windows is available for download here. Google Chrome for Linux is available for download here. Google Chrome for Mac is available for download here.