Dev Channel release

Nov 24, 2009 07:53 GMT  ·  By

Just three days after the release of an update to the developer flavor of its open source browser, Google has made available for download a refresh of Chrome through the Dev Channel. “The Dev channel has been updated to 4.0.249.11 for Windows and Linux,” revealed Anthony Laforge, Google Chrome program manager. At the end of last week, the Mountain View-based search giant offered developers working with the most advanced version of the Chrome browser Build to 4.0.249.4. The difference is that 4.0.249.4, unlike 4.0.249.11 was released with support for all platforms, including Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X, while the latest update only plays nice with the first two operating systems.

According to Laforge, there are two main issues that Google has dealt with for this release. “Windows - make the char encoding indicator visible again on Windows. Extensions - extension popups shrink when their contents shrink,” he noted. But of course, there are additional improvements to this release. Google is in fact offering a complete log of all revisions introduced with Chrome 4.0.249.11.

At the same time, the start of this week was synonymous with an important step from Google on the path to permitting third-party developers to extend Chrome. Lei Zheng, Chrome Software engineer, notes that on November 23rd, Google managed to get closer to allowing third-party browser extensions for the Google Chrome's beta channel. As of the start of this week, devs can upload their browser enhancements in the Google Cloud, namely into the Google Chrome's extension gallery. “We are making the upload flow available early to make sure that developers have the time to publish their extensions ahead of our full launch,” Zheng added.

Devs need only upload their extensions and forget about details such as packaging and signing as Google will take care of those. “In the next few days, we plan to open up the gallery to a small group of trusted testers. They will provide developers with insights and bug reports that will help them polish their extensions ahead of our beta launch,” Zheng said.

The latest releases of Google Chrome are available for download here.