14 DAY TRIAL // The Google Chrome dev channel has been updated. Google Chrome 7.0.517.24 dev is now available for download. The update comes just a few days after the previous release indicating that the Chrome 7 beta is very close.
"The Dev channel has been updated to 7.0.517.24 for Windows, Mac, Linux and Chrome Frame," Anthony Laforge of the Google Chrome team wrote in the standard release announcement.
"This release focused on resolving minor bug fixes or crashes. More details about additional changes are available in the svn log of all revisions," he added.
For the past few weeks, part of the Google Chrome team has been working on bringing Chrome 7.0.517.xx to beta quality. The first beta release should now be close.
For the past two major beta releases, the last part of the version number, indicating small updates, reached either .29 or .33.
Chrome 7.0.517.xx will be the first Chrome 7 beta. There was one Chrome 6 beta, but two Chrome 5 betas. The major version usually changes around the time the intermediary version number adds another hundred, but that's hardly a rule.
Still, that would indicate that there may be one more major Chrome 7 beta and eventually another stable release.
Changes in the Chrome 7 beta are minimal compared to the current Chrome 6 beta/stable version, due to the shortened release schedule.
Google has said that it plans to launch a major stable release every six weeks, half the time it previously took. It's been almost two months since the launch of the Chrome 6 beta, the previous major release.
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.