14 DAY TRIAL // Google has made available for download the first taste of the next major version of its open source browser, Chrome 7.0. The Mountain View-based search giant is certainly living up to its promise to offer increase the pace at which it is delivering new iterations of Google Chrome.
At the end of July 2010, Google promised that customers will experience a very rapid succession of Chrome releases, and version 7.0 is certainly the company’s first step toward offering upgrades more frequently.
Early adopters can now download Google Chrome 7.0.503.0. This specific Build is offered through the Dev channel and is available for testers running Windows and Mac OS X.
According to Jason Kersey, from the Google Chrome team, Chrome Frame was also kicked up a notch to version 7.0.503.0. Early adopters running Linux will be able to download and start testing Build 7.0.503.1.
“IP addresses typed into the omnibox now work when offline,” Kersey mentioned when talking about the changes delivered into the first Dev channel release of Chrome 7.0.
At this point in time, Google Chrome 7.0 doesn’t bring any new major features for testers to try. However, Google is bound to introduce additional changes in the browser version, as Chrome 7.0 will move forward in terms of development.
While Google only now introduced Chrome 7.0, the search giant was already offering the successor of 6.0 to testers.
Still, it did so through the underlying open source project for the browser, namely Chromium. Build 7.0.503.0 is the first release of Chrome 7.0.
But while Google is working on Chrome 7.0, the Stable flavor of the browser continues to be at 5.0 level. Just the past week, Google Chrome 5.0.375.127 was released to Windows, Mac OS X and Linux users.
At the same time, the most recent Beta development milestone of Chrome is Build 6.0.472.41, which was offered to testers on August 20.
Google Chrome 7.0 Dev for Windows is available for download here.