14 DAY TRIAL // Google has certainly been busy this week, offering a range of fresh downloads of its open source browser. New releases of Google Chrome 7.0, 8.0 and 9.0 are now available for download both to end users and to early adopters. Google Chrome 7.0 was the first to be updated on November 4th, 2010, with version 7.0.517.44 for Windows, Mac, Linux being released to the Stable channel.
There are no new features in Chrome 7.0.517.44, but Google did patch a range of security vulnerabilities, including on impacting the Flash plug-in which the browser contains by default.
On the heels of Chrome 7.0.517.44, the Mountain View-based search giant also updated the Beta channel for the browser.
“The Chrome Beta channel has been updated to 8.0.552.28 for all platforms,” revealed Jason Kersey, from the Google Chrome team.
“This release contains a number of bug fixes, as well as features like our new bundled PDF viewer, more sync services, and improved plug-in handling. This release also contains a new version of Flash.”
Just as it integrated Flash earlier this year, Google has moved to have Chrome 8.0 swallow a PDF viewer. Google Chrome 8.0.552.28 Beta is the first Build of the open source browser to no longer require users to download either Flash or a PDF reader in order to access Flash and .PDF files on the web.
“With the integrated Chrome PDF viewer now available in Chrome’s beta, you can open a PDF document in Chrome without installing additional software. The PDF document will load as quickly and seamlessly as a normal web page in the browser,” explained John Abd-El-Malek, Software Engineer.
“Just like we do with web pages viewed in Chrome, we’ve built in an additional layer of security called the “sandbox” around the Chrome PDF viewer to help protect you from malware and security attacks that are targeted at PDF files.”
At the same time, Google is pushing onward with the development of Chrome 9.0. the Dev channel now offers testers version 9.0.570.1 for Windows and Linux and 9.0.572.0 for Mac OS X.
According to information from Google, Chrome 9.0.570.1 is focused on patching the Flash vulnerability also resolved by Adobe, and to deliver a range of additional fixes for users.
Undoubtedly, Google Chrome 8.0 Beta is the most important release for the search giant this week, and a signal of the fact that the final release of the next major version of Chrome is getting closer and closer.
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.