Jan 26, 2011 10:39 GMT  ·  By

Google has launched a new version of Chrome, its WebKit-centric web browser for Mac, Windows, and Linux. A Beta release, Chrome 9.0.597.83 focuses on fixing minor bugs, making this a relatively insignificant stability update.

“The Beta channel has been updated to 9.0.597.83 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Chrome Frame,” Anthony Laforge, program manager at Google, reports.

“This is primarily a stability/ minor bug fix release and the set of changes can be found here,” he adds, and directs users to the full changelog hosted at chromium.org.

As usual, those who find new issues are encouraged to file a bug report at http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/entry.

One of the fixed issues referred to on the Chromium page is “Password Autofill disables auto-completed textfield.”

According to Laforge, “this change fixes an issue where the password completion, when the tab key is used to cycle focus, was causing focus to get lost.” Various other code corrections are described as well.

As avid users of the Chrome web browser should know, the most recent update was a Dev release posted last week by Jason Kersey, who revealed in a blog post that the Chrome Dev channel had been updated to 10.0.642.2 for all platforms.

Chrome 10.0.642.2 featured an unusually large number of fixes targeting the Mac OS X version of the browser. It makes thumbnails closable in tab overview mode, and delivers a trio of bug fixes.

Google Chrome requires Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard and an Intel-based Mac.

Download Google Chrome for Mac OS X (Free)

A note about Google Chrome release channels and updates Chrome boasts a release system with three distinct channels: Stable, Beta, and Developer preview, called the "Dev" channel.

The Stable channel is updated with features and fixes only after they are thoroughly tested in the Beta channel, while the Beta channel is being updated with stable and complete features from the Dev channel, where ideas get tested.