Aug 17, 2010 07:15 GMT  ·  By

A new Beta development milestone of Google Chrome is now available for download, just a few days after Google updated the Dev Channel release of its open source browser, and in less than a week since version 6.0 graduated to the next stage in its evolution.

Early adopters are now able to download and test drive Chrome Beta Build 6.0.472.36 for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. “The Beta channel has been updated to 6.0.472.36 for all platforms,” noted Jason Kersey, from the Google Chrome team.

There are a number of updates included into version 6.0.472.36, as the Mountain View-based search giant is starting to polish the browser, gearing up for the final release.

In this regard, early adopters that have already been playing with the pre-Beta releases of Chrome 6.0 (made available through the Dev channel) will undoubtedly notice some changes.

The Mountain View company has optimized Chrome 6.0’s graphical user interface, with Kersey noting that the modifications are a part of the company’s efforts to soften all the rough edges of the UI.

At the same time, Google has worked to improve the level of reliability of Chrome 6.0. Google Chrome Beta 6.0.472.36 brings to the table a variety of stability fixes, which means that testers will see less bugs than before.

There are additional changes, of course, including the fact that Google re-enabled “the link to disable individual plug-ins in a group,” Kersey added.

At the end of the past week, Google also pushed Chrome forward beyond the Beta release, by updating the Dev channel to 6.0.490.1 for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

At that time, Karen Grunberg from the Google Chrome team, noted some of the most important changes, including:

“•Late binding enabled for SSL sockets: High priority SSL requests are now always sent to the server first.

•Fixed focus problems with restoring from minimize.

•Fixed Cannot add an address properly in the "AutoFill options" dialog box.

•Several fixes and checks relating to syncing extensions.

•Click-to-play is now behind the --enable-click-to-play command line switch.

•Fixed several issues with click-to-play.”

Update: corrected the location of Google HQ.

Google Chrome 6.0 Beta for Windows is available for download here.
Google Chrome 6.0 Beta for Linux is available for download here.
Google Chrome 6.0 Beta for Mac is available for download here.