Mar 8, 2011 17:10 GMT  ·  By

Google Chrome 10 has been released to the stable channel, meaning that it's now ready for use by everyone. The latest version of the popular browser has been in development for a couple of months and has been in beta for the past three weeks.

Google Chrome 10 breaks all previous speed records when it comes to JavaScript, but it also introduces a great looking new settings manager, better hardware acceleration and other features.

"Just three weeks ago, we kicked off the Year of the Rabbit with a speedy Chrome beta. Today, we’re excited to bring these speed improvements and more to everyone using Chrome," Tim Steele, Software Engineer at Google wrote.

"With today’s stable release, even your most complex web apps will run more quickly and responsively in the browser," he said.

With the introduction of the latest evolution of the V8 JavaScript engine, Crankshaft, Chrome 10 gets a major speed improvement. In Google's own V8 Benchmarking Suite, it's 66 percent faster than Chrome 9.

The main new features and capabilities in Chrome 10 have been previewed and detailed when the beta was first released. The hardware acceleration features have been beefed up, HD video is now rendered via the GPU leading to improved performance and lower resource requirements.

The big new feature is the in-tab settings page which has been in testing for quite a while now. It's finally ready for the prime time, it not only looks great and the same across all platforms, including Chrome OS, the new search capabilities greatly improve usability.

"Chrome’s new settings interface will help you get to the right settings quickly so you don’t have to dig endlessly to find a way to import your bookmarks or change your browser’s homepage," Steele explained.

"We’ve added a search box that shows you the settings you’re looking for, as you type. On top of that, you can also copy and paste a direct link into Chrome’s address bar to jump to a specific settings page," he added.

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.