Jun 17, 2011 12:48 GMT  ·  By

Now that the Google Chrome 13 Beta has been released, the dev channel is once again free to import the latest versions from the active development, Chromium builds. It didn't take long for Chrome 14, based on Chromium 14 which has been around for a couple of weeks, to enter the dev channel.

"The Dev channel has been updated to 14.0.794.0 for Windows, Mac, Linux and Chrome Frame platforms," Karen Grunberg, from the Google Chrome team, announced.

If you've been using the dev channel so far, you won't notice that many changes.

The channel has lagged a bit behind as the Chrome team worked on moving Chrome 13 to the beta stage, meaning that the last few releases focused on bug fixes alone, but the developers working on Chrome 14 haven't advanced that much in two weeks.

The V8 JavaScript engine has been updated to V8 3.4.3.0 in Chrome 14. Another change is that Chrome now displays a prompt using a native dialog when installing apps or extensions from the Chrome Webstore, presumably to make it clear that the apps come from the Webstore and to make sure that users realize what they're doing.

Chrome 14 finally fixes a very annoying bug which would show the "chrome://newtab" in the OmniBox, instead of loading a pasted URL. This happened especially if you managed to paste a link and press Enter very soon after opening a new tab.

"Fixed 'invalid server certificate' errors for some secure websites whose CRLs or OCSP responses are signed by untrusted root CAs," Google explained the only fix for Macs.

Linux users finally get some support for the multiple profile feature, though it's only a mock-up button for now.

"DNSSEC authenticated HTTPS supported. Intermittent connectivity issues with broken SSLv3 servers fixed," are the two additions on the security front.

This being the first Chrome 14 release and because it's in the dev channel, the fact that there are known bugs should not be much of a surprise. Known issues are:

"When reloading a page reached via a HTTP POST operation (such as the confirmation page following a form submit during an online transaction), the whole browser will crash volume controls are not functioning on keyboard," Google 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.