14 DAY TRIAL // While heavyweight browser makers, such as Microsoft and Mozilla, are taking their time developing new releases, delivering new major versions years apart, Google is by no means pacing itself when it comes down to Chrome. In approximately a year since it introduced that Google Chrome project to the world, the Mountain View-based search giant has offered no less than three major versions of its open source browser. The latest iteration of Google Chrome to be made available for download through the Beta Channel is 4.0, which is designed to supersede v3.0. At the same time, Google continues to update the Stable channel and Chrome 3.0.195.32 is now up for grabs.
Anthony Laforge, Google Chrome program manager, revealed that the main focus with Google Chrome 3.0.195.32 was to introduce stability and security updates to the browser. In this regard, Laforge noted that Chrome users would no longer experience issues associated with Google Maps, Adobe Acrobat Reader 9.2, and AAC decoding. The promise from the search giant is that, following the deployment of the latest refresh, they will experience less crashes and that performance will be kicked up a notch. Laforge indicated that Google had dealt with problems that caused Chrome to take the processor up to 100%.
There are also two security patches deployed with the most recent update to Google’s open source browser. Google Chrome 3.0.195.32 will now warn end users of potentially dangerous SVG, MHT and XML files which can execute JavaScript locally. Because JS is run on the local machine, potentially malicious code in such files could access local resources, Laforge explained. Google also resolved a memory corruption issues associated with the Gears plugin. According to the Mountain View company, attackers could potentially build malicious websites that leverage the Gears SQL API in order to store SQL metadata in a bad state. The malformed metadata could subsequently generate a memory corruption resulting in either a Gears plugin crash or even arbitrary code execution.
For users that want a little more than Google Chrome 3.0.195.32 has to offer, Google has already made available the first Beta development milestone of the next iteration of Chrome. Earlier this week, the search giant started offering Google Chrome 4.0 Build 4.0.223.16 (Windows only) through the Beta channel. One of the biggest assets offered by Google Chrome 4.0 Build 4.0.223.16 Beta is a boost in performance, 400% more than v1.0 and 30% over v3.0.
Google Chrome 3.0 Stable and Google Chrome 4.0 Beta are available for download here.