14 DAY TRIAL // Google is on the verge of releasing the first Beta development milestone for the next major version of its open source browser.
Meanwhile, the Mountain View-based search giant has been hard at work hammering away at the existing testing Build of Chrome 9.0 in order to get it ready for the Beta release.
At the start of this month, Google updated the Dev channel to 9.0.597.0 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Chrome Frame.
There are a few changes to Chrome 9.0.597.0 Dev, including “ongoing work on IndexDB and GPU; tweaks/Fixes to Google Chrome Instant; extensions/Apps work and autofill related fixes,” according to Anthony Laforge, Technical Program Manager, from the Google Chrome team.
At the same time, Laforge also enumerated a couple of known issues that early adopters testing the release might come across, such as “Page becomes unresponsive when trying to play video and certain HTML5 sites fail to load due to a compositor issue.”
But the new Dev Channel update aside, the Google Chrome 9.0 Beta is just around the corner. Laforge revealed that the revision process for Chrome 9.0 Beta has already started and that Google will close 2010 with the next milestone for the successor of Chrome 8.0 (which also has yet to be finalized) shipped to testers.
Some of the bugs that could not be dealt with for Chrome 9.0 have been pushed back to Chrome 10.0.
Of course, at the rate at which Chrome releases are being developed and launched, the first taste of Chrome 10.0 is also not that far away.
Still, for the time being, Google’s focus is to wrap up Chrome 8.0, which is currently in Beta and deliver the Final release to customers no later than six weeks after the launch of Chrome 7.0.
At the same time, early adopters will get to play with the first Beta of Chrome 9.0 this month.
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.