14 DAY TRIAL // As of version 1.0.154.46, Google Chrome plays nice with Windows Live Hotmail. But Google's browser did not have issues with Microsoft's email service alone, as Chrome users also ran into problems when it came down to sending emails using Yahoo. The patch introduced by Google does not actually resolve the Hotmail and Chrome issues. Instead, the refresh is more of a browser-side workaround to make the email service work, while Microsoft is yet to resolve the problem in Windows Live Hotmail. Still, Mark Larson, Google Chrome Program Manager, indicated that the update fixes the glitches associated with Chrome and Yahoo Mail, as well as Windows Live Hotmail.
“Google Chrome's Beta and Stable channels have been updated to 1.0.154.46. (Note, we won't have a different release for the Beta channel until we have something Beta-worthy come out of the Dev channel in February.) Windows Live Hotmail now works. While the Hotmail team works on a proper fix, we're deploying a workaround that changes the user agent string that Google Chrome sends when requesting URLs that end with mail.live.com. If you've been using the - user-agent switch to use Hotmail, you can remove the switch from your shortcuts with this release,” Larson stated.
For the time being, the patch makes Chrome, via User Agent spoofing, tell Hotmail that it is actually Safari. The Google Chrome release not only deals with the issues preventing the browser from working with Yahoo and Windows Live Hotmail, but also plugs various security holes, including a vulnerability rated with a High level of impact.
“Javascript Same-Origin Bypass - A bug in the V8 JavaScript engine could allow bypassing same-origin checks in certain situations,” Larson revealed. “A malicious script in a page could read the full URL of another frame, and possibly other attributes or data from another frame in a different origin. This could disclose sensitive information from one website to a third party.”
Of course that the integration issue between Google Chrome and Windows Live Hotmail has led to a face-off between Google and Microsoft. Matt Cutts, the head of Google's Webspam team, accused the Redmond company that it was moving too slow when dealing with Hotmail not working with Chrome. Microsoft's Omar Shahine has indicated that Hotmail is a service with hundreds of millions of users and it cannot be updated with out-of-band patched in order to ensure support with a browser that the vast majority of its members are not running.
Google Chrome is available for download here.