14 DAY TRIAL // As expected, the first Google Chrome 6.0 Beta has landed. If you haven’t been keeping an eye on Chrome development, there are plenty of new features to like. Google boasts a big improvement in JavaScript performance compared to the latest beta, but this is always the case with a major update.
The new Chrome 6.0 Beta also comes with a refreshed interface which takes the ‘minimalistic’ approach to new extremes. Another touted improvement is better sync, though Chrome’s sync capabilities will expand even further. Finally, the new Chrome beta also saves AutoFill data to make it easier to fill web forms.
A simplified interface
The first thing you’ll probably notice is the refreshed interface. Dev channel users have been seeing the changes slowly trickling in. Some of the buttons got moved around or removed altogether, the “Go” button is gone, for example, and they also got a new ‘border-less’ look. Another big change is the unified menu.
“As previewed on the developer channel in June, we have streamlined the upper toolbar, made the Omnibox more approachable, and condensed all of our options into a single menu,” James Hawkins, Software Engineer at Google, explained.
One of Google Chrome’s most striking features, since launch, has been the minimalistic interface, just one big search box / address bar and a few buttons. Somehow, the developers managed to streamline it even more without it losing functionality. If anything, since the different actions are more intuitively placed, the interface is more practical than ever.
AutoFill and Sync
Speaking of practical, one of the less glamorous but definitely useful new features is AutoFill. Google Chrome comes rather late to the game, it’s a feature that most competing browsers have had for years, but the implementation is solid, if not innovative.
What is interesting though is that the AutoFill data comes with you wherever you use Chrome, as long as the sync feature is enabled. On top of the bookmarks, preferences and themes that Chrome already synced, Chrome 6.0 Beta adds support for extension and AutoFill sync.
The sync feature is crucial for Google especially with the Chrome OS launch being closer than ever. Developers are already working on implementing web app sync. Neither web apps nor, obviously, web app sync are a part of the first Chrome 6.0 Beta but they may land in a later release, or maybe in the Chrome 7.0 Beta.
Chrome 6.0 is faster than Chrome 5.0 which was faster than Chrome 4.0 ...
Being that performance has always been one of Chrome’s most touted ‘feature,’ it’s hardly surprising that the latest beta brings a significant improvement in this department as well.
If you take Google’s word for it, Chrome 6.0 Beta is 15 percent faster than the Chrome 5 Beta in both the Google V8 benchmark suite and in the WebKit SunSpider benchmark. Chrome got a heftier score bump of 64 percent in Mozilla’s Dromeao DOM Core Tests.
Now that the first beta has landed, the work will focus on polishing the rough edges and bringing it to production quality. At that point, Google will release a Google Chrome 6.0 Stable build.
“Stable channel users, hang tight -- these features and improvements will be available in the stable channel soon once we’ve given it a good test run on beta!,” Google said.
Google Chrome 6 Beta for Windows is available for download here.
Google Chrome 6 Beta for Linux is available for download here.
Google Chrome 6 Beta for Mac is available for download here.
AutoFill in Google Chrome 6 Beta
