Google Chrome 17 has only been with us for about a month. But Google is already thinking about the next in line, Chrome 18. In fact, Chromium 18 is about to land, any time now. However, it's going to take another two weeks or so until Google Chrome 18 is available. That's because, the Google Chrome dev channel will house the Google Chrome 17 build that will become beta in two weeks and then stable, six weeks after that.
While part of the team polishes the current Google Chrome 17 to a state fit for the beta channel, the rest of the team will continue to work on the most cutting edge features.
Those features will only be available to users running Chromium or the Google Chrome Canary Builds. As for what Chrome 18 brings new to the table, it's far too early to tell.