14 DAY TRIAL // Google is now offering early adopters the possibility to test the second update to Chrome 14.0 Dev since the new iteration of the open source browser was released through the Dev Channel in mid-June 2011. Testers can go ahead and grab Google Chrome 14.0.803.0 Dev, and as usual, it doesn’t matter whether they’re running Windows, Mac OS X or Linux, since there’s a flavor of 14.0.803.0 for all supported operating systems.
The Mountain View-based search giant introduced only minor changes with the latest Dev Channel update, but this is not unusual for Google.
The browser’s V8 JavaScript engine was refreshed, but again, the changes are minor at best, with the versioning going up from 3.4.4.0 to 3.4.6.2, as the Dev Channel moved from 14.0.797.0 to 14.0.803.0.
Additional modifications impact Chrome 14.0’s privacy feature, especially around third-party cookie blocking.
Google’s browser allows users to control their privacy to a certain degree, with an illustrative example being the ability to prevent third-party websites from setting cookies on a user’s machine that’s running Chrome.
Specifically, this can be done through the "Ignore exceptions and block third-party cookies from being set" option, in Cookies Content Settings.
Google Chrome 14.0.803.0 Dev tweaks this feature in order to not only allow users to block third-party cookies from being set, but to also no longer ignore exceptions.
Testers that will make their way to Chrome 14.0.803.0 Dev’s Content Settings will be able to see that the "Ignore exceptions and block third-party cookies from being set" option is now just “Block third-party cookies from being set.”
This means that exceptions are no longer ignored. The change enables customers to create whitelists of websites that Chrome 14.0 will accept cookies from, if they so want, as opposite to blocking all third-party cookies indiscriminately.
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.