14 DAY TRIAL // Google Chrome 17 is here, in the stable channel. After several weeks in the beta channel and in the dev channel, the latest and greatest Chrome is available to everyone. Google Chrome 17 comes with two notable features, as far as Google is concerned, page preloading and download scanning for malicious files.
Website preloading
"When you start typing in the omnibox and the URL autocompletes to a site you’re very likely to visit, Chrome will prerender the page, so it will appear faster--sometimes, even instantly--as soon as you hit Enter," Google's Noé Lutz wrote.
The feature kicks in only when Chrome is fairly confident that the suggested page is the one you're going to load. If you visit a website often and you select it from the OmniBox suggestions most of the time, it will start loading as soon as it is suggested when you start typing, regularly after the first key press.
The same feature is also available in the recently released Chrome for Android Beta, but it is only enabled by default when using WiFi.
Downloaded file scanning
"In addition to checking a list of known bad files, Chrome also does checks on executable files (like ".exe" and ".msi" files). If the executable doesn't match a whitelist, Chrome checks with Google for more information, such as whether the website you're accessing hosts a high number of malicious downloads," Lutz explained.
Chrome already had some basic protection against phishing sites and sites that may be carrying malware, but it is now extending the idea to executable files as well.
It uses pretty much the same method as it does with the phishing protection, it maintains a whitelist of known good files as well as a blacklist of malicious files. If a downloaded file doesn't fall in any of the two categories, Chrome will check the reputation of the source website.
If that website has a history of hosting malicious files, you will be warned that the file you're about to download may be dangerous.