Google chrome 3 goes stable

Over a year ago, Google surprised us all by announcing its very own browser - the rather oddly named Chrome. Back then, the product was in Beta and has since then received two stable update versions. Now, on the eve of its first anniversary, Google has announced version 3 of Google Chrome.

The latest stable version of Chrome comes with quite a few feature additions. If you were on the stable channel for quite some time the addition of themes and the new start page might come across as a surprise. These features were already available in the "unstable" beta builds of version 3 that was available for download earlier. So, for those who have been used to version 3 for a while, there is nothing much to add - except that there are the bug fixes and the fact that this one is actually a stable version.

New Home/ Tab Page The most noticeable part about Chrome 3 is the homepage. The design of the homepage has been tweaked and users can now rearrange thumbnails of most-visited websites by simple clicking and dragging gestures. Additionally, users can "pin" the thumbnails to where they are so that they are not replaced by others in due course. The homepage is also customizable now, with the user getting options to show and hide what he wants on the homepage.

Themes Support Chrome now also supports themes and it already has quite a few interesting ones available for download. Although these are for pure cosmetic reasons, they are worth a look.

Omnibox Gets Better So, what could they have done with the Omnibox to make it better? Give them contextual icons so that you know beforehand if the term you're looking for is a suggested site, a search result, or even a bookmark! Yes, that's what's new with the Omnibox (that's what they call the smart URL field of the Chrome)

Better HTML5 Support The stable version of Google Chrome now supports HTML5 and will now prove to be a decent competition for Firefox 3.5, which recently added the same. HTML5 enables the browser user to natively play video encoded in the open source Ogg Theora format and Ogg Vorbis audio, which provides for manipulation and editing of video without the use of an external program.

It's Faster You've heard this before we guess. So, according to Google, Chrome is actually faster than its previous stable version. As Google puts it, "This release comes hot on the heels of 51 developer, 21 beta and 15 stable updates and 3,505 bugfixes".

Have you tried the new Chrome yet? If you were on the stable version earlier, the update will be automatically passed on to you in due course. If you happen to be curious, you can "force" an update and try the new version. Get Chrome from here.

For winxp download it HERE