Google Chrome 3.0

[ScottWhigham]

"You shouldn't read too much into Google Chrome's version numbers. Just because you can now install Google Chrome 3.0, it doesn't mean that Google wants to appear more mature than it already is."

* cough(bullshit)

[andreyf]

The lady doth protest too much.

Can't really blame, them, though. They're aiming for the corporate market, and there, the people deciding between Chrome 2.0 and IE 8.0 really don't care for the difference between Java and JavaScript. Well, maybe not the people deciding, but certainly the people they have to explain those decisions to.

[buugs]

Really they have caught up to firefox without implementing new features.

[smokinn]

Well, if you compare Chrome 3.0 vs Firefox 3.0 (or 3.5), what features does Chrome not have? As far as I can tell it's only missing Firefox's extensions so if you can live without Adblock, Firebug, etc you can trade the extensions for Chrome's outright speed.

[adnymarc]

And still no full release version for Mac / Linux. I find this particularly interesting considering the Google "Operating System" is going to be a custom interface on top of a Linux kernel.

[dagw]

I've been using the Linux version for several month now and honestly cannot tell the difference between it and the windows version. Just as stable, just as fast, and flash works without any problems. I'm guessing there is a good reason why they're not comfortable releasing it yet, but as an end user I haven't run across that reason.

[javery]

Will browser companies skip version 6? In the same way hotels skip the 13th floor?

[adnymarc]

Hopefully browser companies will be more rigorous about migrating their users to newer versions so that we avoid the issues IE6 has presented by still having a large install base even after two subsequent versions have been released.

[heycarsten]

I realize there is probably no place for it in marketing banter, but it bothers me that they don't give the WebKit project any visible credit.

[psadauskas]

I feel the same about Safari and Webkit towards KHTML.

[amackera]

That would steal focus away from Google's promotion of their secret magic sauce that they sprinkle on everything to make it better.

[cmalabs]

"Chrome includes video codecs that allow you to embed videos without using slow and unreliable plug-ins like Adobe Flash."

Compared to quicktime/media player and the slew of plugins from the previous generation, flash is much much more reliable.

[dchest]

Compared to QuickTime _on Windows_. On Mac it's not so slow and doesn't load CPU that much (compared to Flash/Mac).

[acdha]

If you want the lowest common quality video, yes. Flash video performance and quality are noticeably lower, though, so it really doesn't scale well beyond YouTube-level video.

In practice, widely deployed beat better quality handily.

[brown9-2]

I like Chrome, and the new version does a feel a tad quicker, but goddammit already how much longer until extensions are in the official releases?

[tumult]

They were recently enabled by default in the Chromium builds. Lots of features are still missing (all of the interface/toolbar stuff only works in Windows right now, for example, and installed extensions are purged with every restart of the browser on OS X/Linux). The extension API is lightweight and fantastic though, so I'm with you in hoping that they get make it into Chrome sooner rather than later.

[netsp]

Does anyone find that chrome is just unnecessary? It seems like google got to the game just when all the other browsers hot a point when they are all good.

Not long ago, FF seemed like a real edge. Now I just use it cuz I'm used to it and it has extensions that I am used to. Safari is also good and even the new IE is good. I wouldn't mind using either of them or using chrome. The pace of improvement seems to be strong and even.

I have no beef with an extra competitor, but I am surprised to say I have a browser and its good.

[RyanMcGreal]

I think we can fairly credit Chrome with dramatically raising the bar for javascript performance across the competing browser engines. The V8 virtual machine for Chrome compiles JS to machine code rather than interpreting it or running in bytecode. Mozilla has since responded with the TraceMonkey optimization for its javascript engine; WebKit developed SquirrelFish Extreme; and so on.

[truebosko]

Awesome! Extensions being enabled by default in the dev channel is great news. I've been semi-following the documentation for it all and it's been improving at a nice steady pace (just like the browser :-))

Also, as mentioned from others it runs just fine on Linux for several months now so go ahead and try it! You'll realize quickly how you don't need all those Firefox extensions.

[AndrewDucker]

Not all of them. But if you think I'm surfing without AdBlock then you have another think coming...

[seshagiric]

I don't know if anyone noticed, the page has an ad link for IE 8.0 at the very top before the article begins. That looked funny.

[jdbeast00]

hopefully the back button will work more consistently now

[thejay]

still waiting to try the official mac version...

[c00p3r]

It is time for next-gen "no flash" browser games and "no java" web-apps.

[sp332]

Hell yeah! http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=825830

[_ck_]

You know what's still missing and I'm surprised...

there's no way to see raw headers sent/received in the dev tools!

[brodie]

Is the Resources panel not adequate? Granted, it does format the headers, but it does show the HTTP method, the request headers, and the response headers for the page and each resource.

[fjabre]

Chrome + Firefox = one browser to rule them all.!

[fjabre]

lol. To guys with 'good' karma: not LTR fans I take it?

It's worth noting that together these browsers will take significant market share from IE and Safari, especially when Chrome is released for mac later this year. Even more interesting is FF strong ties and history with Google.