Google Celebrates With Chrome 6

On the day that their web browser turned two years old, Google decided to celebrate by releasing a new version of Chrome. And Chrome 6 continues the tradition of mainly small changes and updates to the Google web browser.First, to set things straight, the two years in existence actually dates to when Google released the first beta of Chrome. The official 1.0 release of the Chrome browser followed a few months later. But either way, who would have thought that they would already be at version 6 of Chrome in such a short time.

From an interface standpoint, several things have changed in the Chrome browser. Perhaps the most interesting is that Chrome no longer displays http:// at the start of an url within the address bar.

At first this was a little disconcerting, though it does definitely look cleaner. I was a little worried about the security implications (and the potential for problems) but when I surfed to a secure website, the https:// appeared within the address bar, along with the certificate security information icon. This is good, in that I can still know when I'm on a secure page, though the fact that the display is so different on secure and non-secured pages is a little strange.

The other big interface change is the removal of the Tools menu, which now becomes a sub-menu within the Wrench menu. This means more clicking for accessing items formally in the Tools menu, though the access to cut and paste and page zooming is now much better in the single main menu.

Other small interface changes include the removal of the Go button and moving the favorites star to the right side of the address bar.

From a features standpoint, Google Chrome 6 now includes improved auto-fill features for filling out online forms. And the capabilities for synching Chrome browsers on multiple systems have been updated to sync the new auto-fill data and also sync extensions between browsers.

As always, Google Chrome does well when it comes to standards support and this version includes several updates to its support for HTML 5 and also for integrated online video.

To download the new Google Chrome 6 go to google.com/chrome