Google Chrome 2.0 Pre-Beta released

PaulSpoerry | January 9, 2009

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Direct from Google Operating System blog comes the announcement of Google Chrome 2.0 (pre-beta).

There are many new things in Chrome 2.0:

* form autocomplete, one of the most obvious missing features from the initial release

* full-page zoom, which resizes images and embedded objects too, not just text. It’s important to know the keyboard shortcuts: Ctrl – to zoom out, Ctrl + to zoom in and Ctrl 0 to go back to the normal view.

* autoscroll by middle-clicking on a page and indicating the direction

* profiles are a great way to separate Chrome’s settings in different categories: you could create a work profile with its own homepage, bookmarks and browsing history and profile for your personal projects. The great thing about Chrome is that you don’t have to close the browser to change your profile: just open a new window in a separate profile.

* support for Greasemonkey scripts (or user-scripts). To enable this experimental feature you need to right-click on Chrome’s shortcut from your desktop, select Properties and add –enable-user-scripts in the Target field. While you’re in the Properties dialog, click on “Open File Location” and create a folder named User Scripts in the user data directory, where you’ll need to manually save scripts.

* other important improvements: updates to WebKit and the V8 JavaScript engine, a better implementation for SafeBrowsing (malware/phishing protection), new code for the HTTP network protocol.

How to get the new version?

1. If you don’t have Google Chrome, install it from google.com/chrome
2. Subscribe to the developer preview channel. This is required even if you’ve previously subscribed to the channel.
3. Wait until the new version is downloaded (you may force the updatie by opening the “About Google Chrome” dialog).

“The Dev channel is where ideas get tested (and sometimes fail). The Dev channel can be very unstable at times, and new features usually require some manual configuration to be enabled. Still, simply using Dev channel releases is an easy (practically zero-effort) way for anyone to help improve Google Chrome.”