Google’s Chrome team gave the beta of the new Chrome 5.0 a kind of rocket fuel injection, boosting the browser’s speed to gains of 30 percent on the V8 benchmark and 35 percent on the SunSpider benchmark over the previous channel release.
As Chrome’s JavaScript engine, V8 is the piece of software Google created to make Chrome render Web pages really fast for users surfing the Web and using Web applications. V8 is one of the foundational technologies that have helped Chrome grow to 6.7 percent market share in less than two years.
While V8 and SunSpider have served Google Chrome well to date, Google’s Chrome engineers felt more could be done to test Chrome’s speed.
To wit, Chrome engineers have created new speed tests, which those interested may check out in this amusing, well-produced YouTube video.
Yes, those are potatoes being launched through graters at high speeds to help Googlers measure Chrome’s 2,700 frames per second pace.
On a more serious note, Chrome 5.0 (technically 5.0.375.29) also boasts new user interface features for Windows, Mac and Linux computers. These include the ability for users to sync browser preferences, such as themes, homepage and startup settings, Web content settings and language.
Users may also now install and run Chrome extensions, essentially little widgets to boost the usability of Chrome, while in incognito mode.
There are some not-so-noticeable utilities based on HTML5 in Chrome 5.0, including geolocation APIs, App Cache, Web sockets and file drag-and-drop capabilities.
Chrome 5.0 also hosts the Adobe Flash Player plugin. Users will be able to browse multimedia content, such as videos, and receive security and feature updates for Flash Player with Chrome’s auto-update utility.
Users may download Chrome on the Windows beta channel, or download the Mac or Linux betas. Google Operating System offers 10 features users should try in Chrome 5.0 here.
Chrome may not have anywhere near the market share of Windows Internet Explorer yet, but it is making a dent at nearly 7 percent. IE sunk below 60 percent market share for the first time ever, according to the latest Net Applications rankings.
Mozilla Firefox continues to hover around the respectable 25 percent mark. Chrome could have as much as 10 percent share by the end of the year.