Google’s Chrome Web browser is quietly ratcheting the rivalry with Mozilla’s Firefox, which served as a shining example of what the development process of an open-source Web browser — or any browser for that matter — should be like.
Geek.com July 6 offered a great early look at the next iteration of Chrome — version 6 — by combing through this changes log on Google’s Chromium Website.
It’s not for the faint of non-techie heart, which is why Geek did the dirty work and put it wonderfully in layman’s terms we all can understand. Among the changes.
To summarize:
- Chrome 6 will support the open source VP8 video codec and its royalty-free container WebM.
- Chrome 6 sheds the Go button and removes the “reload” button from its URL bar, combining it with the top buttons.
- Previews when dragging images onto a browser window.
- Faster scrolling and a download shelf that slides out instead of collapsing.
- Chrome’s new tool icon on the rightmost part of the URL field that replaces the wrench and page menus with a consolidated drop-down menu.
- In Chrome 6, the browser sync feature adds auto-fill and extensions to the list of sync items.
Fairly minor upgrades, but I guess it depends who you ask to tell that to. I’m ambivalent about the codec support for now, as well as the rejiggering of the buttons. I’m keen on the faster scrolling and previews for images, as well as the auto-fill for browser sync:
No timetable for when Chrome 6 hits stable release, or at least the Googlers know it but aren’t saying.
Meanwhile, check out Google’s Checkout team’s Android Payment Extension for the Google Checkout Store Gadget.
This extension will let business owners set up a store and accept payments from customers using Google Checkout and Android smartphones.
Mobile payments are expected to be huge in the next five years and beyond. Just ask the folks at Square.
In other Chrome related news, CNET reported that orientation interface plumbing is being built into the WebKit browser project, which is what Chrome is based on.
This means Chrome would provide an application information about which way a computing device is being held, which is useful for mobile games that rely on that for a user interface.
In short, expect Chrome to be optimized for gaming Web apps.