Take this, Apple. Google quietly released a new beta version of its Chrome browser, which not only blows its rivals out of the water as far as performance is concerned, but comes with half a dozen new features, including direct integration of Adobe Flash. Not a big deal for Google, apparently, but we were told Adobe was taking a deep breath, especially since Google is the popular new kid on the browser block.
The new version, number 5.0.375.29, is only available through Google’s Chromium developer channel and comes in a hefty 22.5 MB package (Chrome is officially still at a stable version 4.x.). The added fat is due to an integration of Flash directly into Chrome. Users who download this new version also receive automated Flash updates via the regular Chrome update. If you are interested in downloading the new Chrome beta, please remember that this is a beta version (available for Mac, Linux and Windows) and may have bugs and therefore should not be used on critical computers.
Other new features include HTML5 additions such as Geolocation APIs, App Cache, web sockets, and file drag-and-drop capabilities.
To try out all these new features, download Chrome on the Windows beta channel, or download the Mac or Linux betas.
What is much more fascinating is the fact that the Chrome team was able to squeeze almost 10% more JavaScript performance out of this new Chrome beta – compared to the most recent Chrome 5 beta. The SunSpider test took just 345.6 ms on our quad-core test system, compared to 387.8 ms of Chrome 5.0.342.8. Chrome 4.x scored 483.3 ms on this system. Now keep in mind that Chrome 5 is still in beta, but it is already 30% faster than Chrome 4, which remains the fastest (stable) JavaScript browser currently available. In comparison, the current Firefox 3.6.4 scored 876 ms, Safari 4.04 530 ms, IE8 4979ms and the IE9 Platform Preview 783.6 ms. In that view, Chrome 5 is more than twice as fast as IE9 PP.
In Google’s own V8 benchmark, Chrome 5 has set a new record on our system, scoring 4868 points, compared to 4456 of the most recent beta and 3804 of Chrome 4. This compares to 1945 for Safari 4.04, 654 for IE9 PP, 472 for Firefox 3.6.4 and 104 for IE8.
Similar results were achieved in Celtic Kane, where the new Chrome beta scored 527 points vs. 503 of the previous beta and 423 of Chrome 4 (more benchmark results here.)
Google is surely on an incredible pace to enhance Chrome. Yesterday, we published news that Chrome maintains its role as the fastest growing browser platform globally, according to data provided by NetApplications. It does not much to predict that Chrome will be able to keep its momentum and that Microsoft and Mozilla will have to do much more to curb Chrome’s success. It is still unclear how IE9′s hardware acceleration will affect the browser market.
IE falls below 60% market share in April 2010 (c) ConceivablyTech
