Google Chrome 2.0 … Really?

It seems that the latest Chromium builds are sporting a 2.0 version number (2.0.156.7, to be precise). Surprised? I know I am. The same company that has their most popular service (besides search), Gmail, in beta for over 4 years, releases a browser in September, goes gold in December, and beta releases 2.0 the next month! There are obviously two different philosophies in the Gmail and Chrome departments. So what’s different?

Well, not very much in the way of the user interface. It appears that the release is mostly under the hood refinements. No word on whether this beta is feature complete, though I sure hope not as there are plenty of highly desired features still missing. There’s no sign of extensions, only a small mention of Mac and Linux versions, no pop up management system, and many more smaller nuances.

If it is indeed feature complete, I would hope 3.0 isn’t far off! Here’s the highlights (with some emphasis added), according to the official chromium blog. You can view the full release notes too, if you’re into that sort of thing.

• New version of WebKit, with lots of fixes and new features like CSS gradients and reflections.
• New network code. Google Chrome now has its own implementation of the HTTP network protocol (we were using the WinHTTP library on Windows, but need common code for Mac and Linux).
• Form Autocomplete.
• Full-page zoom.
• Autoscroll (rough implementation). Middle-click on a page to scroll the page in any direction.

In order to get the update, you have to be a recipient of the dev channel updates. Which I’ve detailed how to do in this post.

Any mention of Mac and Linux in release notes is a good thing for those of us on those operating systems. Let’s hope their releases are not far off.

Additionally, cross autocomplete off the list of features that many felt was sorely missing in Chrome. 1 down, many, many more to go.

Have you taken the plunge to the 2.0 pre-beta? Anything to report?