After a long period of in beta, Google Chrome 4.0 is now finally out of the beta and released to public officially. Within only over 1 year of its first release, Google Chrome has already grown up to pass Firefox, in terms of the versioning.
Despite the performance improvement and the support of HTML5, there are two other major changes in 4.0 that makes this release quite special and I like the most.
First of all, the Extensions
When Chrome was first released, having Extensions wasn’t an option in their mind because it simply against the simplicity theory in design. However, when time goes by, it obviously becomes a necessary feature to Chrome in order to compete with Firefox which has tons of add-ons that people can’t live without.
So, here you go. After upgrading your Chrome to 4.0, just head over to Chrome Extensions site to find out something neat to make your browsing experience better.
Secondly, Bookmarks sync
One biggest reason that kept me from making Chrome as my default browser is that I can’t easily use Google Bookmarks from the toolbar because there is no Google Toolbar for Chrome, which is odd.
With this version, I can easily set it up so that my Chrome’s bookmarks can synchronize with Google Bookmarks automatically. Finally, I can enjoy my whole browsing experience across all three browsers I am using with the same bookmarks.
It’s also quite simple to set it up. Just click on the Wrench icon at the top right corner and select Synchronize my bookmarks.
[update on Jan 26, 2010]
It seems that the bookmarks sync in Google Chrome can’t synchronize the bookmarks in Google Bookmarks because it uses folders instead of labels. All bookmarks synchronized between computers are saved in Google Docs.
So it didn’t actually serve my original needs but it’s still nice that I can use the same bookmarks in Chrome between multiple computers I am using.
Where can I get it?
If you haven’t used it before, it’s time for you to try something different. Just head over to Google Chrome, and hit Download Google Chrome button.
Or, if you have already had Chrome installed, simply click on the Wrench at the top right corner and select About Google Chrome. And click on Update Now button to start installing process.
However, here is the drawback. There is still no taskbar preview in this version. Maybe it is disabled by default like Firefox 3.6. Or maybe our reader can share it in comments like this person did here.
