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31 October 2008, 13:55

New beta version of Google's Chrome browser

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Google has completed a new beta release of its browser. Users of previous versions should automatically receive Chrome 0.3.154.9 via the update feature found in the "About Google Chrome" menu item. It is worthwhile updating to the new version as it closes a URL spoofing hole that could be exploited for phishing attacks.

Google introduced its own web browser early in September and the public reception on it was that it was a further attack on Microsoft. Google has been moving into Microsoft productivity applications homeground for some time, with products such as Google Docs and Mail, but had been lacking its own web browser. Chrome uses elements of Apple's Webkit and of Mozilla's Firefox. Its JavaScript engine, V8, was developed from scratch for performance reasons. Some security experts criticised the release of a beta browser by Google, pointing out that the browser is the most likely route for attacks to be made.

Apart from the bug fixes, Chrome's redesigned behaviour when downloading executable files (.exe, .bat, etc.) also aims at providing more security. Files are no longer simply saved but are temporarily stored as an unconfirmed_*.download instead. Chrome only saves the file under its given name once the user has confirmed that he wants to save the file. Unconfirmed downloads are deleted when Chrome is closed. This is apparently designed to prevent scenarios like carpet bomb attacks.

The new release also solves a number of problems with plug-ins. In the past, Flash videos and PDF files occasionally froze the whole system, and it was impossible to view YouTube videos. Several modifications to the user interface are designed to make using the incognito mode even more intuitive. Find a complete overview of all the new features in the release notes.

(djwm)

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