Occasionally, I boot up Windows on my Mac just to run Google Chrome. Given how often I used Google’s services like Gmail and Google Reader, it’s almost worth it because they run so fast on Chrome’s JavaScript engine, which it calls “V8.” And today, Google has apparently slammed on the gas and made V8 even faster.
JavaScript-heavy webpages (such as Gmail), will now run 30% faster on Chrome, according to Google. Given how fast they were already running, that’s fairly insane.
This new version of Chrome also boasts the ability to remove thumbnails from the Tab Page. This is a feature that rival browsers such as Safari 4, already offer and is useful if, as Google notes in the video below, “you have a site in there that you’d rather not admit to visiting quite as often as your actually do.” Other new features include full-screen browsing mode and form auto-fill. Again, many of its rivals also already offer these.
Google says its fixed over 300 bugs that have caused crashes since it first launched. That’s nice, but the speed is the real story here. At least until the damn Mac version launches.