Tabs are the main component of Chrome’s user interface and have been moved to the top of the window rather than below the controls. On the HTML5 web standards test, Chrome 41 scored 518 out of 555 points, placing it ahead of the five most popular desktop browsers. In 2011, on the official CSS 2.1 test suite by the standardization organization W3C, WebKit, the Chrome rendering engine, passed 89.75% (89.38% out of 99.59% covered) CSS 2.1 tests. Beginning with version 4.0, Chrome passed all aspects of the Acid3 test, However, as of April 2017 Chrome no longer passes Acid3 due to changing consensus on Web standards. The first release of Google Chrome passed both the Acid1 and Acid2 tests. On many new devices with Android 4.1 or later preinstalled, Chrome is the default browser.
- Until version 24 the software is known not to be ready for enterprise deployments with roaming profiles or Terminal Server/Citrix environments.
- Support for using GNOME Keyring and KWallet was added in version 6, but using these (when available) was not made the default mode until version 12.
- In 2023, Google proposed a technology that claims to “hide the IP and traffic of its users” by routing Chrome traffic to Google servers.
- Support for 32-bit versions of Chrome ended in November 2014 with the release of Chrome 39.
Canary was Windows-only at first; a macOS version was released on May 3, 2011. This ensures that fallback functionality remains even when some Canary updates may contain release-breaking bugs. Canary releases run side by side with any other channel; it is not linked to the other Google Chrome installation and can therefore run different synchronization profiles, themes, and browser preferences.
64-bit macOS builds became available as canary builds on November 7, 2013, in the beta channel on October 9, 2014, and in the stable channel on November 18, 2014. Chrome supports color management by using the system-provided ICC v2 and v4 support on macOS, and from version 22 supports ICC v2 profiles by default on other platforms. Also, Google announced a new release channel for system administrators and browser embedders with aafx trading releases every eight weeks. The Chrome beta channel for Android was launched on January 10, 2013; like Canary, it runs side by side with the stable channel for Android. The Stable channel is updated roughly quarterly, with features and fixes that passed “thorough” testing in the Beta channel.
User tracking concerns
The Chrome Web Store was opened on February 11, 2011, with the release of Google Chrome 9.0. This meant offline access, desktop shortcuts, and less dependence on Chrome—apps launch in a window separate from Chrome, and look more like native applications. The browser, when opened in this way, contains none of the regular interface except for the title bar, so as not to “interrupt anything the user is trying to do”. The desktop edition of Chrome can save pages as HTML with assets in a “_files” subfolder, or as an unprocessed HTML-only document.
Release channels, cycles and updates
As of December 2025,update according to StatCounter, Google Chrome had 75% worldwide desktop usage share, making it the most widely used web browser. In December 2022, Google announced the transition would be paused “to address developer feedback and deliver better solutions to migration issues”. The FLoC proposal also drew criticism from DuckDuckGo, Brave, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation for underestimating the ability of the API to track users online. In 2023, Google proposed a technology that claims to “hide the IP and traffic of its users” by routing Chrome traffic to Google servers. Chrome sends details about its users and their activities to Google through both optional and non-optional user tracking mechanisms.
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Google subsequently made the comic available on Google Books, and mentioned it on their official blog along with an explanation for the early release. It also came shortly after the release of Mozilla Firefox 1.0, which was surging in popularity and taking market share from Internet Explorer, which had noted security problems. Online journals and U.S. newspapers stated at the time that Google was hiring former Microsoft web developers, among others. Company co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page hired several Mozilla Firefox developers and built a demonstration of Chrome. As of September 2025,update StatCounter estimates that Chrome has a 71.77% worldwide browser market share (after peaking at 72.38% in November 2018) on personal computers.
Chromium
64-bit Windows builds became available in the developer channel and as canary builds on June 3, 2014, in the beta channel on July 30, 2014, and in the stable channel on August 26, 2014. Because Chromium also serves as the pre-release development trunk for Chrome, its revisions are provided as source code, and buildable snapshots are produced continuously with each new commit, requiring users to manage their own browser updates. Alternatively, users may download a standalone installer of a version of Chrome that does not auto-update. The Developer channel is updated once or twice per week and was where ideas and features were first publicly exposed, “(and sometimes fail) and can be very unstable at times”. Beta is updated roughly monthly, with “stable and complete” features migrated from the Developer channel. Concurrently, all Developer channel users were moved to the Beta channel along with the promoted Developer release.
Firefox: Private, Safe Browser
The optional suggestion service included in Google Chrome has been criticized because it provides the information typed into the Omnibox to the search provider before the user even hits return. Unofficial builds, such as SRWare Iron, seek to remove these features from the browser altogether. The module was removed in Chrome 45, which was released on September 1, 2015, and was only present in Chrome 43 and 44.
You can set Chrome as your default browser on Windows or Mac operating systems as well as your iPhone, iPad or Android device. In order to install Chrome and receive adequate support, you must meet the system requirements. From shopping and entertainment to productivity, find extensions to improve your experience in the Chrome Web Store.
Release version numbers
In June 2019, it announced that it would increase the aforementioned cap from 30,000 to 150,000 entries to help quell concerns about limitations to filtering rules. As the Chrome Web Store review process has an invariable length, filter lists may not be updated in a timely fashion. Additionally, the prohibition of remotely-hosted code will restrict the ability for filter lists to be updated independently of the extension itself.
This enforces a computer security model whereby there are two levels of multilevel security (user and sandbox) and the sandbox can only respond to communication requests initiated by the user. Using the principle of least privilege, each tab process cannot interact with critical memory functions (e.g. OS memory, user files) or other tab processes – similar to Microsoft’s “Protected Mode” used by Internet Explorer 9 or greater. Chrome formerly supported a Data Saver feature for making pages load faster called Lite Mode. Chrome formerly used their now-deprecated SPDY protocol instead of only HTTP when communicating with servers that support it, such as Google services, Facebook, Twitter.
Support for OS X 10.10 ended in January 2021 with the release of Chrome 88. Support for Mac OS X 10.6, OS X 10.7, and OS X 10.8 ended in April 2016 with the release of Chrome 50. Since enterprises took more time to migrate to Windows 10 or 11, the end of support date was pushed back again until January 15, 2023. On Linux distributions, support for 32-bit Intel processors ended in March 2016, although Chromium is still supported. In a review by Chitika, Chrome was noted as having 1.5% of the iOS web browser market as of July 18, 2012.update In October 2013, Chrome had 3% of the iOS browser market.needs update
- Chrome uses cutting-edge safety and security features to help you manage your safety.
- Chrome allows users to synchronize their bookmarks, history, and settings across all devices with the browser installed by sending and receiving data through a chosen Google Account, which in turn updates all signed-in instances of Chrome.
- Google Chrome/Chromium chooses which store to use automatically, based on the desktop environment in use.
- In addition, Android users can now add bookmarks to their Android home screens if they choose and decide which apps should handle links opened in Chrome.
- In 2014, Google started preventing some Windows users from installing extensions not hosted on the Chrome Web Store.
Incognito mode
Google created Gears for Chrome, which added features for web developers typically relating to the building of web applications, including offline support. In December 2009, Google released beta versions of Chrome for macOS and Linux. The first official macOS and Linux developer previews of Chrome were announced on June 4, 2009, with a blog post saying they were missing many features and were intended for early feedback rather than general use. Google kept the development project name as the final release name, as a “cheeky” or ironic moniker, as one of the main aims was to minimize the user interface chrome. If you don’t want Google’s repository, do ‘sudo touch/etc/default/google-chrome’ before installing the package. They are zipped in a .crx file and contain a manifest.json file that specifies basic information (such as version, name, description, privileges, etc.), and other files for the user interface (icons, popups, etc.).
On Windows, it uses Google Update, and auto-update can be controlled via Group Policy. It does not natively include the option to be the default browser, although on Windows and macOS it can be set through System Preferences. Canary is “the most bleeding-edge official version of Chrome and somewhat of a mix between Chrome dev and the Chromium snapshot builds”. The name refers to the practice of using canaries in coal mines, so if a change “kills” Chrome Canary, it will be blocked from migrating down to the Developer channel, at least until fixed in a subsequent Canary build. The first production release on December 11, 2008, marked the end of the initial Beta test period and the beginning of production. A multi-process architecture is implemented in Chrome where, by default, a separate process is allocated to each site instance and plugin.
The declarative version of WebRequest uses rules processed by the browser, rather than sending all network traffic through the extension, which Google stated would improve performance. Manifest V3 has faced criticism for changes to the WebRequest API used by ad blocking and privacy extensions to block and modify network connections. Topics are supposed to refresh every three weeks, changing the type of ads served to the user and not retaining the gathered data. On January 25, 2022, Google announced it had killed off development of its FLoC technologies and proposed the new Topics API to replace it. This allows the search engine to provide URL suggestions, but also provides them with web use information tied to an IP address.
Chrome Family
Additionally, the prohibition of remotely-hosted code will restrict the ability for ad-blocking filter lists to be updated independently of the extension itself. It was launched on January 25, 2010, along with Google Chrome 4.0, containing approximately 1500 extensions. These extensions are written using web technologies like HTML, JavaScript, and CSS.
Chrome has its own web store where users and developers can upload and download these applications and extensions. In November 2023, Google announced it would resume the transition to Manifest V3; support for Manifest V2 extensions would be removed entirely from non-stable builds of Chrome beginning June 2024. It was provided to the developer channel, which enabled Windows 8 and 8.1 users to run Chrome with a full-screen, tablet-optimized interface, with access to snapping, sharing, and search functionalities. Google released a separate Chrome for Android beta channel on January 10, 2013, with version 25. Starting from version 25, the Chrome version for Android is aligned with the desktop version, and usually new stable releases are available at the same time for both the Android and the desktop versions.
On September 2, 2020, with the release of Chrome 85, Google extended support for Secure DNS in Chrome for Android. On September 9, 2016, it was reported that starting with Chrome 56, users will be warned when they visit insecure HTTP websites to encourage more sites to make the transition to HTTPS. In January 2015, TorrentFreak reported that using Chrome when connected to the internet using a VPN can be a serious security issue due to the browser’s support for WebRTC. Previously, Chrome engineers Addy Osmani and Scott Little announced Lite Mode would automatically lazy-load images and iframes for faster page loads. Two weeks after Chrome’s launch in 2008, the WebKit team announced a new JavaScript engine, SquirrelFish Extreme, citing a 36% speed improvement over Chrome’s V8 engine. On September 3, 2008, Mozilla responded by stating that their own TraceMonkey JavaScript engine (then in beta), was faster than Chrome’s V8 engine in some tests.