Earlier this year, Google made major changes to their popular internet browser, Google Chrome. These updates mainly focused on how Chrome handles tabs and how they can save memory by doing this more efficiently.
The latest updates released by Google this month supposedly, “represents the largest gain in Chrome performance in years.” Matt Waddell, Chrome’s director of product, posted a blog yesterday explaining the new changes they have brought to Chrome. These are also, as Waddell mentions in the blogpost, the final updates for 2020.
The first change comes in right when you launch the browser; Chrome now launches 25 percent faster than before and pages can now load up to 7 percent faster than they used to. Googl;e also says that all of this is done, “using less power and RAM than before.”
The second of the changes is, yet again, to do with tabs. Chrome now prioritises tabs according to which one is in use and which ones are not. the one in the foreground will be given priority over the background tabs. This will reduce, “CPU usage by up to 5x and extend(ing) battery life by up to 1.25 hours (based on our internal benchmarks).” Google has also said that they do this without compromising on background features that are useful to users; like playing music and getting notifications.
Tab search, another new feature that Google has added, will now enable users to search for a specific open tab whilst working. Users can now simply, “type the page name you’re looking and for and it’ll pop up.”
Tab search in #Chrome is a new way to find an open tab – just type the page name you’re looking and for and it’ll pop up. Learn more about this latest version of Chrome → https://t.co/NrsADN8PMv pic.twitter.com/1R5azL68lf
— Chrome (@googlechrome) November 17, 2020
Users can now also see a list of their open tabs when searching.
Chrome Actions will now be a useful set of things users can do with the address bar. They will be short actions that the user can make the browser do with, “just a few keystrokes.” These will include shortcuts to things like editing a password or deleting and viewing the history. “Our first set of actions — available initially on desktop — focuses on privacy and security, so you can increase your peace of mind in a few clicks.”
Lastly, cards have been added to Chrome as a way of increasing work efficiency. “To help you jump back into activities like planning a meal, researching a holiday gift, or winding down with a video, we’ll soon add cards to your new tab page in Chrome. Clicking on them will take you to recently-visited and related content on the web, and save you time in the process.”
Cards are only available for some users for the time being, however, they might expand to all users with more variety in 2021.
These significant updates now promise to increase the efficiency of the browser, make browsing for Chrome users easier, and give an overall more natural feel to the browser that was already the top choice for most people around the world.
“All of the above—plus some other features we’ll share on Twitter—is rolling out over the next few weeks.”
