Chrome version 8 is now available in developer channel for Google’s web browser. That’s right version 8.
Chrome 7 just hit beta at the end of September and I’d suspect a stable release of Chrome for all platforms is just around the corner.
So what’s new in Chrome 8?
That’s not as easy a question to answer as you might think. Google for some unknown reason doesn’t produce release notes in the same sense that other browser provide. That said the SVN revision log shows lots of activity.
The big new item from my viewpoint that Chrome 8 will debut is hardware acceleration, officially titled in the SVN entry as, “Lab strings for accelerated compositor, canvas 2d, and WebGL added. Canvas Lab exposed.”
There is also the initial implementation of Google Instant for Mac users and for Windows users there is a big fix that will enable them to import locally saved IE toolbar autofill data.
Still early days for Chrome 8, but Google’s rapid development process means that this new browser will likely be ready for the mainstream inside of the next 12 weeks.
