Google Chrome beta catches up to dev version

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Google pushed out a new beta version of Google Chrome today, claiming greater speed than ever. To be clear this is a beta-channel release – Chrome itself officially is not a Google Beta anymore.

Google has three versions of Chrome – dev, beta and stable (I run dev on my test box). The most recent dev version came out last week and was number 2.0.169.1. It is that version of dev that the new beta version is based on.

The basic premise is that that the beta-channel version is more tested and less rough around the edges. As a dev-channel user, I can attest to the fact that the dev version has worked exceptionally well for me and hasn’t seemed all that rough at all. Then again my perception of rough is different than others.

Google is claiming speed increases for those that haven’t been on dev track though –

“The best thing about this new beta is speed,” Brian Rakowski, Product Manager wrote in a blog post. “It’s 25 percent faster on our V8 benchmark and 35 percent faster on the Sunspider
benchmark than the current stable channel version and almost twice as
fast when compared to our original beta version.“

I’ll be sticking with dev myself – but if you’re still on stable, but haven’t made the move to dev, the new beta will be a big boost for you. I’m still waiting for my native Linux version though and I know Mac users are eager for their crack at Chrome too.