Google Rolls Out Chrome 7

An anonymous reader writes "Google on Tuesday released a new stable version of its internet browser, Chrome 7. The latest update is part of Google's promise in July to release a new stable version of Chrome about every six weeks. Chrome 7 comes with hundreds of bug fixes, an updated HTML5 parser, the File API, and directory upload via input tag. It is available in the stable and beta channels for Windows, Mac, and Linux. 'The main focus was the hundreds of bug fixes,' Jeff Chang, a Google product manager, wrote in a blog post."

Comments

One request...please!

[Singularity42]

Can I open a local file from a menu? Is that too much to ask???

Re:One request...please!

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes and the way most people learn keyboard shortcuts is... by first seeing them in the application menu. Putting back the http:// protocol prefix and trailing slash on root directory index would be a good idea too.

Re:One request...please!

[Shikaku]

Considering Ctrl+O is a ubiquitous standard such that any application down to MS paint to Adobe CS that can open files uses Ctrl+O to open files, I think they saw it at least once.

Re:One request...please!

[OffaMyLawn]

Yes, but you seem to be banking on the fact that non-technical people will remember shortcuts like that. I've had experience with this dealing with my parents.

Every 6 weeks

[commodore64_love]

So by the time we reach the end of 2011, we'll be on Chrome 16???

What's the point of all these frequent releases? Maybe I ought to give this browser a try... but Firefox and seaMonkey have served me well since I quit Mozilla Netscape, so I'm inclined not to change. ("If it ain't broke...")

Re:Every 6 weeks

[theaveng]

So by the time we reach the end of 2011, we'll be on Chrome 16???
What's the point of all these frequent releases?

How is this a "troll"? Looks like an honest question to me. Are questions no longer allowed on slashdot??? Apparently people seeking information are now considered undesirables.

Re:Every 6 weeks

[zuperduperman]

What's the point of all these frequent releases?

My theory is that they are trying to scare the bejesus out of Microsoft and even Mozilla into doing more frequent releases themselves. The main thing holding back Google's entire strategy is that browsers aren't good enough yet. They want to take over the whole business market by moving it into the cloud using Google Apps. But they can't because browsers suck. So they make Chrome - a browser that doesn't suck. It's been helpful but what they really need is to influence the other browsers, and one way to do that is to dispel the mythology that we should expect major improvements to our browsers just once every few years or so. One way to do that is to embarrass everyone else by showing that it's perfectly possible to release a new stable version every month or two if you do it right.

Re:7.0? Really?

[The MAZZTer]

Well they were doing 0.1 and 0.2, but then they jumped to 1.0. I think the prevailing theory at the time was that computer manufacturers didn't want to ship "beta" software, so Google simply removed the beta logo and bumped the version number. Problem solved! :)

Bookmark sidebar

[emgarf]

Have they figured out yet that many users want a bookmark sidebar/pane as an available choice?

Re:that's not fast

[Monkeedude1212]

If IE took that version numbering manipulation from the start... Meaning a new IE version with every Windows Update... What would we be on? IE4000?

Re:7.0? Really?

[fermion]

I said this before and I will say this again. Google, just like MS, is playing the version game so they make an immature browser seem equal to other browser, at least to the unsophisticated portion of the customer base.

This is not to say that Google is not catching up fast, just that they are focusing on version numbers in their add copies, while primarily fixing bugs in actuality.

Compare this to firms that are actually trying to deliver a useful feature set to customers, rather than just focusing on metrics that have long been shown to be meaningless. Firefox is happy at 3.6 Safari is happy at 5. Opera, which may have been around longer than google itself, is only at 10.63. These are people who deliver useful browser.

Re:7.0? Really?

[commodore64_love]

But even if there was a Chrome X 10.whatever, the other browser Opera 11 will still "beat" them. ;-)

And poor seaMokney is only on 2.
That must be a lousy browser. ;-)

Where is print preview for God's sake?

[bogaboga]

Really, can someone convince me that asking for this feature is asking too much after all these Chrome iterations? What's really wrong with this feature that makes it unappealing to implement? Come on Google!

Re:Where is print preview for God's sake?

[PCM2]

You should not be printing web pages; the website should provide you with a document to print if information is actually needed in dead-tree form.

Right, so you've never printed a page from Google Maps?

Re:I don't know about everyone else...

[k_187]

The biggest problem that Chrome has is that there's no way (that I am aware of) to turn off the auto-updates. personally, it doesn't bother me that much, but I can understand if it does bother someone else. There should at least be the option to ask (which again there may be, but I couldn't find it).

Re:AdBlock

[onefriedrice]

Yet it still doesn't have an equivalent to AdBlock Plus. And for the Chrome-heads who point out AdBlock, it is a good start but still nowhere near as effective. It lets many ads through, it still downloads and just hides a large chunk of ads, and it does not seem to stop flash ads at all.

I acknowledge that the Chrome plug-in has limitations by itself, but I personally find it much more than adequate because I also took a couple of minutes to write a cron script to to download and apply the latest hosts file. I never see ads; I can't remember the last time I saw a Flash ad, and my bandwidth isn't wasted on ads (or worse).

The Chrome plug-in is only good enough for grandma and average users, but the rest of us have a multi-layered strategy anyway. Firefox is a great browser, but I liked it better when it wasn't so slow and bloated. I'm a happy Chromium user now, and there are no FF plug-ins I miss at all.

Re:AdBlock

[Jugalator]

t's Chrome's fault because scripts can't run before page content is loaded.

Chrome supports onbeforeload, but yes, there are some limitations remaining that are being worked on.

Re:Lots of versions

[hairyfeet]

And THIS is the kind of cancer that turns many off of FOSS right here. A user says they have a problem, and what happens? I don't trust you, you're a liar, you're a shill, etc. Why not instead ask USEFUL questions, instead of thinking everyone is out to get you? I would ask: What kind of system, what hardware, what OS, can you post screencaps or a video showing what is going wrong? If you don't know how to do that, ask us and we'll tell you how.

You see THAT is how you try to get down to what is causing a problem, basic troubleshooting 101. Why FOSS users want to be paranoid instead of helpful I don't know, but I just don't see that behavior on proprietary apps. With those if you say "I have a problem" one generally assumes if the post isn't "Your product suxorz!" that they are generally having a problem. Just because YOU don't have a problem doesn't mean it doesn't exist, so why not try to help the guy out? It could be a conflicting program, hell it could be the program prefers one CPU over another (with Intel rigging their compiler this is a possibility) or a combination of factors. Let us try to be helpful instead of paranoid, okay?

Re:7.0? Really?

[DragonWriter]

I said this before and I will say this again. Google, just like MS, is playing the version game

What Google is doing is applying Lean Software Development principles to eliminate waste and deliver useful features more quickly to customers.

Not parading versions

[dagus2020]

Google Chrome doesn't parade versions all over the place like Opera, IE, and Safari. Users shouldn't really care what version they have, just that they are running Chrome. Likewise, web developers shouldn't need to care what version of Chrome users have, just that they have Chrome. This is a revolution in browser freshness.

Re:Lots of versions

[hairyfeet]

Exactly. It is this "our product is ALWAYS the bestest!" crap that I'm sure turns many off of FOSS apps. I work on PCs every single day and I've found that an app that works beautifully in one setup may be total shit on another. Does that make the app shit and is a reason for blind defense of it? No, of course not. There are only so many hours in a day and OSes and apps are extremely complex chunks of code now. A MUCH better attitue would be to simply ask a couple of questions and help the guy out. Not only does that build general good will but it is simply nice to help out a fellow human being. I've seen first hand how frustrating having a problem can be when you don't know how to solve it, and assholes calling people shill and insulting them helps NO one.

Notice how he called me names for daring to politely point out that bad attitude doesn't help FOSS? This kind of rampant foaming at the mouth fanboi crap helps NO ONE. it doesn't help promote the app or its adoption, because any user that has a problem will be turned off and drop it. And it certainly doesn't help the one who first told his problem, who has been insulted, nor the insulter, who is quickly coming off as a horse's ass and more than a little paranoid.

As for the "file a bug report" suggestion by the rude poster? How exactly does that help him using the product now. I've seen outstanding bugs in both FOSS and proprietary apps stay unfixed for years. And who says it is a bug and not a conflict? How does the user tell, especially if he/she isn't familar with the software and its possible quirks? I say when you have tech guys like us, who have been in the trenches and done this sort of the thing before, the best thing you can do to further adoption of a piece of FOSS software is to try to be polite and helpful if you can.

As I seem to be the only token Windows guy around here, I'll be happy to ask questions from the Windows view and he is welcome to write here or email me and I'll be happy to try to help. Are there errors in Event Viewer? When the stuttering occurs are you able to launch other apps? If so, can you launch task manager and tell what the CPU usage is? What are the specs of the hardware? which version of Windows? All these things would help to quickly narrow down the source of the error, and I'm not even a Chrome guy. I just think a little civility and decency is something many have seem to forgotten here, especially with regards to software that attracts fanbois. Notice you never see that with boring software? It is never "Quickbooks rock! Eat shit Quicken lover!" or any of that crap. Its just tools folks, not ballclubs. Paranoia and fanboi attacks help nobody.