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Google Chrome 29 Is Out: Omnibox Suggestions, Profile Resetting

Posted by Soulskill on from the ramping-up-for-number-thirty dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Google today released Chrome version 29 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. The new version features improved Omnibox suggestions, profile resetting, as well as new apps and extensions APIs. The biggest change is undoubtedly around how Omnibox suggestions work on the desktop. When the feature arrived in the beta channel, Google said that the improvements were 'based on the recency of websites visited, so you’ll get more contextually relevant suggestions at the right time. ... Chrome 29 for Android meanwhile has received WebRTC support, which enables real-time communication (such as videoconferencing) in the browser without installing any plugins."

5 of 120 comments (clear)

  1. Google Service by Frankie70 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Does Chrome still install and run background services on Windows? That's the reason I uninstalled Chrome. A Browser is a client side application. It should start when I start it and stop when I stop it. I see no reason for Chrome to run Windows Services. I uninstalled GTalk also for the same reason.

    1. Re:Google Service by MightyYar · · Score: 5, Funny

      Without the background task, you'll have no hope of keeping up-to-date. By the time I finished downloading 28, 29 was released.

      And now it's 30. Crap.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    2. Re:Google Service by DarkOx · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I think you could make the argument its not to often, provided its sufficiently light weight. If the thing is able to start up do a quick http request to fetch the latest version number and die, if its unchanged what is the big deal. On the flip side browsers often hold lots of personal information and spend all of their time rendering untrusted documents; making them huge malware targets.

      You can take the value proposition away from the malware writes somewhat if you can at least make it also true the vast vast majority of the installed base will patched in a short time window, hours not days.

      --
      Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
  2. Pardon my troll, but... by Red+Jesus · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I hate to troll what could be a pleasant discussion about a new release of a popular web browser, but Chrome sends lots of extra data to Google and Google sends lots of extra data to the NSA. I therefore do not trust Chrome.

    I understand that this is irrelevant to the current topic. If I don't want to use Chrome, I should just use another web browser, right? Like how I didn't want to use GMail, so I got a Lavabit account in 2009. (Seriously!) But Lavabit is gone now. And when I updated my friends with my new email address, I sullenly noted that well over half of them use GMail because the convenience outweighs the loss of privacy.

    So... I'm tired and afraid. Google is integrating more features into the browser that are based on the "recency of the websites visited"? That information will almost certainly be radioed back home to Google. And when the NSA is finally forced to answer for their sins before Congress, they'll point to how many people downloaded Google Chrome 29 and they'll say, "People don't mind being tracked! They sign up for this stuff voluntarily!" Regardless of whether that's a good reason for the NSA to be able to read my email, it's going to come up repeatedly in the inquiry, and that one fact might be enough to allow the program continue.

    I have no choice but to see the existence of Google Chrome 29 as a threat to my freedom. I wish I could be more reasonable about it, or at least keep my stupid opinions to myself, but being reasonable about Snowden wasn't enough to save my email account.

    *sigh*

    1. Re:Pardon my troll, but... by SoupGuru · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Oh for God's sake. The NSA has compromised everything. Google is no exception. Google is actually doing more than any other company to fight the gag orders and expose the extent of the monitoring. If you're concerned about privacy , do you stick with any number of companies that are compromised or do you stick with one company that is compromised but shows an extreme dislike of it? And not only that, Google is a company that has clout and resources.

      I'm not trying to advocate for Google here, I just don't see too many other companies so publicly pissed off at what they're being forced to do.

      --
      What doesn't kill you only delays the inevitable