Chrome Leaves Beta For Real-Real

Yesterday's Le Web 08 conference in Paris saw Google VP Marissa Mayer tell us that Chrome would soon be leaving beta. And it has! If you've been test driving Google's faster-than-fast browser, you can now update it to the release version. Newcomers can download Chrome here.

In addition to a 1.4-1.5x increase in speed over the beta versions, Chrome now touts a revised bookmark manager and consolidated privacy options. Autofill, native RSS support "and so on" are still in the works, making this release version kind of "beta-lite" - but with Google's ambitions for Chrome, getting out of beta is a crucial step, and one best taken early.

I can't see any browser tempting me away from Firefox without similarly robust addon options, but my brief time with Chrome was definitely a much faster experience than cruising Firefox with an armada of addons dragging behind me. It's something I'd like to see on public and shared computers, where fast browsing is more important than customization.

Google Chrome breaks out of beta [WebWare]