Google Chrome 4.0 is here for Windows users, and it adds two of the most sought-after features: extensions and bookmark syncing. Google boasts that Chrome 4 runs 40% faster than Chrome 3.
Extensions have been available in the beta release for about a month now, but now you can get them in the stable version. There are now more than 1,500 extensions in the gallery; there were only 300 when the beta hit the streets. That’s a far cry from the selection available for Mozilla’s Firefox browser, but it’s progress. And don’t forget that with Chrome, you don’t have to restart the browser to install an extension.
A Google Voiceextension — which Google announced this weekend — is now available. It adds a button in your toolbar that lets you know how many new messages you have. You can access messages and transcripts and make calls or send text messages from within Chrome. It also makes phone numbers on web pages callable with one click, kind of like the Skype extension for Firefox.
You won’t get a bookmark sync function in Firefox without installing an extension like Xmarks, which is where Chrome has the browser beat. Google’s bookmark sync function will keep your bookmarks straight across all your installations of Chrome on all your Windows computers. When it’s enabled, adding a bookmark on one computer adds it on the others, too.
Extensions are now available in the beta release of Chrome for Linux, but Mac users will still have to either do without or give the developer version a spin. We’ve embedded Google’s video about extensions for Windows below.
Extensions are now available in the beta release of Chrome for Linux, but Mac users will still have to either do without or give the developer version a spin. We’ve embedded Google’s video about extensions for Windows below.
