Get Ready for Google Chrome 4.0

The fourth version of Google’s own breed of open-source browser is already cooking in Mountain View. This week the search giant has bumped the version number of Chrome’s underlying project all the way up to version 4.0. Just to be clear, it’s not Google Chrome itself that has been upgraded, but Chromium. According to Google, “Chromium is the open-source project behind Google Chrome.”

In this respect, the updated Chromium 4.0, well, Build 4.0.202.0 (23302) to be more specific, points to the inherent evolution of Chrome itself. For the time being however, Google browser users will have to content themselves with version 3.0, if Chrome is indeed what they want to run.

In case you are interested in taking Chromium 4.0 for a spin, you should know that the release is equivalent to an Alpha milestone. In this context, the browser version is plagued with bugs, understandable in the context of the very early development stage. However, Chromium 4.0 kicks browser performance up a notch, sporting a faster version of the V8 JavaScript engine. Testers will also notice that they will have additional personalization flexibility with extra themes.

“We've officially bumped Chromium to 4.0.x to reflect our code freeze point for 3.0. There is still a bit of work that needs to be done for 3.0 in terms of stability and fixes, and to that end we will be pulling changes into the 195 branch (what will become the stable release). Keep your eyes out for future updates on the beta channel,” revealed Anthony Laforge, technical program manager, Mountain View, CA.

For the time being, users can continue to access Google Chrome 3.0.197.11 (developer release), Chrome 3.0.195.6 Beta, and the stable Build 2.0.172.40. However, the progress made with Chromium indicates that Chrome 4.0 is not that far off into the future.

Google has been little shy of jumping from one version to another. Chrome has had an extremely aggressive evolution pace, and aggressive is an understatement. It was just in the fall of 2008 that the Mountain View company was introducing version 1.0 of Chrome. Since then, the search giant has already produced Chrome 2.0 stable and moved to offering testers and developers v3.0.

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