GOOGLE is rolling out an update to its Chrome web browser that promises one of its biggest speed boosts in years.
The download rolling out across the globe this week is also set to bolster the battery life of your PC.
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Named Chrome M87, the update improves the performance of your browser by changing the way it handles tabs.
It does this by speeding up the tabs you use a lot while slowing down those you use less frequently.
“Even if you have a lot of tabs open, you likely only focus on a small set of them to get a task done,” Google wrote in a blog post on Tuesday.
“Starting in this release, Chrome is actively managing your computer’s resources to make the tabs you care about fast – while allowing you to keep hundreds of tabs open – so you can pick up where you left off.”
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Chrome is the word’s most popular browser, boasting more than a billion users worlwide.
Google regularly releases updates for the browser to boost performance and fix bugs and other issues.
In its blog post, the California tech titan said the latest download changes the way Chrome understands what tabs you’re using.
The browser now focusses your devices resources on the tabs you’re using, and takes attention away from those you’ve left to one side.
“We’ve made significant improvements by preventing background tabs from waking up your CPU too often, and no longer rendering tabs that you can’t see,” Google said.
Google Chrome – what you need to know
Here’s a quick guide…
- Google Chrome is a web browser created by Google
- It’s cross-platform, which means it works on a range of systems including Microsoft Windows and Apple’s iOS
- The browser also serves as the main part of Chrome OS – Google’s own operating system
- Most of Chrome’s code comes from Chromium, an open-source project built by Google
- Google Chrome is Google’s general-release browser based on Chromium, but anyone can build a Chromium app
- The full Google Chrome browser is completely free to download and use
- And according to StatCounter, around 68% of all web browsers globally are Google Chrome
- That’s down from a peak of 72%
- Google Chrome was first released on September 2, 2008
Internal testing showed the improvements extends the battery life of laptops by up to 1.25 hours, the company added.
Chrome is also now up to 25 per cent faster to start up and 7 per cent faster to load pages.
The company says it’s managed to do so “without sacrificing the background features that users care about, like playing music and getting notifications.”
On top of the PC browser upgrades, Google also announced improvements to how quickly Chrome loads back/forward navigations on mobile.
Google said the change is designed to help people who accidentally click on the wrong link on a webpage.
Chrome should update automatically when you reopen the browser but to be on the safe side you can follow the steps below.
How to update Google Chrome
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On your computer, open the Google Chrome browser and click the More icon (three vertical dots) in the top right.
Click Update Google Chrome, or if that option isn’t there, it means you’re already using the latest version.
Once you’ve updated, click Relaunch.
The browser will save your open tabs and windows and re-open them when it restarts.
You can also restart your browser later on by clicking Not Now.
This will cause the update to be applied the next time you restart your browser.
The More icon will be coloured (1) green if an update has been available for two days, (2) orange if an update has been available for four days, or (3) red if an update has been available for seven days.
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In other news, hackers are using a fake Google Chrome update to break into people’s PCs.
WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are ‘about to merge’ so you can chat across both.
And Apple is working on a new iPhone feature that alerts users if their passwords have been exposed online.
How much do you use Google Chrome? Let us know in the comments!
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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
