Google just released a new stable version of Chrome for Windows PCs that includes two of the most frequently requested features: extensions and bookmark sync. This change won’t affect those users who are already using these features through Chrome’s beta or developer preview channel. Windows users who are using the stable version of Chrome, however, will finally be able to use extensions and sync bookmarks between multiple machines.
Extensions for (Almost) Everybody
Google first made extensions for Chrome available in a developer release in December. Since then, developers have created over 1,500 extensions for Chrome. Some of the most popular include an extension that checks your GMail for new messages, an extension that allows users to open certain sites in an Internet Explorer window inside Chrome, as well as various adblockers. Google also just updated its own Google Voice extension for Chrome.
Here at ReadWriteWeb, some of our personal favorites include Type-ahead find and the Google Similar Pages extension.
For now, the only stable version of Chrome that supports bookmarks and extensions is the Windows version. If you want to use extensions on the Mac, you will have to switch to the developer preview channel. For Linux users, extensions are already enabled in the beta channel.
Bookmark Sync
Starting today, the stable version of Chrome will also feature Google’s bookmark sync. We reported that Google was planning this feature last August and the first version to support bookmark syncing was released in early November. Right now, this feature only supports the syncing of bookmarks, but as our own Sarah Perez pointed out last year, the infrastructure is flexible enough to also allow Google to sync other data (passwords, favorite sites on the New Tab page or your browser history) in real time.
With Weave, Mozilla is working on a similar project. For the time being, however, this is just an extension and not a core feature of Firefox.
