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Chrome is a browser made by Google. Googles idea was this, make a browser that simple, easy to use, and allows us to do what we all want to do. Browse the web! This idea became a reality on September 2nd, 2008.

No one has really explained the Google Chrome Software Channels, at least not to the point of where normal users can understand it. That is what this article is for!

Here I’ll be explaining Google Chrome a bit. Mainly its software ‘channels’ as Google refers to them.

There are three channels for Google Chrome. Stable, Beta and Dev. Each one is unique as its stability, speed and features differ.

Here is a quick breakdown of all three channels.

Stable

• Extremely stable releases.
• Last to see new features.

Beta

• Fairly buggy, generally stable.
• Generally takes a good 2 months (after Dev) before new features are added to the Beta branch

Dev

• Least stable, generally buggy.
• Usually beats the other branches in pure page-loading speed.
• Sees new features first.

Now, of course you all are probably asking yourselves why you should care. Quite simply, you shouldn’t. If you like having the latest and greatest go for the Dev builds. If you feel adventurous go for the beta.

One thing I am asked often about Google Chrome is “Why are the Dev builds faster then beta/stable?” This is because Google uses the latest everything with their Dev builds. So speed increase over the older versions is rather expected.

You are probably curious what may await you in the Dev channel, heres three features that some of you may enjoy.

Tab Preview (Windows 7)

• This is essentially what Internet Explorer 8 and Opera 10.5 already have, the ability to see and select your tab by hovering over your Google Chrome icon on your taskbar.

Jumplist Support (Windows 7)

• Jumplist support, finally.  This allows us to launch a recently/most visted website by just right-clicking the icon in the taskbar.

Integrated Adobe Flashplayer

• The latest build integrates Adobe Flash 10.1 Beta 3. Which means you do not need to download Adobe Flash seperately to use it in Chrome. Just right-click the shortcut to Google Chrome and add this at the end “–enable-internal-flash” (without quotes). You will be greeted by a EULA Acceptance screen upon launching.

If I got any of you fired up to try any of the channels, here are the download links for them.

Download Google Chrome

	Download from the Stable Channel
	Download from the Beta Channel
	Download from the Dev Channel

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