Google 
has rolled out a Chrome browser update featuring hardware-accelerated 3D graphics capabilities, additional privacy controls, and improved security features. On Tuesday, Chrome 12 was automatically installed on many PCs running earlier editions of Google's browser.
Chrome 12 will display a warning about web sites a user is about to visit that are suspected of phishing -- attempting to trick the user into sharing personal or other sensitive information. Warnings also will appear in the browser window about any web sites containing malware designed to steal personal information.
"We've carefully designed this feature so that malicious content can be detected without Chrome or Google ever having to know about the URLs you visit or the files you download," Chrome's development team wrote in a blog.
Improved Graphics
Chrome 12 gives web surfers more control over the tracking files that web sites store on PCs, such as the local shared object (LSO) data files generated by Adobe Systems' Flash technology. These so-called "Flash cookies" can now be managed from within Chrome 12 instead of a special tool created by Adobe for this purpose.
"We've worked closely with Adobe to integrate Flash LSO deletion directly into Chrome, making it easier for you to manage your online privacy," Chrome's development team explained.
Chrome 12 also sports improved graphics capabilities such as support for hardware-accelerated 3D cascading style sheet (CSS) and application designs. "You'll get a snazzier experience in some web pages and web apps that choose to implement 3D effects," the developers noted.
However, probably the single most important feature that all Chrome versions have is automatic updating, noted Al Hilwa, director of applications software development at IDC. "This means everyone will be able to take advantage of the improvements quickly, which is saying a lot in the software industry," Hilwa said.
Rivals Catch Up
At the end of May, Chrome held 12.5 percent of the global browser market -- up from 11.94 percent in April and 7.16 percent in July 2010, according to Net Applications. Google has been successful in attracting users by touting Chrome's speedy performance, noted Net Applications Executive Vice President Vince Vizzaccaro. "Then they began to seriously start marketing Chrome, and that's also proven to be successful," Vizzaccaro said.
However, Firefox and Internet Explorer have matched Chrome's speed as well as added resources and increased their rate of updates this year to match Google, Vizzaccaro noted. "So we'll see if Chrome's growth continues, or if it hits a plateau like Firefox did at 25 percent usage share," Vizzaccaro said.
Chrome's growth has been good, but it's to be expected since Google is a huge online destination and it uses that to market Chrome, Hilwa observed. "But at the same time, if the product wasn't good, it would not have reached this share," Hilwa said.
The only other browser to make steady gains during the past year is Apple's Safari, which held a 7.28 percent market share in May -- up from 5.09 percent last July.
"Safari's usage share on Windows devices is only 0.57 percent," Vizzaccaro said. "So it's safe to say Safari has grown in usage due to the overwhelming success of Apple's sales of iPhones, iPods, iPads and Macs, [as] we do include all devices in the global data shown on our site."
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