Google Releases Chrome 12; Introduces Improved Security and Privacy Features

Google has just released its 12th stable release of Google Chrome, and with it comes a bucketload of improvements that make upgrading a recommended affair. If you’re using a standard version of Chrome, it may have already updated itself, but if you are using an install through a repository in Linux, you may have to run your OS updater in order to get the latest version.

Touted with this version are improvements to security, privacy and graphics. On the official Chrome blog, it’s mentioned that “Safe Browsing” has seen some big enhancements. In addition to Chrome being able to warn you about websites and malware you may encounter, it will also warn you when you go to download some malicious type of file or software. For privacy’s sake, this feature has been designed in such a way that Chrome or Google itself will not know the origin of the malicious file.

Anyone who’s ever tried to edit Adobe Flash settings will know that it’s less fun than pulling teeth, and that’s where Google’s “Flash LSO deletion” (Local Shared Objects) feature comes in. It will allow you to manage the local content stored via way of Flash, adding once again to the overall control over your personal privacy.

Though kind of a bleeding-edge feature, Chrome 12 improves graphics capabilities including the adding of support for 3D CSS. For those using Chrome 12 (t doesn’t work for me in Firefox 4), you can see an example of this tech in use here.

Overall, a solid release for Chrome, given 11 came out a mere two months ago!