Google hasn’t even released the developers’ version yet, let alone anything that’s been tested, however, this doesn’t seem to matter to these Chinese entrepreneurs: they’re using a pre-release version of the operating system and beating the competition to the punch. Go China, I say.

Google may schedule an October release of the public alpha or beta version of Chrome, if only to rub Microsoft’s nose in it a little, as the new Windows 7 is set to be released in October as well.

Google just released an update to its cutting edge developer version of Google Chrome that adds a lot of polish to the way Chrome handles extensions. Interestingly, while the stable versions of Chrome are still stuck with the 2.x series, the versions in the developer channel are now already designated as 4.x versions. At this point, users of the developer channel version can already easily install extensions, change themes, sync bookmarks, and profit from a faster rendering engine, while users of the more conservative stable version don’t have access to any of these features yet.

Among other things, Google has now made extension management a lot easier and if you use the dev channel version, just type in “chrome://extensions/” and the new extension management interface will pop up.

It’s been just over a year since Google surprised the world with a release of their very own web browser, Google Chrome, now the basis for the company’s upcoming operating system. Despite its flaws (lack of RSS support, no extensions), the browser soon became a hit among the niche crowd of early adopters…at least those running Windows. Why Windows? Because Google has yet to publicly release versions for either the Mac operating system or Linux. However, a recent update to their Privacy Policy hints that may be about to change.

In June of this year, Google finally released the first official beta versions of the Chrome browser for Mac and Linux. The builds were made available in the developer channel, but Google warned users that they were not ready for public consumption, only testing. Since it took nearly a year to get the point of beta releases, can it even be possible that Chrome for Mac and Linux is now ready for a public debut?

Not to get your hopes up, but a recent update to the Google Chrome Privacy Policy makes us wonder. A few days ago, the first two opening paragraphs of the Chrome Privacy Policy were revised. The old and new versions are provided below with bold indicating the changes:

OLD:

The Privacy Policy below applies only to Google Chrome for Windows. For the Developer channel releases on other platforms see the privacy policies for Mac OS X and Linux . The Google Privacy Policy describes how we treat personal information when you use Google’s products and services, including information provided when you use Google Chrome. In addition, the following describes our privacy practices that are specific to Google Chrome. Google will notify you of any material changes to this policy, and you will always have the option to use the browser in a way that does not send any personal information to Google or to discontinue using it.
Information Google receives when you use Google Chrome

You do not need to provide any personally identifying information in order to download and use Google Chrome. When you download Google Chrome or use it to contact Google’s servers, Google receives only standard log information including your machine’s IP address and one or more cookies. You can configure Google Chrome to not send cookies to Google or other sites as explained here.
NEW:

The Google Privacy Policy describes how we treat personal information when you use Google’s products and services, including information provided when you use Google Chrome. In addition, the following describes our privacy practices that are specific to Google Chrome. Google will notify you of any material changes to this policy, and you will always have the option to use the browser in a way that does not send any personal information to Google or to discontinue using it.
Information Google receives when you use Google Chrome

You do not need to provide any personally identifying information in order to download and use Google Chrome. When you download Google Chrome or use it to contact Google’s servers, Google receives only standard log information including your machine’s IP address and one or more cookies. On Google Chrome for Windows, You can configure Google Chrome to not send cookies to Google or other sites as explained here. Google Chrome for Mac and Google Chrome for Linux currently do not allow this level of configuration.
What Do You Think?

Maybe we’re grasping at straws here, after all, the change could be referring to the developer builds of the browser and they’re simply cleaning up the language for simplification. Still, that would be odd considering that they removed the reference to the developer builds’ privacy policy, wouldn’t it? Or then again, maybe Google is just consolidating the privacy policies for both the developer and public builds. A third option is that Google could be getting a little of the administrative work out of the way before they make the Mac and Linux builds public.

Testers have been reporting that the developer builds have been seeing steady improvement and the Chromium builds (the open source project that serves as the testing ground for Google Chrome) have been shaping up on a daily basis, too. Maybe a public version of Chrome for Linux and Mac is almost here? We can only hope.

Those of us gagging to start trying the new Chrome 4, well, now you can!
Mind you, it´s not finished by a long haul. The current 3.0 isn´t particularly developer friendly. All that´s about to change with Chrome 4, now ready as a developer preview. The first thing Chrome enthusiasts can start fiddling with is the Bookmark browser sync, which was released a few days ago.

Chrome version 4.0.201.1 which comes with this new cloud-based bookmark syncing tool that syncs your bookmarks to your Google Account. Where´sthe fun in that? Well, you can use any computer anywhere in the world and always use the same set of bookmarks and use this tool to sync your bookmarks across all them, as your content is stored in the cloud (Internet).

Chrome 4 will be mostly cloud-based, which makes it very light to run on netbooks and has already caused alarm on security issues.

To try the new bookmark sync tool, you have to type in a command line launch, as in chrome –enable-sync (Windows XP users can invoke Run from the Start menu); from there, the Sync my bookmarks-command appears on Chrome 4’s Tools menu.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt has resigned from the Apple board. Schmidt joined the board to help in Apple and Google´s fight against Microsoft, but these days Apple and Google are so much in competiton that Schmidt and Apple felt he had to resign.

Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, said in a statement: “Unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple’s core businesses, with Android and now Chrome OS, Eric’s effectiveness as an Apple Board member will be significantly diminished, since he will have to recuse himself from even larger portions of our meetings due to potential conflicts of interest. Therefore, we have mutually decided that now is the right time for Eric to resign his position on Apple’s Board.”

Bit of an obvious step in my book. It was a weird move to put a Google guy on an Apple board of directors. Really weird, and if I were the FCC I would have checked that out rather than this Google Voice Apps business.

For Chrome and soon  Chrome OS, these are interesting times. The early years are ofcourse the most important for these kind of products and so 2009-2012 will be crucial for adaption. And we’ll be there all the way, hacking and tweaking the browser to find out stuff we can change, alter, improve or generally adapt to our own wishes.

With the new blog, Twitter account and more aggressive marketing, we are stepping up to make this site the most interesting venue for Chrome (OS) users on earth, with the most themes, plugins, extensions and general help from the forum members. We’ll continue to stimulate this and build this up.

For now, check out the new theme page on this blog and the sign up for the forum if you didn’t already; it’s free and it’s a wonderful community!