Google has made available for download a new interim development milestone of its open-source browser. Google Chrome 2.0.172.2 went live at the end of the past week, and is up for grabs as a developer channel release. The new build fixes an array of issues, and in fact it was delayed in order to ensure that the resolves introduced are
working properly. According to the Mountain View-based search giant, Google Chrome 2.0.172.2 now allows end users to right-click selected text in order to copy it, functionality which was missing from previous versions.

“Google Chrome's Dev channel has been updated to 2.0.172.2. We're late this week, because I wanted to make sure we fixed the #1 annoyance with 171.0: you can't copy text with right click,” revealed Mark Larson, Google Chrome program manager. “Notable changes: added support to cache some form submissions so that when you press back, you don't get the annoying "Confirm Form Submission" page; the Web Inspector should be working properly again (right-click > Inspect Element); fixed most pages being cut off on the side and bottom when you print them.”

At the same time, Google has focused hard on the known issues that affected the previous development milestone of Chrome. In this context, users will be able to create multiple Download tabs in a single window without any issues. When it comes down to download, Google has also fixed the progress indicator for downloads. In addition, the History tab no longer displays just today's browsing history. But at the same time, there are new issues that the end users will need to be made aware of, including the fact that they “cannot drag bookmarks on the New Tab page; and mouse wheel scrolling does not scroll windows that aren't focused,” Larson added.

The latest development milestone of Google Chrome is available for download here.

The latest version of the open-source browser made available for download through the Google Chrome Developer channel is 2.0.174.0. With Google Chrome 2.0.174.0, the Mountain View-based search giant is offering end users a tad more flexibility when it comes down to the content on newly opened tabs. In this regard, Google informed that Chrome 2.0.174.0 would permit end users to remove all the thumbnails representing shortcuts to websites that had been so far featured by default on the empty space associated with new tabs.

In addition, other notable changes involve: the addition of “"Undo Tab Close" and "New Tab" to the context menu on the tab bar. It is no longer possible to cut or copy from a password text-field. Ctrl+Shift+Arrow allows change in text direction in RTL UIs. Also now support Ctrl+Shift text alignment based on which side of the keyboard those keys are pressed,” revealed Anthony Laforge, Google Chrome program manager.

Google also fixed an issue reported with the previous dev channel release of Chrome where Google Calendar widget failed to show events. Chrome 2.0.174.0 comes just a couple of days after the release of 2.0.172.5. However, the 2.0.172.5 development milestone is a build belonging to the Google Chrome Beta Channel, designed to offer end users all the security updates and resolves offered in the past with releases such as 2.0.169.1 and 2.0.172.2.

Laforge explained that in addition to improvements in stability and bug fixes, Chrome 2.0.172.5 “Added support to cache some form submissions so that when you press back, you don't get the annoying "Confirm Form Submission." Autocomplete popup now appears when you press up/down key in a text-field. Visited links from normal browsing are no longer being displayed as visited (i.e. purple) in incognito mode. Pressing the Del key while an item is selected in the form suggestion popup deletes that suggestion.”

The latest version of Google Chrome is available for download here.

The latest version of Chrome for developers was postponed because of the two stable releases of the open source browser Google shipped the past week. But, on May 12, 2009, the Chrome developer channel was updated to build 2.0.180.0, delivering a range of new fixes, as well as kicking the version numbers for the rendering engine and the JavaScript engine up a notch. In this regard, WebKit is now up to version 530.9, while, as far as V8 is concerned, the build is 1.2.2.1. This, of course, provided that you run Google Chrome 2.0.180.0.

In addition to the version changes, Jonathan Conradt, Google Chrome program manager, also enumerated “visible changes: Support PgUp/PgDn in Omnibox for ‘first entry/last entry.’ Tell the user if Chrome is not the default browser. You can choose to allow pop-ups from a site,” as well as additional modifications: “Fix for crashing when zoomed into street level on maps.yahoo.com. Stop the location bar from flashing white when navigating from one HTTPS site to another. Fix for common issues around opening a new window.”

The past week, Google delivered updates both to the stable and the beta versions of Chrome. On May 7, the Mountain View-based search giant introduced Chrome 1.0.154.65, an update set up to fix problems related to the startup process when the browser would crash for some users. Subsequently, Google also took the Chrome's Beta channel up to 2.0.172.23, focusing on tweaks to the graphical user interface, as well, as introducing bug and stability fixes.

“We were not able to issue a Dev channel release this week. Our test team did a great job in qualifying two Stable udpates and a Beta update this week, and we just didn't have the test capacity to push a Dev channel release,” Mark Larson, Google Chrome program manager, explained ahead of the weekend. “We'll get an update out early next week. Stay tuned for some exciting new features we hope to land in the Dev channel.”

The latest versions of Google Chrome are available for download here.

Google Chrome 2.0.180.0 Dev
Google Chrome 1.0.154.65 Stable