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Google Chrome 3.0.195.1 gets Extensions update

By Sean Michael Kerner on July 23, 2009 10:59 AM

From the 'not far now' files:

Google Chrome doesn't have Extensions support yet does it? Actually it does, if you're running the dev-channel 3.0.195.1 version.

The new release has an auto-update mechanism powered by Google Omaha (similar to how Chrome itself gets updated). Firefox users don't have Omaha, but they have the option of choosing to check (and update) their Add-ons. The Chrome approach will be more transparent and behind the scenes requiring little (if any) user interaction (Firefox users still have to actually click something to update).

Overall, Google notes that it is making progress on Extensions for Chrome though they are not yet complete.

"While the system is not yet complete, we've noticed that a lot of you have started creating and installing extensions for daily use," Aaron Boodman, Software Engineer blogged. "This is really encouraging, and it motivates us to quickly finish things up, to enable extensions by default on all Google Chrome releases."

It also looks like the final extensions release will also have a gallery system showing off all the different extensions as well (which makes sense since how else would you find them all?).

Google plans on including ratings and comments as part of the Extensions gallery system. They also plan on having a process in place to make sure malicious extensions (from a security perspective) don't get uploaded.

Though the dev-channel version of Chrome can now support Extensions, Google isn't recommending wide adoption.

"Until these things [Gallery/security] are in place and the extension system is officially launched, we recommend that you only install extensions that you built yourself," Boodman said.

Chrome 3.0.195.1 also gets a bunch of Mac and Linux fixes, though there is yet to be a stable release of Chrome for any platform other than Windows. On Linux one nice little fix is a GTK themes fix that is intended to make the location bar look more native/

One item that Chrome 3.0.195.1 does not have is Google's 3D engine O3D, though it's working on it for a future release. I last wrote about O3D in April, which is currently a plug-in for Chrome.

O3D is an open-source JavaScript API for creating interactive 3D graphics applications that run in a browser window. The JavaScript required for 03D is loaded into the browser via HTML (like most content). O3D works on a user's desktop by taking advantage of the GPU (hardware graphics accleration) by way of the OpenGL or Direct3D library.

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