Google gives Chrome tabs a performance boost, better management
Google's new update should make Chrome a little faster.
Chrome is getting some improvements.
Google is giving Chrome an update to boost performance. In a blog post on Tuesday, the search giant revealed a host of new changes in the works to help make its popular web browser faster, more responsive and more efficient particularly when it comes to managing tabs.
Among the big changes are some "under-the-hood performance improvements" that will make loading tabs up to 10% faster, improved support for touchscreens as well as tab previews that allow you to hover over a tab to see what's inside as opposed to having to fully open it.
Group tabs, which were previously detailed by the company in May, are also rolling out more broadly and can now be expanded or collapsed when not in use.
In non-tab news, Google says it will be expanding PDF capabilities in the coming weeks to support being able to virtually sign and save forms, while those who have Android devices will gain the ability to more easily share links from Chrome on your computer or tablet to Chrome on your phone. For those interested in turning a website into a QR code, that functionality is also being added to the browser.
Whereas most of these features will be rolling out as part of the M85 release of Chrome (the exception being tab previews which will be in beta), the company says it is also adding a new "tab throttling" feature to the Chrome beta channel that should further help the browser's efficiency.
The new feature should do a better job optimizing the resources being devoted to tabs you aren't actively using, with Google teasing the feature will have "improvements not only in loading speed but also battery and memory."
Exact availability isn't mentioned, with Google's blog post noting that while it is rolling out the update "features sometimes take time until they roll out to every browser."
