Chrome emerges from beta

Much has been made of the fact that more than half of Google’s products, many of which have been around for quite some time, are still categorized as “beta”. With the likes of four-year-old Gmail wearing the beta tag, it’s interesting that Google chose now to remove the designation from Chrome. Chrome’s only been out since early September. What gives?

A lot, according to this Internetnews.com article. Not only are the browser wars heating up, with Firefox releasing beta 2 of Firefox 3.1 and the first beta of Thunderbird 3, but Opera just released the first alpha of resource-saving Opera 10. Google’s looking to ensure Chrome gets a fair play in the crowded browser market, and coming out of beta is just the first step. With the beta tag gone, the article surmises, Chrome can now more freely be bundled in with OEM vendor PCs, since most OEMs are loathe to work with beta wares.

Chrome’s first non-beta release will include several changes already made to the developer version of the browser, including bug fixes, increased speed, improved book mark manager and security features. By Friday, all Chrome users should receive the new update automatically, and users can force an upgrade by going to the wrench menu and choosing About Google Chrome.