Google has released version 144 of the Chrome web browser. A stable release of the open-source Chromium project, the foundation of Chrome, is also available. Chrome differs from Chromium in its use of Google logos, a crash notification system, modules for playing copy-protected video content (DRM), automatic update installation, always-on sandbox isolation, provisioning of Google API keys, and the passing of RLZ parameters during search. For those who need more time to update, a separate Extended Stable branch is maintained for eight weeks. The next release, Chrome 145, is scheduled for February 10.
Of particular note is the addition of a setting to the Chrome Canary testing branch, which will form the basis for Chrome 147, to disable AI capabilities in the browser that rely on running AI models on the user's local system. In the "System" section of the browser configurator, a new option, "On-device GenAI Enabled," is now available. This option removes all locally running generative models and disables related features, such as malicious content detection in enhanced protection mode.
Chrome Canary also adds support for the JPEG XL image format, which Google representatives mentioned would be reintroduced in November. JPEG XL decoding is supported (1, 2) by the jxl-rs library, which implements JPEG-XL in Rust. To enable JPEG XL, the "chrome://flags/#enable-jxl-image-format" parameter has been added.
A vertical tab display mode has been added to the Chrome Beta branch, which will form the basis for Chrome 145. The setting "chrome://flags/#vertical-tabs" is available to replace the top horizontal tab bar with a sidebar containing vertical tabs. Once enabled, a "Show tabs on the side" button will appear in the context menu displayed when right-clicking an empty area of the tab bar.
Key changes in Chrome 144:
- We've continued to develop the AI mode, which allows interaction with the AI agent from the address bar or from the page displayed when opening a new tab. AI mode allows you to ask complex questions in natural language and receive answers based on aggregation of information from the most relevant pages on a given topic. If necessary, the user can clarify information with leading questions. The mode also allows you to ask questions about page content directly from the address bar.
Chrome 144 expands the capabilities of the built-in Gemini chatbot, adding support for uploading images to Gemini (via the context menu) and generating new images based on them. The ability to use AI mode across multiple tabs has been added—AI can answer questions about the contents of selected tabs, compare content, summarize, and search for information.
Previously, the AI mode was only available on platforms macOS и Windows, but now the “AI Mode” button and activation by pressing the tab key before starting to type in the address bar have appeared in the collections for Linux (Apparently, not yet available for all users.) You can control AI enablement via the "ai-mode" options on the "chrome://flags" page.
- A new, simplified design for the page displayed when opening a new tab has been enabled for some users. The new design is stripped of visual clutter and offers more customization options for managing the appearance. The "Dismiss" button for hiding individual content blocks has been removed, and now offers the option to disable entire categories (for example, instead of hiding a specific recipe, the option to hide all recipes is available).
- In OS-based configurations WindowsBrowsers that use centralized Chrome management are now protected from unauthorized changes to important settings, such as those made by search engine malware. If third-party software detects changes to settings, such settings are now automatically reset to their default state.
- The third version of the Happy Eyeballs algorithm has been implemented. This algorithm is used to select the optimal protocol when connecting to hosts that are simultaneously accessible via IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. When using the Happy Eyeball algorithm, the client immediately resolves both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses for the host and sends a connection request via IPv6. The client then attempts to connect simultaneously via other addresses bound to the host, without waiting for the results of previous connection attempts. The first established connection remains active, and the remaining connections are closed. In addition to DNS A (IPv4) and AAAA (IPv6) records, the third version of the protocol analyzes SVCB (Service Binding) and HTTPS DNS records to determine HTTP/3 and HTTPS support. If available, the QUIC protocol and the TLS ECH extension are given higher priority.
- Multicast support has been added to the Direct Sockets API, which allows for establishing direct TCP and UDP connections to external systems and creating listening sockets to accept connections. Isolated Web Apps (IWA) can now subscribe to multicast groups and receive UDP multicast packets sent to them.
- The following APIs and technologies developed as part of the Privacy Sandbox initiative have been deprecated and are scheduled for removal in Chrome 150: the Topics API (replacing the FLoC API), the Protected Audience API, the Shared Storage API, the Attribution Reporting API, Private Aggregation, the Related Website Sets API, and requestStorageAccessFor. For more information, see Google's announcement of its plans for Privacy Sandbox.
- The pseudo-element "::search-text" has been added to CSS, allowing you to change the color, background, and decorative elements of the text highlighted as a result of a local search on a page, similar to the previously available pseudo-elements "::highlight", "::spelling-error", and "::grammar-error", which allow you to change the style of text highlighting and error marking.
- Added the "caret-shape" CSS property, which allows you to customize the appearance of the cursor in editable fields.
- Added the "clipboardchange" event, which is generated when the contents of the clipboard change and allows you to bypass resource-intensive periodic polling for changes using JavaScript code.
- New HTML element added , designed to insert buttons and links into the page to call the interface for confirming access to user location information provided by the corresponding JavaScrip API.
- The JavaScript Temporal object has been added, implementing an alternative set of methods for working with dates and times. The new API allows you to manipulate dates with and without regard to time zones, convert times, format output, and perform arithmetic operations with time. Time can be specified in a time-zone-independent representation (Temporal.PlainDate, Temporal.PlainTime, Temporal.PlainDateTime), with a time zone reference (Temporal.ZonedDateTime), and in epochal representation (Temporal.Instant - the number of nanoseconds since January 1, 1970).
- Improvements have been made to web developer tools. An option to launch a web browser has been added to the content inspection page (chrome://inspect) Server Remote debugging without restarting the browser (previously, such a server could only be launched via a command line option). Editing of the "@font-face" and "@font-feature-values" CSS rules is now possible in the Styles panel. In the network inspection interface, the "Request blocking" panel has been renamed to "Request conditions" and now allows not only blocking but also rate limiting of individual network requests.
In addition to new features and bug fixes, the new version addresses 10 vulnerabilities. Many of the vulnerabilities were identified through automated testing using AddressSanitizer, MemorySanitizer, Control Flow Integrity, LibFuzzer, and AFL. No critical issues that could allow for bypassing all layers of browser protection and executing code outside of the sandbox environment were identified. As part of its vulnerability bounty program for the current release, Google has established 10 rewards and awarded $18,500 (one reward each of $8000, $4000, $3000, $2000, $1000, and $500). The amounts of four rewards have not yet been determined.
Source: opennet.ru
