L’amato browser web Google Chrome celebrates its fifteenth birthday in style with a significant redesign that brings the Material You design language to desktop users on Windows, Mac, Linux and ChromeOS.
Beyond the aesthetic changes, it promises to offer a even more pleasant and intuitive web browsing, as well as agile and safe with a host of new features. The new look of Chrome, expected to be released with Chrome 117 next week, it follows the previous restyling introduced five years ago with the Material Theme.
A fresh desktop look inspired by Material You
The new user interface is inspired by Material You and introduces a new pastel color palette which blend more harmoniously with the tabs and toolbar and rounded corners throughout the browser interface to give Chrome a more modern look.
The top, which houses tabs, address bar and bookmarks, is slightly taller to improve accessibility and visibility. On the address bar The HTTPS protocol lock no longer appearsgiven its now complete adoption, and there is a new icon to access the options of the visited site.
Google has also worked on the icons, making them more readable via a new larger general menu accessible via the three vertical dots button in the top right corner that simplifies quick access to even the most important settings, such as Google Translate, Google Password Manager and more, ensuring a smoother user experience.
New search capabilities, even with AI
Chrome’s Side Panel evolves with a host of new features that provide quick access to information and search tools. It now hosts a section dedicated to “All bookmarks“and the command”Search this page with Google“, which opens the search side panel to highlight related images and queries.
Additionally, Big G brings generative AI to web search by enabling US users to opt-inSGE while browsing” in Search Labs to test it. This experiment speeds up information retrieval, allowing you to quickly access key points with relevant links on eligible sites. The “Explore on the page” shows questions answered in an article, with links to the corresponding locations on the page.
Also the Chrome Web Store will receive a dose of Material You, with the addition of personalized recommendations, new categories such as “Editors’ spotlight” and AI-powered extensions. Improvements that make it easier to find useful extensions and apps to improve your browsing experience.
There is no shortage of increased security and privacy
In addition to the styling updates, Chrome 117 features major improvements in terms of security and privacy. The tool called “Safety Check” will allow users, among other things, to also check the extensions installed or to be installedand spot those that violate the rules or hide malware, helping to maintain a safer environment.
But the real star is Google Safe Browsing which will operate in real time, comparing the sites visited with an updated list of known malicious URLs. This is a significant change, since in the past the browser it only updated the locally stored list every 30-60 minutesmaking timely detection of dangerous sites more difficult.
Real-time scanning aims to provide a Immediate defense against malicious sites, especially considering that a significant portion of phishing domains have existed for less than 10 minutes. Specifically, Big G predicts that this improvement will provide a 25% improved protection against malware and phishing threats and will roll out to Chrome in the coming weeks.
