Google has announced the release of the web browser Chrome 147. Alongside this, a stable release of the free project Chromium, which serves as the basis of Chrome, is also available. Chrome differs from Chromium in various ways, including the use of Google logos, notification system for crashes, modules for playing DRM-protected video content, automatic update installation, constant Sandbox isolation, Google API key provision, and RLZ parameter passing during searches. Users who require more time to update can utilize the Extended Stable branch, which is supported for 8 weeks. The next release, Chrome 148, is scheduled for May 5.
Major changes in Chrome 147:
- Added vertical tab display mode, replacing the top horizontal panel with a sidebar containing vertical tabs. Users can choose between expanded (icon + description) and collapsed (icons only) modes. Hovering over a tab displays a thumbnail of its content. Tab group management is simplified. The option to “Show Tabs Vertically” can be accessed through the context menu by right-clicking on the tab bar. If the option is not visible, it can be enabled through the “chrome://flags/#vertical-tabs” setting.
- Redesigned reading mode displays only the significant text of a page while hiding controls, banners, menus, and other non-content-related elements. In the new version, significant content is displayed in the full visible area, similar to Firefox’s reading mode. Users can activate this mode through the setting “chrome://flags/#read-anything-immersive-reading-mode”.
- A button has been added to the Help menu allowing users to report web pages designed for fraud or phishing to be added to a block list. This button appears when the “Safe Browsing” mode is enabled.
/Reports, release notes, official announcements.