Chrome 87 is here and comes with improved resource management and an expanded range of functions in the address line. For Apple’s new ARM Macs there is a native version, which initially presents difficulties.

The new version of Chrome will be the last for this one Be year. And according to Google, it brings with it the biggest performance improvement in years. This is mainly due to the throttling tab. Chrome recognizes and prioritizes active tabs. Those in the background are paused – what does not apply to playing music or videos, they continue to run. The Chromium blog post explains how occlusion tracking works.

The throttling reduces the CPU load by up to five percent, the battery life can be up to 1, 25 hours can be extended. The browser starts up to 25 percent faster and loads pages up to seven percent faster while using less RAM. On Android devices, it should also reload previous pages almost immediately.

Tab overview and new address line functions To get the To facilitate the recently introduced tab overview, Google is introducing a tab search. The list of all open tabs from all windows is initially available for Chromebooks, other systems are to follow.

Google calls the address line “Omnibox” because it can do so much. Apart from entering a page and searching, it is now possible to go to Google Actions on the desktop. If you enter “change password” for example, you get to the corresponding settings. The “delete search history” also works.

There will soon be a tab page in which “Cards” are saved. These are recently visited and similar pages. This should make it easier to find content again. “Cooking” and “Shopping” are already being tested. “Entertainment” is to follow in the coming year. Currently, Google is also testing a collection function called Keen, which is strongly reminiscent of Pinterest.

Problems with new Macs The new one A version of Chrome specially adapted for ARM Macs carries a high risk of crashing. Google itself cites a workaround to return to the Intel version. The bug obviously has to do with the Bluetooth support, users should try to share it on their M1 Macs.

(emw)