Chrome 87 gains biggest performance increase in years

Google has released the latest Chrome update (Version 87.0.4280.66) which is the final Chrome release of 2020. This month’s update represents the largest gain in Chrome performance in years, thanks to many under-the-hood improvements. 

Here are some of the improvements:

• Chrome now prioritises your active tabs versus everything that’s open, reducing CPU usage by up to 5x and extending battery life by up to 1.25 hours.
• Chrome now starts up to 25% faster, loads pages up to 7% faster and does all of this using less power and RAM than before.
• Chrome on Android now loads pages near instantaneously when you navigate backwards and forward, making these common tasks super fast.

Tab search

Many people use tabs to organise their stuff online – from read-worthy articles to sources of inspiration, to everyday to-do’s. This range of utility is why you can pin tabs, send tabs to your other devices and even group tabs in Chrome. In Chrome 87, Google added tab search to the toolbox.

You’ll now be able to see a list of your open tabs, regardless of the window they’re in, then quickly type to find the one you need. Even if you have multiple Chrome windows, you can find a tab no matter which window it’s in. The feature is coming first to Chromebooks, then to other desktop platforms soon. 

Chrome Actions

The address bar is one of those multi-sport athletes in Chrome: you can type a search, a URL, or just tap on a suggestion and it gets you where you’d like to go. Internally, Google calls it the “omnibox”.

In this release, Google is expanding what you can do in the address bar with Chrome Actions, a faster way to get things done with just a few keystrokes. For example, when you type “edit passwords,” or “delete history,” you can now take action directly from the bar. The first set of actions, available initially on desktop, focuses on privacy and security, so you can increase your peace of mind in a few clicks.

Cards in Chrome

You know when you find that delicious recipe online, then you can’t find it again when it’s time to cook dinner?  To help you jump back into activities like planning a meal, researching a holiday gift or winding down with a video, Google will soon add cards to your new tab page in Chrome. Clicking on them will take you to recently-visited and related content on the web and save you time in the process.

Cards in Chrome will help you pick up where you left off. They include recently-visited and related content and they’ll start showing up for some users on the new tab page, underneath the shortcuts. Google is starting with a few experiments in areas like cooking and shopping and is planning to add entertainment early next year.