Google have released Chrome 21 – the latest Stable Channel version.
If you already use Chrome you can get the new version by clicking the ‘wrench’ (spanner) icon then ‘About Google Chrome’ to check for updates – version 21 (currently 21.0.1180.60) will be downloaded and installed automatically if you don’t already have it.
New users can download and install Chrome 21 directly here. Alternatively there is also a full standalone offline installer here – this may be useful if you want to save the Chrome installation file e.g. to put on a flash drive and install on multiple computers without having to re-download it each time.
The official Chrome 21 changelog lists 15 security fixes in detail and includes reference to a new API for high-quality video and audio communication. Apart from the security fixes (paying out total rewards of $2,000 to the finders) there are in fact many ‘behind the scenes’ technical changes – and quite cool they are too:
- Chrome 21 includes a new getUserMedia API, which lets you grant web apps access to your camera and microphone without a plug-in. This allows web apps to create cool experiences like Magic Xylophone (play it just by waving your hands in front of the camera) and Webcam Toy (a clever photo booth app).
[Sites with media functionality can only request access to your camera and microphone. In response to this request, you can choose to allow, deny or choose options for the site - so you shouldn't have to worry about sites 'watching' you in secret on your webcam!]
- Support for high resolution Mac Retina screens e.g. the new Retina Macbook Pro
- Deeper Google Cloud Print Integration – now your printers in Google Cloud Print are integrated right into Chrome’s print dialog, so you can easily print to your Cloud Ready printer, Google Drive, Chrome on your mobile device, or one of over 1,800 FedEx Offices
- New Gamepad Javascript API – helps developers access input from any standard gamepad connected to the user’s machine, creating a richer gameplay experience. Gamepad access has enabled awesome games like AirMech.
- Default integral Flash Player has changed from Chrome’s Flash (version 11.3.300.268) to PepperFlash (version 11.3.31.222). Pepperflash is a cross-platform API for plugins for web browsers. According to Google, Pepperflash is currently an experimental feature of Chrome so it is odd that it is now the default player on W7 and XP systems I have tested…
Early reports from some users report audio and video problems as a result of using Pepperflash. If you encounter issues, try disabling the Pepperflash plugin – Flash Player will revert back to the original Chrome Flash plugin. See our guide on disabling Flash plugins to resolve crashes.
HTML5 Score
The technical changes behind the scenes have had other benefits – the HTML5 test score has improved from 414 to 437 which puts Chrome back into top place amongst all browsers tested.
For comparison:
Opera 12 – 385
Firefox 14 – 345
Safari 5.1 – 317
IE9 – 138 (continues Microsoft’s traditional failure to comply with web standards – even the yet to be released IE10 only scores 319…)
Note: these scores only indicate how well browsers support the current draft HTML5 standard – they don’t necessarily mean that a browser actually performs any better. However, higher scores in the tests indicate that a browser may better cope with (and display) webpages that make heavy use of HTML5.
RAM Usage
Chrome 21 RAM usage is still excessively high, sucking up 1GB+ in my own tests with just 10 multimedia rich tabs open. This is a problem which Google really needs to address – Firefox used to have a reputation for being a memory hog but it is now Chrome that seriously lags behind.
Conclusion
The changes in Google Chrome 21 are mostly behind the scenes (security fixes and technical changes) but they add potential for some very clever web apps and games in future that can make use of your webcam – not quite like Kinect for Xbox but a step in the same direction.
Chrome’s hefty RAM usage is increasingly out of step with the reductions being made by competitors – more optimization is urgently required.
thank you! my chrome wasn’t updated with chrome 21 yet But is now thanks to your email
Thanks! I updated my Chrome to 21 now, but after the update I no longer get any audio from the browser. Not from Youtube or any other websites that got audio.
Any ideas?
Nevermind
I solved the sound issue by going to about:plugins, then disable and enable Flash 
Audio and video problems with this update? How serious/prevalent is this problem? Seems strange Google would release a stable version with such issues. We know how to correct such problems yes, but browsers must be catered to the lowest common denominator (ie users with very limited computer knowledge) to gain true dominance.
I really hope Google starts to focus more on stability and lowering memory usage. This is why i switched from FF and never looked back. I still do better with Chrome than FF but that gap may be getting smaller. I really like all other features of Chrome, just needs to work on those areas.
The audio/video problems may be a result of the switch to Pepperflash – there are a number of users with such problems in Chrome/Adobe forums (and there were during Chrome 21 beta too so it appears it was released regardless)
Integrated version of Flash used to be good for security (as it gets updated with Chrome) but now that Adobe Flash (since 11.2) is updated automatically, it begs the question as to why Google not only persist with integrated version but also add an ‘experimental’ version and make it the default…
Mozilla have openly targeted RAM usage with the ongoing Memshrink project and made significant advances. If Google are working on it, they must be doing it behind closed doors…
I’ve been a Windows 7 Tech User for many years now running IE, Firefox, and now Chrome the last couple of years. Starting about 8-10 months ago, I started noticing I was getting more more frequent low memory warnings. I had 4GB physical RAM. So I upgraded to 6GB. Being a “Power User” I have done all the tips and tweaks to maximize Win 7 performance and minimize memory usage including disabling unnecessary “Bloat” Startup Programs and Services.
The additional 2GB of memory helped somewhat but now that four months have gone by, the low memory usage warnings seemed to have increased again. So I decided to do some research. One thing I found out is that there are many more processes running attributed to Chrome than there are tabs open. This is for all the extensions and plug-ins, which I believe I have an average amount.
The other thing is that Chrome is a multi-process browser, different than other browsers. You can read all about it here:
http://dev.chromium.org/memory-usage-backgrounder
While each person’s PC config and usage patterns are different, I believe I am seeing a pattern that is indicative of a larger spread issue. Considering 4GB is probably about average for your *average* (non Power) user, I think that there may be many Chrome users out there that are or are about to start experiencing issues with memory usage. This is evident from these many articles and posts just from the past 10 months:
Chrome uses way more memory than Firefox, Opera or Internet …
http://www.ghacks.net/2012/06/21/chrome-uses-way-more-memory-than-firefox-opera-or-internet-explorer/
I won’t go into SUPER detailed memory dumps and analysis, but will say in general, the biggest culprit relative to the other Chrome related processes is the tabs. It appears websites using a lot of javascript and/or FLASH (especially lots of ads typically) can easily consume 200+ MB of memory per tab. If you have 5 of those websites open, that can be 1GB in tabs alone, and many people have more than 5 tabs open. I typically have 8-12 tabs opens. My extensions are: Google Global, Last.fm Scrobbler, LastPass, Mozbar, SearchPreview, and Xmarks. Probably more than your average users, probably average for a “Power User.”
It is not uncommon for me to see Chrome taking up a total of 2GB and at times 3GB. A recent session where Chrome was using 1.7GB broke down something like this:
13 extensions – 130MB.
GPU Process – 92MB
Flash Plugin – 115MB
LastPass Plugin – 92MB
Browser – 212MB
10 tabs – 640MB (this is lower than want I usually see for 10 tabs)
So I, like many others out there, are wondering what is REALLY going on here? I think there are several possibilities or a combination thereof:
a) The information written in the memory backgrounder article under “Helping The Operating System” is referring to functionality that never really worked well, or, in some recent versions of Chrome has become broken. A lot of times, half my tabs aren’t used all day yet I see no memory usage decrease.
b) More and more websites are becoming FLASH and javascript heavy (especially with more ads) causing the memory usage for each tab on average to have gone up over the past 12-18 months.
c) There’s a bug in Chrome of some kind causing memory leaks.
We can all guess at the reason, but without some very detailed, careful testing, we may not know unless Google can confirm one way or the other.
For now, it seems the only solution is to a) keeps tabs open to a minimum, b) switch browsers, or c) buy more memory