Google at its Chrome event announced several new features for its upcoming Chrome 9 browser. Chief among them is the addition of Instant Search to the Omnibox address bar. Users get the same instant suggestions as on the web, which appear on the fly in a search page below the Omnibox.
Regular sites will also return the web address of a commonly accessed site based on users’ browsing history, changing the page as they type; a single key press is sometimes the only one necessary.
Version 9 will also sport full WebGL support, which will give the browser hardware 3D acceleration without having to use a separate plugin. It can integrate with web elements and supports many of the same more recent visual effects as native apps. The simultaneously promised Crankshaft JavaScript engine will accelerate traditional code by up to twice as much over Chrome 8.
Most of the features are in development versions of Chrome or else are coming soon. Chrome 9 doesn’t have a set release date.
