Google Chrome 13 with Instant Pages Feature Is Out

Article by George Norman (Cybersecurity Editor)

on 05 Aug 2011

Google, and I’m only saying this to make sure that everyone is one board, releases versions of its Chrome web browser on three channels. On the Dev channel it releases versions that are not yet ready for the public, not even the diehard fans who are willing to put up with a buggy Beta version; you can think of it as an Alpha channel. On the Beta channel it releases versions that still need a bit of testing before being rolled out to the masses. And on the Stable channel it releases versions that are stable and ready to for the average user.

With that rather lengthy introduction out of the way, here’s the news: the latest version to be served on the Stable channel is Chrome 13.

Back in June we were reporting that Chrome 12 graduated from the Beta to the Stable channel. It’s now early August and we report that Chrome 13 has now replaced Chrome 12 on the Stable channel.

Besides fixing a rather long list of security issues (check out the whole list here), Chrome 13 comes with an interesting new feature: Instant Pages prerendering technology. If you thought Chrome was fast before, you will be blown away by how fast the browser is now. That’s because with the help of Instant Pages, Chrome 13 can load pages when you click on a search result faster than ever before. Or as Software Engineer Chris Bentzel put it, “some Google.com search results will appear to load almost instantly after you click on them”.

Check out the video below to see just how fast Chrome with Instant Pages is. It is a side by side comparison of Chrome with and without Instant Pages enabled.



Software Engineer Ziga Mahkovec explains how Instant Pages works:
“When we can predict with reasonable confidence that you'll click the first result, Instant Pages will begin loading the webpage early. By the time you click on the result, the entire webpage will often appear to have loaded instantly.”


Latest News


Sony's 'Attack of the Blockbusters Sale' Slashes Prices in Half for a Ton of PS4 Games

17 Aug 2017

How Samsung's New T5 Compares to the Old T3 Portable SSD (Infographic)

17 Aug 2017

See all