Well, if you though last week's Firefox 3.6 from Mozilla was exciting think again. Today the fine folks at Google released Chrome 4.0 in stable release channel, bringing a whole load of new features and improvements to the normal end user.

First of all you should take notice that we're talking about the Windows release. Linux users who are using builds from the Chrome beta channel have access to most, if not all of the new features. Mac users on the other hand will have to wait a little while longer, although a lot of features are available in the unstable dev channel for the time being. That being said, Google is honestly working on getting all three versions up to speed.

Extensions, extensions, extensions!
So what's so new and great about this release that should get you all excited. Well, you have access to 1500 new features. Yes access, because for the first time Chrome supports extensions. And in the Chrome architecture way, each extension runs as a separate process, increasing stability, security and memory management. Often heard complaints with Firefox that extensions would slow everything down or eat memory can now be monitored from Chrome's task manager (right click in the tab bar). Oh and the nicest thing about them, you don't need to restart, they install in one click and work right away. Of course the extensions range from good to bad, from mature to immature, but just think about it, they've only been available in the dev and beta channels, so a lot of work needs to be done to get those extensions polished. Several extensions to block ads, social networks (Facebook, Twitter) and mail (Gmail, Wave) are available for adoption.

Bookmark synchronization, and alternatives
So is that all, well if it would, it would be one hell of a huge feature to allow features, but there's more! If you have a Gmail account (or Google account if you insist), you can now synchronize your bookmarks. This way you can access them from any computer as long as you use Chrome. The bookmarks are part of your Google Docs account, so you can also access them from there. Of course the support for extensions also allows you to use Xmarks (previously Foxmarks) to synchronize bookmarks between different browsers.

Our beloved others
But what would Chrome be without V8? And so the famous JavaScript engine that ignited with Safari's Nitro the performance war was updated to be even more on the top. Mozilla's Dromeao DOM Core tests by increased 42% in performance over the last stable release and 400% since the first stable release last year.

Support for web standards remains important, and WebKit is leading the way with in HTML 5: notifications, web database, local storage, WebSockets, Ruby support and more. And last but not least full ACID3 pass, due to re-enabled remote font support (with added defense against bugs in operating system font libraries).

Other changes include: enhanced developer tools, Skia performance improvements, HTTP byte range support, "Strict Transport Security" support, and an experimental new anti-reflected-XSS feature called "XSS Auditor".

Conclusion
Google shows that Chrome does not only fly in performance when rendering HTML or executing JavaScript. They litterally throw out new and exciting releases on a regular base using a streamlined process. I believe this release marks the turning point where it can fully compete with the rest of the markt. Mozilla surely will have a tougher opponent now that Chrome support extensions, and for IE, well, that should be a piece of cake. If Google and liverage its own popularity to diminish IE used by the average Joe and Jane, by all means! Of course we all should help open the web and support Google in our own ways. My prediction for this year? Chrome with a (near) 10% market share!

All Windows users will be automatically updated by Chrome (or can go to Tools > About) as all updates are streamed to the end users. Non-Chrome users can switch, of course, easily by downloading the installer.