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Google is working on Chrome updates that don’t require restarts

2026-07-30T11:57:54-04:00

Google is working on a way to apply Chrome updates without requiring you to restart your browser. In a post on Thursday, Google outlines its approach to bug fixes in the age of AI, while noting that it's trying to make updates less disruptive by "investing in 'dynamic patching' that will eliminate the need for a full browser restart."

According to Google, AI-powered security tools have already helped the company find and fix dozens of bugs. Chrome 149 and 150, for example, contained 1,072 bug fixes, exceeding the number of patches in the past 23 major releases combined. That's part of the reason why Chrome is switching to a two-week release …

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Google Chrome is closing the loopholes that let old ad blockers keep working

2026-06-15T14:06:18-04:00

Google Chrome version 150 and 151, expected in late June and July, respectively, will cut off support for the last remaining workarounds for running older ad blockers, 9to5Google reports. Google phased out support for ad-blocking extensions built for Manifest V2, like uBlock Origin, in 2024. At that point, most Chrome users either switched to newer Manifest V3 ad blockers like uBlock Origin Lite or switched to a different browser.

Google is now removing the final bits of code referencing its previous Manifest V2 extensions platform, so only ad blockers that work on the Manifest V3 platform will work in Chrome version 151 onward.

Google d …

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Google announces its Chromebook successor: the Googlebook

2026-05-13T17:25:45-04:00

Google is announcing a new line of laptops coming in the fall called Googlebooks. Details are sparse for now, as the tease is just a small part of various Android announcements during Google's Android Show. But we do know this is a major new initiative in the laptop space for Google, seemingly designed to succeed Chromebooks with something more capable: a platform running a long-rumored new operating system based on a fusion of Android and ChromeOS.

That operating system, through various leaks, has been referred to as Aluminium OS. Google isn't announcing the OS's real name or giving many details about it just yet. "We'll have more to share …

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Chrome’s AI features may be hogging 4GB of your computer storage

2026-05-06T19:35:00-04:00

Google Chrome may be taking up more of your storage than expected thanks to a large on-device AI model file that, in some cases, is being automatically downloaded to the browser's system folders. Users who have noticed unexplained drops in their available desktop device storage are now discovering that Chrome is installing a 4GB weights.bin file inside their browser directory when certain AI features are enabled.

The weights.bin file in question is connected to Google's Gemini Nano AI model, which powers Chrome AI tools like scam detection, writing assistance, autofill, and suggestion features. As the Gemini Nano model is designed to run lo …

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Chrome now lets you turn AI prompts into repeatable ‘Skills’

2026-04-14T13:02:19-04:00

Google is launching a new Chrome workflow feature that allows you to reuse your favorite Gemini commands across multiple webpages. Any AI prompts can now be saved as "Skills" in the Chrome desktop browser, letting you instantly run them across any tabs you select.

"Until now, repeating an AI task - like asking for ingredient substitutions to make a recipe vegan - meant re-entering the same prompt as you visited different pages," Chrome product manager Hafsah Ismail said in the announcement. "To make this easier, we're launching Skills in Chrome, which lets you save and reuse your most helpful AI prompts and run them with a single click."

S …

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Google Chrome is coming to Arm-powered Linux devices later this year

2026-03-13T05:39:19-04:00

You can download Chrome for Linux, and you can download Chrome for Arm devices - but if you've got a computer running Linux on Arm, not so much! Now, Google says it's finally bringing Chrome to ARM64 Linux machines in Q2 2026, following Chrome for Arm Macs in 2020 and Chrome for Windows on Arm in 2024.

Why Arm + Linux now? In a blog post, Google only says that it "addresses the growing demand for a browsing experience that combines the benefits of the open-source Chromium project with the Google ecosystem of apps and features." What we're left wondering is whether Google's talking about existing demand, or demand yet to come.

There's cert …

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Google accelerates Chrome’s release cycle from every four weeks to two

2026-03-03T15:01:07-05:00

Starting in September, Google is moving its Chrome browser to a two-week release cycle, instead of the current four-week cycle, or the six-week cycle that existed for the decade before that.

The web platform is constantly advancing, and our goal is to ensure developers and users have immediate access to the latest performance improvements, fixes and new capabilities. Building on our history of adapting our release process to match the demands of a modern web, Chrome is moving to a two-week release cycle. While releases will be more frequent, their smaller scope minimizes disruption and simplifies post-release debugging. And thanks to rece …

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Aluminium: Why Google’s Android for PC launch may be messy and controversial

2026-02-03T15:07:26-05:00

"Finally." That was my first reaction when I heard Google would combine Android and ChromeOS into a single operating system. Android has long struggled on tablets, and ChromeOS always felt like too much of a stripped-down alternative to tempt me away from Windows and Mac. So last week, it was exciting to see a leaked first glimpse at Google's Aluminium OS, and hear it may already be slated for an Intel Panther Lake laptop dubbed "Ruby" and a "Sapphire" high-end tablet.

But the future may not be coming as fast as you'd think, and it might be messy when it gets here. According to previously unreported court documents in the Google search anti …

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Google adds Gemini AI-powered ‘auto browse’ to Chrome

2026-01-29T05:46:05-05:00

Google is launching a new "auto browse" feature inside Chrome that can perform multi-step tasks on your behalf. The Gemini AI-powered capability is coming to Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers in the US, and can do things like research hotel and flight costs, schedule appointments, fill out online forms, manage subscriptions, and more.

The update marks another expansion for Gemini in Chrome, which initially served as an AI assistant that you can use to ask questions or summarize content on the webpage you're reading. Google later added the ability for Gemini to compare products across multiple tabs and recall pages from your browsing histo …

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Google just leaked a first look at Android for PC in action

2026-01-28T04:26:01-05:00

Aluminium OS looks like exactly what it is: a hybrid of Android and ChromeOS.

We've been waiting months for our first look at Android running on a PC in Google's upcoming ChromeOS / Android hybrid platform, codenamed Aluminium OS. Now we've seen it in action, and have Google to thank for the leak.

9to5Google spotted a bug report related to Chrome Incognito tabs published to the Google Issue Tracker yesterday, including two screen recordings taken from a device running Aluminium OS. Google has now restricted access to the report, but 9to5Google managed to pull the videos first. The site also reports that the bug tracker mentioned an ALOS software version - already confirmed to be the initialism for Aluminium OS - and …

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