Google Chrome 16 Released

We've done this a couple of times before, so here's the short version: a new stable version of Chrome is out. As usual, it adds a notable feature and patches security holes.

Chrome 16's major addition to the browser is multi-user support. From within one account in the host operating system, Chrome can now support distinct users with different preferences, themes, add-ons, and synced items. New user accounts can be created and synchronized with different Google accounts in the browser preferences, and a new icon in the upper left-hand corner of the screen allows for quick user switching - you can have multiple accounts open simultaneously in different windows.

Windows, OS X, and most Linux flavors already feature robust multi-user support, so this added feature has much more to offer to Chrome OS devices than to standard desktops and laptops. However, heavy users could customize different profiles with different add-ons for different workloads - you could keep certain add-ons in a separate profile to keep them from bogging down normal browsing, for example, or you could keep separate accounts for home and work browsing.

The new feature isn't intended to be as secure or robust as traditional multi-user support - there's no support for passwords, and accounts can be changed easily, so this obviously isn't intended as a way to keep things out of the hands of people who shouldn't have them. For all that, it's still a potentially useful feature, but you should understand its limitations before turning it on.

Source: Google