If you’re a diehard Chrome browser user, be aware that as of November 17th, 2020, Chrome 87 has now been ported to the Stable desktop channel, and it’s an upgrade well worth getting.
It adds a raft of performance improvements that will increase your overall browsing speed, in addition to offering some new security features.
The single biggest boost to performance came from some tweaks that were the result of an in-depth analysis of how Chrome was using system resources. In that research, it came to light that the biggest consumer of system resources was the JavaScript Timer, specifically as it related to background tabs, which was responsible for some 40 percent of the total resources Chrome consumes.
The company had the following to say about the matter in a recent blog post:
“We investigated how background tabs use system resources and found that JavaScript Timers represent >40 percent of the work in background tabs. Reducing their impact on CPU and power is important to make the browser more efficient. Beginning in M87, we’re throttling JavaScript timer wake-ups in background tabs to once per minute. This reduces CPU usage by up to 5x, and extends battery life up to 1.25 hours in our internal testing. We’ve done this without sacrificing the background features that users care about, like playing music and getting notifications.”
It’s a big change, but not one that will change the way you view the web or use the browser, and that’s perhaps the best part about the improvement. It’s behind the scenes, so while it makes a big difference, there’s nothing you have to do, or be mindful of, and yet, you should notice something in the neighborhood of a 25 percent overall speed improvement on start up, and a 7-10% boost in speed overall.
In addition to that, if you use Chrome on an Android device, the company has begun to roll out a new caching feature that will store complete screenshots of the web pages you view, including the JavaScript memory, in the cache, which will allow you to instantly go back and forth between sites and return to the exact portion of the content you were reading. It’s a small change, but very convenient. Once you start using it, you’ll wonder how you ever got along without it.
Also, be aware that a change the company has been talking about since late 2018 has finally been made manifest in this build. When you install Chrome 87, you’ll find that FTP support is disabled by default. If you want it re-enabled, you’ll have to use the command:
“chrome://flags/#enable-ftp”
But be aware that this is only a temporarily solution. As of the release of Chrome 88, even this capability will be removed.
All in all, the latest build contains some great updates. Grab your copy today.
