Google has rolled out Chrome 46, and aside from security improvements, it comes with plenty of new developer tools.
It's a well-known fact that Chrome has millions of users across many platforms, not to mention that Google CEO Sundar Pichai revealed that approximately 1.4 billion users run Android Lollipop. With such an impressive number of users, web developers can't afford to not use Chrome, and they have to keep up with the popular browser's latest changes and add-ons to open more possibilities in programming.
First off, Chrome had four icons to indicate whether a site has a secure HTTPS, the usual blank-page icon, an HTTPS with minor errors or a broken HTTPS (picture). When Google launched the Chrome 46 update, the browser has lost one of its security states, namely the one with the gray padlock and yellow triangle warning used for HTTPS with minor errors.
Google gives the online community two reasons why it has to be done, saying that it's better for "visual indication of the security state of the page relative to HTTP" and "Chrome users will have fewer security states to learn." But that's not all, as part of the reason is Google wants website operators to "switch to HTTPS sooner rather than later."
Now it's time for some news for developers. Aside from a bunch of API tweaks, Chrome 46 comes with improved performance controls and new CSS animation features.
"Previously, animating objects along an author-specified path required complex javascript code that could block important events like rendering and input. Developers can now animate any graphical object along an arbitrary path declaratively as a CSS property, allowing simpler code that doesn't block rendering or input," Google says on the Chromium Blog along with complete details of the update when Chrome 46 was still in its beta phase.
Lastly, Chrome 46 also came with 24 security fixes as well as eight highlighted fixes from other sources.
Although no user-facing features were added, It seems that Chrome 46 is quite a major update considering the additional developer tools, but the security update is more than enough reason to install the browser.
