Google Chrome 7 Gets A Labs Section, Tabs On Side Feature
Google has just released the first stable version of Chrome 6.0. Google Chrome 6.0.472.53 is now out of beta and deemed solid enough to sport the stable label. Keeping with its auto upgrade feature, all Chrome browsers would get upgraded automatically.
At the same time, Google Chrome 7 has also arrived, in the experimental form at least and it sports some great new features, which we can expect to see in when version 7 is released to public.
If you are one of the guys who like to keep up with the new features in the latest Chrome builds, you would be exited to know about the “Labs Section” and Sidebar Tabs feature in Chrome 7.
You can always use the Google Chrome Canary Build alongside your regular Chrome browser to try out the latest features in Chrome.
Chrome Labs, Side Tabs & Exposé For Tabs Feature:
A new Google Chrome build added a new internal page that lets you enable some advanced features: about:labs. You can access the page by typing about:labs in the address bar in Chrome.
In their own words:
“Tabpose is currently the only lab on Mac, tabs-on-left the only lab on windows. Nothing for linux yet,” as stated in the Chromium blog post.
“Go to about:labs. Should have one feature on windows and osx each, none on linux yet. about:labs should not be visible on the stable channel. Labs that were enabled on the dev channel should not be enabled on the stable channel. about:labs in chromeos should still work (they use a different implementation).“.
Windows 7 Side Tabs Feature:
If you type in about:labs in the dev or canary build of Chrome, you would see the Labs section. In Windows you would see the Side Tabs experiment. To start using Side tabs, just enable the feature and restart the browser.
Right click on the tabs to enable the side tabs.
Side Tabs is a Windows only feature, and would be especially useful on Wide Screen monitors. You can see the side tabs in action below.
Just uncheck the option to switch back to tabs at top.
Tabpose For Chrome on Mac OS:
If you’re a Mac user you’ll get the “Tab Overview” experiment which enables you to view your current tabs in a manner similar to the Mac OS X Expose.
Tabposé is a Mac-only feature that adds Exposé for tabs.
The Chrome Labs section is similar to the Labs feature we see in other Google products . It’s a place for experimental features and tools that aren’t stable enough for wide use or are of interest to only a small part of the users.
If you want to try these features, check out how to do it without messing with your regular Chrome installation here.
[via Google OS]
Further Reading About Google Chrome:
