Google has announced the release of the new version of its web browser, Chrome 128, which includes a host of changes, improvements, and, most importantly, new features designed to enhance and simplify the browser experience for users. Among the new features in Chrome 128 are AI-powered history search, support for the IWA mechanism, developer enhancements, and more.
In addition to innovations and bug fixes, the new version of Chrome addresses 38 vulnerabilities . Of these, 7 were classified as high severity, and as such, no critical issues were identified that could allow bypassing all levels of browser protection.
Main novelties of Chrome 128
This new version of Chrome, 128, introduces a new AI feature : it's now possible to search your browsing history by considering the content of visited pages, not just URLs and titles. Content search is performed using a machine learning system that operates on Google's servers. It's worth noting that this feature is currently only available to English-speaking users in the United States.
In centrally managed systems, administrators can create custom shortcuts for quick searches via the address bar, such as "@name" to search specific sites. They can also manage passwords in the built-in password manager , including deleting unencrypted passwords when migrating to another device.
Another notable change in the new version is the introduction of a new JSON format parser, rewritten in Rust instead of C++, which improves security by reducing the likelihood of memory-related errors. However, the transition to this new parser may interrupt the parsing of malformed JSON, although it also fixes previous issues that caused failures and now return an error code.
The Chrome OS version adds support for the Isolated Web Apps (IWA) mechanism for launching standalone web applications. This mechanism extends Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) by providing stricter application isolation, ensuring that even if the server is compromised, the applications remain secure. Isolation is achieved through package verification using digital signatures , allowing applications to be distributed through third-party channels without needing to maintain a dedicated server.
In Chrome for Android, a new section has been added to the tab switching interface , where inactive tabs that have been open for more than 60 days are automatically grouped together. There is an option to close all old tabs at once. This new feature is enabled by default for 1% of users.
Chrome for Android also includes support for proactive security checks (Safety Check), which periodically scan the browser for issues and notify the user if threats are detected. The Safety Check page in settings has also been redesigned.
In addition, Chrome's WebView component for Android has temporarily disabled support for CHIPS (Cookies Have Independent Partitioned State) technology, part of the Privacy Sandbox initiative. This technology allows cookies to be isolated based on the top-level domain using the "partitioned" attribute. The disabling is due to issues accessing partitioned cookies through the Android CookieManager API.
Regarding improvements for developers , Chrome 128 introduces the following:
- CSS property has been renamed
position-try-optionsaposition-try-fallbacksFollowing the recommendation of the CSSWG working group - The HTML element
<ruby>now allows synchronous insertion of line breaks to handle long base text and annotations that do not fit on a single line. - CSS property has been introduced
Ruby-alignto control the alignment of base text and annotations. - A new attribute,
PointerEvent.deviceProperties, has been added to the interfacePointerEventThis attribute allows to identify different digital pens used with graphics tablets, assigning different pen colors and shapes to each device. - CSS property
zoom, which allows the scaling of individual elements to be adjusted, has been adapted to meet the specification. - In Origin Testing mode, experimental support for the Digital Credentials API has been introduced. This API allows sites to request ID credentials from mobile wallet applications via the IdentityCredential CredMan system on Android.
- An experimental feature has been implemented that blocks access to the IP 0.0.0.0, protecting against attacks targeting local services.
Finally, it is now possible to capture and edit animations in the Animation Inspection panel, and the Performance Analysis panel has been expanded. In the web console, most European countries can see detailed explanations of errors generated using the Gemini AI language model.
If you're interested in learning more, you can find the details at the following link.
How to install Google Chrome on Linux?
If you are interested in installing this new version of this web browser and you don't already have it installed, you can download the installer offered in deb and rpm packages from its official website.