Several days ago Google announced the launch of the new version of Chrome 88 and this new version brings a number of new features and improvements, including improved dark mode for Windows 10, tabbed search and more, less intrusive permission prompts.
Initially One of the biggest changes in Chrome 88 is that support for Adobe Flash Player is permanently removed. In fact, Flash reached its official end of life (EoL) on December 31, 2020, when Adobe officially stopped supporting the software. Adobe also began blocking Flash content on January 12, as part of its final nail in the coffin.
Another change that is presented in this new version is that from Chrome 88 no longer supports FTP, that is, addresses of type ftp: //. According to Google, as Chrome and other browsers move towards an always-encrypted web, it makes sense to remove old protocols like this. For example, Chrome 72 and later removed support for getting document sub-resources via FTP and rendering top-level FTP resources. Navigating to the FTP URLs results in the display of a directory list or a download, depending on the type of resource.
Furthermore, Google is officially dropping support for Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite on Chrome 88.
We can also find the experimental support for quick search of tabs, which was previously limited to the Chrome OS version. The user can see a list of all open tabs and quickly filter the desired tab, regardless of whether it is in the current window or another.
Another novelty of Chrome 88 is that added the ability for more flexible key management for isolation in separate processes. Isolation means moving the content controllers to separate processes in relation to the source (origin - domain + port + protocol), and not the site, that is, it allows to organize the division into different processes based on the domain of the resource and not on the site with all the strange inclusions on the pages.
Chrome has supported Windows 10 dark theme for some time, but Chrome 88 improves it a bit. The dark theme now applies to the scroll bars of many internal Chrome pages. This includes settings, bookmarks, history, new tab page, and more. However, it is not yet present on websites that support dark themes.
Many of the new features in all versions of Chrome are hidden and Chrome 88 is no exception. Google has featured many of these changes on its development site and on the Chromium blog such as:
- Digital Products API: web apps published to the Google Play Store can now use Play Store billing as native apps.
- WebXR: AR Lighting Estimation: For AR and VR content on Android, lighting estimation can help make models look more natural and make them 'fit' in the best way to the user's environment.
- Anchor target = _blank implies rel = noopener by default: To defend against tab-napping attacks, the anchor target _blank will behave as if rel is set to noopener.
- Aspect ratio CSS property- Allows you to explicitly specify an aspect ratio for any element to achieve similar behavior as a replaced element.
- JavaScript engine: Chrome 88 integrates version 8.8 of the JavaScript engine V8.
- Chrome 88 is experimenting with a smaller, less intrusive way to request permissions. Instead of the pop-up window covering the site content, a new "thumbnail" appears to the left of the URL.
- More defined dark and light themes test for Chromebooks: The theme can be activated in the Quick Settings menu.
How to install Google Chrome 88 on Linux?
If you are interested in being able to install this new version of this web browser and you still do not have it installed, you can download the installer that is offered in deb and rpm packages on its official website.