New Features, issues and improvements needed in Chrome 17

I have updated my Google Chrome to the latest Chrome 17 beta channel version 17.0.963.26.

New Features and Changes:

• New Extensions APIs
• Updated Omnibox Pre-rendering
• Download Scanning Protection
• Print window now opens in the same tab
• + sign is now missing from the button you need to click to open new tabs
• Many other small changes

With Omnibox pre-rendering, webpages now load faster than before. This is because as you type the URL in the Omnibox, Chrome auto completes the URL to the site you are most likely to visit and starts loading the page in the background. So when you complete the URL and hit the ENTER button, most of the webpage is already loaded. 

With download scanning protection, Chrome now analyses every executable file like exe and msi file, that you download. If a file being downloaded is known to be bad, or is hosted on a website that hosts a relatively high percentage of malicious downloads, Chrome will warn you that the file appears to be malicious and that you should discard it.

Issues in this version:

One feature that was earlier available in Chrome, like in all other popular browsers, is now missing. Earlier, you could directly go the address bar and select the complete URL just by hitting the F6 key as a keyboard shortcut. Now hitting the F6 no longer highlights the URL. It just takes you to the address bar and then you need to press  CTRL+A to select the URL. I am not too sure whether it is a bug or what, but I have filed a report with Chrome. 

Improvements Needed:

Another important feature that Chrome never provided is the Master Password feature, just like what is there in Firefox. So there is no way to encrypt your saved passwords and anybody having access to your machine can steal all your passwords. In Firefox, if Master Password feature is enabled, all saved passwords are encrypted and you need to enter master password before saving any new password, or before checking the saved passwords. 

I hope the issue to be fixed in the next release and expecting master password feature as well, sometime in the near future.