Google Chrome primes Microsoft Edge beatdown with radical upgrade

Google Chrome users are going to be very happy indeed

Google Chrome Microsoft Edge
(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Google Chrome is one of the most powerful, feature-stuffed browsers in operation today – but it is far from perfect.

Which is why Google continues to tinker with it under the hood and release updates to it multiple times each and every year.

And, as detailed in the latest update's blog notes, which can be read in full over at the official Chromium blog, the two big new improvements Chrome users can look forward to this time is Tab Throttling and Profile Guided Optimization.

What does that mean? In simple terms it means that loading tabs in Google Chrome will now happen up to 10 per cent faster than before.

Tab Throttling does this by harvesting common resources from other tabs that are already open but currently unused in the background, thereby improving speed and also saving battery and memory, too.

And Profile Guided Optimization aids this by optimising performance-critical parts of the Chrome code, letting it run faster and allowing common tasks to be prioritised.

In short, Chrome is getting faster and more efficient, which it needs to do to keep the new version of Microsoft Edge in check. This update is is coming now to the Chrome Beta channel.

This update follows one back in July this year where Chrome introduced its new "quieter notifications UI", which was designed to help users not get tricked by abusive notification pop-ups.

Want to know even more about blocking notifications on Google Chrome? T3's got you covered in its How to turn off web notifications guide.

Robert Jones

Rob has been writing about computing, gaming, mobile, home entertainment technology, toys (specifically Lego and board games), smart home and more for over 15 years. As the editor of PC Gamer, and former Deputy Editor for T3.com, you can find Rob's work in magazines, bookazines and online, as well as on podcasts and videos, too. Outside of his work Rob is passionate about motorbikes, skiing/snowboarding and team sports, with football and cricket his two favourites.