Just before the holidays, Google has decided to start rolling out some significant improvements and new features to its Chrome web browser. The biggest changeis for the browser"s Safety Check feature, which is supposed to be proactive when it comes to keeping things secure when you browse sites.
In a blog post, Google stated that Safety Check now runs automatically in the background when you use Chrome. It added:
You"ll get proactively alerted if passwords saved in Chrome have been compromised, any of your extensions are potentially harmful, you’re not using the latest version of Chrome, or site permissions need your attention. These alerts will appear in the three-dot menu in Chrome so you can take action.
Safety Check in Chrome will also cut the permission to use certain features on a site, like access to your microphone or finding your exact location if you have not surfed to that site in a while. It will also let you know if you are getting a lot of notifications from a site that you have not visited in a long time.
Chrome is also getting some improvements for its Memory Saver feature:
We recently added more details about your tabs’ memory usage when you hover over them in Memory Saver mode, including the potential memory saved when they go inactive. And we’ve made it easier to specify sites that should always remain active.
Finally, Google is adding some improvements to tag groups, which allow users to put in a series of tabs in one group for better organization. Google stated that this improvement will come in handy for people who use Chrome on more than one device:
Rolling out over the next few weeks in Chrome on desktop, you’ll be able to save tab groups so you can access them on other desktop devices and easily pick your projects back up.
The company plans to add more features to Chrome in early 2024 that will use its recently launched AI model Gemini.