Google's Chrome 9 Brings GPGPU Acceleration, Web Store

Search giant Google released the latest version of its popular web browser today and the number of updates deserved a new version, i.e. Chrome 9 replaced Chrome 8 less than two months after the company released v8 (8.0.552).

Chrome 9 (9.0.537) brings multiple new features to the table. First and foremost, Chrome now supports vast GPU acceleration with Accelerated Composting, Canvas 2D - all parts of new, GPU-accelerated WebGL API. The company also released a Web Store, currently available only to users in North America.

However, in order to enable the Web Store, you do not need to go for tricks known to users of iTunes and Xbox Live in unsupported countries: the only thing you need to do is leave your locale settings as English (US) and you're good to go.

Don't think for a second that Google will rest on its laurels, given that this browser more than doubled its market share in 2010 (from 10.4% to 22.8%); v10 is already released to developers, bringing more GPU acceleration, faster JavaScript and many more. Also, version 10 brings the end of options window - it will be a tab from March, when V10 is scheduled to launch.

If you're a Chrome user, good chance is that you're running v9 already, given the auto-update feature. If not, head to www.google.com/chrome and check it out.