What’s New in Google Chrome 12

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Chrome 12 was released last week. You didn’t notice? Few people did. I hadn’t intended writing this article but a few people on Twitter convinced me otherwise (thanks @Mahen23). To start, let’s take a look at the usual list of improvements:

  • hardware-accelerated 3D CSS
  • the ability to analyze and delete Flash cookies within Chrome
  • a new safe browsing feature which protects against malicious file downloads
  • improved synchronization of browser settings
  • better screen reader support
  • new PDF save and print buttons
  • launch installed apps from the Omni-bar
  • 14 security holes plugged.

Chrome 12 also marks the end of an era: Gears has gone. Google Gears was launched in 2007 but development was abandoned a year later. The plug-in provided local data storage, JavaScript threading, desktop integration and geo-location but these have been superseded by standard HTML5 technologies.

Built-in JavaScript De-obfuscation

Merging and minifying JavaScript files has several benefits:

  1. Files, sizes and download times are reduced.
  2. Code processing speed can be improved.
  3. It hides your cutting-edge scripts from prying eyes.

Unfortunately, a minified script is impossible to debug. The code is an indecipherable mess contained on few lines which cannot have breakpoints set. Here’s an example from Google Analytics:

Chrome script debugger

Nasty. However, a quick right-click option will de-obfuscate the script into lovely readable source code:

Chrome script de-obfuscation

Built-in de-obfuscation is incredibly useful, although there are a couple of hitches:

  1. JavaScript minifiers often replace long function and variable names with shorter alternatives, e.g. MyLongFunctionName() becomes A(). De-obfuscation can never bring back the original names although you should be able to recognize patterns within your own code.
  2. Setting breakpoints on de-obfuscated code is more limited. Functions run in response to an event or timer can be analyzed. However, it’s not possible to break at code run when the page is loaded since the script has not been de-obfuscated at that point. Let’s hope the Chrome team address the issue in a future version.

For me, this is the most exciting development in Chrome. It may tempt you away from Firebug or Dragonfly when testing live code.

Have you discovered any great new features in Chrome 12?

Craig BucklerCraig Buckler
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Craig is a freelance UK web consultant who built his first page for IE2.0 in 1995. Since that time he's been advocating standards, accessibility, and best-practice HTML5 techniques. He's created enterprise specifications, websites and online applications for companies and organisations including the UK Parliament, the European Parliament, the Department of Energy & Climate Change, Microsoft, and more. He's written more than 1,000 articles for SitePoint and you can find him @craigbuckler.

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