Browse the web both regularly or in private mode, open as many as tabs as you want, watch videos from YouTube and other websites without installing Adobe's Flash player, bookmark your favorite websites and save login credentials for various websites.
Still considered the world’s favorite browser, Google Chrome does not cease to amaze its millions of users with every new version while attracting new ones at the same time. Being a Google product, Chrome syncs perfectly with all your Google accounts and products, allowing you to access all your data virtually from anywhere. Its privacy and accessibility features are also among the best available out there.
Taking into account that both Opera and the new Microsoft Edge are both based on Google’s Chromium technology, it is safe to say that it has proven to be the fastest and most reliable Web browsing technology you can use. The devil is, as usual, in the detail. The technology behind them may be exactly the same, but both in terms of browser design and resource management, there are big differences among all Chromium-based browsers.
For obvious reasons, Chrome beats all of them when it comes to Google integration, and this platitude is of a great importance when we ask ourselves this question – who is not connected to Google in one way or another? Therefore, having your browser synchronized with your e-mail account and all your cloud-based data in a simple, transparent, and straightforward way is of great relevance to many users. Hence its growing popularity.
The new version of Google Chrome hasn’t changed significantly neither visually nor functionally when compared to previous ones. And that is both good and bad. Good because regular Chrome users will be glad to find the privacy and security features they all know and love, as well as the Incognito browsing mode, the myriad of extensions available and, of course, the Google search engine in all its glory. And bad because this browser still has the dubious honor of being (also) the leader among all resource-hungry browsers. And this is not a Chromium-related issue, as other Chromium-based browsers display a clearly better resource management policy.
Google Chrome hasn’t stopped topping the charts of the “Best Browser of the Year” lists during the last few years, but other contenders are getting closer, especially in terms of memory management. If ever this browser manages to sort out this issue, no other contender will dare to dispute its domination.
v91.0 [Mar 8, 2021]
- Chrome pauses collapsed tab groups
Chrome allows users to organize tabs into collapsible groups, helping them stay productive. For some users, Chrome 91 pauses those tabs when the user collapses them, to reduce CPU and power consumption. Chrome does not pause tabs if they are playing audio, holding a web lock, holding an IndexedDB lock, connected to a USB device, capturing video or audio, being mirrored, or capturing a window or display.
- Chrome blocks port 10080 and adds a policy for allowing specific ports
Chrome 91 adds port 10080 to the restricted ports list and blocks traffic through it. This does not affect customers using standard ports, but custom configurations using non-standard ports may be affected.
If you're affected by this change, or if you were affected by the previous change that blocked port 554, Chrome introduces the ExplicitlyAllowedNetworkPorts enterprise policy, where you can allow these specific ports in your environment.
- Chrome enables quantum computer resistant security
Chrome 91 supports a post-quantum key-agreement mechanism in TLS when communicating with some domains. This increases the size of TLS handshake messages which, in rare cases, may cause issues with network middleboxes that incorrectly assume that TLS messages fit in a single network frame.
You can set the CECPQ2Enabled policy to disable this mechanism. You can also disable it by setting the ChromeVariations policy to a non-default value. For more details, see https://www.chromium.org/cecpq2.
- Chrome no longer allows TLS 1.0 or TLS 1.1
The SSLVersionMin policy no longer allows setting a minimum version of TLS 1.0 or 1.1. This means the policy can no longer be used to suppress Chrome's interstitial warnings for TLS 1.0 and 1.1. Administrators must upgrade any remaining TLS 1.0 and 1.1 servers to TLS 1.2.
We previously communicated that this would happen as early as January 2021, but we extended the deadline until Chrome 91.
- PWAs can launch when the user logs into the OS
Users expect some apps, like chat apps, to launch as soon as they log into a Windows or Mac device. Chrome 91 allows users to set Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) to launch as soon as the user logs into the OS.
As an admin, you can configure a PWA at install time with the option to launch automatically when a user logs in to its OS session.
You control this behavior using the WebAppSettings enterprise policy.
- Chrome on iOS warns users if they reuse their saved passwords on known phishing sites
To better protect users from phishing schemes, Chrome warns users if it appears that they've entered a saved password on a known phishing site. This feature is now being expanded to Chrome on iOS.
You control your organization's use of this feature using the PasswordManagerEnabled enterprise policy.
- Chrome introduces initial_preferences
As part of Chrome's move to using more inclusive naming, admins can control the browser's initial preferences using a file named initial_preferences. This file behaves the same way as, and will eventually replace, the master_preferences file that exists today. To minimize any disruption, Chrome continues to support the master_preferences file and more notice will be given before we remove support for master_preferences.
- Chrome uses DNS-over-HTTPS on Linux
DNS-over HTTPS protects user privacy by encrypting DNS queries, and was already enabled for Windows, Mac, ChromeOS, and Android in prior releases. Chrome 91 supports this feature on Linux. The DNS requests of all users will be auto-upgraded to their DNS provider’s DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) service if available (based on a list of known DoH-capable servers).
You can disable DNS-over-HTTPS for your users with the DnsOverHttpsMode policy with Group Policy or in the Google Admin Console. Setting it to off ensures that your users are not affected by Secure DNS.
- Chrome adds Referrer Chain to Client Side Detection pings
To better protect users, Chrome conducts client-side checks of suspicious websites. In Chrome 91, if Enhanced Protection is enabled, the referrers of the website are also sent to Chrome.
You control this behavior using the SafeBrowsingProtectionLevel enterprise policy.
- Download deep scanning available for Enhanced Safe Browsing users
Users who consented to Enhanced Safe Browsing can send downloads to Google for deep scanning when the existing safety checks are inconclusive.
You can disable this by controlling the user's Safe Browsing setting via the SafeBrowsingProtectionLevelpolicy.
- Chrome adds Google Account-tied tokens to Enhanced Safe Browsing pings
For users who consented to Enhanced Safe Browsing, who have signed in to their Google accounts, Google Account-tied tokens are added to various phishing detection pings. This provides better protection and reduces false positives.
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