Google Chrome 90 Is Rolling Out Now, Making HTTPS the Default

Google Chrome 90 is now available on the stable desktop channel. The new version comes with a variety of improvements, most notably the change to make HTTPS the standard protocol.

There's also a number of security fixes, AV1 encoder support, and a variety of developer changes.

HTTPS Is Now Standard in Chrome 90

As we reported previously, Chrome will now default to HTTPS when accessing a website through the address bar.

The HTTPS protocol is more secure than HTTP because it encrypts traffic. This means that you can send and receive personal information with greater protection against third-party meddling.

Previously, when a protocol was unspecified, Chrome would default to HTTP, only redirecting you to HTTPS when available. This made sense when the majority of the web was using that older protocol.

Now Chrome will connect first to the HTTPS endpoint, only falling back to HTTP if it's unavailable. This will mean that sites will load slightly faster.

What Else Is New in Chrome 90?

Chrome 90 also comes with support for an AV1 encoder, which has been specifically optimized for video conferencing with WebRTC integration.

According to the Chromium blog, benefits of the AV1 encoder include:

Compression efficiency compared to other video encoders, which reduces bandwidth consumption and improves video quality.
Ability to stream video at 30kbps and lower, which is helpful for users on very low bandwidth networks.
Screen sharing efficiency over VP9 and over codecs.

Chrome 90 includes 37 security fixes, many of which were high priority. Full details can be found on the Chrome Releases page.

Google's new tab search feature is also becoming more widely available in Chrome 90. This is very useful for people who browse the web with loads of tabs open at once. Using the tab search feature, you can type to find an open tab through its title or URL.

Finally, there are a number of improvements that will benefit developers. This includes a new value for the CSS overflow property, renaming the Feature Policy API, and new ways to use Shadow DOM directly in HTML.

Google's Pete LePage runs through all of these changes in his update video, suitably styled around the decade of the 1990s.

Get Chrome 90 Now

Chrome 90 is rolling out to everyone across all platforms over the next days and weeks. While you should receive it automatically, you can see if the update is available for you now. On desktop, go to Settings > Help > About Google Chrome.

source https://www.makeuseof.com/google-chrome-90-is-out-now/