Google Chome 13 beta is out, adds Instant Pages and print preview

Google on Friday released its Google Chrome 13 beta, a version of the browser that includes the newly introduced Instant Pages feature and the long-awaited print preview function.

Both Instant Pages, which preloads your most likely search result, and print preview are important additions to Chrome, which is arguably the most innovative browser on the market. As a still young browser, Chrome’s market share worldwide has had remarkable growth. As of May, Chrome has an estimated 12.5 percent of the market.

Instant Pages marks the first time Google has implemented a feature to improve search. The company only offers the function in its own Chrome browser, but the code for Instant Pages is open-source, so other browsers could implement the feature if they want.

The print preview feature for Chrome is long-awaited and has comparably been offered in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer since 2000. Print preview was first requested by a user in Sept. 2008 on Google’s Chromium wiki and Google finally delivered it today.

I updated Chrome to the 13 beta to give it a spin. So far Instant Pages has not worked, but it’s possible the feature isn’t live just yet. Print preview, on the other hand, works like a joy and will help me figure out if certain pages are worth printing.