Chrome 6, available as a developer release since June, has been promoted to beta status by Google. As well as the performance improvements that are nowadays expected of any new browser release, the new version includes a simplified user interface, a new autofill feature, and richer synchronization capabilities.

The autofill feature allows the browser to remember multiple sets of personal data—name, address, phone number, etc.—and choose which one to use when filling out a form. If enabled, this information will be automatically remembered as forms are filled out. It can also be used to autofill credit card numbers; these, however, must be explicitly added.

Autofill has been incorporated into the sync feature of the browser, meaning that all Chrome instances associated with the same Google account will share the autofill address data. Credit card numbers are kept separately and don't get synced.

The continued efforts by browser vendors to leapfrog each other and take the JavaScript performance crown continue with Chrome 6. Across all the widely used JavaScript benchmarks—WebKit's SunSpider, Google's own V8 suite, and Mozilla's Dromaeo—Chrome 6 shows better scores than its predecessor, leaving it neck and neck with Opera, and faster than Firefox 4 betas, Internet Explorer 9, and Safari 5.

The biggest user interface change is the conflation of the two toolbar/menu buttons into a single button and a unified menu. The objective was to make the interface "feel even simpler," according to Google software engineer James Hawkins.

After using Chrome 6 through the dev channel for a couple of months, I'm not sure this is a good change. Though superficially simpler—there are fewer buttons—using the menus is now more complicated, requiring navigation through submenus to find options that used to be top-level.

The menus also use weird, nonstandard controls for clipboard operations (cut/copy/paste) and page zooming. There is also the general awkwardness of having menus (which cascade to the right, in most locales) butted up on the right-hand edge of the screen.

These are weird menus, and I'm not sure I like them

Chrome already bundles a version of Flash, and uses the browser's built-in automatic update mechanism to keep the plugin up-to-date. Google is also developing a PDF plugin to give Chrome a native PDF capability, avoiding the need for Adobe Reader. Though this is available in the dev version, Google hasn't yet enabled it by default.

Chrome 6 is going to be the first new version released under Chrome's new six-week release lifecycle. If the beta goes well, the stable release should be along soon.