In celebration of Chrome's second anniversary, Google is releasing a new stable version of its Web browser. The new Chrome has a simpler user interface, the ability to synchronize extensions and an automatic form filler.

The first version of Chrome was released to the public on September 2, 2008. Since the introduction of Chrome, Google has released six stable versions for Windows (Google also released two for Mac and Linux). Brian Rakowski, Google's product manager, introduced Chrome 6 with a celebratory blog.

Rakowski says that in terms of Javascript performance, the new Chrome is now six times faster compared to its first version. He adds that Google has also worked to simplify the browser. The Chrome's two menus have been combined into one. In addition, the address bar has been modified to not show the "http" prefix (in the place of https is an icon). Rakowsi says that the company has also changed the Chrome's color scheme "to be easier on the eyes."

The next version, Chrome 7, is scheduled for release in just six weeks. The browser will offer graphics hardware acceleration and a new tabbed-browsing interface. The company announced this summer that it was switching to an ultra-rapid release cycle.

"It'll be interesting to see if anybody else than the early adopters are going to be okay with their browser changing every month and a half... We prefer to take more time to prepare people for bigger interface changes. I'm actually a little bit skeptical about a six-week cycle - where do you find the time to really innovate in such a short time span? But going faster is something that we definitely would like to do too, we just have to figure out the right pace for us," said Chris Blizzard from Mozilla.