Windows/Mac/Linux: If you're living life on the bleeding edge of Google's Chrome browser, good news: Google just pushed out an update to the dev channel, improving HTML5 audio and video for all platforms, bringing extension and bookmark sync to Macs, and more.

The Windows build didn't see many changes, but Mac users should be particularly happy with the update. Having been excluded from extension support when the Chrome extension gallery first opened, Mac users can now officially join in the fun. (See these 18 extensions worth downloading for Chrome to get started with Chrome extensions.) Mac users also gain support for much-needed bookmark sync and support for favicon-only pinned tabs.

Google Chrome (on Windows): Password saving and management webapp LastPass offers a single space to drop your web site passwords and quickly use them on any browser—now including Chrome, through an extension available to development channel users.

LastPass works on Chrome similarly to how it does on Firefox and Internet Explorer, and it's a bit more convenient and functional than its . The concept remains the same: you only have to remember your LastPass login, and LastPass remembers all your other passwords and, if you want, credit card and form data, too. Before you ask, here's how LastPass justifies its safety and encryption.

Chrome extension WOT adds the Web of Trust community web site rating service to the Google Chrome browser, so you can check the trustworthiness of a web site without leaving the page.

Once you've installed the extension—by simply clicking on the link and accepting the install—you will see a new icon in the Chrome status bar that shows the community rating for the site you are browsing. Clicking the icon will display a dialog on the page with full details about the trustworthiness of the site, and a link to the rating page for more information. You can configure which of the rankings to use in the settings, but unfortunately you can't move it from the status bar to anywhere else.

The Google Chrome developers have released a new version this week with enhanced support for extensions and—dare we say it—a proper extensions menu item so you can access Chrome's extension manager with ease.

Windows and Linux versions received some minor tweaking. The updates to the Mac version include fixing a slew of keyboard commands and updating the way secure HTTP sites are displayed, to more clearly alert the viewer that the site has a bad security certificate.

Google today released a new browser plug-in called Google Chrome Frame that creates an unholy union between Internet Explorer and Google Chrome, rendering web pages in IE using Chrome's rendering engine.

That rendering technology includes Chrome's support for HTML5 and its lightning-fast JavaScript engine. How does it turn IE into Chrome? By creating a new frame inside of Internet Explorer that basically embeds the Chrome browser. It's sort of like the previously mentioned IE Tab tool that embeds IE in Firefox, so users can access the now-rare IE-only sites. In this case, though, it's embedding Chrome in IE instead of the other way around, for the much more common dilemma of sites that won't render correctly in Internet Explorer.

Windows only: Chrome turned one year old just a couple weeks back, and as a belated celebration, the folks at Google have just pushed out a brand new stable release in the form of Google Chrome 3.

Chrome 2 (stable) hit servers back in May, and while the folks at Google are currently on Chrome 4 in the dev channel, those of you who haven't been eager to play on the bleeding edge of Chrome releases have a lot of nice improvements in store for them in Chrome 3, including:

One year ago, Google Chrome came out of nowhere to re-ignite the browser debate. Today, it's reached (development) version 4.0, and it's anchoring a much-anticipated operating system. Here's a look back at where Chrome's been in 12 short months.

Google Chrome's Incognito mode is great for doing a little under-the-radar browsing on your computer, but if you want to use Chrome to search in private from the get-go, these Windows and OS X-friendly methods can help.

Last October we showed you how to start Chrome in Incognito mode with a JavaScript file, but since then Google's added a startup flag (-incognito) you can add to your Chrome shortcut in Windows to automatically start in Incognito mode. (Right-click your Chrome shortcut, then add -incognito after the target like you see in the screenshot.)

That's simple enough, and it's not a new trick by any means, but if you're running OS X, starting Chrome in Incognito mode from the get-go is a bit more difficult. Luckily weblog Cool Geex details how to do just that with a little help from AppleScript. Head to the link below for a guide (with video) for creating and compiling the Chrome-in-Incognito-mode script and you'll be good to go.

While you're polishing up your Chrome skills, take a look at our power user's guide to Google Chrome.

Google Chrome: Want to keep track of what you've got open in Google Chrome? The experimental SessionSaver extension can save and load multi-tab, multi-window sessions and restore them with a few clicks.

Installing SessionSaver, or any Chrome extension, requires running Chrome's developer version, available using the Channel Changer tool, and adding --enable-extensions to the end of your Chrome launching shortcut, right after the chrome.exe bit. Once that's done, head to the link below and click on the first link to download and install the extension.

Using it is fairly simple. There's a save-icon-like button installed in Chrome's bottom status bar. Click on it to get load, save, and settings options, where you can save either just one window's tabs, every window's tabs, or load a previous session into your current tabs. Helpful for starting up multi-tab projects or saving your web progress when you're venturing into crash-prone territory.

The latest developer builds of Google Chrome enable extensions by default, add support for skins, and even improve compatibility with Windows 7.

If you aren't using the developer releases of Chrome, you'll still need to download the Channel Chooser and switch to the development stream, but you won't have to mess around with command-line parameters anymore—extensions have been enabled by default. This means you'll be able to install themes for the browser, and while there are only two themes to choose from at the moment, the theme specifications have been published and there is likely to be an explosion of new skins released very soon.

The other noteworthy fix, although not mentioned in the linked article, is that Google Chrome's "Application" shortcuts will now show up as separate taskbar items in Windows 7, a very helpful change for those of us that use them extensively.

Windows only: Until Google graces us with a real extension manager, an enterprising user put together an impressive batch file that can handle enabling, disabling, or even uninstalling Google Chrome extensions.

Once you've downloaded the batch file, you can simply double-click to open it up in a command prompt window, where you'll be presented with a menu that allows you to enable, disable, or uninstall extensions, or even run Chrome with extensions enabled. It's definitely not the ideal way to deal with add-ons, but it's a great, workable solution until Google puts a real extension manager together—and you have to admire those kind of batch scripting skills.

Hit the link for the download, and remember to right-click the batch file download link and Save As, giving the file a *.bat extension.

Windows only: The experimental chromegestures extension for Google Chrome adds a full set of mouse gestures to those using the development releases of Chrome.

Installing the gestures requires first switching to the development channel, modifying your Google Chrome shortcut to include the --enable-extensions parameter, and then heading over to the download page to install the extension (by simply clicking on the ChromeGestures.crx link).

Windows only: Free utility ChromePass displays all the passwords Google Chrome has saved for your web site logins. You can view saved passwords one by one in Chrome itself, but ChromePass displays the list all at once, and lets you export your username and password list to a file (XML, HTML, comma or tab delimited text). ChromePass also displays the name of the username and password field, and the time it was created. It doesn't look like ChromePass can import a file of passwords, so the exported file is just a reference if you want to take your saved passwords to go. ChromePass is a free download for Windows only.