Is Chrome the speediest browser on the block?

It’s starting to look that way. Yesterday Google announced the official release of Chrome 3, its WebKit-based, open source (and Windows-exclusive) browser. It is vaunted to have a faster JavaScript engine, improvements to Omnibox, the ability to support themes (similar to FireFox skins), and a redesigned tabs page.

Even though the browser has only been around for a little more than a year, it has been a pretty big show over the bow in the browser wars, not the least because of the upcoming Google Chrome OS and the already-emerged Android OS for smartphones.

The latest version of the Chrome web browser is said by Google to handle JavaScript over 150% faster than the original version of Chrome. Its V8 JavaScript engine is now much faster than Mozilla’s TraceMonkey JavaScript engine and nearly as spry as Apple’s Nitro engine.

Chrome 3 underwent extensive user beta testing, so its official release is not exactly making waves; it does allow a wider user base to gain easy access to the browser. Some of its improvements are obviously aimed at the casual user, such as the theme system, which allows users to customize the browser’s look and feel and take advantage of pre-made styles, which are available from the Chrome theme gallery. For the power users, Chrome brings in support for several important HTML5 features such as the Video element.

Google’s pet browser is growing up fast. According to the analytics firm Net Applications, Chrome’s marketshare increased from 1.52% in January to 2.84% in August. It is now more widely-used than Opera and it is gaining quickly on Safari. Undoubtedly, these gains are just further Google’s plans for world domination.