Chrome Canary

What Does Chrome Canary Mean?

Chrome Canary is the less stable version of the Google Chrome operating system. Canary has cutting edge features compared to the developer’s build. These features are tested thoroughly before being pushed into beta build. Canary gives the user the useful option of running the advanced version of Chrome without fully committing to alpha testing.

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One of the primary reasons for introducing the Chrome canary is to speed up Chrome’s development cycle. With help of public, Google can test new features and collect user feedback and statistics more quickly and easily. The test results that are derived from users help the Chrome team to resolve issues in the software more quickly and roll it out to all Chrome users.

Techopedia Explains Chrome Canary

Chrome Canary has the following basic characteristics:

  1. It is based on the principle of a canary in a coal mine; if something kills Canary, the changes are blocked.
  2. It is relatively less stable than the developer’s build.
  3. It contains new features. If these are not found to be beneficial for users, they are blocked from the developer build.
  4. Canary can run alongside the existing version of Chrome.
  5. Canary has a different colored icon. The browser skin is blue with a yellow icon.
  6. Canary cannot be set as the default browser; it is just a secondary installation of Chrome.
  7. Automated updates occur with high frequency.
  8. Canary provides support for multiple user profiles.
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Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…