Google Chrome is Being Redesigned For its 15th Anniversary

Google is about to give its Chrome browser a pretty substantial design refresh to celebrate the app’s 15th anniversary. The company is also launching today a redesigned Chrome Web Store in public preview, and it also detailed upcoming updates to Chrome’s Safe Browsing experience.

“Chrome is turning 15 this month, and while a lot has changed over the last 15 years, our original goal still holds true — to build a browser that’s fast, reliable, secure and easy to use,” wrote Parisa Tabriz, VP of Chrome today.

Over the past 15 years, Google Chrome and the Chromium open-source project have undoubtedly redefined competition in the web browser space. Chrome still remains the most popular web browser by a pretty wide margin, with a 63.56% global market share as of August 2023 according to Statcounter.

“In the coming weeks, Chrome will get a new look on desktop. Based on our Material You design language, we’ve refreshed Chrome’s icons with a focus on legibility and created new color palettes that better complement your tabs and toolbar,” Tabriz said today.

Other notable Chrome design updates include a better integration with system-level dark and light modes. Google also redesigned Chrome’s settings pop-up menu to simplify access to Google Translate, Google Password Manager, and extensions.

Speaking of extensions, a redesigned version of Chrome Web Store is launching in public preview today. It uses the same “Material You” design language that Google is using across its various apps and services, and users will also notice new categories such as AI-powered extensions. Chrome will also make extensions more secure with Safety Check, which will verify if an extension is potentially malicious or has been recently unpublished.

Lastly, Google will be upgrading Safe Browsing in Chrome in the coming weeks to improve protection against malware and phishing threats. Instead of using a local list of known bad sites that’s only updated every 30 to 60 minutes, Safe browsing will now use a list of bad sites that’s updated in real-time. “We expect to see 25% improved protection from malware and phishing threats,” Tabriz said today.