Google Chrome Now Has Flash

A couple of months ago Google announced, with Adobe, that the Flash Player would soon be automatically built into Chrome.  Well, that’s now the case!  As you know, Chrome is an open source browser powered by Google Gears and based on Webkit.  Chrome users will no longer need to download, install, or update the player separately.  This is all part of the package released just before the weekend in Chrome 5.0.375.86.

The new version of Chrome, which was released on Mac, Linux, and Windows, also comes with a fix for many previous security issues.  This is a big change as previously, built-in Flash was only available through the beta releases and developer versions.  It’s also worth mentioning that this new version was released to the Stable channel which means that it’s available in the mainstream version.  Google released this update just a couple of days after it re-enabled the integrated Flash Player in the Beta channel after it had been disabled for quite a while.

The integrated Flash Player in Chrome isn’t the only boost Google is giving this technology.  In the very near future we’re going to see this integration in a couple of places.  In fact, look for Flash Player 10.1 for Mobile specifically for the Android 2.2 phones. However, any updates to the player itself will be delivered directly through Chrome’s updating system which reduces security risks that tend to come up when using outdated software.

If you haven’t already updated to the newest version of Chrome, you may want to today.  With the fully integrated Flash Player, there’s no reason not to.

Source – <a href=”http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/25/google-chrome-flash/”techcrunch.com