Following Mozilla’s release of Firefox 8 last month, Google has made the latest stable edition of its Chrome web browser available for download. Chrome 16 introduces the ability to create as well as to synchronise multiple profiles for Chrome.

This newly added functionality will be handy for users who share their computer with others, such as the home PC, since it enables each user to have their own bookmarks, Chrome apps, browser settings, browsing history and extensions, even though they are using the same the same Chrome browser.

The ability to synchronise a Chrome account will be appreciated by users who have Chrome installed on their home PC and notebook or work computer since they’ll also have access to all their apps and bookmarks on these different PCs.  

How to do this?

If you want to sign into Chrome all you have to do is click on the wrench menu and select “Sign in to Chrome”. In order to create a new profile, you have to go to the options page by clicking on the wrench icon and then selecting “Options”. Next click on the “Personal Stuff” tab and choose “Add new user”.

A new instance of Chrome will appear with a badge as well as a new name that can be edited to suit your preference. A label will appear in the top-right corner of the browser to show users which account is currently being employed and if you click on that label you will be allowed to switch in between Chrome accounts.

If you are new to Chrome go to Google’s page to download the browser to your Windows-running PC, Mac or Linux-operating computer. If you already have Chrome installed simply click on the wrench icon and select About Google Chrome to start the automatic update process.   

In a blogpost on the official Chrome blog Google software engineer Tim Steele highlighted the fact that the newly added functionality is a convenience feature and not a security feature, since signing into a different user profile doesn’t require a password.

“Keep in mind that adding new users to Chrome isn’t intended to secure your data against other people using your computer, since it just takes a few clicks to switch between users. We’re providing this functionality as a quick and simple user interface convenience for people who are already sharing Chrome on the same computer today,” Steele explained.  

In other browser related news Net Applications recently released its latest monthly browser stats, showing that Google’s Chrome is still on the rise as its share of the global browser pie increased from 17.6% during October to 18.18% in November.