With the latest developer build of Google Chrome being released this week (version 2.0.180.0), evidence has surfaced showing that extensions and plug-ins are on their way for the browser.

Release notes show that developers have implemented “extensions window & tabs API events.”

“The extensions posse would like to point out that as of today’s dev channel release, extensions are starting to be a bit more useful. We can now put little bits of UI (user interface) in the chrome of Chrome, and some of the APIs (application programming interfaces) are starting to come together,” said Google programmer Aaron Boodman. “There is still quite a ways to go, but if you’re interested in building extensions for Chrome, this might be a good time to start taking a look.”

Google has also updated Chrome Extension HOWTO and included some sample extensions, including a gmail checker.

You can download the latest developer release from the Chromium website.

Ars Technica has posted a great review of the current state of Chrome for Mac. Included are two videos showing how far Chromium has come in just the last few months.

Karen Grünberg said “we’re working as fast as possible and progressing as fast as we can without compromising security” and suggested that we might see a beta release in Q3 09.

The article also includes detailed instructions on how to compile pre-release Chromium builds on Mac. Be sure to check it out.

LinuxHaxor has discovered that early-pre-alpha builds of Chromium, which Google Chrome is based off, is 4 times faster than current stable builds of Firefox on Linux.

The test was run with the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark tool.

While these results are impressive, LinuxHaxor mentions that current Google Chrome Windows builds are still 2 times faster than early Chromium builds for Linux.

Google Chrome is to get the same level of customisation as Mozilla’s Firefox, with a new effort launched to make it possible for developers to create plugins for the popular browser.

Third party applications or addons are attributed to the huge success of Firefox, and is currently the number one most requested feature from Chrome users.

Aaron Boodman and a few others from the Chromium project last week released a design spec detailing their plan for developers.

The document also lists some extensions that the company would like to support, including both an ad and flash blocker – both of which are top addons for Firefox.

Google is yet to give a release date on the feature, but at least work is under way. Stay tuned for more information in the coming months.

New Google Chrome builds are showing support for Greasemonkey, albeit very basic and still in early stages of development.

Until now, Greasemonkey has been a Mozilla Firefox extension that allows users to install scripts that make on-the-fly changes to most HTML-based web pages.

Martin from gHacks writes “Only scripts in c:\scripts are loaded and only if the user adds the parameter –enable-greasemonkey by appending it to the program’s shortcut.”

Support for Greasemonkey has been added as of build 3499, which can be downloaded from the Chromium build FTP.

Chromium on Linux

Thanks to the CrossOver Chromium project, it is now possible to download Google Chrome for Mac OS X and Linux.

The Chromium project is an open source effort, built using the same code as Chrome and “aims to build a safer, faster, and more stable way for all Internet users to experience the web“.

At this stage, the browser does not run nativly on systems other than Windows, but the Chromium project has been made possible thanks to the CodeWeavers’ Wine development expertise.

You can download the CrossOver Chromium browser from the website or the links below:

Mac OS X
Ubuntu and Debian (32bit)
Ubuntu and Debian (64bit)