Google launches Instant Pages to speed up load times on Chrome

First unveiled in June alongside a handful of other new projects related to search, Google's Instant Pages technology enables sites to load...well, instantly - or as close to it as possible.

For example, during Google's initial presentation, developers used The Washington Post’s site in Chrome as a demo. The browser incorporating Google Instant Pages was able to load the site instantly (0.0 seconds) versus the regular browser at 3.2 seconds. Other examples are available in the promo video below:

Up until today, Instant Pages was only available for developers and then in beta mode. Today's update brings the service to the general public, and it is on by default in the latest stable version of Chrome.

More new additions to Chrome include print preview and "print to PDF" features for available for Windows and Linux users. Mac users still have to wait for the print preview power, but Google developers promise that it's coming. The omnibox combination search box and address bar has also been improved upon for revisiting pages in the latest release of Chrome.

Instant Pages is just one part of Google's new and revised overall Instant platform. Available now for use in 50 countries, the platform includes Voice Search and enhancements for Google Images, including searching by the image itself.

In other Chrome news, Google's desktop browser recently overtook Mozilla's Firefox in the overall browser share rankings in the United Kingdom.

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