Google Chrome Stable: As the name suggests, a stable release of the web browser that has been tested extensively. Aimed at the end user and computing environments where only stable releases are used.

Google Chrome Beta: The beta releases often contain features that need to be tested by a wider audience. They are not stable yet but more thoroughly tested than the developer releases.

Google Chrome Dev: Google Chrome developer releases have been the cutting edge releases for some time. They get updated often, may contain new features but also bugs that need to be sorted out before the features are added to the beta channel.

Google Chrome Canary: The new cutting edge version of the Chrome browser. Canary releases are not as often releases as Chromium snapshots but more often than dev releases. These builds get the new features first before they are added to dev builds, providing they cause no problems.

Chromium: Chromium is the Open Source part of the Google browser. Chromium may get updated several times a day. The browser does not contain Google browser specific features.

Which Google Chrome browser is right for you?

That question is not that easy to answer. If you like to test new features you may want to consider downloading the dev or canary versions of the browser. Users who do not want to experience bugs may prefer the beta or stable releases.

Download Google Chrome

Google Chrome Stable: http://www.google.com/chrome
Google Chrome Beta: http://www.google.com/landing/chrome/beta/
Google Chrome Dev: http://www.google.com/chrome/eula.html?extra=devchannel
Google Chrome Canary: http://tools.google.com/dlpage/chromesxs
Chromium: http://build.chromium.org/f/chromium/snapshots/

Which version of Google Chrome are you running on your system? Let me know in the comments.

There are probably additional reasons for a Google Chrome offline installer. There is however an easy – but somewhat hidden – option for users who want to download an offline installer for Google Chrome.

All that these users need to do is to append the parameter standalone=1 to the website where Google Chrome can be downloaded. Here are the two download links for the latest official and latest beta version of the Google browser:

Latest official: http://www.google.com/chrome/eula.html?standalone=1
Latest beta: http://www.google.com/chrome/eula.html?extra=betachannel&standalone=1

This will download the full installer of the selected Google Chrome browser to the local computer system. It is then possible to install Google Chrome without Internet connection by simply distributing the offline installer to the computer system where it should be installed.

The Google Chrome developers mentioned that it might not be possible to auto-update these versions of the Google Chrome browser. The auto update service should however be active when downloading the offline installers. They should work normally if an Internet connection is present to check for updates.