Chrome getting fresh look on desktop along with a few upgrades

To mark Chrome's 15th birthday, Google is giving the browser a new look on the desktop and also rolling out a couple of new features for a quick and safe browsing experience.

In the coming weeks, you will notice refreshed icons and some other improvements that make it easier to use the Chrome browser. These include a more comprehensive menu for faster access to Chrome extensions, Google Translate, Google Password Manager and more. You can access the menu by clicking the three dots in the top-right corner of your Chrome browser.

"Based on our Material You design language, we've refreshed Chrome’s icons with a focus on legibility and created new color palettes that better complement your tabs and toolbar. These new themes and distinct colors can help you distinguish between profiles, like your work and personal accounts, at a glance," Parisa Tabriz Vice President, Chrome, wrote in a blog post on Thursday.

The Chrome Web Store is also getting a fresh, modern interface as well as new extension categories such as AI-powered extensions and Editors' spotlight and more personalized recommendations. 

Further, Google is expanding Safety Check to extensions so that the Chrome browser can help identify unpublished or potentially malicious extensions in the store. Using third-party tools like CRXcavator and Spin.AI Risk Assessment, businesses can also assess the risk of extensions before broadly deploying them.

Additionally, the upgraded Safe Browsing will now check sites against Google's known-bad sites in real-time. The update will start rolling out in the coming weeks.

"By shortening the time between identification and prevention of threats, we expect to see 25% improved protection from malware and phishing threats," Google said.