Google is now inviting users to give Chrome 2.0 Pre-Beta a test run. In an effort to confuse many users, Chrome will be going from a 0.2 version release straight to 2.0.

The Chromium Developer Documentation site has a listing of all of the new features in 2.0. Here are a few of the more exciting features (in order of how exciting I find them):

Support for user scripts/Greasemonkey scripts

Could this be the beginning of a transition to plugins in Chrome? This is exactly what I’ve been waiting for. Chrome has always been second fiddle for my browsing needs because of its lack of add-on features. See the developer documentation for details.

Browser profiles

It appears Google needs to take Google Trends attacks more seriously. Just six months ago Trends was displaying a Swastika as one of the top searches for the day. Yesterday’s trend showed a plane flying into the Twin Towers:

Google’s statement on such attacks is as follows:

The Hot Trends list is automatically generated by machines and algorithms that detect hot or breaking queries. In this case, it appears that the html code for this query was posted on a popular internet bulletin board, which led to quite a few people searching to find out more about this symbol. The Hot Trends list reflected that surge due to people searching with this query.

Perhaps its time to allocate a few more resources to prevent these types of messages from being spread.

With Google and other search engines continuing to roll out personalization updates, it is becoming increasingly difficult for SEOs to get an idea of their true ranking position. A personalized search result page can look completely different than the results a ranking tool would provide.

André Scholten wrote a guest post on Yoast explaining how Google Analytics users can get a better idea of where they rank for specific keywords. Although users will not be able to get the exact position, they will be able to figure out what page of the SERPs they rank on.

How do you do it? Google Analytics allows you to create custom filters for your analytics data. In this case, an advanced filter. I don’t want to steal André’s thunder, so head over to Yoast and read how you set it up.

Barry Schwartz reports that an old WebmasterWorld thread has been revived with data on how long it took Google to reassign the PageRank of the URLs he had redirected.

According to Barry, the author had set up a new URL structure and had redirected the old URLs to the new ones using a 301 redirect. If you have ever done this with a client, you know the next thing that happens is their PageRank disappears and they call you frantically at 2am wondering what went wrong.

In an effort to help us better prepare our clients for the impacts of moving a page (or site completely), the author put together the following timeline:

• October 2nd - Site migration and 301′s implemented

China has launched a major crackdown on pornography today, and is asking Google and Baidu to do their part. Pornography is banned in China, but government officials are still struggling to block pornographic websites that are based abroad.

Despite pornography being blocked, both Google and Baidu are still returning search results that include pornographic links. China is now calling them out on their failed attempt to do their part in the crackdown against pornography.

In an attempt to get Google, Baidu and other websites to comply, the Chinese government released a statement on their website saying that “violators will be severely punished.” What exactly that punishment is remains unclear.

According to Cui Jin, a Google spokeswoman in China, Google is already in full compliance with Chinese law, and is not serving an pornographic links.