Google Chrome update just fixed one of its most annoying features

GOOGLE has pushed out a new update to its Google Chrome web browser today, which the US search company claims will fix one of the app’s most frustrating quirks.

Google has rolled-out a new update to its Google Chrome web browser today.

The software update should prevent webpages skipping back to the top as you scroll farther down the page – an annoyance of progressive loading.

As Google outlines in its blog post, “One of the strengths of the web is progressive loading, which means that there is no install step and users can start consuming content almost immediately while the site keeps loading.

“But progressive loading can also result in annoyances, such as an unexpected page jump when offscreen content loads and pushes down what’s currently on the screen.

“This can be even worse on mobile devices, since smaller screens mean more content is offscreen and page jumps are more likely.”

Thankfully, Google Chrome has a solution – and its called Scroll Anchoring.

The technology was first made available to developers in an early build last year, but will now roll-out out more widely to users running Chrome 56 or newer.

Google posted in its blog, “This feature works by locking the scroll position on an on-screen element to keep our users in the same spot even as offscreen content continues to load.”

So, even when the page finishes loading – users will not be sprung back to the top of the page.

Google claims the feature will save mobile users an average of three jumps per page view.

The technology company has encouraged software developers to check-out its new Exclusion API should they want to disable anchors on pages where they may be unwanted.

“Due to the expressiveness of the web, there might be some content for which scroll anchoring is either unwanted or misbehaving,” it adds.

“To further minimize potential issues, scroll anchoring is disabled on complex interactive layouts via suppression triggers, and on back/forward navigations to allow for scroll restoration.”

The news comes as Google Chrome proved to be the least hackable web browser at the 10th annual Pwn2Own event.

The renown computer hacking contest is held each year at the CanSecWest security conference and sees contestants desperately try to exploit popular software and hardware with previously unknown vulnerabilities.

Those who manage to successfully find an exploit will win a cash prize, a jacket emblazoned with the year of their win, and, as the name of the contest suggests, the device they managed to break into.

Web browsers were subject to a number of exploits over the course of the contest, this year held at Vancouver’s CanSecWest conference.

Over the three days of Pwn2Own, Microsoft Edge was successfully attacked five times – racking up $300,000 in bounties.

Safari was exploited three times, and Firefox was attacked twice – although only one of these was successful.

The browser says it will be making further additions to its security this year.

However, Google Chrome left the conference more or less unscathed – with the only attack not being completed in time.