It was a long time coming but the 64-bit version of Chrome is finally here. In beta, at least.

Google released a 64-bit beta version of the browser as well in June but it was aimed at developers. For everyone else who doesn't speak code, a 64-bit Chrome beta was announced and made available for download Wednesday.

"The Chrome Team is excited to announce the addition of the Chrome 64-bit Beta Channel for Windows 7 and 8 users. To try it out, download the 64-bit installer from our Beta download pages. The new version replaces the existing version while preserving all your settings and bookmarks, so there's no need to uninstall a current installation of Chrome," writes the Google Chrome team in the announcement.

Why upgrade?

In theory, the 64-bit version of Chrome should be better in more ways than one, faster, more secure and more stable than its 32-bit counterpart. It's hard to say at this point if the browser has indeed improved because it is still in beta. Most of the time, beta releases are used to iron out kinks (which means kinks will be there) to fine-tune the final product.

There's no word yet on when the final version of 64-bit Chrome will be released but a beta version does signify that it shouldn't be too long now. Maybe six weeks or so?

Users have migrated to Chrome from Mozilla Firefox because of recurring memory leaks that consume a dramatic portion of available memory, leaving less for other tasks in a computer. By addressing memory leaks, 64-bit Chrome not only saves available memory but also introduces improvements that could boost performance. Will Chrome take over functions in a computer? It's a possibility but it remains to be seen until the final version of the browser is released.

It is estimated that 45 percent of web browser use in the world is attributed to Google Chrome, making it the most widely used browser. The first beta version of the browser was released on September 2, 2008. The final version was released on December 11, 2008. Bulk of the source codes for the first version of Chrome as released by Google through Chromium, an open-source project.

Users trying out the 64-bit version of Chrome are requested to file a bug report when they encounter an issue with the browser. Users still interested in 32-bit Chrome beta can still download the version through Google.