Chrome Blog
The latest news from the Google Chrome team
Delivering Cloud Printing to More Places
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Have you ever needed to print something out in a pinch? Well, so have we, which is why we’ve been working hard to bring Google Cloud Print to even more places, making it easier to print when and where you need it the most.
Starting today, you can print to any FedEx Office® location in the US through Google Cloud Print. Simply choose “Print to FedEx Office” in the Cloud Print dialog, and you’ll receive a retrieval code that you can use at any FedEx Office® Print & Go self-service device at more than 1,800 FedEx Office stores across the nation. So if you're on a business trip to California, you can submit a report for your colleague in New York to print out at the neighborhood FedEx Office.
We’re also happy to add
Canon
to the list of companies offering printers that are Google Cloud Print Ready. Now you can choose from
a variety of printers
from Canon, Epson, Kodak and HP that make it easy to print from anywhere.
Finally, we’ve made it possible to send documents to your phone or tablet running Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich through Google Cloud Print. Once you install
Chrome for Android Beta
and sign in, your Android device will appear as a destination in the Cloud Print dialog. After choosing your Android device, a PDF copy of your document will open in Chrome for Android Beta. Next time you need to print something to take on the go, save some paper and “print” it to your Android device instead!
Posted by Paolo Ferraris, Software Engineer and Printer Extraordinaire
Chrome for Android Update
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Since we
launched
Chrome for Android Beta in February, we’ve been listening closely to all of your feedback (thank you!). It’s great to hear how so many of you love having the Chrome experience on your Android 4.0 phone or tablet.
With today’s update, Chrome for Android Beta is now available in 31 more languages and in all countries where
Google Play
is available. We’ve also added many much-requested features, including:
You can now request the desktop version of a website, in case you would rather not view the mobile version.
You can now add bookmarks as shortcuts on your home screen, so you can get to your favorite sites faster.
Choose your favorite apps to handle links opened in Chrome.
Have a proxy setup for Wi-Fi access? You can now use Chrome with the system proxy configured in Android settings.
If you build websites, you may want to take note of a change in the
User-Agent specification
for Chrome for Android.
If you haven’t already, you can install
Chrome for Android Beta
from Google Play on your Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) phone or tablet. As we're still in Beta, we look forward to your feedback so we can continue to improve Chrome for Android.
Posted by Dan Alcantara and Oli Lan, Software Engineers on Chrome for Android
All your tabs, accessible everywhere
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Imagine you’ve looked up directions to a cool new restaurant on your home computer. Later, when you’re leaving work, you realize you can’t quite remember how to get there. If only you could quickly pull up the same directions on your office computer with one click!
Well, with the latest
Chrome Beta
, you can. When you’re
signed in to Chrome
, the tabs you have open on one device are available on all your other devices—just click the “Other devices” menu on the New Tab page.
With a click, you can find and open the tab with your directions and be on your way. The tab’s back and forward navigation history is also included, so you can pick up browsing right where you left off. If you use
Chrome for Android Beta
, the tab will also be available on your phone, right there in your pocket when you hit the road.
We’ll be gradually rolling out the “Other devices” menu to Beta channel users over the coming week. To give it a try, download the latest
Chrome Beta
and
sign in to Chrome
. Happy browsing!
Posted by Nicolas Zea and Patrick Dubroy, Software Engineers and Tab Teleportation Technicians
Zap! Finding the right app and extension just got easier
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Over the past few weeks, we’ve introduced several new features to make it easier to discover new apps and extensions. These can be especially helpful, as the number of apps and extensions in the Chrome Web Store has grown to the tens of thousands.
Starting today, Chrome Web Store users can try out an early version of the new “
Trending
” view. Ranging from “warm” to “on fire”, this view shows which apps and extensions are currently growing fastest in the store.
App subcategories were also recently introduced into the store. These allow you to dig deeper into each app category. For example, in the “Entertainment” category you can click on the “Music & Radio” subcategory to only view music related apps.
Searching for a particular app has also improved. Our search box now sports autocomplete suggestions that guide you to the app or extension you are looking for, faster.
And for those of you looking for apps with a particular functionality - e.g. apps that work offline - our new app badges can be of help. Just look for them on the top section of an app’s landing page in the store and click on them if you want to see other apps that have the same functionality. They now come in two flavors -
playable on Google+
and
offline
- and more will follow.
All of these improvements will especially come in handy as more apps and extensions launch every day. In the last few weeks, almost all the Google+ games have become available in the store, like the new exclusive
Kingdom Age
. These add to a slate of new
Native Client
games like
MiniNinjas
and new productivity and entertainment apps and extensions like
Share on Meebo
,
Hotmail
, and Google's
My Chrome Theme
and
Google Play Movies
.
Posted by Shannon Guymon, Product Manager
A new way to multitask
Saturday, March 31, 2012
On December 9, 1968, Douglas Engelbart rocked the computing world with
The Mother of All Demos
. One of the many advancements Engelbart discussed was the creation of a simple, intuitive pointing device that would allow you to manipulate a cursor on a screen with the movement of your hand. The world met
the mouse
.
Before the mouse, the primary way to interact with a computer was to type a command, wait for a response, and type a second command. The ability to coordinate between the movement of a marker on the screen and a flick of the wrist was truly revolutionary, and has transformed the way we interface with our machines today.
However, for decades, the full power of the mouse has been limited. While we’ve been mousing away with one hand, our other hand has often been idle. As information has moved
faster and faster
, our mousing capacity has stayed the same.
On the Chrome team, we’ve been working to address this problem. Today, we’d like to announce a new way to get twice as much web from your browser. We call it
Multitask Mode
.
Multitask Mode lets you have access to multiple mice at the same time, so you can make a chess move while you watch a dance move, or draw a horse while you draw on a friend for relationship advice.
Chrome can handle as many mice, touchpads, styli, joysticks, trackballs, and other pointing devices as you can plug into your computer, so you and your friends can browse dozens of sites at the same time.
Try it out
and let us know what you think!
Posted by Glen Murphy, Designer and Stylus Stylist
Update:
April Fools :)
Faster and fancier graphics
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Today’s web brings
beautiful
,
rich
experiences right into your browser. With Chrome’s most recent
Stable channel release
, we’ve sped up graphics and drawing performance for users on capable hardware, and enabled fancier 3D content for other users on older computers.
Give Chrome a spin
to see just how good the modern web can look. And if the nuts and bolts of graphics make your heart flutter, check out more technical details over on the
Chromium blog
.
Posted by Vangelis Kokkevis, Chrome Graphics Olympian
Pwnium: great exploits, fast patches
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Last week we debuted
Pwnium
, a contest based on our
Chromium Security Rewards program
. Both of these initiatives reward well intentioned researchers who help make the web a safer place by reporting security vulnerabilities. Our total payout to researchers for these programs is now well over half a million dollars.
We weren’t sure what kinds of reports we would get from Pwnium, but by the end of the week we were thrilled to have awarded $120,000 for two excellent submissions. Thanks to Chrome’s
rapid auto-update
functionality, we were able to update Chrome twice, in both cases protecting users less than 24 hours after the respective bugs were reported. While these vulnerabilities were reported directly and privately to us, this kind of speed is especially important if bugs were ever being actively abused to harm users.
Since the full exploits were disclosed, we were able to study them and add a range of additional defensive measures based on what we saw. These measures will make Chrome more secure from any similar hacks in the future. We’ll publish write-ups to honor these two highly creative works in the coming weeks.
Also last week, a separate exploit for Chrome was demonstrated at the
Pwn2Own
competition. We’ve since learned that the bug exploited a vulnerability in the Flash Player plug-in -- affecting all browsers. The contest organizers have reported the vulnerability details directly and privately to Adobe, and Adobe will be providing a fix as part of its forthcoming Flash Player update. When that happens, Chrome users will enjoy the advantage of an auto-update and quick protection. Looking forward, Adobe and Google are collaborating on a version of Flash Player which will run inside the primary Chrome sandbox. Chrome OS devices already ship with this next-generation sandbox for Flash Player.
Engaging the wider security community is one of our
core security principles
, and Pwnium is a great example of the benefits of this type of collaboration. Our special thanks to the contestants for their exceptional contributions to security on the web.
Posted by Chris Evans and Travis McCoy, Chrome Security Team
Labels
3d
53
accessibility
apps
chrome
Chrome Blog
chrome for a cause
chrome notebook
chrome os
chrome web store
chromebook
college basketball
cr-48
demo lab
demolab
extensions
Flash
google cloud print
googlenew
holidays
HTML5
instant
lab tech
mac
web apps
webgl
webrtc
Archive
2016
Sep
Aug
May
Apr
Mar
Jan
2015
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2014
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2013
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2012
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2011
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2010
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2009
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feed
Google
on
Follow @googlechrome
Follow
All things Google Chrome
Download Chrome
Download Chrome for Mobile
Chromium Blog
Chromium homepage
Follow