Chrome Blog
The latest news from the Google Chrome team
Hands-free Google Voice Search in Chrome
Thursday, February 27, 2014
If you've ever tried to cook and search at the same time—say, when your hands are covered in flour and you need to know how many ounces are in a cup—you know it can be tricky. With the latest
Chrome Beta
, you can search by voice on Google—no typing, clicking or hand-washing required. Simply open a new tab or visit Google.com in Chrome, say "Ok Google," and then start speaking your search. This will be rolled out to English (U.S.) users on Windows, Mac and Linux over the next few days, with support for additional languages and Chrome OS coming soon. Here are a few examples to get you started:
Perform searches:
Say “Ok Google, how many ounces are in a cup?”
Set a timer:
Say “Ok Google, set a timer for 30 minutes”
Create
a reminder
for Google Now:
Say “Ok Google, remind me to pick up dessert at 6pm tonight”
To enable this feature, visit Google.com, click on the mic icon, then click on “Enable Ok Google:"
Here’s what it looks like in action:
To learn more about Voice Search in Chrome, please visit the
Help Center
.
Import supervised users onto new computers
The latest Chrome beta also makes it easy for you to set up Chrome
supervised users
on multiple devices.
Supervised users
makes it easy to help your family members explore the web in a managed environment. You can determine sites you want to allow or block, and manage permissions for any sites your family member has requested to view. If you create a supervised user, now you can let that user browse on any device in your home with the new “Import” option. When you import a supervised user, all their permissions will then be synced across devices.
Here’s how to do it:
Click the Chrome menu on the browser toolbar and select Settings.
In the "Users" section, click Add new user.
Click “Import an existing supervised user”
Select the user you’d like to import from the list
Click “Import supervised user”
This improvement to supervised users is currently supported on Windows, Mac and Linux, and will become available on Chromebooks soon. Ji Adam Dou, Software Engineer and Search Whisperer
Chromebox, now for simpler and better meetings
Thursday, February 6, 2014
[Cross-posted from the
Official Google Blog
]
The best meetings are face-to-face—we can brainstorm openly, collaborate closely and make faster decisions. But these days, we often connect with each other from far-flung locations, coordinating time zones and dialing into conference calls from our phones. Meetings need to catch up with the way we work—they need to be face-to-face, easier to join, and available from anywhere and any device. Starting today, they can be: Any company can upgrade their meeting rooms with a new Chromebox, built on the Chrome principles of speed, simplicity and security.
Chromebox for meetings
brings together Google+ Hangouts and Google Apps in an easy-to-manage Chromebox, making it simpler for any company to have high-definition video meetings. Here are a few highlights:
Instant meeting room
. Chromebox for meetings comes with a blazing-fast Intel Core i7-based Chromebox, a high-definition camera, a combined microphone and speaker unit and a remote control. Set up your entire room in minutes and easily manage all meeting rooms from a web-based management console. All you need is the display in your room, and you’re good to go.
Simpler and faster meetings
. Walk into the room, click the remote once and you’re instantly in the meeting. No more complex dial-in codes, passcodes or leader PINs. Share your laptop screen wirelessly, no need for any cords and adaptors. Integration with Google Apps makes it easy to invite others and add rooms to video meetings, directly from Google Calendar.
Meetings with anyone, anywhere
. Up to 15 participants can join the video meeting from other conference rooms, their laptops, tablets or smartphones. Need to meet with a customer who doesn’t use Chromebox for meetings? That’s easy too—all they need is a Gmail account. You can also connect to rooms that have traditional video conferencing systems using a new tool from
Vidyo
, and participants who prefer phones can join your meeting with a conference call number from
UberConference
.
Chromebox for meetings is available in the U.S. today starting at $999, which includes the ASUS Chromebox and everything you need to get going. That means for the same price that companies have typically paid for one meeting room, they'll be able to outfit 10 rooms—or more. CDW and SYNNEX will help bring Chromebox for meetings to customers and resellers, and Chromeboxes from HP and Dell will be available for meetings in the coming months. Later this year, we plan to launch in Australia, Canada, France, Japan, New Zealand, Spain and the U.K.
Companies like Eventbrite, Gilt, oDesk and Woolworths have been testing Chromebox for meetings, and have
told us
that they love the simple setup, the ease of use, and being able to see their colleagues in other offices. More importantly, the low price will enable them to extend these benefits to even more employees, rooms and offices. Find out how
Chromebox for meetings
can help you and your coworkers see eye-to-eye. Happy meetings, everyone!
Caesar Sengupta, VP, Product Management
Chromecast is now open to developers
Monday, February 3, 2014
Chromecast
makes it easy to enjoy all of your favorite online content on a TV screen with the simple press of a button on your phone, tablet or laptop. We want to make it easier for that content to get to your TV, so today we’re releasing the
Google Cast Software Development Kit (SDK)
for developers who want to build Chromecast support into their apps and websites. For the rest of us, that means even more of our favorite
movies, TV shows and music
will become available on Chromecast as developers work with the SDK. Just be on the lookout for the cast button in your favorite apps and websites across Android, iOS and Chrome.
If you’re a developer looking to bring your content to the big screen, head on over to the
Google Developers Blog
for a deep dive into the nuts and bolts of it all. Meanwhile, for everyone else, a current list of apps that work with Chromecast can be found at
chromecast.com/apps
. Happy casting!
Posted by Ambarish Kenghe, Chromecast Product Manager and Cast Master
Get notifications from Google Now in Chrome
Monday, February 3, 2014
Your friend Steve’s flight from New York is delayed by an hour. Your favorite soccer team is up by one point with two minutes left. Your Chromecast has just shipped. If you're using
Google Now
, you'd already know all of that information without having to ask. Google Now already gives you the right information at the right time on Android and iOS. Starting this week, if you’re using Chrome beta, you will be able to receive your Google Now notifications via the notifications center on your Mac, Windows or Chromebook computer. To enable these notifications, simply
sign in to Chrome
with the same Google Account you’re using for Google Now on Android or iOS.
So the next time you’re finishing up emails at your desk, Google Now might suggest that you leave the office a bit early to beat the heavy traffic on the way to your dinner date. To view the notifications, click on the bell icon on your desktop (on Mac and Windows) or the numbered box (on Chromebook) to open the Chrome notification center.
To learn more about Google Now notifications in Chrome and how to configure your settings, please visit the
Help Center
. If you’re not already using Google Now on Android or iOS,
head over here
to get started. Google Now notifications in Chrome will just be available in English initially, with other languages supported soon. Let us know what you think in the comments!
Update 3/24/2014:
Starting today and rolling out over the next few weeks, Google Now users in all languages will be able to get these notifications in all channels of Chrome. To enable this feature, simply
sign in to Chrome
with the same Google Account you’re using for Google Now on Android or iOS.
Travis Skare, Software Engineer and Always in the Know
Clean up your hijacked settings
Friday, January 31, 2014
So, you're trying to download a free screensaver or game or something else you really want. But later you find out that game came bundled with a malicious program that's trying to hijack your browser settings.
You're not the only one
having this problem—in fact, it's an issue that’s continuing to grow at an alarming rate. You should always be in charge of your own Chrome settings. To help keep your browser settings under your control we added a
“reset browser settings” button
to Chrome’s settings page in October.
Despite this, settings hijacking remains our
number one user complaint
. To make sure the reset option reaches everyone who might need it, Chrome will be prompting Windows users whose settings appear to have been changed if they’d like to restore their browser settings back to factory default. If you’ve been affected by settings hijacking and would like to restore your settings, just click “Reset” on the prompt below when it appears.
Note that this will disable any extensions, apps and themes you have installed. If you’d like to reactivate any of your extensions after the reset, you can find and re-enable them by looking in the Chrome menu under “More tools > Extensions.” Apps are automatically re-enabled the next time you use them.
Some hijackers are especially pernicious and have left behind processes that are meant to undermine user control of settings, so you may find that you’re hijacked again after a short period of time. If that happens you can find additional help uninstalling such programs in the Chrome
help forum
—and remember even if you don’t see the prompt, you can always restore Chrome to a fresh state by clicking the reset button in your Chrome settings.
Linus Upson, Vice President of Engineering
Chrome + LEGO: You can build whatever you like
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Think back: you’ve just dumped a bin of LEGO
®
bricks onto the floor with a satisfying crash, and you have the whole day ahead of you to build whatever you want. There’s something pretty amazing about being able to piece together your ideas with just a collection of colorful bricks.
Well, we think the creative freedom of LEGO bricks shouldn’t be limited to plastic bins—which is the idea behind
Build with Chrome
, a collaboration between Chrome and the LEGO Group that brought these colorful bricks to the web using WebGL, a 3D graphics technology. It was
originally built by a team in Australia
as an experiment, and now we’re opening it up to everybody. So now you can publish your
wacky
creations to any plot of land in the world.
We’ve added a few new features to make it easier to build and explore this digital world of LEGO creations. To start, you can now sign in with a
Google+ account
to help find stuff that people in your circles have created. A new categorization system for completed Builds will help you sort and filter for specific types of structures.
To hone your engineering skills and prepare for the upcoming “
THE LEGO
®
MOVIE
™
,” you can explore the Build Academy, a series of short tutorials and challenges featuring characters and structures from the film.
If it feels more natural to use your hands—rather than a mouse—you can build your creations using a touchscreen on your phone or tablet with
Chrome for Android support for WebGL
on devices with high-end graphics capabilities.
As
big fans of LEGO
, we’re excited to see what you come up with to fill this new world. Share your creations on
Google+
and we’ll reshare the most inventive ones.
Posted by Adrian Soghoian, Product Marketing Manager and Beginning Builder
More web, more savings with Chrome for Mobile
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
More and more, we’re using our phones and tablets to discover great web content from all over the world. Today, a few new features in Chrome for Mobile make it easier for you to find and consume this content on the go.
Data compression for Android and iOS
In the U.S. alone, more than a fifth of adult smartphone users now do most of their online browsing on their mobile device.
1
Around the world, we’re seeing a similar trend towards more mobile browsing. That’s why we’ll be rolling out a new feature on Chrome for Mobile to help you reduce data usage and save money on your mobile plan. When enabled, Chrome’s
data compression and bandwidth management
can reduce data usage by up to 50% while browsing the web on Chrome for Android and iOS. This feature also enables Chrome’s
Safe Browsing
technology which helps protect you from malicious webpages.
To start saving data and turn on an even more secure browsing experience, visit “Settings” > “Bandwidth management” > “Reduce data usage.” Then simply turn the toggle to “On.” From this menu, you’ll also be able to track how much bandwidth you save each month as you browse on Chrome.
Translate for iOS
Parlez-vous français? Not to worry. We heard your requests and will be introducing
Google Translate
in Chrome for iOS in the coming days. With this update, you can now translate webpages in Chrome with the click of a button on your iPhone and iPad, just as you’re used to on Chrome for
desktop
and
Android
. To translate a page into your phone or tablet’s native language, just look for the translation bar and select “Translate.”
Application shortcuts on Android
Lastly, this upcoming release of Chrome for Android will allow you to create shortcuts to your favorite websites right from your homescreen for faster and easier access to the web. When visiting a site you’d like to save, simply select “Add to homescreen” from the toolbar menu.
Then anytime you’d like to open the saved website, just tap its icon on your homescreen.
For certain websites
, the shortcut will open in a full-screen experience and appear as a separate app in the Android app switcher.
To try out these features on your Android and iOS devices, download the latest releases of Chrome for Mobile coming soon to the
Play Store
and
App Store
. These updates will be rolling out over the next few days.
Posted by Matt Welsh, Software Engineer & Data Squasher Extraordinaire
1
Source: Pew Internet
Cell Internet Use 2013 report
.
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
.gif)
.png)
Follow