Chrome Blog
The latest news from the Google Chrome team
Multitasking and shopping on Chrome for iOS just got easier
Thursday, October 22, 2015
Often on the web, we’re doing a ton of things at once -- reading up on an exotic travel location, catching up on social media or booking a hotel. With that in mind, we’re introducing Split View for your iPad (Air 2 or mini 4) to our latest version of Chrome.
We’re also working to make it easier to make purchases on the go. We’re shopping more often than ever on our phones and tablets, but it can be a pain to re-enter credit card information every time you buy something. That’s why we’re bringing Chrome’s Autofill from desktop and Android to iOS. No matter what device you use, you can shop for what you need easily and securely.
To get the latest & greatest for your iPhone / iPad, just
update Chrome in the App Store
.
Posted by AbdelKarim Mardini, Product Manager and Multitasker
Behind the red warning: more info about online site safety
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
[Cross-posted on the
Google Online Security blog
]
You’re browsing the web, checking out the latest news on your favorite band, when suddenly you see a red warning screen: “The site ahead contains malware.” These warnings aren’t new—since 2006, Google Safe Browsing has shown them when you navigate to an unsafe site. The warnings protect you from harms caused by unsafe sites, such as malware infections and phishing attacks. But it hasn’t always been clear why a specific website triggers a warning, and you may want to learn more.
To demystify these warnings, we’re launching a
Site Status section
in the Transparency Report. The next time you come across a Safe Browsing warning, you can search for the blocked website in the Transparency Report to learn why it’s been flagged by our systems.
The new Site Status section of the Transparency Report replaces our previous
Safe Browsing diagnostic page
. It includes a clearer interface and simpler explanations of the issues, such as details for sites that host
unwanted software
. We’ve added it to the Transparency Report so that the Safe Browsing section of the report is a one-stop shop for information to help you understand what Safe Browsing is and how it works.
If a favorite website shows up as “dangerous,” it’s often due to user-uploaded bad content or a temporary malware infection. The Site Status will return to normal once the webmaster has cleaned up the website. To help speed up this process, we automatically give the webmaster a heads-up about the problem via
Search Console
; if you use
Google Analytics
, we’ll also warn you there if your site has malware on it. (Webmasters, check the
help center
to learn how to remove malware from your websites.)
We’re constantly working to keep users safe and informed online. Visit the updated Site Status section in the
Transparency Report
to experience it yourself.
Posted by:
Adrienne Porter Felt, Chrome Security Engineer and Warning Wizard
Emily Schechter, Safe Browsing Program Manager and Menace to Malware
Ke Wang, Safe Browsing Engineer and Developer of Defense
How to love Chromecast a lot
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Today, we introduced a new Chromecast and its partner-in-crime, Chromecast Audio.
Chromecast
has faster performance, a new design and is available in three colors.
Chromecast Audio
is a small device that plugs into your existing speakers, so you can stream your favorite tunes from your phone, similar to Chromecast.
We’re also introducing an easier way to find what to watch through the redesigned Chromecast app. Now, you can go to a single place to browse or search content from across apps you already use. The Chromecast app is available on Android starting today and rolling out to iOS over the coming weeks.
Chromecast has the most comprehensive collection of apps globally with millions of entertainment options. Here’s just a few:
It’s fall premiere season-- catch up on your favorites.
Chromecast can help you burn through the last season of Homeland on Showtime before the next season premieres in October. Or choose from over 200,000 TV shows and movies from favorites like Netflix, Google Play Movies, HBO Now, Hulu, CW Seed, WatchABC and WatchDisney, with SlingTV coming soon.
Never miss your favorite sports game.
With recently-launched NFL Sunday Ticket by DirecTV, you can cast live games (even those that aren’t nationally televised) to the TV. Check the scores and stats from the mobile app while watching the action live on TV. Chromecast works with WatchESPN, MLB At Bat, CBS Sports and many others. NBA, NHL and BTN2Go are coming soon.
Score a last-minute party playlist.
You’re throwing a party and forgot to make a playlist. With Chromecast Audio, anyone in your house (and on your WiFi) can DJ using their phone to cast to the speakers—no additional pairing or set up necessary. Choose from over 35 million songs on Spotify, Google Play Music, Pandora iHeartRadio and more.
Give game night a twist.
Turn your TV screen into a race track, golf course or dance floor. Chromecast takes popular mobile games and brings them to the big screen. Anyone can join in, using their Android phone or iPhone® as a game controller. Soon, we’ll be adding Angry Birds Go!, WGT Golf, and Driver Speedboat Paradise. Available now are classics like Just Dance Now, Catch Phrase Blitz, and Scrabble Blitz.
Relive the weekend.
Before you completely dive back into the real world on Monday morning, share your weekend memories. With Google Photos, cast any picture from your albums to the TV for a bigger picture, while using your phone to swipe to the next one.
You can also turn your TV screen into a picture frame filled with photos from Facebook, Google Photos, Flickr, Getty Images, 500px and more. Visit chromecast.com/backdrop to find out more.
Cast the morning news.
With Chromecast Audio, cast talk shows like NPR One to your bedroom speakers while you're getting ready for work.
Enjoy some sweet offers.
Once you’ve purchased and set up a Chromecast, you’ll find a few special offers waiting for you:
90 days of free music from Google Play
free 1 month trial of CBS All Access
free movie rental from Google Play
three-month free trial of Rhapsody
30 days of access to Crunchyroll Premium.
Visit chromecast.com/offers* to learn more.
Your phone is bursting with entertainment. With Chromecast and Chromecast Audio, you can enjoy your content on the biggest screen and best speakers in the home.
Post by Shanna Preve, Director Global Content, Chromecast
* Terms apply. For more information, visit chromecast.com/offers.
Please note that some of the apps referenced above require subscriptions.
Chrome improvements for a faster and more efficient web
Thursday, September 3, 2015
Speed is one of the
founding principles
of Chrome. As the web evolves and sites take advantage of increasing capabilities, Chrome’s performance—how fast pages load, how smooth scrolling is, how much memory is consumed, and how long your battery lasts—becomes even more important. So in the latest release of Chrome we’ve included a ton of improvements to make your browsing use less memory and power.
Chrome has long had the option to
“continue where you left off”
by restoring tabs when you relaunch Chrome. Now, Chrome is smarter about restoring your tabs more efficiently. Tabs are restored from most to least recently viewed, so you get to see the most important tabs faster. And Chrome will now detect if your computer is running low on resources and stop restoring the rest of your tabs to save you precious memory. You can always click to restore them if you'd like to access them later.
We’ve also introduced another memory-saving technique. Chrome can now detect when a webpage isn't busy with some other task, and use the
free time to aggressively clean up old, unused memory
. In practice we found that this reduced website memory usage by 10% on average, but the effect is even more dramatic on complex web apps. With Gmail, for example, we can free up nearly a quarter of the memory used by the tab.
After being idle for a short time, Chrome 45 (right) frees up nearly a quarter of the memory it was using for Gmail, a significant improvement compared to Chrome 43 (left). Video is sped up 8x.
We’ve also made changes to Chrome to improve power usage. A new setting
introduced in June
will auto-pause Flash content that's not central to a website. Our testing has shown that turning on this setting makes your battery last up to 15% longer depending on your operating system, so over the next few weeks we'll begin turning on this feature by default for all users.
This latest version of Chrome includes the most recent wave of performance updates, but there's much more in the works for upcoming versions of Chrome. So get ready for faster, even more powerful browsing!
Posted by Ryan Schoen, Product Manager and Performance Promoter
Chromecast is #NowCasting HBO NOW, Catch Phrase, Food Network and more
Thursday, August 6, 2015
Summer is the perfect time to get together with friends, watch TV shows, movies and play some games. Starting today, you’ll find either new cast-enabled apps for Chromecast to enjoy on the big screen.
From Khaleesi to Hannah Horvath: your favorite HBO® shows are now casting
Fans can catch up on
Game of Thrones®
and other favorites, tune in live for new episodes of
Ballers(sm)
and
True Detective®
or catch up on every season of
Girls®
.
HBO NOW(sm)
, the new standalone subscription service from HBO®, allows you to stream shows at the same time they air on TV without a cable subscription.
More family-friendly games
We’re always looking for new and innovative ways to use your phone as a remote or game controller, which has lead us to new social games like
FitFlap
and
Catch Phrase Blitz
.
FitFlap
, by BreakFirst, uses the front-facing camera on the phone to capture players flapping their arms. The harder you flap, the higher pigs on the screen fly to collect coins while dodging obstacles. More into brain games?
Catch Phrase Blitz
, the classic Hasbro guessing game, is now casting and is sure to bring excitement to your next party. Or try your hand at a more strategic, turn-based gameplay with
Tricky Titans
by MediaMonks. These giant Titans are standing on top of villages and using large shovels to scoop up houses and throw them at each other.
And still more
Budding photographers will be pleased to know that
Pixlr
is also available — a fun and powerful photo editor that lets you quickly crop, rotate, and fine-tune any picture. Foodies and travel gurus can now cast their favorites on the
Watch Food Network
and
Watch Travel Channel
apps, including Cutthroat Kitchen, Beat Bobby Flay, and Hotel Impossible. And finally for the kiddos, on
Pokemon TV
dozens of episodes featuring Ash and Pikachu are available for you to watch and rewatch as much as you like.
Anyone with a phone or tablet can join the fun. Download these apps from the Play Store or App Store so all of your family and friends can tune in, flap, swing, shout, smash, and dance, or binge on their favorites. A subscription is required for some content.
Happy Casting!
Shanna Preve, aspiring Hooli intern (and Chromecast director of global content)
Quick answers to quick questions
Friday, June 5, 2015
Often when we use our mobile phones, it's for something fast in the moment. We see a food item we can’t identify, or hear a song lyric, and want to know more—quick answers to quick questions.
So we’re bringing a new feature to Chrome—search from any webpage with just a tap. Since Chrome can see the page you’re searching from, it can give you more accurate search results. For example, just tapping on “America” on the page below shows a search about the movie “Captain America: Civil War”, not the country. Just slide up to see more information—news, cast, images and more.
This is coming to Chrome on Android over the next few days (with Asian language support to follow).
Posted by Donn Denman, Software Engineer and Top Tapper
Better battery life for your laptop
Thursday, June 4, 2015
Adobe Flash
allows web pages to display rich content—but sometimes that can put a squeeze on your laptop’s battery. So we’ve been working with Adobe to ensure that your experience on the web can be power-efficient as well as rich and interactive—and today, we’re introducing an update to Chrome that does just that.
When you’re on a webpage that runs Flash, we’ll intelligently pause content (like Flash animations) that aren’t central to the webpage, while keeping central content (like a video) playing without interruption. If we accidentally pause something you were interested in, you can just click it to resume playback. This update significantly reduces power consumption, allowing you to surf the web longer before having to hunt for a power outlet.
This feature will be enabled by default on Chrome’s latest desktop Beta channel release starting today, and will be rolling out soon to everyone else on Chrome desktop. If you need to manually enable it, just head to Chrome’s
content settings
and select “Detect and run important plugin content.”
We'll be rolling out more power improvements in the coming months - stay tuned!
Posted by Tommy Li, Software Engineer and Power Conservationist
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