Chrome Blog
The latest news from the Google Chrome team
A curious guide to browsers and the web
Thursday, November 18, 2010
On the Chrome team, we’re always looking for new ways to communicate complex concepts about technology. More than two years ago, we launched Chrome with a
comic book
by Scott McCloud. Since then, a few of our colleagues at Google created a simple explanatory website called
WhatBrowser.org
when they realized that many of our friends and family weren’t sure what web browsers are.
Today, we’re very excited to release a special project called “
20 Things I Learned about Browsers and the Web
.” In the spirit of Chrome’s tradition with books and
HTML5 experiences
, we teamed up with illustrator
Christoph Niemann
to publish an online guidebook to browsers and the web, written by the Chrome team. If you have questions like “What are plug-ins?,” “What is HTML5?,” or even “Why is it ok for a truck to crush my laptop?,” “20 Things” is a handy guide for anyone who’s curious about the basics of browsers and the web.
So grab a cup of hot chocolate and enjoy this illustrated guidebook in
Chrome
or any up-to-date HTML5-compliant browser. Once you’ve loaded it in the browser, you can even disconnect your laptop and read comfortably in your favorite armchair since this guidebook works offline, thanks to
HTML5
. You can also jump directly back to the page at which you’d previously left off, search for topics that you’d like to read up on, or even view it in “lights off” mode (remember reading under the covers with a flashlight?). If you’re on Chrome’s beta channel, you can give the
Chrome PDF viewer
a test drive in the “Print book” section of the guidebook.
To read this online guide, go to
www.20thingsilearned.com
, (or you can use this shortened URL:
goo.gl/20things
.) And to learn more about how we made it, you can read about the technical details on the
Google Code Blog
.
Posted by Min Li Chan, Product Marketing Manager
New Chrome Extensions by Google
Thursday, November 11, 2010
We've been thrilled to see many useful Chrome extensions created by developers around the world. Similarly, Googlers have been very enthusiastic about creating extensions that allow users to add features to their favorite Google products. We have a handful of new extensions in the
gallery
that we're keen to share with you, including new official extensions for Google Calendar, Google Docs and YouTube.
For those of you with busy schedules, the
new Google Calendar extension
lets you easily check your Google Calendar for upcoming events and add new events from the websites you visit. For example, if you see an icon with a green plus sign on sites like Facebook or Evite, you can add the event to your Google Calendar. It will also show a map if it detects a location associated with the event.
The
Web Clipboard extension
allows you to copy and paste text and images easily with the
Google Docs clipboard
. This means that all the web content that you copy and paste is stored in the online clipboard so you can access it quickly and easily across multiple browser windows.
To stay on top of your favorite videos,
YouTube Feed
notifies you whenever new videos are available in your YouTube homepage feed. You can directly access videos that your friends uploaded, rated and liked right in your browser.
And there’s more! Other Google extensions like
Blog This
,
Google Calendar Checker
and
News Reader
have been updated with new features like enabling special characters in blog posts, support for multiple calendars and custom news feeds.
These are just a few extensions that enhance your experience with Google products. With more than 8,000 extensions to choose from in the
gallery
, you can find the right extensions to complement your favorite Google products.
Posted by Koh Kim, Associate Product Marketing Manager
PDF goodness in Chrome
Thursday, November 4, 2010
With every Google Chrome release, we hope to bring new features and improvements that will make your life on the web speedier, simpler, and more secure. Today, we’re excited to introduce the integrated PDF viewer to the
beta channel
.
PDF
is a popular file format that’s used for delivering documents on the web (such as the IRS
W-4 tax form
). To open a PDF document, you’d typically need to install additional software or a browser plug-in in order to view it in a web browser. With the integrated Chrome PDF viewer now available in Chrome’s beta, you can open a PDF document in Chrome without installing additional software. The PDF document will load as quickly and seamlessly as a normal web page in the browser.
Just like we do with web pages viewed in Chrome, we’ve built in an additional layer of
security
called the “sandbox” around the Chrome PDF viewer to help protect you from malware and security attacks that are targeted at PDF files. For now, the Chrome PDF viewer is available only in the
beta channel
, but we look forward to adding more polish and features, as well as making it widely available in the stable channel soon.
Posted by John Abd-El-Malek, Software Engineer
Understanding the omnibox for better security
Friday, October 22, 2010
National Cyber Security Awareness Month
is a good time to learn more about how you can use your browser’s security indicators to stay safe online. One of the most important security indicators in Google Chrome is the “
omnibox
,” the spot where you enter web addresses:
The first thing to notice about the omnibox is that Google Chrome highlights the domain name of the website that you’re viewing with a slightly darker color. The domain name indicates which website is being displayed by the browser in the current tab. For example, the domain name in the image above is “www.google.com”.
Before interacting with a website, check that the omnibox has highlighted the domain name you expect. If the domain name doesn’t match what you expect, the website might be spoofing the “look and feel” of another site as part of a
phishing attack
. Google Chrome has
built-in protection against phishing
, but checking the domain name yourself is a good security habit — especially when entering sensitive information, such as your password or credit card number.
When entering sensitive information, the second thing to notice about the omnibox is the lock icon, which is displayed to the left of the web site address and, in the case above, is colored green. The lock icon indicates that Google Chrome has established an encrypted connection that works like a tunnel between your computer and the domain name displayed in the omnibox. An
encrypted connection
helps prevent malicious parties from eavesdropping or tampering with the data sent between your computer and the website. Most websites will use an encrypted tunnel when asking for your password or credit card number to help prevent people using the same wireless network as you, for example at a coffee shop, from being able to eavesdrop on your sensitive information.
Some websites have an
“extended validation” certificate
that lets the browser determine the name of the organization that runs the web site. Notice the green box between the lock icon and the web address in the omnibox:
The extended validation indicator makes it easier for you to determine which organization is responsible for the displayed web page. For example, the extended validation indicator for
https://www.benefitaccess.com/
says “Citigroup Inc [US],” indicating that Citigroup is responsible for that web page – a fact which might have been difficult to determine without the indicator. You should be careful to share sensitive information with a website only if you trust the organization responsible for the site.
If you would like to learn more about the browser’s security indicators, you might enjoy reading our
Help Center article on Chrome’s indicators
. Until next time, safe surfing!
Posted by Adam Barth, Software Engineer
Bringing another Chrome release to you, right on time
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Not long ago, we
mentioned
that we’d be releasing a new stable version of Google Chrome approximately every six weeks to get bug fixes, improvements, and new features in the hands of our users quickly in the spirit of speedy innovation. With that in mind, we’re happy to bring you a new stable version of Google Chrome today.
In this stable release, we’ve focused primarily on
hundreds of bug fixes
. We’ve also included a few other things that may be of interest to developers, such as full
AppleScript
support on Mac OS X for UI automation and implementation of the
HTML5 parsing algorithm
, the
File API
, and
directory upload
(via <input type="file" webkitdirectory>). Also, if you choose to
block sites
from setting any data in your browser’s content settings for cookies, you can now use a new dialog for managing blocked cookies in bulk.
Enjoy!
Posted by Jeff Chang, Product Manager
New Featured Extensions
Thursday, October 14, 2010
With so many new extensions uploaded in the gallery every day, we know it can be tricky to decide which ones to try out. We post a selection of the ones we enjoy in the "Featured" section of the
gallery
, and from now on we plan to update you regularly on new additions to our recommended extensions.
Here are a few new extensions in the Featured section:
Layers
allows you to overlay content like sticky notes, images, videos, tweets and even maps over any web site. You can drag and drop your content anywhere on the page. You can also share and discuss whatever you add to the site with your friends across social networks.
The
Postrank
extension for Google Reader helps you stay up-to-date on the news and posts that matter. The extension aggregates engagement activity such as tweets, comments and votes from over two dozen social networks and ranks stories based on how much engagement each story has received.
With the
Ozone
extension, you can get suggestions from fifteen different sources like Google, Amazon, your bookmarks, Gmail, YouTube and more. As you type in the Ozone search box, you can see the suggestions change in real time.
Highlight to Search
is a new official Google extension that allows you to search keywords by highlighting instead of typing them into a search box. When you highlight words within a web page, you'll see a magnifying glass icon appear below the highlighted keywords. Clicking on the icon or the keywords allows you to search easily from the search box that immediately appears.
These are just a few of the new featured Chrome extensions, and you can find many more in the
gallery
.
Posted by Koh Kim, Associate Product Marketing Manager
Use Chrome like a pro (Now for Mac!)
Thursday, September 30, 2010
(Cross posted on
Official Google Mac Blog
.)
Two months ago, Chrome team members shared a list of their favorite extensions on the
Official Google Blog
. This time around, we asked Mac aficionados on the Chrome team to share with us the extensions they like the most. Below is a list of their favorite extensions.
Google Voice
- Make calls, send SMS, preview inbox and get notified of new messages right in your browser (US only)
Send from Gmail
- Makes Gmail your default email application and provides a button to compose a Gmail message to quickly share a link via email.
iReader
- View news stories and other articles in a very easy to read, clutter-free, scrollable display.
Google Dictionary
- View definitions easily as you browse the web, similar to using ⌘-Option-D in other Mac applications.
delicious bookmarks
- Integrate your bookmarks with Google Chrome with the official Chrome extension for Delicious, the world's leading social bookmarking service.
Instachrome
- Collect articles from around the Internet to read them on the web with Instapaper.
These are just a few extensions to help our Mac users enhance their web browsing experience and address the most requested features. There are more than 7,000 extensions to choose from in our
Google Chrome Extensions gallery
, so you’ll be sure to find the right extensions for you.
Posted by Mike Pinkerton, Staff Software Engineer
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