We cover a lot of Android news here but, we also cover the odd piece about the wider Google product line of services, and one product that I’m sure a lot of you are using – perhaps right now to read this post – is the Chrome browser. Google’s Chrome browser came out of the blue to gain a big chunk of the browser market some time ago now, and with Chrome Sync it’s become a big part of most people’s daily use of a computer. I know that I use Chrome everyday, day in and day out – in fact I’ve cut out the middle man and gone straight for a Chromebook as my work machine.
What’s great about Chrome – and a lot of Google, really – is the Open Source foundation that it’s built upon. The Chromium project has been running a long time now and it’s in this project we see a lot of potential new features added. There’s a sister project for Chrome OS, called Chromium OS as well.
We’ve heard that Google Now could well be coming to Chrome and Chrome OS in the future and with another addition to Chromium, there’s perhaps a little more evidence to go on. Fran§ois Beaufort, whom regularly shares tidbits about Chrome and Chrome OS, has discovered Rich Notifications in Chromium for the desktop and has even provided a screenshot, which you can see below:
For the most part, these notifications look a lot like the notifications you’ll find in the R25 release of Chrome OS – in Beta and Dev – on Chromebooks and they certainly look a lot better than the default notification you see in Windows, Mac and Linux right now. Does this mean that Google Now is getting closer to hitting Chrome and Chrome OS? Well, you’d have to think that Google would want Google Now to look just as good as it does on Android, right?
Personally, I see Google Now as a good fit for Chrome OS and Chrome on the Desktop, and believe it could be a great addition to the new tab page. I’ve been getting a lot more use out of Google Now these days, would you like to see it your browser?
[Source: Fran§ois Beaufort]