Google Chrome Blog

Bringing Chromebooks to every classroom

2012-01-25T08:40:00.000-05:00

Cross-posted from the Google Enterprise Blog.

Editor's note: We’re posting this electronic communication from sunny Orlando, where we’re chatting with schools at the annual FETC ed-tech conference. We wanted to share highlights from our keynote this morning, which featured a panel moderated by Tom Vander Ark, author of Getting Smart: How Digital Learning is Changing the World. You can watch a replay of the keynote on YouTube in a few hours. If you’re in town, come visit us at our booth #1101 - we’d love to say hi!

When we first conceived of Chromebooks, we were focused on providing a device that brought you to the web in the fastest, simplest and securest way possible. What we didn't realize at the time was that this device would be so welcome and popular in classrooms! Many schools are eager to improve access to the web and technology for students and are planning to provide each student with their own device – a concept known as "1-to-1" computing. We've heard from our customers that they choose Chromebooks for 1-to-1 because the simplicity of the web takes away the hassle for teachers, students and administrators.

During our keynote at FETC this morning, we had the opportunity to share some exciting news: hundreds of schools in 41 states across the U.S. are using one or more classroom sets of Chromebooks today. As a highlight, three new school districts in Iowa, Illinois and South Carolina are going 1-to-1 – that is, one Chromebook each for nearly 27,000 students.

Council Bluffs Community School District in Iowa is planning a Chromebook 1:1 Initiative for all 2,800 students in their two high schools and will use an additional 1500 Chomebooks in their two middle schools

Leyden Community High School District in Illinois will roll out devices to 3,500 students in their two high schools

Richland School District Two in South Carolina is going 1-to-1 with a total of 19,000 students

It's great to see this positive momentum for Chromebooks in classrooms. It's similar to where we were about five years ago when Google Apps was just getting off the ground. At that time, educational institutions were the most interested and it was inspiring to hear the different ways schools and districts had begun using Gmail, Calendar and Docs. At FETC we’ve been similarly excited to see how teachers have formed communities around professional development for Chromebooks, districts all across the US are piloting Chromebooks in their classrooms, and more and more reach out to us to learn about Chromebooks for Education every day. We believe Chromebooks and the web have the ability to facilitate learning in a powerful way, and we’re committed to helping schools recognize their goals to go 1-to-1.

But enough words from us. We’d like to close with thoughts from representatives of each of these school districts.

“From my perspective, Chromebooks couldn’t get any simpler; setting up this many laptops would have typically taken our team at least 3 months. And from the instructional side, we are teaching content not technology, and Chromebooks simply support teachers in what they do best while giving students the resources they need to be productive citizens. As just one example the quality of work that students turn in has improved literally overnight - from incomplete sentences to full paragraphs, in some cases - because they are much more engaged and participating readily in class.”

David Fringer, executive director, information systems at Council Bluffs Community school district, Iowa

“When we started on our digital evolution path we were looking for just the right tool - one that is invisible and gets out of the way to allow students and teachers to focus on instruction. With Chromebooks our students are publishing, producing and sharing with each other, and best of all, we don’t have to assign students a particular device number. Any student can use any device because all their work is saved online - for that matter they could access their work from home while logged in from the Chrome browser.”

Bryan Weinert, director of technology at Leyden school district, Illinois

Student at East Leyden high school selects a Chromebook from the charging cart. With Chromebooks, students can work on any device in any class period and access their work from anywhere - including from the Chrome browser installed on a home computer.

“Chromebooks make our 1-to-1 computing dream a reality. Teachers don't need to add ‘help desk’ to their job description, and they save valuable class time knowing they can instruct students to close the Chromebooks to stay on task and they won't have to wait when it’s time to open them again. Furthermore, we’ve seen that any behavior issues become an absolute non-issue because the technology is so compelling.”

Tom Cranmer, executive director of information technology, Richland School District Two, South Carolina

Fifth grade student teaches a younger student how to use a Chromebook in the Chrome Buddy project in Tim Swick's classroom at Pontiac Elementary School in Richland School District Two.

Learn more about Chromebooks for Education on our website, and join us for the Chromebook Classroom webinar series, Wednesdays at 9AM PT/12PM ET.

Posted by Rajen Sheth, Group Product Manager for Chromebooks

Speed and Security

2012-01-05T12:00:00.001-05:00

Today’s Beta release improves on two of Chrome’s core principles: speed and security.

One of the things people like best about Chrome is that it loads web pages quickly. To get you where you want to go even faster, Chrome will now start loading some web pages in the background, even before you’ve finished typing the URL in the omnibox. If the URL auto-completes to a site you’re very likely to visit, Chrome will begin to prerender the page. Prerendering reduces the time between when you hit Enter and when you see your fully-loaded web page--in some cases, the web page appears instantly.

On the security front, improvements to Chrome’s Safe Browsing technology should help protect you from additional types of malware attacks. Previously, Chrome focused primarily on protecting you from sites that would exploit your computer with no user interaction required. Now, we’re seeing an increase in malicious websites that try to convince you to download and run a file that will harm your computer. Some websites even pretend this malicious file is a free anti-virus product.

To help protect you against malicious downloads, Chrome now includes expanded functionality to analyze executable files (such as “.exe” and “.msi” files) that you download. If a file you download is known to be bad, or is hosted on a website that hosts a relatively high percentage of malicious downloads, Chrome will warn you that the file appears to be malicious and that you should discard it. We’re starting small with this initial Beta release, but we’ll be ramping up coverage for more and more malicious files in the coming months. Remember, no technical mechanism can ever protect you completely from malicious downloads. You should always be careful about which files you download and consider the reputation of their source.

Try out these changes in the new Chrome Beta--we look forward to hearing your feedback. As always, please keep in mind that the Beta channel inherently comes with more bugs and kinks to work out.

Posted by Dominic Hamon, Software Engineer and Speed Demon

Let the games begin!

2011-12-20T09:30:00.001-05:00

Every year, lots of people have fun tracking Santa as he takes flight around the world to deliver gifts. This year, Santa is getting some help from the Chrome Web Store elves who have already started delivering the gifts of gaming to more than 200 million Chrome users.

The first gift of the season is Bejeweled. Bejeweled is one of the most successful online games of all time; the brand new Chrome edition features Classic and Speed modes and flaunts impressive new visual effects created with HTML5.

For those of you who love action games, we have another special gift: Bastion, the award winning role-playing game (RPG) is now available exclusively in the Chrome Web Store. Featuring stunning hand-painted artwork and action-packed combat, Bastion has already destroyed the productivity in our office.

Bastion is part of a set of new games coming to the web for the first time, thanks to Native Client - a new technology that enables console-quality games on the web. You can check out Sleepy Jack, Pocket Legends, and more of these new and upcoming games in the video below.

Finally, several other Chrome Web Store favorites have holiday updates of their own. Angry Birds features many new holiday-themed levels and Cargo Bridge has released a special Christmas level edition.

Discover these and thousands of other games in the Chrome Web Store.

Posted by Christos Apartoglou, Product Marketing Manager

Google Cloud Print picks up steam

2011-12-14T13:08:00.000-05:00

Last April, we announced our plans for Google Cloud Print (GCP), the service that powers printing on Chromebooks as well as a new generation of connected apps and devices. The goal of GCP is to enable simple, secure printing from any app on any device to any printer—and with the latest cloud-ready printers, you can also print without using drivers or cables.

Since launching earlier this year, we’ve seen a surge of enthusiasm from users and developers. More than 6 million printers have already been connected to GCP using Google Chrome; dozens of cloud-ready printers have been released or announced by manufacturers like Epson, HP and Kodak; and the developer community has released a flurry of apps and extensions to enable cloud printing from both Android and iOS.

While developers and printer manufacturers have embraced GCP, we've also released a variety of improvements to the service. You can now share and control access to your printers so your friends and family can use them too. With “Save to Google Docs,” it’s easy to save your online receipts and confirmation pages to an archive in the cloud. The management page has a new tablet-friendly design and a “Print” button so you can upload and print files to your cloud printers from anywhere.

Finally, webmasters can add the print button element to their site to enable printing functionality for tablets and mobile phones.

People with Chromebooks have always had access to the latest and greatest Google Cloud Print features, but today, we’ve reached a new milestone: starting with the latest release of Chrome, anyone using the browser on Windows, Mac and Linux will be able to print any webpage to Google Cloud Print. We’ve also turned on print preview for Chromebooks, so you’ll get the same familiar experience wherever you use Chrome.

In the coming months, we’ll enable GCP from more Google products and work with partners to add more printers and printing services. Happy printing!

Posted by Akshay Kannan, Product Manager

New ways to discover apps in the Chrome Web Store

2011-12-13T15:32:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago, we redesigned the Chrome Web Store to make it easier to discover apps. Today, we’re introducing a few new features that make it even easier to find what you’re looking for.

You can now view the most popular and highest-rated apps using two new sorting filters. These are available in the store’s homepage and category view.

You can also find new apps and extensions to try by using the new “Related” tab. Let’s say you find a great Mahjong game and you want to find more apps like it - just click on “Related” and you’ll find similar apps. This tab will also show a list of other apps by the same developer.

Finally, there are two new collections with apps and extensions that can help you plan your winter holidays and make the most of the new year.

To discover more fun and useful extensions and apps, visit the Chrome Web Store after you’ve installed Chrome.

Posted by Shannon Guymon, Product Manager

Get your personal Chrome experience on all your devices

2011-12-13T08:30:00.003-05:00

If you’ve used Chrome for awhile, you know that it fits you better and better over time—it just wouldn’t be your Chrome without your favorite bookmarks, apps, extensions, history, and other settings.

Signing in to Chrome lets you take your Chrome stuff with you, so you can always have your personal Chrome experience on all of your devices.

When you’re signed in to Chrome, changing something on one device instantly changes it on all your other devices. For example, add a bookmark on your laptop, and it automatically appears on your desktop, so you can always pick up right where you left off.

Signing in to Chrome is also helpful if you only have one computer, because it securely backs up your Chrome stuff online. That way, your Chrome stuff is safe, even if a truck runs over your laptop.

To sign in to Chrome, just go to the Wrench menu and select “Sign in to Chrome.”

But what if you share a computer with other people? You don’t want your bookmarks, apps, and extensions getting mixed up with everyone else’s, and you don’t want your Chrome stuff syncing to all their devices.

With today’s Stable channel release, you can now add new users to Chrome. Adding new users lets you each have your own personal Chrome experience, and lets you each sign in to Chrome to sync your stuff. To add a new user to Chrome, go to Options (Preferences on a Mac), click “Personal Stuff,” and click “Add new user.” Check out our latest Beta blog post for a few quick tips.

Keep in mind that adding new users to Chrome isn’t intended to secure your data against other people using your computer, since it just takes a few clicks to switch between users. We’re providing this functionality as a quick and simple user interface convenience for people who are already sharing Chrome on the same computer today. To truly protect your data from being seen by others, please use the built-in user accounts on your operating system of choice.

That wraps up our last Stable channel release for the year. If you haven't taken Chrome for a spin yet, try it out and see what you think!

Posted by Tim Steele, Software Engineer

Update: You can learn more about signing in to Chrome at google.com/chrome/signingin.

Eggnog, mistletoe and... pigs?

2011-12-01T10:58:00.006-05:00

With the help of the Angry Birds team, we’ve cooked up a few early holiday presents for you.

Starting today, you can play a new episode of your favorite game, with 42 exciting levels. And if you are handy with the slingshot, you’ll also be able to find a few new hidden Chrome dimension levels.

In addition, you can check out the first of an additional set of 25 holiday-themed Angry Birds levels. A different level will be unlocked every day until December 25th. There are also three Chrome-exclusive holiday levels that you can unlock with a secret password.

The password will be hidden inside a few apps that can be installed from the Chrome Web Store: Astrid, Earbits, Elfster, Good Food, Google Books and Hipmunk. Follow us on Google+ for some useful hints on how to uncover these magic passwords ;)

And finally, don’t worry if you get stuck on a tough level; you can now summon the Mighty Eagle to the rescue from within Angry Birds. Just click the Eagle icon at the top and turn all pigs into bacon.

Not using Chrome but still want to play? Install Chrome with Angry Birds and make sure those pigs get only coal this year.

Posted by Christos Apartoglou, Marketing Manager

‘Tis the season for Chromebooks

2011-11-21T08:25:00.003-05:00

The Chrome team elves have been busy packing a few goodies into Chromebooks in time for the upcoming holiday season.

A simple, streamlined user interface

From the moment you hit the power button and watch your Chromebook boot up in eight seconds flat, you’ll notice that the operating system got a bit of a facelift. For example, the Chromebook now sports a fresh, clean login experience.

We’ve also revamped the New Tab page to make it easier to manage your apps, bookmarks and most visited sites. By popular demand, we’ve added a few handy new shortcuts to the New Tab page: a shortcut to the File Manager on your Chromebook, as well as to music apps and games in the Chrome Web Store.

You may have also noticed, we recently gave the Chrome Web Store a new look, so that you can easily scan the wall of images to discover fun and useful apps and extensions.

Hassle-free for the holidays

We’ve heard from many of you that one of the things you enjoy most about the Chromebook is its hassle-free simplicity. If you’re someone who’s often called upon to provide tech support when you’re home for the holidays like I am, you’ll be happy to know that the Chromebook gets your loved ones up and going on the web quickly, without the usual pains of computing like seemingly endless boot times and setup manuals. With that in mind, we wanted to share a few updates to the lineup of Chromebooks that make them more giftable to loved ones.

For folks in the United States, Samsung is introducing a sleek, black version of its Wi-Fi only Samsung Chromebook Series 5.

We’ve also been working closely with our partners to continually improve the overall Chromebook experience while making them even more affordable. So, we’re excited to share that beginning this week Acer and Samsung Chromebooks will be available starting at $299. The updated prices will be available through our online retail partners.

Lastly, if you’re in the U.S. and you’d like to take a Chromebook for a test drive, visit the Samsung Experience in New York City or check one out when flying with Virgin America. We’re excited to hear your feedback, as we continue to build a faster, simpler and more secure experience on a computer that always gets better. In the meantime, we’ll leave you with one in a series of new film shorts that highlight some of the reasons why we think Chromebooks make a great holiday gift.

Posted by Venkat Rapaka, Senior Product Manager

Take your Chrome stuff with you in the new Chrome Beta

2011-11-03T08:00:00.001-04:00

If you’ve used Chrome on more than one device, you’ve probably noticed that Chrome just isn’t the same when you’re not on your main computer. You don’t have all your bookmarks, apps, and extensions. Your settings aren’t quite right, you have to retype all your saved passwords, and your omnibox doesn’t know which sites you visit often.

Today’s Beta release fixes all that. Signing in to Chrome enables sync and brings your Chrome bookmarks and other personalized settings to all of your computers. Anything you update on one device instantly updates everywhere else, and your stuff is safe in case a truck runs over your laptop. Just go to the Wrench menu and select “Sign in to Chrome.”

But what if you share a computer with family or friends? You may not want your bookmarks and settings mixing with your brother’s or your roommate’s bookmarks and settings, and you wouldn’t want their Chrome stuff syncing to your other devices.

In today’s Beta release, we’ve added a new feature that lets people who use a shared computer each have their own personalized Chrome, and lets them each sign in to Chrome to sync their stuff.

To try it out, go to Options (Preferences on Mac), click Personal Stuff, and click "Add new user." A fresh instance of Chrome will open, ready to be customized with its own set of apps, bookmarks, extensions, and other settings. A badge in the upper corner lets you know at a glance that this new Chrome browser belongs to you, and you can customize the name and badge as you like. Clicking this badge drops down a menu of all the users on that computer, so you can easily switch between them. In addition, each user can sign in to Chrome to access their own personalized Chrome across all their computers.

One thing to keep in mind is that this feature isn’t intended to secure your data against other people using your computer, since all it takes is a couple of clicks to switch between users. We want to provide this functionality as a quick and simple user interface convenience for people who are already sharing Chrome on the same computer today. To truly protect your data from being seen by others, please use the built-in user accounts in your operating system of choice.

We’d love to hear your feedback on this new feature. Give it a spin and let us know what you think.

Posted by Miranda Callahan, Software Engineer

Making Chrome even more app-ealing

2011-10-25T09:00:00.001-04:00

From sharing photos, to collaborating on documents, to enjoying online games, web apps make the web fun, useful and entertaining. Since the beginning, Chrome has been designed to allow apps to do more, faster. Today, changes in Chrome make it even easier to access your favorite apps and discover new favorites.

In the latest Stable release of Chrome, we’ve completely redesigned the New Tab page. It’s more streamlined, so it’s easier to access and organize your apps in different sections on the page. Watch the video below for a quick tour.

To add more apps to your New Tab page, click the Chrome Web Store icon. The Web Store also has a new look:

Apps and extensions are now presented in a wall of images that’s updated every time you visit the store. We hope this will help you quickly scan the store and find interesting things to try out. In addition, apps and extensions are easier to install—just hover over an image on the grid and click “Add to Chrome.”

Getting additional information about an app or an extension is just a click away. When you click on an app, extension or theme, you’ll see a panel featuring screenshots, videos and other relevant information neatly organized into separate tabs. The store also includes a brand new reviews interface that links to the Google+ profile of each reviewer. (To protect your privacy, we made sure to anonymize any reviews that you previously submitted.)

Along with the new look, a bunch of new apps have joined the store. I’m personally excited about My Robot Nation™, an app that lets you design your own robot and bring it to life with a 3D printer. There are plenty of new games to play, including The Godfather: Five Families and Fieldrunners. And for those of you still looking for a Halloween costume, check out the brand-new eBay shopping app.

We have many more features on deck, and we’re looking forward to making the app experience in Chrome even better soon.

Posted by Shannon Guymon, Product Manager

Problems with Microsoft Security Essentials

2011-09-30T13:24:00.002-04:00

Earlier today, we learned that the Microsoft Security Essentials tool began falsely identifying Google Chrome as a piece of malware ("PWS:Win32/Zbot") and removing it from people's computers.

If Chrome is working correctly for you, then there’s no need to take any action.

We are releasing an update that will automatically repair Chrome for affected users over the course of the next 24 hours. In the meantime, if you want to fix the problem with Microsoft Security Essentials and restore Chrome manually, please follow the instructions below.

How do I know if I am affected?

To repeat, if Chrome is working correctly for you, you don’t need to do anything. If you’re unable to launch Chrome or load new web pages, then you may be affected.

What actions can I take to fix this?

1. First, you need to update the signature files used by Microsoft Security Essentials on your computer. You need to do this before re-installing Chrome!

Run Security Essentials by opening your Start Menu, finding the “Security Essentials” program, and clicking the icon to launch it:

(You may also be able to open Security Essentials using its icon in the Windows system tray, near the clock.)

When Security Essentials loads, click the Update tab in Security Essentials, and press the large Update button:

Once complete, you can verify the update by clicking the triangle next to Help, selecting “About Security Essentials” and verifying that the “Antispyware definition” is 1.113.672.0 or higher.

Note (for advanced users): You can also update the signature files via the command line by running:

cmd.exe /c "%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Security Client\Antimalware\MpCmdRun.exe" -SignatureUpdate

2. Next, you will need to un-install and re-install Chrome using the platform-specific instructions below.

Windows XP:
1. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then double-click Add or Remove Programs.

2. In the Currently installed programs box, select Google Chrome and click the Remove button.

3. If you are prompted to confirm the removal of the program, click Yes. By default, your local browsing data will not be deleted. Make sure you do not accidentally check the box labeled “Also delete your browsing data?”.

4. Visit www.google.com/chrome in another browser to download and install a fresh copy of Google Chrome.

Windows 7:

1. Click on the Start button , and select Control Panel

2. Click Programs (or Programs -> Programs and Features)

3. Select Google Chrome from the list of programs

4. Click the Uninstall button at the top of the list. By default, your local browsing data will not be deleted. Make sure you do not accidentally check the box labeled “Also delete your browsing data?”.

5. Visit www.google.com/chrome in another browser to download and install a fresh copy of Google Chrome.

Windows Vista:

1. Click the Start button , and select Control Panel

2. Click Programs (or Programs -> Programs and Features)

3. Select Google Chrome from the list of programs.

4. Click the Uninstall button located above the list. By default, your local browsing data will not be deleted. Make sure you do not accidentally check the box labeled “Also delete your browsing data?”.

5. Visit www.google.com/chrome in another browser to download and install a fresh copy of Google Chrome.

To repeat, we are releasing an update that will automatically repair Chrome for affected users over the course of the next 24 hours.

Posted by Mark Larson, Engineering Manager

Go hands-on with a Chromebook in London

2011-09-30T12:04:00.004-04:00

Many things in life, like football and rock music, are best experienced in person. Chromebooks are no exception.

So this week in London, we opened our first Chromebook experience inside a retail store. The brand new Chrome Zone is located inside the PC World / Currys superstore on Tottenham Court Road. Spend time with a Chromebook, discover cool web apps and chat with our Chrome specialists.

We’ll be opening Chrome Zones in additional locations in the United Kingdom over the next few months, so stay tuned. If you’re in London, do drop by and say hello!

Posted by Laura Thompson, Product Marketing Manager

A new New Tab page on the Chrome Beta channel

2011-09-22T12:00:00.004-04:00

Today, we’re excited to share a revamped New Tab page with our Chrome Beta channel users. We’ve redesigned the page to simplify the visual appearance and make it easier to manage your apps, bookmarks, and most visited sites, so you can get where you’re going as quickly as possible.

Your apps, bookmarks, and most visited sites now appear in three different sections on the page. You can flip between these different sections by clicking the section labels at the bottom of the page or the arrows at the side of the page. Chrome will remember the last section you flipped to and return to it when you open a new tab.

Here are a few more tips for using the new New Tab page:

To rearrange apps, just drag and drop them on the page.
To create a new apps section, drag an app to the bottom of the page until a new apps section appears. You can rename this section by double-clicking the label. For example, you can create a section of apps for “Work” (full of productivity apps) and a section for “Play” (full of games).
To remove items from any section on the page, start dragging them to the bottom right of the page. A trash can will appear, where you can drop the item to remove it.
To see the tabs you’ve just closed, click “Recently closed” on the bottom right of the page.

We hope you enjoy the new look and feel of the New Tab page. To browse thousands of new apps and games for the page, visit the Chrome Web Store.

Posted by Evan Stade, Software Engineer

A new Stable release of Chrome, expanding the frontiers of the web

2011-09-16T08:00:00.001-04:00

Today, we’re happy to ship a new release to the Stable channel of Chrome, following up on last month’s Beta channel release. This release contains two significant technologies which allow developers to create even more powerful web apps and games:

The Web Audio API enables developers to add fancy audio effects such as room simulation and spatialization.
Native Client is an open-source technology which allows C and C++ code to be seamlessly and securely executed inside the browser. Currently, Native Client only supports applications listed in the Chrome Web Store, but we are working to remove this limitation as soon as possible.

This release also contains some changes for our Chrome users on Mac OS X Lion. For all web pages, Chrome uses Lion's overlay scrollbars, which appear only while you’re scrolling. We’ve also added initial support for Lion’s full-screen mode, triggered by a full-screen button or Ctrl+Shift+F. Finally, we’ve fixed many crash bugs, and added some all-around visual polish.

As always, if you already have Chrome installed, it will automatically update itself to the new version soon. If you haven’t taken Chrome for a spin yet, you can download it from www.google.com/chrome.

Posted by Brad Chen, Software Engineer

Chrome Web Store expands its borders

2011-09-15T11:05:00.003-04:00

Nine months ago, we launched the Chrome Web Store in the United States. Since then, the store has gained a lot of momentum and is now home to an ever increasing selection of apps, extensions and themes.

Today, we’re expanding and making the store available in 24 more countries: Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

If you are based in these initial 24 countries, you’ll find it much easier to discover and add new apps, extensions, and themes to Chrome, across a variety of categories—from games to news to productivity tools. In most countries, for apps that require a fee, you’ll now be able to complete the entire transaction in your local currency. Starting today, you’ll also be able to access a range of new applications from international developers and publishers. Enjoy viewing beautiful artwork collections from UK museums, get weather updates from Brazil or browse the latest film releases in France.

To try these new apps, as well as tens of thousands of items in the store, download Google Chrome and visit the Chrome Web Store.

Posted by Rahul Roy-Chowdhury, Product Manager

Happy third birthday, Chrome!

2011-09-01T09:00:00.003-04:00

It’s that time of the year again for the Chrome team, when we pause on our anniversary to reflect on the amazing life and times of the web. It’s hard to believe that it’s already been three years since we launched our open source web browser, Chrome.

In that time, the web community has continued to inspire us, bringing the power of the web into all kinds of apps and experiences, with all modern browsers making great strides in speed, simplicity and security. To pay homage to the goodness of the web, we’ve put together an interactive infographic, built in HTML5, which details the evolution of major web technologies and browsers:

(With thanks to our friends at Hyperakt, Vizzuality, mgmt design, and GOOD)

In our third year, we’ve also brought Chrome's principles of speed, simplicity and security to a new model of computing: the Chromebook. The Chromebook is pure Chrome—a computer built for everything you ever need to do on the web while doing away with all the usual annoyances of an old, slow PC.

Here’s a quick fly-by through the some of the highlights of the past 12 months on the Chrome platform:

Faster and faster

We kick off the Year of the Rabbit with a new compilation infrastructure for the V8 JavaScript engine, codenamed “Crankshaft,” which improves JavaScript performance by up to 66 percent.
Chrome’s new settings interface helps you find the right settings quickly with an integrated search box. It also provides direct links to each settings page, which can be copied and pasted for easy troubleshooting.
The omnibox is improved to better suggest partial matches for webpage titles and URLs.
You can optionally enable Chrome Instant, which shows relevant content in the browser window as you type, before you press Enter.
Chrome’s built-in prerendering technology enables sites to build even faster experiences for their users—such as Instant Pages in Google search, which in some cases makes search results appear to load almost instantly.

Simpler and more accessible

Chrome supports many popular screen readers such as JAWS, NVDA and VoiceOver to help visually impaired people better experience the web.
Print Preview, a popular feature request, uses Chrome’s built-in PDF viewer to display the preview, and enables you to save any webpage as a convenient PDF file using the “Print to PDF” option.
Chrome’s icon takes on a simpler look to embody the Chrome spirit, since Chrome is all about making your web experience quicker, lighter and easier for all.

An even more secure platform

Our integrated and sandboxed PDF viewer enables you to view PDF files on the web without installing additional software. Furthermore, we built an additional layer of security around the PDF viewer called a “sandbox” to help protect you from security attacks that are targeted at PDF files.
Adobe Flash Player is sandboxed on Windows, further protecting you from security attacks and malware targeted at Flash content on the web.
Chrome warns you before downloading some types of malicious files with enhanced Safe Browsing technology. In order to help protect privacy, malicious content is detected without Chrome or Google ever having to know about the URLs that you visit or the files you download.
To provide greater transparency and control over the data that websites store on your computers, Chrome lets you delete Local Shared Objects created by Adobe Flash Player using the browser’s built-in setting dialogs.

Wowzah, the modern web!

The Chrome Web Store is an open marketplace where you can search for and discover web applications, both free and paid, along with ratings and reviews. Developers can add in-app payments to their apps for a flat 5 percent transaction fee.
Chrome supports WebGL, which brings hardware-accelerated 3D graphics to the browser with no additional software needed. For a taste of what WebGL can do, check out “3 Dreams of Black,” a 3D music experience for the web browser.
Chrome’s support for the HTML speech input API enables developers to give web apps the ability to transcribe your voice into text. Try it out on www.google.com by clicking on the microphone icon in the search box.
Hardware-accelerated 3D CSS enables snazzier experiences in webpages and apps which use 3D effects.

Delivering a new, simpler model for computing

Chrome is enterprise ready, with an MSI installer and support for managed group policies. Many organizations such as Vanguard and Procter & Gamble have successfully deployed Chrome to thousands of users in an enterprise setting.
As of this past July, Chromebooks are now available for purchase in eight countries—the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and South Korea. And just like Chrome, the Chromebook always keeps getting better. When you turn your Chromebook on, it updates itself automatically: you get the latest and greatest version of the operating system without having to think about it.

There’s more to come. Keep an eye on the Chrome blog to hear about new features and performance improvements as we continue to ship stable channel updates every six weeks. As always, on both Chrome and Chromebooks you’ll be automatically updated to the new versions as soon as they’re released.

Posted by Ben Goodger and Darin Fisher, Software Engineers

Be more productive with Gmail Offline in Chrome

2011-08-31T09:00:00.000-04:00

Today’s world doesn’t slow down when you’re offline, so it’s a great feeling to be productive from anywhere, on any device, at any time. We recognize that offline access is important to many of you--especially for Chromebook users who spend most of their time living on the web. We talked about bringing this functionality to Google web apps at Google I/O 2011 and today, the Google Apps team is releasing Gmail Offline.

Gmail Offline is a Chrome Web Store app that helps you read, respond to, organize and archive email when you don’t have an internet connection. Google Calendar and Google Docs offline will also be rolling out over the next week. To get started using Google Calendar or Google Docs offline, just click the gear icon at the top right corner of the web app and select the option for offline access.

Learn more on the Gmail Blog or check out the Gmail Offline app in the Chrome Web Store.

Posted by Alex Nicolaou, Engineering Manager

Back to school with Chromebooks for Education

2011-08-25T10:15:00.002-04:00

Summer may be winding down, but Chromebooks are heating up. Over on the Google Enterprise Blog today, we’re excited to share stories from the first three schools to hit the ground running with Chromebooks for Education. Chromebooks are fast, simple, and secure, and these benefits can be quite powerful in the classroom. Chromebooks increase time spent learning with a super-fast bootup, protect against viruses with built-in security features, and provide seamless access to all the great educational apps on the web. Plus, regular updates from Google mean that Chromebooks actually get better over time, saving thousands of dollars on maintenance and software upgrades.

We’re seeing tremendous interest from schools that we’re talking to about Chromebooks, and these first three schools all happen to be using Chromebooks in different ways. Grace Lutheran in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, is using Chromebooks in a shared classroom setting for fifth through eighth grades. The Fessenden School in West Newton, Massachusetts, will fill two traveling technology carts with Chromebooks, as well as allow students to check the devices out from the library. Merton Community School District in Merton, Wisconsin, will give one device to each student starting sixth grade this year, and the students will keep them through eighth grade.

Learn more about Chromebooks for Education on our website, or register to join our webinar on Tuesday, August 29 at 11:00 a.m. PDT.

Posted by Jaime Casap, Senior Education Evangelist, Chromebooks for Education

Find more while you browse with Google Related

2011-08-16T11:49:00.004-04:00

Cross-posted from the Inside Search blog.

Almost every time I go online, I come across some new topic or item that I’d like to learn more about. Sometimes it’s as simple as the latest buzz on the new shop down the street. Other times it’s something more significant, like a counterpoint to an opinion piece I’m reading. While the answer can be just a simple search away, we wanted to find a way to get some of those answers to you even faster. Now with Google Related, a new Chrome Extension and Google Toolbar feature, you’ll automatically see interesting content relevant to what’s on the page you’re viewing, right where you’re viewing it.

Whether you’re reading a news article, shopping for a new pair of shoes or visiting your favorite musician’s website, Google Related works in the background to find you the most interesting and relevant content on the topics you’re currently viewing. For example, if you visit a restaurant’s website, Related can show you a map, reviews from Google Places, mentions from across the web and other similar eateries that you might want to try.

Results will display in a thin bar at the bottom of your screen, and will remain minimized until you hover over them with your mouse. Once selected, they'll open up immediately in your browser window, saving you the trouble of having to open multiple new windows or tabs. If Google Related shows you something you’re interested in, you can let others know using the built-in +1 button.

In order to offer you relevant suggestions, Related sends the URL and other available information about the pages you visit back to Google. If you’re interested in how that data is used and stored, you can learn more here and here.

If you decide you’d rather not see the Related bar, you can easily hide it for specific pages and sites through the Options menu. If you use Related as part of Google Toolbar, you can disable Related entirely through the Options menu as well.

Google Related is available both as a Chrome Extension in the Chrome Web Store and as a new feature in Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer. Visit www.google.com/related to learn more and to get Google Related today.

Posted by Ran Ben-Yair, Product Manager, Google Related team, Israel R&D Center

Building better web apps with a new Chrome Beta

2011-08-11T12:00:00.002-04:00

Today’s new Beta channel release brings big improvements to Chrome’s web platform capabilities, enabling developers to build more powerful and more immersive apps and games for the web.

First, we’re pleased to announce the integration of Native Client into Chrome. Native Client allows C and C++ code to be seamlessly executed inside the browser with security restrictions similar to JavaScript. Native Client apps use Pepper, a set of interfaces that provide C and C++ bindings to the capabilities of HTML5. As a result, developers can now leverage their native code libraries and expertise to deliver portable, high performance web apps.

Another cool feature is the Web Audio API, a new JavaScript API offering advanced audio capabilities. The Web Audio API supports audio effects such as room simulation and spatialization, allowing web developers to create even more interactive experiences and games. Here are some examples you can play with, but we’re looking forward to seeing what other people build!

Update 8/14: Native Client is currently only available for apps in the Chrome Web Store, but we plan to change this in the future. Keep an eye on the Chromium blog for updates.

Posted by Chris Rogers, Software Engineer

The computer that keeps getting better...

2011-08-10T15:18:00.006-04:00

One of the things that excites us about Chromebooks is that unlike other computers, the user experience automatically gets better over time. For instance, with this week's latest stable release of Chrome OS, users may notice their Chromebooks now resume even more quickly – 32% faster in most cases. For those of you who like watching movies and TV shows on your Chromebook, you now also have the option to do so using Netflix. If you'd rather enjoy a good read, you’ll be able to fire up the Amazon’s new Kindle Cloud Reader app, read your favorite books and even take them offline when you’re not connected. If you need to print, you can give trees a break and use the Print to Docs feature with Google Cloud Print instead.

For businesses and schools, we also have a host of new features launching this week. If you use Citrix in your organization, you can now install the Citrix Receiver Tech Preview app from the Chrome Web Store to access desktop software such as Adobe® Photoshop® directly from your Chromebook. In addition, this latest release brings VPN and secure Wi-Fi support (802.1X).

Along with these new features, our recent update delivers many bug fixes and improvements under the hood. Chromebook users should automatically get this release this week. As a consumer, business or school, all you need to do is relax and let your Chromebook do the work. We hope you enjoy the experience of a computer that keeps getting better.

Update 8/10: Added link to more information on Print to Docs feature
Update 8/11: Updated link to new Google Cloud Print site

Posted by Alberto Martin, Technical Program Manager

Instant Pages on Google Chrome

2011-08-02T08:00:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, we announced that Google’s Instant Pages feature would be available to our Chrome beta channel users. Today, we’re happy to let you know that Instant Pages is on by default in the latest stable version of Chrome. This means that sometimes when you click a Google search result in Chrome, the page will appear to load much faster than before. How much faster? In the video below, you can see a side by side comparison of Chrome with and without Instant Pages enabled.

We’re also really excited to announce that print preview is available for Windows and Linux users in the latest stable version of Chrome. (Hold tight Mac users, it’s coming!) Many people have been asking for print preview in Chrome for a long time, and we wanted to do it right, using our fast built-in PDF viewer and an easy “print to PDF” option. Thanks for your patience as we’ve plugged away on this feature.

In addition to adding new features to Chrome, we’re continually working to improve our old favorites. The omnibox, Chrome’s combination search box and address bar, has gotten much smarter in the latest release, making it even easier for you to get back to pages you’ve visited before. Just type part of the page's address or title and look in the dropdown for matching pages from your history. Enjoy!

Posted by Timo Burkard, Software Engineer

Chromebook security: browsing more securely

2011-07-29T15:00:00.001-04:00

In the past, we’ve written a good deal about the Chrome sandbox and other security features that we built into the Chrome browser. These features demonstrate the Chrome team’s overall focus on providing usable security even as we continue our rapid development work on the project.

Chromebooks take Chrome and its core values (simplicity, speed and security) and apply them to our own operating system infrastructure. The result is a multi-layered set of defenses which boosts the security of Chromebooks against malicious software that could compromise and linger on the system. While no software is perfect or completely secure, we believe we’re taking an important step forward.

Let’s take a quick look at some of the Chromebook security features that, when paired with good web hygiene, make it easier to browse the web safely. (We’re already handling updates and malware resistance on the Chromebook automatically!)

Baked in, seriously

Our security model is rooted in two pieces of hardware that ship with every Chromebook: a custom firmware chip and a Trusted Platform Module (TPM). The custom firmware chip consists of two parts: a read-only firmware and a read-write firmware that can be updated. When you press the power button, our read-only firmware starts a process we call Verified Boot. It uses an embedded 8192-bit RSA public key to verify the cryptographic signature on the read-write firmware.

After the read-only firmware verifies and runs the read-write firmware, the latter performs a similar verification operation on the operating system kernel before running it. The operating system kernel will then continue the verification process as it loads all of the system software, like Chrome.

The goal of Verified Boot is to provide cryptographic assurances that the system code hasn’t been modified by an attacker on the Chromebook. Additionally, we use lockable, non-volatile memory (NVRAM) in the TPM to ensure that outdated signatures won’t be accepted. To put this into perspective, the system does all this in about 8 seconds.

If you don't want to boot Google-verified software — let's say you built your own version of Chromium OS — no problem. You can flip the developer switch on your device and use the Chromebook however you'd like. It’s yours, after all!

Up-to-date, automatically

Since no software offers perfect security (and we all want new features too), Chromebooks include an automated update system that is modeled on Chrome’s popular auto-updater. The updater checks with the server securely and downloads updates when they become available. It keeps the system updated against emerging threats and allows for new features to be rolled out seamlessly. Since every Chromebook keeps two copies of the operating system, it's easy to update and then switch to the new version without interrupting your normal flow. In addition, it allows for the Chromebook to revert to the known working version if there are any problems during the update.

Signing in, with confidence

Signing in to the Chromebook is as simple as using your Google Account. The first user of a Chromebook can determine who else is allowed to sign in or choose to keep her machine open for anyone to sign in. In addition, every user has a private, encrypted store which means that, if you share your Chromebook, other users won’t be given access to your data. The encrypted store is implemented using the Linux kernel's eCryptfs with keys that are protected by the TPM.

Or don't sign in at all

Chromebooks also offer the ability to browse without signing in. We call this function Guest Mode. When Guest Mode is used, Chrome runs with the usual privacy measures of incognito mode, but none of the browsing data, including downloads, will stick around. When you exit Guest Mode or reboot your Chromebook, the browsing data is deleted.

A helping hand, even when things go wrong

While we're dedicated to pushing the envelope with Chromebook security, we want to also be prepared in case something unexpected happens. That's why the read-only firmware included in every Chromebook also provides a recovery mode. Recovery mode lets you install a fresh, up-to-date version of the operating system from a recovery device plugged into the USB port. That means that if an attacker manages to install malicious software, you can use recovery mode to help remove it and return your Chromebook back to the way it was.

Getting better over time

Experiencing the web securely, on any platform and with any browser, is a combined matter of the underlying infrastructure, browser design, and user action. How is data stored? Who and what can access that data? How does the user participate in these decisions?

With Chromebooks and Chrome, we’ve made advances in the security infrastructure of the operating system and the browser that should allow you to browse the web more comfortably. Beyond what we’ve discussed here so far, we continue to improve features like our Safe Browsing API and our extensions model that help protect users from malicious web content.

As a savvy web user, you’ll still want to think carefully before you enter your username and password into a suspicious website, or before you grant broad data access to an unfamiliar extension. Remember, it never hurts to follow these tips for staying safe on the web.

Security is an ongoing effort, and we aren’t stopping here! Keep your eyes open for more usability and security advances from Chrome and Chromebooks.

Posted by Will Drewry and Sumit Gwalani, Chromebook Security Team

OK Go play with Chrome

2011-07-27T06:23:00.002-04:00

(Cross-posted on the Official Google Blog)

We all have a song or a personal soundtrack that speaks to us. But it doesn’t always say exactly what we want it to say.

In All is Not Lost — an HTML5 music collaboration between the band OK Go, the dance troupe and choreographers Pilobolus, and Google—you can embed your message in a music video and have the band dance it out. The band and Pilobolus dancers are filmed through a clear floor, making increasingly complex shapes and eventually words—and messages you can write yourself.

All is Not Lost is built in HTML5 with the browser Google Chrome in mind. Different shots are rendered in different browser windows that move, re-size and re-align throughout the piece. With HTML5’s canvas technology, these videos are drawn in perfect timing with the music.

OK Go are well-known for their delightfully creative music videos, including Here It Goes Again, their first work featuring half a dozen treadmills, and This Too Shall Pass, based around an extraordinary Rube Goldberg machine—both of which have become extraordinarily popular on YouTube. We’re excited to collaborate with them on another project that finds its natural home on the web.

This project also has a special significance for the team here at Google Japan, who worked on this collaboration alongside OK Go. In the wake of the devastating Tōhoku earthquake, the band suggested using All is Not Lost as a message of support to the Japanese people during this difficult time.

All is Not Lost is best experienced in Chrome at allisnotlo.st. For web developers curious about how the experience was created, you can read more on the Google Code Blog.

Posted by Keiko Hirayama, Senior Marketing Manager, Google Tokyo

Summer travel with a Chromebook

2011-06-30T06:14:00.001-04:00

A Chromebook makes a great travel companion, with its 8-hour battery life, light weight, built-in Wi-Fi and available 3G. So we’ve teamed up with Virgin America and Ace Hotel to give you the chance to experience a Chromebook on your summer travels.

When you fly Virgin America from San Francisco, Chicago O’Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth or Boston, look for the Chrome Zone near your departure gate. Check out a Chromebook for free and browse away with complimentary Wi-Fi in the terminal and on your flight.

If your travel plans include a stay in the Big Apple, check into Ace Hotel New York and you’ll find a Chromebook waiting in your room. Use it anywhere, in or out of the hotel, with free Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity.

To make your trip even more enjoyable, we’ve also developed two new web apps: The Ace New York Field Guide tips you off on the hottest spots in town, from cool clubs to unique boutiques, and the Beat the Boot game which challenges you to get the highest score possible in the 8 seconds it takes to boot a Chromebook. Plus you can choose from thousands of other web apps in the Chrome Web Store.

Chromebooks arrive this Friday, July 1st at Virgin America and Ace Hotel New York, and are available for the rest of the summer. Get all the details here, and happy travels!

Posted by Heaven Kim, Product Marketing Manager