As Google's Mike Smith and Alex Russell told us when we talked to them about this project, a lot of companies have good reasons why they can't just simply switch away from Internet Explorer. After all, these enterprises often have made large investments in an infrastructure that is only compatible with IE. As Google pointed out to us, though, this shouldn't hold back developers who want to explore the possibilities that newer, faster and more modern browsers like Chrome can offer.

Google, which has lately developed a tendency to route around other vendors, developed this plugin without help from Microsoft, but Smith and Russell noted that Microsoft gives developers a lot of ways to easily extend Internet Explorer.

Focus on Developers

Thanks to this plugin, developers will now be able to give these users an option to at least switch to a faster rendering engine by just adding one single line of code to their sites ().

Indeed, this current release is mostly meant to give developers a choice for how they want to deliver their web apps to their users. At least for now, users won't be able to make the switch to the Chrome engine persistent, though they can invoke the plugin by putting 'cf:' in front of any URL.

Google is obviously interested in getting its web apps into businesses. These web apps tend to work best in a modern browser with a fast JavaScript engine and that is not something Internet Explorer is known for. As Mike Smith told us, the Web shouldn't be hobbled by this.

As for the user experience, the Google team tells us that the switch will be absolutely seamless and that the plugin will offer the same speed and reliability of Chrome inside IE.

A Trojan Horse?

Google hopes that this plugin will enable developers in enterprises to write code for a modern browser that isn't held back by some of the old paradigms. That, of course, is a noble undertaking. At the same time, though, we can't help but wonder if Google also plans to use this plugin to plant a Trojan horse inside these companies. After all, very few businesses are ready to make the switch from IE to Chrome right now, but Chrome Frame now offers companies the option to get the best of both worlds and - maybe - switch over to Chrome completely in the long run.

As for Google itself, the company plans to use Chrome Frame to make Google Wave run smoothly in Internet Explorer but hasn't announced any other plans to use Chrome Frame in other products yet.

While we wondered if Google was getting ready to make extensions a part of the stable series soon, it now turns out that this feature won't arrive in the stable version of Chrome until version 4.0. If you feel adventurous, you could always switch to the dev channel.

Not to get your hopes up, but a recent update to the Google Chrome Privacy Policy makes us wonder. A few days ago, the first two opening paragraphs of the Chrome Privacy Policy were revised. The old and new versions are provided below with bold indicating the changes:

OLD:

The Privacy Policy below applies only to Google Chrome for Windows. For the Developer channel releases on other platforms see the privacy policies for Mac OS X and Linux . The Google Privacy Policy describes how we treat personal information when you use Google's products and services, including information provided when you use Google Chrome. In addition, the following describes our privacy practices that are specific to Google Chrome. Google will notify you of any material changes to this policy, and you will always have the option to use the browser in a way that does not send any personal information to Google or to discontinue using it.

Information Google receives when you use Google Chrome

You do not need to provide any personally identifying information in order to download and use Google Chrome. When you download Google Chrome or use it to contact Google's servers, Google receives only standard log information including your machine's IP address and one or more cookies. You can configure Google Chrome to not send cookies to Google or other sites as explained here.

NEW:

The Google Privacy Policy describes how we treat personal information when you use Google's products and services, including information provided when you use Google Chrome. In addition, the following describes our privacy practices that are specific to Google Chrome. Google will notify you of any material changes to this policy, and you will always have the option to use the browser in a way that does not send any personal information to Google or to discontinue using it.

Information Google receives when you use Google Chrome

You do not need to provide any personally identifying information in order to download and use Google Chrome. When you download Google Chrome or use it to contact Google's servers, Google receives only standard log information including your machine's IP address and one or more cookies. On Google Chrome for Windows, You can configure Google Chrome to not send cookies to Google or other sites as explained here. Google Chrome for Mac and Google Chrome for Linux currently do not allow this level of configuration.

What Do You Think?

Maybe we're grasping at straws here, after all, the change could be referring to the developer builds of the browser and they're simply cleaning up the language for simplification. Still, that would be odd considering that they removed the reference to the developer builds' privacy policy, wouldn't it? Or then again, maybe Google is just consolidating the privacy policies for both the developer and public builds. A third option is that Google could be getting a little of the administrative work out of the way before they make the Mac and Linux builds public.

Testers have been reporting that the developer builds have been seeing steady improvement and the Chromium builds (the open source project that serves as the testing ground for Google Chrome) have been shaping up on a daily basis, too. Maybe a public version of Chrome for Linux and Mac is almost here? We can only hope.

We don't know much about the upcoming OS from Google, Chrome OS, so most of the news we read about it involves speculation or, sometimes, rather terrible attempts at faking some supposedly official screenshots. However, we recently stumbled on a tidbit of actual news that proves how tightly integrated the Google Chrome web browser will be with the operating system. Of course that makes sense - it is called "Chrome OS" - but it makes us wonder if Google will be required to support other web browsers on their new platform? After all, it's one thing to integrate your own browser with your OS (as Microsoft does with IE) but it's another thing to not even offer a choice. What will Google do? Will they go the "evil" route?

That's as much as we know for sure, but what is not clear is exactly how this SSO option will be presented to the user. We wouldn't be a bit surprised to see you logging into your computer with your Google account the way you log into your Mac or Windows PC using a set of credentials you create during the setup process. However, in Google's case, it's easy to imagine a more web service like prompt on the login screen. For example: "Create a Google account" / "Already have a Google account? Sign in here." Perhaps there will even be a "Remember Me" option so you don't have to log in again, you just flip the netbook's lid open. Of course that's all speculation, but it seems logical.

Will Chrome OS Offer Browser Choice?

The real question here is whether this SSO option will only work with the Chrome web browser which comes pre-installed on the new OS. Obviously, Chrome OS will push people to use Google's own browser, but will it be your only option? What if you really want to use Firefox because you've discovered you can't live without your add-ons and Greasemonkey scripts? Will Chrome OS's sign-in manager support that alternative? Will it - gasp - support IE8? What about Opera? Safari?

Microsoft has come under fire for "bundling" their web browser, Internet Explorer, with their operating system. In fact, the issue has led to the European Union's requiring that the company offer a "select your web browser" ballot screen in the Microsoft's new OS, Windows 7, due out this October. It would seem odd if Google could get away with not just bundling, but actually not even allowing another browser to install.

Although Google hasn't come out and said that will be the case, they've made no mention of how browser alternatives will be handled. In fact, when describing how their OS works, Sudar Pichai, VP Product Management and Linus Upson, Engineering Director, wrote: "the software architecture is simple -- Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel." (In this case, "Google Chrome" refers to the web browser, not the OS. Oh, how we wish they had named them differently!)

What that means is that the very architecture of the OS depends on tight Chrome browser integration. While this is a revolutionary concept for building the OS of the future, to say the least, it begs the question: will Google get away with this? And finally, should they be allowed to?

Let us know what you think in the comments.

If you haven't yet used Xmarks, you're missing out on one of the better bookmarking services available on the net today. Instead of having you bookmark and share your favorite sites with a network of friends like social bookmarking services Delicious and Diigo do, Xmarks lets you make use of the bookmarks you have saved right in your web browser itself. Once installed on your computer, the Xmarks add-on will keep that bookmark list in sync with any other computers you use, assuming they too have Xmarks installed.

That alone would make Xmarks a useful service, but it doesn't stop there. The company uses the data collected (anonymized of course) to recommend sites to you through integration with Google search. In your search results, Xmarks icons highlight top sites based on how many people have bookmarked them. Hover your mouse over those icons to see quick site info like popularity, rating, and related topics or click though for more details.

Xmarks for Chrome

Unfortunately, early adopters who made the leap to the newest web browser on the block, Google Chrome, have had to go without Xmarks for some time. And it's definitely one of the add-ons which make you question whether going Chrome-only is even really possible. Luckily for this group, the wait may be up: Xmarks has built a version of their extension for Chrome users.

The Chrome extension program is still very much under development - in fact, unless you're running the dev release of Chrome, this feature is out of reach. (See our tutorial on installing Chrome and Chromium side-by-side for another way to play with the latest Chrome features.) But you brave early adopters are now invited to test out the Chrome bookmark sync feature by signing up for the closed alpha program here. As you test the new extension, you can check the Xmarks for Chrome news page for updates on known issues and recent changes. The alpha release doesn't yet support advanced Xmarks features like the discovery features mentioned above, nor does it support sync profiles or running Xmarks on your own server. However, those features will be added in time.

Update! Invites Available!

We spoke with Xmarks and they're willing to give 10 ReadWriteWeb users exclusive access to try the alpha service without having to sign up and wait for approval. To get your invite, be one of the first 10 people to leave a comment on this post. Remember you have to provide your email address (it will not be published).

]]>Discuss]]> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/xmarks_comes_to_google_chrome.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/xmarks_comes_to_google_chrome.php Products Tue, 18 Aug 2009 06:21:26 -0800 Sarah Perez Within the next two weeks, Google will release a new development version of Google Chrome that will include the ability to sync bookmarks between different computers. As Tim Steele, a software engineer on the Chrome team explained in a message to the Chrome developer group, the synchronization will be managed through a Google account. Changes in one install will be reflected in another Chrome instance in real time thanks to the Chrome team's use of the Google Talk servers as the messaging backend for this service.

With Weave, Mozilla Labs currently offers a very similar feature, though Weave hasn't made it into the default install of Firefox yet. In the past, Google also offered a synchronization plugin for Firefox, but the company discontinued this service in December 2008.

Link to Chrome OS?

Of course, we can't help but wonder if this work isn't also being done in preparation for the upcoming release of the Google Chrome OS. A lot of the work to get Chrome to sync between different instances is being done at the backend. If Google could get its netbook OS to seamlessly sync with applications on the desktop, then that would be yet another selling point for the Chrome OS.

Privacy?

Chances are that you are already storing your search history on Google's servers. With Chrome's synchronization feature, however, you would also store a complete record of all of your comings and going on other parts of the Internet on Google's servers. Mozilla Weave encrypts your data before it is synced with Mozilla's servers. In today's announcement, the Chrome team did not talk about encryption, though we would be surprised if Google didn't implement client-side encryption as well.

For some users, though, giving even more information to Google - even if it is encrypted - may turn out to be a deal breaker.

Get the Dev Channel Release (if you dare)

For now, only users who have installed Chrome's developer version and are subscribed to the Dev channel will see these new features. The Chrome Dev channel is the most frequently updated, cutting-edge version of Chrome, but these version are also far less stable than those in the more mainstream Beta and Stable channels. If you would like to switch to the Dev channel, instructions for installing this version of Chrome can be found here.

Improved New Tab Page, Autofill, Full Screen Mode

Similar to the beta version of Apple's Safari 4, Google Chrome now allows users to delete items from the new tabs page. As Google puts it, you can now finally hide those "embarrassing gossip blogs" from your Most Visited section, which automatically appears when you open a new tab in Chrome.

Chrome can now also autofill forms with information a user has previously entered into similar forms, and it finally has a full-screen mode that hides the title bar and the rest of the browser window.

Sadly, though, one neat feature that was available in the beta versions - the ability to drag tabs to see them side-by-side - did not make it into the stable version...yet.

Here at ReadWriteWeb, we are big fans of Chrome, but the lack of extensions always makes us go back to Firefox as our preferred browser. The developer version already contains some rudimentary support for adding extensions and user-scripts, but it will probably still take a while before these features will make it to the stable version of Chrome.

If you are already using the stable version of Chrome, these updates will be applied automatically, and if you are not using Chrome yet, you can download it here. Officially, Chrome is only available for Windows, but if you are a very brave Mac user, you can download an unstable and highly unpolished version of Chrome here.

Note: If you want to live on the cutting edge, here are the instructions for enabling the Chrome Beta and Developer channels.

Some Highlights

Here are some of our favorite apps in the current Google Chrome Experiments line-up:

Social Collider

Social Collider might just be one of the coolest Twitter visualization tools we have seen in the recent past. Social Collider shows the connections between different Twitter users. You can use a user name or keyword to initiate Social Collider, but it can also be used to visualize current Twitter trends.

Note: Using Social Collider can be quite CPU intensive, but the results are definitely worth it.

Google Gravity

This is an utterly useless experiment, but it shows off some of the surprising possibilities of using JavaScript together with the Box2D Physics Engine. After you have seen gravity take its toll on the Google homepage, also try to perform some searches.

Smalltalk

Smalltalk is another Chrome Experiment that uses the Twitter API to visualize real-time chatter on the Internet. Specifically, Smalltalk looks at comments about the weather in the US (sunny, foggy, windy, etc.). Besides JavaScript, Smalltalk also makes use of the canvas element in HTML5 and the jQuery framework.

BallDroppings

Josh Nimoy's BallDroppings is a cool little musical toy that has already been implemented in a number of other languages. Here is the JavaScript version. Just draw a few lines on the screen and see what happens.

Granted, most of the new features in Safari 4 are not exactly new, but, as Apple does so often, it exceeds at putting all of these features together in a very attractive package.

New Features

Just like Chrome, Safari 4 has moved its tabs all the way to the top of the browser window. Apple, however, did not copy Google's unified search and address bar but stuck with the more traditional separation of the two.

Cover Flow

The new Cover Flow interface for bookmarks and your browser history is partly just eye-candy, but it also does work surprisingly well and can come in handy when you just remember the layout of a page, but not the exact name. The interface displays a screenshot of the bookmarked pages. Secure pages are blacked out.

Top Sites

The speed-dial startup page, named 'Top Sites' by Apple, is quite similar to what we have seen from Google and Opera. The page is generated automatically, based on the sites you visit most often, but Safari 4 also allows you to rearrange items on the page and pin certain sites to the page, so that they won't disappear even if you don't visit them as frequently. You can set Top Sites to display 6, 12, or 24 pages. Top Sites will also notify you when a page has been updated.

Full History Search

Safari now also features a 'full history search,' which not only remembers the page titles and URLs you went to, but also indexes the text from every page you visit. It should be noted that Opera also offers full history search.

Performance

In our informal tests, running the Sunspider JavaScript benchmarks, Safari beat out Firefox 3.0.6 by a wide margin (800ms vs. 2280ms), though the latest developer version of Chrome came out on top (617ms). While using the browser, however, it didn't feel like there was a significant difference between Chrome and Safari 4. Emails in Gmail opened almost instantly, and even complex pages rendered very quickly.

Safari on Windows

On Windows machines, Safari finally feels like a native application that mostly blends into the environment - though the plain gray background still makes it stand out a bit.

Developer Tools

Safari 4 now includes a wide range of developer tools. Among those are a new resources pane, a tools for managing databases, and a JavaScript debugger and profiler.

Verdict

Safari 4 is a significant update to Apple's browser. In terms of features and usability, it might actually now be ahead of most of its competition, and Safari's performance is on par or better than its competition as well. Where it lacks, however, is in its support for third-party plugins (though the existing plugins do tend to be of a rather high quality). For mainstream users, this is often not an issue, and these users will be more than happy with Safari. As you would expect from Apple, Safari's user interface is extremely well thought out, and features like Top Sites or the full history search make it a browser that is both functional and fun to use.

New Features

Here are some of the features the team added since version 1.0 became available:

• new version of WebKit, with bugfixes and new features, including CSS gradients and reflections
• bookmark import from Google Bookmarks: this is still only a one-way street, so you can't actually sync bookmarks yet, but we would be surprised if somebody on the Chrome team wasn't working on this
• form autocomplete
• tentative support for Greasemonkey scripts: you have follow these instructions, and not every script will work (for us, only about 1 in 3 worked), but it's a start. Hopefully, Google will include a UI for managing user scripts in one of the next versions
• autoscrolling: works just like in IE or Firefox - just hit the middle button and drag the mouse
• full-page zoom: this resizes the text, as well as images and embedded objects
• better spell-check with the ability to quickly change languages

Dragging Tabs

One feature that stands out, because it is reminiscent of what Microsoft is doing in Windows 7, is the ability to dock dragged tabs. Now, when you drag a tap to the edge of your monitor, a small icon will appear and, depending on where on the page you release the mouse, the windows will be maximized, or be aligned with the respective edge of the monitor.

HTTP for Windows, Mac, and Linux

Google also included its own HTTP network code in this new version, which, according to the release notes, was necessary to move ahead with the Mac and Linux versions of Chrome.

Security

Google also introduced a new secure browsing mode that forces HTTPS (you have to invoke it by starting the browser with --force-https. Just last week, we bemoaned that Google itself often doesn't use SSL as the default for its own apps. By setting this mode, you can be sure that you will be (relatively) secure.

1. Chrome Privacy Guard

Chrome Privacy Guard was the first tool to automatically delete the unique Client ID that Google assigns to your Chrome installation. With this tool, that ID is automatically deleted before each run of Chrome. To use Chrome Privacy Guard, you launch an executable file ChromePrivacyGuard.exe instead of launching the browser itself. The tool cans the "Local State" file inside the Chrome directory and removes all information regarding the Client ID. It then automatically starts Chrome.

2. UnChrome

Like Privacy Guard, UnChrome also removes your unique ID from the browser, instead replacing it with a null value. This is a bit more convenient because UnChrome only needs to be run once. After you download and run the tool, you will see a pop-up advertisement for the developer's other applications, but again, it's only a one-time thing. Afterwards, your browser will forever have the unique ID removed.

3. Iron

Iron is a fork of Chrome's Chromium core, the open source project behind Google Chrome. Developed by a German software company SRWare, Iron goes even further than the above tools to protect your privacy. Where the other tools simply remove the unique ID from Google's version of the Chrome browser, Iron is actually its own, separate browser. In addition to removing the unique ID, Iron also makes sure that no user-specific info is sent to Google, including crash reports. When you enter in a URL incorrectly, Iron does not present any alternative error messages like Chrome does. Finally, Iron does not come bundled with the Google Updater tool, which checks with Google to see if there are any new updates for the Google products you have installed.

Do you use any of these tools to protect your privacy? If so, share your experiences or your preferences in the comments.

Now the contract with users has been changed again, with a number of sections deleted since yesterday. Chrome's market share is already significant and the company is taking big steps to expand it further - that makes some of these new changes all the more interesting.

Now that Chrome has made a surprise early exit from Beta status this week, that transition brought more changes to the contract we make with the company when we use the software. None of those changes are shocking, but since Google is now making moves to promote Chrome over Firefox and a Mac version is in the works, we've highlighted the five most interesting ones below.

You can find the Chrome EULA on this page, but here are the changes made yesterday that we found most noteworthy.

To summarize: children, robots and anonymous people are now welcome, you don't have to worry about keeping your mouth shut and there's no longer a method for terminating your relationship with Google described in the document.

Age Restriction Removed

Did you know that before yesterday you were not allowed to use Chrome if you were not of legal age to enter into a contract with Google? Prohibitions against young people using software are among the most commonly violated terms of service online, but as of today there is no longer any such restrictions on Chrome.

Personal Information No Longer Required

Part of the original Chrome EULA required that you had to give identification or contact information to Google and you were required to keep that information up to date. We're thankful that's no longer required; Google knows more than enough about us already.

Automated Access No Longer Barred

We're very glad that accessing the service through automated means is no longer prohibited. From screen scraping to remote testing - there are a number of important ways that automated access can occur. Only a portion of the traffic on the web these days is human anyway, don't keep the robots from using Chrome too! The new rule is "just don't mess anything up."

No More Google Secrets

Though little more than a formality once the Beta was public, Chrome did require users to acknowledge that there could be Google secrets in the software. Acknowledging that is no longer a requirement, so breathe easy when having Holiday conversations with family about your new browser.

...But You Can Never Leave

As a part of the old Chrome EULA, there we instructions about how to get out of your side of the bargain as well as information about how Google might cancel the agreement. Your out is no longer part of the deal. Closing your account and sending Google a letter is no longer listed as a way to terminate your relationship with Google. But who would want to quit Google? We've grown so close over the years! You couldn't go without Google, even if you wanted to.

Caveats

These changes are interesting to look at and are fodder for important conversation, but we're sure that a trained legal eye would see them very differently than we do. None the less, these are the terms we now agree to when we start accessing the web through Google's browser. We hope the legal-ware treats us as well in the long term as the software seems to so far.

Since the first beta release, Google has focused on fixing stability issues (especially with regards to playing Flash video), sped up the already fast V8 JavaScript engine, and added a better bookmark manager and privacy controls.

According to Google, the next step in the development of Chrome will be the addition of an extension architecture similar to Firefox's. Google is also planning to release Mac and Linux versions soon.

Lots of Users Already

Here at RWW, about 5.2% of our readers used Chrome in November (which is down from the 6.3% we saw when it launched in September and a lot of folks decided to give it a try) and a lot of our writers also use it on a daily basis. In comparison, about 2% of our readers use Opera and 9% use Safari.

A New Focus on Speed

If anything, the release of Chrome engine has made all the other browser developers focus on the speed of their JavaScript engines again, which can only be a good thing for those of us who spend a lot of our days in browsers. The only missing piece that is still holding Chrome back today is the absence of a good extension architecture.

Dirhael, a DonationCoder user, has taken the initiative to release a portable checker for Chrome nightly builds. The application is more of an auto-hotkey utility that will not only let you know about the latest build, but also make sure the latest build isn't broken. In doing so, you won't waste time downloading builds that don't work.

Saving Time and Bandwidth

The application will check for the latest nightly build and provide you with a link to download the build. You can choose between downloading the zip archive file or the executable installer for each build. What you don't have access to is any information on changes made to a particular build. You can find a changelog for the nightly builds here. If you'd rather not use the checker, you can always head to Google's directory of the latest nightly builds for Chrome. With the amount of updates Google is putting out for Chrome, we'd recommend sticking with the checker in order to keep up. It's small, simple, and a huge time saver.