Chromium

As we reported back in late June, the Chromium team – which creates a public, open-source browser that was forked to create the popular Chrome browser from Google, and who’s updates are regularly merged into Chrome – is working hard on a “Reader Mode” for the Android version of the browser. This mode would recognize articles and pages with lots of text, display a “Make page mobile-friendly” button and, when tapped, strip a page of all extraneous content, leaving just the page’s body text, title, and images. The feature is getting ever-closer to completion, so we’re taking another look at what has changed recently.

Good news: Chrome may soon get simultaneous multilingual spellchecking

Tom Maxwell Jul 11 2015 - 6:20 pm PT

Do you speak and write in more than one language – and often use them interchangeably? If so, you may know the frustration of having to constantly change the language Google Chrome uses for spellchecking. Fortunately, it looks like Chrome soon will be able to spellcheck in multiple languages simultaneously, as well as make it easy to quickly toggle spellchecking on and off for different languages.

Chromium contributors developing a ‘Sidebar API,’ could be used to resurrect Side Tabs feature

Tom Maxwell Jul 7 2015 - 10:14 am PT

Longtime users of Google Chrome may remember a period when it was possible to display tabs vertically, in a bar on the left-hand side of the screen, rather than at the top above the address bar. That feature (pictured above) was experimental, and the Chromium team, which creates public forks of the source code behind Google’s commercial browser, eventually gave up on the idea because it was believed to be a niche feature and “nobody stepped forward to do the work to drive the feature to completion.” Sidebars may be coming back from the dead in a different but similar form, however…

Chrome for Android soon may show you alt-text when you long-press images

Tom Maxwell Jun 30 2015 - 12:38 pm PT

The Android version of Google’s Chrome browser has a neat new feature in it, if you’re willing to use a beta build of the mobile browser.

Now when you long-press on an image in the browser, a new menu will appear which includes the alt-text of the image in question. Alt-text, or alternative text, is a way to describe what an image is of in the HTML of the webpage. This is particularly helpful for those with vision impairments, as screen readers which can read webpages out loud are able to tell them what images on the pages they visit are depicting when alt-text is attached.

This new feature, shared on Google+ by none other than Chrome evangelist François Beaufort, could be useful, for example, when viewing any images with writing on them that have been scanned and posted online, where the text on them may be hard to read. Including what they say in the alt-text would make reading old texts easier. Chrome Beta for Android can be downloaded from Google Play.

Chrome ‘OK Google’ hotwording extension sparks new privacy concerns, confusion (Update: Chromium team backpeddals)

Tom Maxwell Jun 22 2015 - 11:08 am PT

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Update: What’s that? Oh, just the smell of change. After initially standing firm on its implementation of the hotwording module and proprietary Google extension being automatically downloaded in new installations of the Chromium open source browser, a wave of criticism has led to the team pulling it out of Chromium 45 and onwards. The module that manages whether the hotword listening extension is enabled will be “disabled by default” and the proprietary technology that actually listens for “Ok Google” will not download. A member of the team says simply:

In light of this issue, we have decided to remove the hotwording component entirely from Chromium. As it is not open source, it does not belong in the open source browser.

The original story continues below.

It all started with a blinking LED light. Ofer Zelig wrote on his blog today about an odd case where the LED light on his computer, that turns on whenever the microphone or camera is activated, seemed to blink every few seconds or so while he was working on his PC. He investigated in the Windows Task Manager to look for any process that might be to blame – no dice. He shut down some suspicious processes that might have been causing it and says he didn’t have any malware installed, but still to no avail. Turns out, the culprit was none other than Google’s Chrome browser…

Chrome’s Easter egg t-rex game just got harder with the introduction of pterodactyls

Tom Maxwell Jun 18 2015 - 9:14 am PT

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Have you come across the Easter egg in Google Chrome that alleviates the frustration of your Internet going down with a fun side-scrolling game? You’re a dinosaur running and your objective is to jump and avoid hitting obstacles like rocks, ditches, and cacti, getting the highest score you can in order show off and brag to your friends (or earn their pity on you). Recently, that game has become a bit more difficult with the introduction of a new obstacle — a dinosaur that can fly.

Chrome evangelist François Beaufort posted to his Google+ account yesterday to show off what the new dinosaur, a pterodactyl, looks like in action in the game, saying it was added in a recent update to Chromium. You won’t face off against the dinosaur until your score nears 500 and, to be honest, I was having trouble reaching that score so I just used the image he shared, pictured above.

If you haven’t seen this Easter egg in Chrome before, next time you try and load a website in Chrome and get the “Unable to connect to the Internet” page, click on the dinosaur and then press either the <Up> or <Left> key on your keyboard and the game will begin. Or you can just disable the Internet connection on your computer and try to refresh a page.

Latest Chromium build tests prompting users to install web apps for sites they visit often

Stephen Hall Jun 16 2015 - 8:48 am PT

Screen Shot 2015-06-16 at 10.52.44 AM

If you’ve been following the latest with Chrome for Android, you probably know that Google has been making a big push with web apps. In Chrome for Android beta 42, Google added banners that recommend users install web apps to their home screens, and in beta version 43, the Chrome for Android app now has banners that push native apps on users as well. Now, in the latest build of the Chromium—the open source project that is the basis for Chrome—browser, Google is testing banners suggesting that users add sites to their app shelf.
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Chrome Web Store adds new device compatibility indicator

Tom Maxwell Jun 12 2015 - 8:09 pm PT

It’s Friday! As the week draws to a close, we’ve shared some interesting little additions to the Play Store including new user feedback call-to-actions and a ‘Free App of the Week‘ promotion, and so it only makes sense to mention a change to the Chrome Web Store that happened this week: there’s a new device compatibility icon.

Yes, not a huge change, but helpful nonetheless. If an extension or theme is compatible with your device, you’ll see a reassuring “Compatible with your device” indicator in the right-hand information rail, above the app description. If not, you’ll (as always) see the “Add to Chrome” button replaced by a red “Not Compatible” button, like the one pictured below. That picture was taken from techdows.com because it’s surprisingly hard to find a Chrome Web Store app not compatible with any of my computers, but what the picture below is showing is Chrome disabling NPAPI plugins on Windows 8, as the technology is not compatible with Windows 8 Metro mode.

This change was initially spotted by a tipster speaking with the unofficial Chrome Operating System blog.

Chrome Beta 42 adds website push notifications, banners for saving web apps to Android home screens

Zac Hall Mar 13 2015 - 8:43 am PT

Google released Chrome 42 this week through its beta channel for Android, Windows, Mac, Linux and Chrome OS. The latest Chrome beta previews a couple of interesting features that make web apps more like native apps including push notifications and saving web apps to your Android home screen faster…
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Google launches Android WebView beta channel for developers

Jordan Kahn Feb 13 2015 - 7:55 am PT

Google today announced that it’s launching a beta channel or Android WebView, the API many apps use to display webpages. Google noted that with Android 5.0 Lollipop, it now “has the ability to update WebView independently.” It will begin to allow developers to use the new beta channel for testing the latest updates to WebView starting today:

WebView updates bring numerous bug fixes, new web platform APIs and updates from Chromium. If you’re making use of the WebView in your app, becoming a beta channel tester will give you an early start with new APIs as well as the chance to test your app before the WebView rolls out to your users.

Developers interested in becoming beta testers can join the community here in order to sign up for the program and install the WebView beta from Google Play.

Google seeds Chrome 37 beta with DirectWrite support on Windows

9to5 Staff Jul 17 2014 - 4:14 pm PT

Chrome-Beta

Google announced on Thursday afternoon that it has released Chrome 37 beta with a number of new developer features, making it easier to create richer and faster web content and apps. The beta release includes support for the DirectWrite API on Windows for high-quality text rendering, even on high DPI displays.

The release also adds an HTML element called <dialog> as one of its headline features, allowing for styled boxes that can be controlled with JavaScript. More than a half-dozen other improvements were also made.

The full changelog from the Chromium blog:

Other updates in this release

The Web Cryptography JavaScript API is enabled by default starting in Chrome 37, allowing developers to perform cryptographic operations such as hashing, signature generation/verification, and encryption.

Subpixel font scaling is now supported, which enables smooth animations of text between font sizes.

TouchEvents are now longs instead of integers, enabling higher-fidelity touch interactions on high-DPI displays.

CSS cursor values “zoom-in” and “zoom-out” are now unprefixed.

The number of cores on a physical machine can now be accessed bynavigator.hardwareConcurrency.

The user’s preferred languages are now accessible by navigator.languages, and the languagechange event is fired when this is updated.

The CSS Shapes Module allows developers to define non-rectangular text wrapping boundaries around floated elements.

NPAPI deprecation continues according to our previously-announced plan with a harder-to-bypass blocking UI.

The default monospace font on Windows is now Consolas instead of Courier New.

Latest Chromium code carries references to the Google Nexus 6, Nexus 8

Jonathan Kizer May 13 2014 - 10:43 am PT

red nexus 5

Coming roughly a week after the Nexus 8’s “Flounder” codename was shown off in Chromium’s source code, we now have a reference to the “Nexus 6” (via Florian Kiersch).

The Nexus 6 reference can still be seen on the Code Review page, under the new code section. There is also a reference to the Nexus 8 in the older code. The Nexus 8 is expected to be produced by HTC, as earlier leaks have suggested. The “8” is also likely a reference to the screen size, which would make the Nexus 8 larger than the ASUS-produced Nexus 7. Beyond this, very little is known about the specifications or ETA of the Nexus 8.

The Nexus 6 is also almost entirely a mystery.
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‘Ok Google’ voice search arrives as native Chromium feature without browser extension

Jordan Kahn Jan 23 2014 - 8:30 am PT

Ok-Google-chromium

Google’s open-source Chromium evangelist François Beaufort shared some interesting details today about new voice search integration in the latest Chromium build— Google’s open source browser project that is often used to develop and test features coming soon to its Chrome browser. While users have been able to download a browser extension for Chrome since November that allows them to activate a voice search with the “Ok Google” voice command (just like on Android), it appears Google is testing the command as a native feature without the need of the extension. Beaufort notes that the latest Chromium code shows the ability to toggle the feature through settings:
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Google developing “Chromoting” remote desktop management app for iOS

Mike Beasley Jan 16 2014 - 8:27 pm PT

Google been working on a remote desktop management app for Android devices called “Chromoting” since last year, but today an entry in the Chromium issue tracker has revealed that an iOS version is also under developement. The issue, which was opened on Wednesday, indicates that the iOS version is still very much in the design stage, while its counterpart on Android is much further along in its development.

According to the post, the iOS version is is expected to be released much later than the Android client. The features of the app have mostly been kept under wraps, but it looks like a fairly straightforward piece of software that allows you to access and manipulate remote machines using Chrome as a condiut for the connection. The biggest advantage Chromoting would have over similiar solutions would be the low, low price of $0.00.

Google kicking toolbars, “multipurpose extensions” out of the Chrome Web Store

David Beren Dec 20 2013 - 5:38 am PT

Google’s Chromium Blog just announced intentions of the search engine giant to knock out toolbars and “multipurpose extensions” out of the Chrome Web Store. The update to the policy is basically summed up as: “extensions in the Chrome Web Store must have a single purpose that is narrow and easy-to-understand.” That sounds simple enough, no?

Google rolling out better password security in Chrome to Windows users

David Beren Dec 4 2013 - 8:21 am PT

Google began tightening saved password security in Chrome for Mac almost one month ago. Now, it looks like Windows users will soon be able to join in on the fun. For the second time today, Google’s “Happiness Evangelist” Francois Beaufort is breaking the news. According to Beaufort, the “Reauthentication dialog for passwords” has been added into Chromium and is now ported over to Windows in the latest Chromium build.

Chrome 31 Beta released with shortcuts for web apps on Android & more

Jordan Kahn Oct 3 2013 - 10:44 am PT

Google today announced the release of Chrome Beta 31 for Android and desktop that includes new web app shortcuts on Android, an improved auto complete experience for payments, and much more.

The new application shortcuts for Chrome for Android allows you to add a shortcut to a webpage to your Android home screen. While you could already save a similar type of shortcut on Android, Google is now giving the sites an option to open in a special fullscreen mode without all the browser controls:

Sites launched in this way will open in a normal Chrome for Android window, unless they include themobile-web-app-capable meta tag. Those sites will instead open in a special fullscreen Chrome for Android window that doesn’t display tabs, buttons, menus, or the Omnibox. Try adding a shortcut to weight.aerotwist.com to see this in action.

Chrome 31 also includes a smoother experience for autocomplete on Android, Windows, and Chrome OS (soon on Mac) that makes it easier to fill out forms online starting first with payments:

requestAutocomplete() makes it easier for users to fill out online forms by offering web developers programmatic access to the browser’s autocomplete information (with the user’s explicit permission). For this first release, we’ve made it work for web payments. On sites with requestAutocomplete(), users will be able to either use their existing payment data stored with the browser or enter new details through a browser-provided interface. As a developer, you can continue processing payments with your existing payment processor.

The release has a ton of other new features and improvements including new Chrome Apps APIs, the ability for developers to execute native code with Portable Native Client (PNaCl), Speech recognition with the JavaScript Web Speech API, and much more. A full list of what’s new is available on the Chromium blog.

Google increases bug bounties up to fivefold after paying out $2M to date

Ben Lovejoy Aug 13 2013 - 4:11 am PT

Google is increasing the bounty it pays to security researchers who discover and report bugs in Chromium by up to 500 percent after announcing that it has paid out a combined total of $2M in bug bounties across Chromium and Google-owned websites in just three years.

Today, the Chromium program is raising reward levels significantly. In a nutshell, bugs previously rewarded at the $1,000 level will now be considered for reward at up to $5,000. In many cases, this will be a 5x increase in reward level! We’ll issue higher rewards for bugs we believe present a more significant threat to user safety, and when the researcher provides an accurate analysis of exploitability and severity. We will continue to pay previously announced bonuses on top, such as those for providing a patch or finding an issue in a critical piece of open source software.

This follows earlier similar increases for reporting website vulnerabilities back in June.

Although the sums of money offered for reporting vulnerabilities are substantially lower than could be made by selling the info on the black market to those who would use it for nefarious reasons, the thinking behind bug bounties is it encourages those who would never dream of misusing the info to file prompt reports. Many large tech companies offer bug bounties, with Microsoft – a long-time hold-out – joining in a month ago.

Chromium-based Opera browser officially released

Chance Miller Jul 2 2013 - 5:57 am PT

Back in May, Opera released a ‘sneak peak’ of its latest browser, Opera 15. The big selling point behind it was the engine under the hood. For the first time ever, the browser was powered by Chromium rather than Opera’s classic Presto engine. Today, the company has officially released the browser for both Mac and Windows in its final state to the public.

The new Opera for Windows and Mac runs on a Chromium engine, so you can access all your websites in a blink of an eye and have a smoother experience when you get there, thanks to improved site compatibility.

The latest version of Opera includes a host of new features in addition to the new Chromium engine. For one, the Speed Dial homepage has been refreshed with the ability to create folders and more. A new ‘Stash’ feature lets you collect snapshots of saved webpages in one place and go back and reference them if needed. The new Discover feature automatically shows you the top articles from locations and categories you choose. Finally, Opera says that the browser should perform better on slow connections thanks to the new ‘Off-road’ mode.
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Latest Opera desktop browser powered by Chromium – interesting Stash & Smartbox features

Ben Lovejoy May 28 2013 - 4:48 am PT

Opera has released what it describes as a ‘sneak preview’ of its latest browser, Opera 15, available for both Windows and Mac. As we reported last month, it is powered by Chromium rather than the Presto engine Opera had used for earlier versions.

While Opera is still a significant player in the mobile market, it has fallen out of favour in the desktop market, with a market share of just a few percent, well behind Chrome, IE, Firefox and Safari. Version 15 introduces a couple of new features that Opera hopes may change that …
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More hints of Google Now for the desktop appear before Google I/O

Zac Hall May 7 2013 - 2:20 pm PT

Last month we saw hints that Google Now could be coming to the web, and now it looks like we could see deeper integration than we thought.

François Beaufort points us to Notification Center pop-ups being developed in a recent Chromium build, much like the Gmail notifications offered by its web app.

Latest Chromium build testing search box right on new tab page

Jake Smith Dec 12 2012 - 12:35 pm PT

The Chrome team has announced a new addition to the Chromium (beta version of Chrome) browser this afternoon, changing the way many users will search for content online via Google and other search engines. Google is testing/experimenting with an added search box to the new tab page, a page that has historically just listed recently viewed websites, and the new search box will not only include Google search but will also be accompanied by Yahoo, Bing and others. Google said the reasoning behind the change is: “we’ve found that many people still navigate to their search engine’s home page to initiate a search instead.”

Google is also allowing search engines to display what a user has searched for right in the omnibox, potentially doing away with a second search box on the actual search page. Additionally, Google has made a new Embedded Search API available so other search engines can implement what’s new. The features outlined today are available for testing from the Chrome Developer Channel that includes a select few Chrome OS and Windows users (Mac will be coming soon). Sadly, Mountain View gave no word on when the features will hit an official build.

Source: Chromium Blog

Google Docs to be changed to ‘Google Drive’

Seth Weintraub Sep 24 2011 - 9:01 pm PT

From some slides of an internal presentation given by Google, it appears that where there is now Google Docs, there will soon be ‘Google Drive’. Most of the functionality, like uploading files of any type, of the mythical Google Drive now lies in Docs Hopefully, with this upcoming rebrand, Google allows more storage (let me buy it) and also has some utilities like backing up the home folder on Windows or Mac. Seriously, what better way to get users to adopt your system than to offer to sych your files to the cloud.

Oh, now that we have all of your files, you might as well get a Chomebook.

WebKit-based Chrome (Chromium) port coming to Android soon

Jordan Kahn Aug 23 2011 - 12:05 am PT