Google Now cards come to Chrome desktop Canary build
We’ve been hearing for a while that Google is working on bringing Google Now to the desktop version of Chrome (and, by extension, Chrome OS). We finally have our first real assurance that this is happening. The latest build of Google Chrome on the Canary channel has included support for several Google Now cards.
If you’re not familiar, Chrome Canary is like the alpha channel for Google Chrome. Development on it is so volatile that Google warns the browser might outright break and cease to work in some instances, meaning this is only meant for developers and early adopters who like to be on the bleeding edge of the software cycle. Google took care to explain the new feature in the support documents for Canary build:
If you use Google Now on your mobile device, you can see certain Now cards on your desktop computer if you’re signed into Chrome, including weather, sports scores, commute traffic, and event reminders cards. Some of these cards may be based on the location of your mobile device.
Google Now on Chrome shows a subset of the Now cards you see on your mobile device, which uses your device’s location. You can edit your location settings (Location Reporting and Location History) on your Android or iOS device at any time.
To enable it, you’ll just need to enter the following into the latest build’s address bar:
chrome://flags/#enable-google-now
From there, set the value from “default” to “enabled,” and then elect to relaunch the browser. You should now be seeing Google Now cards as they pertain to you and your location. Not all of the known Google Now cards seem to be supported just yet, though we imagine Google will flesh things out over time and bring us a more familiar suite of cards once this feature eventually hits beta.
If you’re feeling a bit adventurous, you can head here to grab the Canary build and give it a try for yourself. Otherwise, wait for it to hit Chrome’s beta or stable channels (at which point we imagine Google will go into even more detail about all of this).
[via Michael Davies]