Google Gives Apps for Desktop on Chrome's 5th Birthday

Chrome is the lightweight flagship browser that originated from an open source project by Google called Chromium and Chromium OS. Now Chrome is celebrating its fiveyears of browsing with the internet community and with this five years Chrome is one of the most widely used browser among a variety of other products. Within these five years Google has made 29 versions to Chrome application.The main strength of Chrome is considered as the wide variety of extensions and add-ons, a powerful Javascript engine and a quick release development cycle that makes it stand on the competitive end of the curve.

On celebrating the wonderful 5th birthday Google launched a new feature to the Chrome users and it is a "new breed of Chrome Apps" and is described as For Your Desktop.

Chrome is popular for its online add ons especially the ones associated with Chrome Web store. Now Google is trying to make a change on the ongoing trend of working online with web based applications and tries to wipe out the border lines with the online apps and the traditional desk top applications. The apps in “For Your Desktop” section do not require an internet connection once it is downloaded to your desktop. They can be used in offline mode.

Best beneficiaries of this feature will be the users of Google Chromebook as it will be best in line with the new apps. Windows users can also enjoy the new apps but it is not yet finalized for Linux and Mac users. Reports says that support for them are still in pipeline.

The key feature of this new generation Chrome Apps is considered that at the same time it allows for data synchronizing through cloud system it supports the functions through offline mode. The most useful feature of the new system will be Chrome App Launcher. Currently this is available to Windows users only and it can be installed in the taskbar on downloading of the first Chrome App. For Windows 8 users who are missing the Start menu can seek the sanctuary and it acts as simple launcher for Chrome Apps and it will give access to the Chrome Store and app options.

You can find the full details at the Google Chrome blog and to know which apps are available, please visit For your Desktop section of the Chrome Web Store. 

Google Brings Touchscreen Experience to Chrome

The latest developer ‘Canary' version of Google's desktop internet browser can support swipes, pinches and other hands-on operations.

Touch screens are already the standard for mobile devices -- even BlackBerry's latest flagship keypad phone the Q10 also offers a high-definition touch screen in support of its QWERTY keyboard. Likewise, without the leaps and bounds made in multi-touch and finger-tracking technology, the tablet would still be something a doctor prescribes to treat illnesses and not something that schools are starting to prescribe as a means of boosting children's educational attainment.

Indeed, so big are touch screens that according to Lux Research, the market for haptics -- the technology that provides a tactile response to a touch command -- will experience a 16-fold increase over the next 12 years as touch and gestures become the norm for everything from smartwatches to control pads on running machines. "An emerging wave of haptics offers the potential for a more intuitive and information-rich touch experience than today's simple whole-device vibration," said Anthony Vicari, 

Lux Research Associate, of the company's research, published on Tuesday.

However, while there's little doubt that the touch screen is going to play a greater and greater role in how we as consumers interact with and make sense of modern technology, the jury is still well and truly out as to whether it has a role -- haptic or non-haptic -- to play in navigating and interacting with the traditional notebook or desktop PC.

And now Google is also playing around with the same interface, albeit limited to its web browser. As well as supporting pinch to zoom and left and right swipes to load cached pages, it also offers support for Microsoft's virtual keyboard that appears on the screen when a webpage field requires information -- say for example a social media login page. Just like Apple, Google is a serious innovator in the consumer electronics sphere, even if, until recently, its efforts have been focused on software and services, rather than hardware.

And, although the features in the latest Chrome build will not be filtering through to the latest consumer version within the next few weeks, the fact that the company is considering them at all highlights the fact that although traditional PC sales are falling, it is still a market well and truly dominated by Microsoft. 

Focusing touch input around a specific computer function also makes a lot of sense.

If the swipes and pinches are specifically for browsing, then there is no chance of disrupting productivity. It also means that as Windows 8 tablets become more popular that their owners will be able to use Chrome instead of Internet Explorer and still have the same features and commands, literally at their fingertips.