Today’s Chrome Beta release includes two new APIs: the getUserMedia API and the Gamepad Javascript API.

The getUserMedia API lets users grant web apps access to their camera and microphone without a plug-in. This is the first step in enabling high quality video and audio communication as part of WebRTC, a powerful new real-time communications standard for the open web platform.

Every day, millions of people around the world are able to see the faces and hear the voices of loved ones thousands of miles away, thanks to online video chat services. These services have revolutionized the way we work, play, and hang out with friends.

In today’s Chrome Beta release, it’s now possible for you to grant web apps access to your camera and microphone right within the browser, without a plug-in. This is thanks to the getUserMedia API, which is the first big step for WebRTC, a new real-time communications standard that aims to allow high-quality video and audio communication on the web.

The getUserMedia API also allows sites to create cool new experiences that weren’t previously possible in the browser. For example, Romuald Quantin and Magnus Dahlstrand at Stinkdigital have created a Magic Xylophone that you can play just by waving your hands in front of the camera.

Paul Neave has also made a beautiful photo booth app called Webcam Toy. It has dozens of crazy effects to explore--my favorites are “Snow” and “Fire.” Check out the Chromium blog to learn more about getUserMedia and follow WebRTC on Google+ for new discussions and demos.

Today’s Beta release also brings a new and improved printing experience for Google Cloud Print. Now your printers in Google Cloud Print are integrated right into Chrome’s print dialog, so you can easily print to your Cloud Ready printer, Google Drive, Chrome on your mobile device, or one of over 1,800 FedEx Offices.

To play with these new toys, just download Chrome Beta.

Well, here is an interesting turn of events, a somewhat inverted market share data.

Instead of focusing on the user experience and eliminating the useless 2 year release cycle, IE team has decided to fire more ads instead. Certainly, even great ads have their limits and as shown above, Internet Explorer continues to lose its market share, down from 54.05% to 54.02% (0.03 point decrease).

After following IE’s trend ever since the release of the Google Chrome, Firefox has managed to take back some of its share and is now back slightly above the 20% mark, up from 19.71% to 20.06% (0.35 point increase). Is it a dead cat’s bounce or the beginning of a new trend?

All good things come to an end and as shown in the graph above, Google’s Chrome web browser growth is slowing down, at least for a little while. This time its market share has decreased by a 0.5 point, down from 19.58% to 19.08%.

After grinding lower for a couple of months, Safari is bouncing back, up from 4.62% to 4.73% (0.11 point increase).

Just like Safari, Opera has struggled to gain a significant momentum for quite some time now. However, last month its market share has increased by a 0.03 point, up from 1.57% to 1.60%.

Google is adding advertisements to Chrome extensions, Verizon Wireless halts the sales of unsubsidized tablets, Google integrates Google+ into the Chrome Web Store, and Mozilla details its upcoming mobile OS.More »

Since I started working on the Chrome Web Store, all my friends have been asking me which apps to try out. Between checking with colleagues for their suggestions and creating shared lists on Google spreadsheets, I thought there must be an easier way to share my favorite apps with the rest of the world.

Starting today, the Chrome Web Store helps you do just that. You can now share all of your favorite Chrome Web Store items with people in your Google+ circles by finding them in the Chrome Web Store and clicking the +1 button located in their store detail page.

You can also review app, extension and theme recommendations from anyone in your Google+ circles simply by clicking on the “From your circles” link, located in the left category menu in the Chrome Web Store. And for those of you who are relatively new to Google+, we’ve also included suggestions from some of us in the Chrome team.

To make finding the right app even easier, all apps that have been +1’d by someone in your circles will be indicated as such throughout the Chrome Web Store, helping you decide which apps to install.

We hope that this new feature will help you share the best that the store has to offer and discover great new content from your friends. If you don’t have a Google+ account, you can easily sign up; go here to get started.

iOS (Jailbreak):Chromizer is a small tweak for the iPhone and iPad version of Chrome that adds a much needed full screen mode, and a couple other features.More »

With the arrival of Chrome on iPhone and iPad, the browser wars for iOS have become a little more interesting. Here's a rundown of our favorites. More »

Slow yet feature rich.

Well, what do you know, after the recent Google Chrome release for the Android devices, here comes another one but this time it’s for the iOS.

Available for both iPhone and iPad, the following (and first) release includes a much slower version of the WebKit rendering engine (Safari’s Nitro is 4 times faster in the JavaScript benchmarks), desktop UI and same old problems that every other browser faces: you can’t set it as a default web browser.

We are not sure when some “higher powers” will finally stepping and prevent this kind of mess but we are eagerly waiting and pointing at you, Europe.

This is how it looks like:

Some notable exceptions include: Incognito mode by default, data sync, unified search/address bar and more.

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Google Chrome

Adobe told us they were only working on Flash for Windows and Mac PCs and it turns out they were serious. There will be no native Flash for Google's Android 4.1.

The Chrome Team is excited to announce the release of Chrome for iPhone and iPad. Based on Chrome 19.0.1084.52, Chrome for iOS (19.0.1084.60) brings an all new browsing experience to your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch (requires iOS 4.3 or later) and is now available for download.

Start looking now for Google Chromebooks at your local retailers.

At Google I/O , Google’s Senior VP of Chrome and Apps, Sundar Pichaihasm announced that Samsung’s Series 3 Chromebox and Series 5 Chromebook will soon be available in Best Buy stores in the US and Dixons in the UK.

[cross-posted from the Official Google Blog]

This morning we kicked off day 2 at I/O to talk about the open web—one of the most amazing platforms we have seen. To put things in perspective, today there are more than 2.3 billion users on the web—a staggering number, but it only represents one-third of the world’s population. There’s still a lot of opportunity for growth. 

Chrome, which we built from the ground up as a browser for the modern web, has seen tremendous adoption. Thanks to many of you, Chrome has nearly doubled since last year’s I/O—from 160 million to 310 million active users around the world. As more and more of you live your lives online, we want to to help make it easy for you to live in the cloud...seamlessly.

A better web to your web
One of the most exciting shifts is the explosion of the mobile web. When Chrome first launched, many people were tethered to a single computer. Today most people use multiple computers, smartphones and tablets. With that trend in mind, our goal is to offer you a consistent, personalized web experience across all devices. In February, wereleased Chrome for Android, which exited beta this week and is the standard browser on Nexus 7, a powerful new tablet.

Starting today, Chrome is also available for your iPhone and iPad. That means you can enjoy the same speedy and simple Chrome experience across your devices. Also, by signing in to Chrome, you can easily move from your desktop, laptop, smartphone and tablet and have all of your stuff with you.

Living in the cloud
A modern browser is just one ingredient of living online seamlessly. We continue to invest in building cloud apps, which many people rely on daily. Gmail, which launched in 2004, has evolved from a simple email service to the primary mode of communication for more than 425 million active users globally. We’ve also built a suite of apps to help users live in the cloud, including Google Documents, Spreadsheets, Calendar and more. 

At the hub of this cloud experience is Google Drive—a place where you can create, share, collaborate and keep all your stuff. Ten weeks ago we launched Drive and in 10 weeks, more than 10 million users have signed up. Today weintroduced more capabilities, including offline editing for Google documents and a Drive app for your iPhone and iPad. Drive is also seamlessly integrated into Chrome OS. With Drive available across Mac, Windows, Chrome OS, Android and iOS, it’s even easier to get things done in the cloud from anywhere.

Going Google
With the help of Chrome and and the growth of Google apps, people are discovering new ways to get things done faster, connect with others, and access their information no matter what device they’re using. This is what we call “going Google.” And it’s not just individual people. Schools, government institutions and businesses—big and small—are also “going Google.” Sixty-six of the top 100 universities in the U.S., government institutions in 45 out of 50 U.S. states, and a total of 5 million business are using Google Apps to live and work in the cloud.