chromium

Does Your Browser Behave?

Submitted by admin on Thu, 03/11/2010 - 09:54
Last June, we launched the Sputnik JavaScript conformance test suite, a comprehensive set of more than 5000 tests. Today we're releasing a test runner for Sputnik, that allows you to easily run the complete test suite from within your browser.
 
Sputnik touches all aspects of the JavaScript language defined in the 3rd edition of the ECMA-262 spec. In many ways it can be seen as a continuation of and a complement to existing browser conformance testing tools, such as the Acid3 test. While we are always focused on improving speed, Sputnik is not about testing how fast your browser executes JavaScript, but rather whether it does so correctly.
 
Since we released the Sputnik tests as an open source project, the most requested feature has been the ability to run the tests in a browser, and we are excited to launch that functionality today. The new test runner lets you run the tests from a single URL and quickly see the results in your browser. This makes it easier both for users to see how well their browser conforms to the JavaScript spec, as well as for browser makers to find bugs and incompatibilities.
 
You can also use Sputnik to compare browser conformance. For example, below is an experimental plot that compares five popular browsers and which we hope to update as new stable versions of the browsers are released. We created this chart by running Sputnik in each of the five browsers and then plotting each browser such that the fewer tests a browser fails the closer it is to the center and the more failing tests two browsers have in common the closer they are placed to each other. In this example, when running Sputnik on a Windows machine, we saw the following results: Opera 10.50: 78 failures, Safari 4: 159 failures, Chrome 4: 218 failures, Firefox 3.6: 259 failures and Internet Explorer 8: 463 failures.
 

 

Incredible Start Page extension jazzes up new tabs in Google Chrome

Submitted by admin on Thu, 03/11/2010 - 09:30

 

Google Chrome's default new tab page is already good -- and honestly, I seldom find myself clicking anywhere other than my bookmark toolbar when I add a tab. So while I might not need to change the new tab page, the Incredible Start Page extension certainly has me hooked regardless.

Install it, and your new tab page displays a sleek, three-paneled view which includes recently closed tabs, your bookmark toolbar folders, and random slides pulled from Flickr -- with any non-folder items from your bookmarks overlayed on the images.

There's also a sticky note where you can enter text and fire it off to a new GMail compose window. Text you jot down is saved, so it's also a handy place to leave yourself a reminder...Now if they would just tap in to Chrome's bookmark sync to make it reappear when I got to work...

Options allow you to choose from four Flickr keywords (clouds, sunset, nature, and star) and five color schemes.

It's a nice way to add some visual pop to Chrome's new tab page.

Google Chrome Developer Update: 3000 Extensions, Events on 4 Continents and More

Submitted by admin on Thu, 03/04/2010 - 13:37
 
This is the first issue of Google Chrome Update for Web Developers. In these regular updates, we'll inform you about new features enabled in Google Chrome and announce updates of Google Chrome related developer events. We will also be sharing samples and highlighting cool extensions and HTML5 apps written by the developer community.
 
What's New in Google Chrome?
 
The Google Chrome Beta channel for Mac and Linux has been updated to 5.0.307.7 and the extensions gallery now offers more than 3000 extensions for users to choose from.
 
For Google Chrome extensions, we've just released a couple of new experimental APIs, including a history API. Since these are experimental APIs, the extensions gallery won't allow you to upload extensions that use them. However, we'd like to encourage you to read the documentation, give it a try, and send us your feedback.
 
Last but not least, the new Google Chrome stable release has many new HTML and JavaScript APIs including WebSockets, Notifications, and Web SQL Database. We are interested to hear how you've been using these APIs. Please share with us the cool applications you are building.
 
Samples and Tutorials
 
We've been working on creating samples to help you implement certain functionality in your extensions. You may be interested in viewing the source code for extensions that:
  • Merge all of the open tabs into a single window.
  • Use OAuth to connect to web services.
  • Make cross-domain XMLHttpRequests from a content script.
  • Display page actions based on the current URL or the current page's content.
Upcoming Events
 
We are pleased to announce that we will host a series of Google Chrome developer events over the next month in the following cities (dates in local time):
 
  • Sydney, AU - Mar 5th
  • Tokyo, Japan - Mar 11th
  • Austin, TX - Mar 14th - Mar 15th
  • London, UK - Mar 16th
    • Meetup, HTML5 and Google Chrome extensions (sign up here)
  • Madrid, ES - Mar 18th
    • Google Chrome hackathon @Universidad Complutense de Madrid (sign up here)
We also plan to hold events in Germany and will be announcing more information about those soon, so stay tuned!

Google Chrome tip: fast, easy access to extension options screen

Submitted by admin on Thu, 03/04/2010 - 11:30

 

 
Not every extension in my Google Chrome browser action area (the chunk of space where all the buttons go) includes quick access to its options screen.

While it's certainly not all that difficult or time consuming to click through the wrench menu, then extensions, then click the options button next to whatever it is I want to configure, there's a more direct route.

Like many tasks in Windows, you can speed things up with a simple right-click.

Chrome has a built-in context menu (pictured above) which appears when you right click an extension button. As you can see, it's two-click fast to get to the Chromed Bird (or any other configurable extension) options this way!

Bonus: there's also a disable and uninstall option, making it a really fast way to get rid of those unimpressive extensions you test.

​Experimental Extension APIs

Submitted by admin on Mon, 03/01/2010 - 13:27
You might have already noticed this, but we now have some APIs that we’re referring to as experimental. The idea is that we can add new APIs to the platform that may not be ready for prime time. This allows you to play with these APIs and give us feedback before they’re final, which in turn helps us get them out to everybody more quickly.
 
Our first two experimental APIs — chrome.experimental.history and chrome.experimental.processes — are available on the dev channel. The history API lets you query and modify the user’s browsing history. When it’s finalized, we’ll also allow you to replace the history page with your own, just like you can replace the new tab page today. The processes API allows access to information about Google Chrome’s process model, including process IDs and the CPU usage of individual tabs. The processes API is incomplete, but you can see upcoming features in its design doc.
 
These APIs have a few major limitations. First, to use an experimental API you must add a command-line flag when you start Google Chrome (--enable-experimental-extension-apis). Second, you can’t upload extensions that use experimental APIs to the Google Chrome Extensions Gallery. Finally, these APIs will change in incompatible ways, so the code that you write today isn’t guaranteed to work tomorrow.
 
What this really means is that these APIs are only useful for you to play with. You won’t be able to share extensions that use these APIs with a lot of people. However, we’d really like you to try them out and give us feedback. Doing so will help us release the APIs more quickly and make sure they do everything you need. Playing with the experimental APIs is also a way for you to get experience with them before most other developers.
 
We expect to add more experimental APIs over time, so keep an eye out for future announcements.

Google Chrome Frame Developer Updates

Submitted by admin on Tue, 02/09/2010 - 22:03
Since Google Chrome Frame was released in September we've published regular updates to improve stability and integration with Internet Explorer. Today's update continues this work but also contains two key changes that developers should be aware of.
First, until now Google Chrome Frame has used the tag for invocation.
Unfortunately, doing this had a few potential problems, including some challenges for sites which couldn't place the tag early enough to trigger Google Chrome Frame reliably.

TabsPreview Google Chrome Extension for a 3D Preview of Tabs

Submitted by admin on Sat, 02/06/2010 - 04:56

Who doesn't like eyecandy. Here is a nice 3D tab preview generating extension for Google Chrome. You can browse through your tabs using a simple mouse scroll and it definitely looks beautiful.
 

 
 
  • Picture speaks more than words and the screenshots above makes it more than clear to you(I hope). 
Some Features
  • Preview modes: stack, grid, row, flow, carousel.
  • Search by keywords. 
  • Movement with arrows and mouse wheel.
  • shortcut CTRL+SHIFT+P (experimental)
     
 
 

Where did Google Chrome's pinned tabs go?

Submitted by admin on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 09:00

 

On a recent Google Chrome post one of our commenters -- MoneyMike -- lamented the apparent passing of one of Chrome's popular UI features in recent nightly builds: pinned tabs.

I, too, noticed the change recently and wondered what was going on. There's been plenty of discussion amongst Chrome developers, and it boils down to an evolutionary step for Chrome and the introduction of app tabs. The arrival of phantom tabs recently is also part of the change.

To clear the air, I pinged Google's Eitan Bencuya to see if he could shed any light on the situation. Here's his response:

"As you know, all of these features are still pretty experimental (they're not even in the dev channel yet) and we're trying out different approaches to see what works. In this case this is part of a larger set of tweaks we are making related to extensions but we haven't yet fleshed out all the details of app tabs specifically."

Extending Google Chrome 25,621 Miles

Submitted by admin on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 13:08
At the end of 2009, we traveled around the world — to the Czech Republic, Russia, and Argentina — meeting with developers and talking to them about Google Chrome Extensions and HTML5.
 
In the first leg of our trip, we headed to Europe for Google Developer Day Prague and Google Developer Day Moscow on November 6th and 10th. Google Developer Days are one-day events featuring seminars and office hours about Google developer products like Android, Google App Engine, and of course Google Chrome! More than 800 developers were on hand in Prague and more than 1,500 in Moscow to learn, among lots of other things, how to develop extensions for Google Chrome. Below is video of the talk Brian gave about extensions in Moscow. You can also watch video of this talk translated into Russian or video of a similar talk from Prague and view slides from Prague or slides from Moscow.
 
 

Google Chrome tablet UI begins taking shape in Chromium nightly builds

Submitted by admin on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 08:35

 

Google's user interface mockups and YouTube video were a hot topic the other day, and that buzz will likely continue until we finally see a tablet device emerge from Mountain View to accompany the Nexus One.

If the images and video weren't enough proof for you, changes are under way in the Chromium source code which certainly make it look like Google is getting serious about a new interface for Chrome OS on touchscreen tablets.

Coming soon to the Chromium nightly builds is an --enable-vertical-tabs command line switch. While the source note clearly states that this does nothing other than toggle a preference right now, there's every reason to believe that it will move the Chrome tabstrip from the top of your browser window to the side -- as shown in one of Google's tablet user experience slides.

It's a starting point -- though I'm more interested to see how the tab switching interface shapes up.

Facebook To-Go Google Chrome Extension Works Like a Charm

Submitted by admin on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 05:34

Chromed Bird twitter extension for Google Chrome(Chromium) can do everything one ever expects to do with a Twitter extension and more. I wanted an extension with similar functionality for Facebook. And I got Facebook To-Go. I have to say, Chromed Bird and Facebook To-Go is an awesome must-have combination of social media extensions for Google Chrome.

 

 

40,000 More Extensions!

Submitted by admin on Mon, 02/01/2010 - 15:26
 
One thing that got lost in the commotion of the extensions launch is a feature that is near and dear to my heart: Google Chrome 4 now natively supports Greasemonkey user scripts. Greasemonkey is a Firefox extension I wrote in 2004 that allows developers to customize web pages using simple JavaScript and it was the inspiration for some important parts of our extension system.
 
Ever since the beginning of the Chromium project, friends and coworkers have been asking me to add support for user scripts in Google Chrome. I'm happy to report that as of the last Google Chrome release, you can install any user script with a single click. So, now you can use emoticons on blogger. Or, you can browse Google Image Search with a fancy lightbox. In fact, there's over 40,000 scripts on userscripts.org alone.
 

Google Chrome to go polyglot? Auto-translate lands in Chromium nightly

Submitted by admin on Mon, 02/01/2010 - 07:54

 

The Chromium source code has seen a number of changes recently, and a new feature which poked its head out earlier this weekend has now landed.

You can now enable auto-translation of pages in Chromium. Just add the --auto-translate switch to your Chromium shortcut and head over to a foreign language web page to test it out. A Google Translate bar will appear, and you can then click the button to convert all text on the page.

Translated text appears without reloading the page itself, and you won't have long to wait -- pages I tested were completed within four seconds or less.

Not sure how to enable the feature? Check out our guide to adding switches to Google Chrome or Chromium!

Remember, this only works in Chromium right now -- auto-translate has not yet made to even the developer build of Google Chrome. It's probably only a matter of time until we see it there, however. I fully expect to see a number of Google services integrated more tightly into Chrome as we get closer to the arrival of Chrome OS.

 

Encouraging More Chromium Security Research

Submitted by admin on Thu, 01/28/2010 - 16:59
 
In designing Chromium, we've been working hard to make the browser as secure as possible. We've made strong improvements with the integrated sandboxing and our up-to-date user base. We're always looking to stay on top of the latest browser security features. We've also worked closely with the broader security community to get independent scrutiny and to quickly fix bugs that have been reported.
 
Some of the most interesting security bugs we've fixed have been reported by researchers external to the Chromium project. For example, this same origin policy bypass from Isaac Dawson or this v8 engine bug found by the Mozilla Security Team. Thanks to the collaborative efforts of these people and others, Chromium security is stronger and our users are safer.
 
Today, we are introducing an experimental new incentive for external researchers to participate. We will be rewarding select interesting and original vulnerabilities reported to us by the security research community. For existing contributors to Chromium security — who would likely continue to contribute regardless — this may be seen as a token of our appreciation. In addition, we are hoping that the introduction of this program will encourage new individuals to participate in Chromium security. The more people involved in scrutinizing Chromium's code and behavior, the more secure our millions of users will be.
 
Such a concept is not new; we'd like to give serious kudos to the folks at Mozilla for their long-running and successful vulnerability reward program.
 
Any bug filed through the Chromium bug tracker (under the template "Security Bug") will qualify for consideration. As this is an experimental program, here are some guidelines in the form of questions and answers:
 
Q) What reward might I get?
A) As per Mozilla, our base reward for eligible bugs is $500. If the panel finds a particular bug particularly severe or particularly clever, we envisage rewards of $1337. The panel may also decide a single report actually constitutes multiple bugs. As a consumer of the Chromium open source project, Google will be sponsoring the rewards.

Chromium Blog

Submitted by admin on Tue, 01/26/2010 - 23:39

Security in Depth: New Security Features

Submitted by admin on Tue, 01/26/2010 - 17:03
We've been hard at work adding proactive security features to Google Chrome, and we're particularly excited about five new security features that make it easier for developers to build secure web sites.
 
Strict-Transport-Security
 
Strict-Transport-Security lets a high-security web site tell the browser that it wants to be contacted over a secure connection only. That means the browser will always use HTTPS to connect to the site and will treat all HTTPS errors as hard stops (instead of prompting the user to "click through" certificate errors). This feature strengthens the browser's defenses against attackers who control the network, such as malicious folks disrupting the wireless network at a coffee shop.
 

More Resources for Developers

Submitted by admin on Mon, 01/25/2010 - 10:46

This morning, we announced a new stable channel update of Google Chrome. For developers, this update represents some significant advances in terms of extensibility and new HTML and JavaScript APIs. Extensions are now available to all Google Chrome users, which enables you to provide additional functionality not just on your site, but to also bring content and functionality from your site into the browser, regardless of what sites a user may have open at any given time.