If you spend any amount of time over at the Google Chrome Extension Gallery you may have spotted a subtle change on some of the listings: the addition of a price tag.

The Google OS blog was lucky enough to nab a screenshot of the Most Popular page complete with "Free" tags, though when I checked the site only the spotlight extension at the top showed prices.

There have been other indications recently that Google is gathering steam for the Web Store launch. Not long ago, I received an odd 500 error indicating that the Web Store was not available. Google has also been busy educating extension and Web app developers about accepting payments.

There's also the fact that today's stable channel update brought with it the ability to install apps, though that wasn't mentioned in Google's release post.

While no launch date has been revealed yet, stay tuned -- the Web Store Launch surely can't be far off now.

 

Google Chrome is a great browser, but it still has a few shortcomings -- one of which is the lack of a print preview screen. The plumbing for such a feature has existed in Chrome for a while now, and Print Preview even appears as an option in about:flags.

Right now, enabling Preview has no effect on functionality. Flipping the switch does, however, provide a partial glimpse of how the feature is shaping up. Entering chrome://print in your Omnibar will load the page you see above, minus the TSN page, of course. I composited that in to provide some idea how the preview might actually appear with content -- right now, chrome://print just displays the word main in all caps.

Once again, Google is eschewing additional application windows in favor of an in-tab display. As with the bookmark manager and the tabbed options feature in about:flags, building print preview into a tab should simplify deployment of the feature across different OSes.

It seems likely that chrome://print will also feature ties to Cloud Print -- so that you can easily fire off your document to any printer you've connected to the service.

 

Chrome's inability to set an image as desktop wallpaper is a shortcoming I've harped on before. It's a feature that just about every non-power user I know who tries Chrome wishes was there -- but even at version 8 Chrome still can't do some things that Internet Explorer 6 could. A little while back, the Chrome Pig extension arrived -- finally bringing a third-party solution.

Still, it's a bit more than I wanted. Give me a simple right-click, set-as-wallpaper option. And that's precisely what Mohamed Mansour has done. Witness: the Set image as wallpaper extension for Google Chrome! Right click, set image as wallpaper, and an HTML5 previewer appears so you can eyeball the finished product -- you can even choose to stretch, center, or tile your image. Future versions will include an options page that allows you to skip the previewer and simply perform a two-click image swap.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on which OS you use) Mohamed's extension currently only works with Windows. Linux and Mac versions are being worked on.

By the way, there's absolutely no need to panic over MG Siegler's comments on TechCrunch that "someone fed the bloat trolls." Set as wallpaper only uses about 5MB memory -- the same as most other basic extensions. Clearly MG thinks that saving an image, locating it on disk, and then using OS X's built-in controls to set the wallpaper is a much more elegant way to do things.

As for me, I'll take my context menu enhancement, thanks.

It's been a little while since we last heard anything significant about Cloud Print -- Google's effort to modernize and webify print queues. We know that HP has plans to deliver compatible printers and that bits of Cloud Print were visible in Chromium back in August, but there haven't been many visible changes since.

Until last night -- when the Cloud Print Proxy service appeared as an option in Chromium's about:labs page. Once enabled, a new option is added to your wrench menu > options > under the hood. Right near the bottom, you'll see:

 

 

TinEye is a slick "reverse lookup" tool that helps you find similar images from a source. It's the kind of thing that would be handy to be able to access from your browser's context menu: see an image you want to search, right click it, and get your results!

Firefox users have been able to add this functionality for a while [addon link], and now Google Chrome users have an option as well. A new extension adds a TinEye-powered 'search similar' entry to your Chrome context menu. You can see it popped up on my glorious foreground image of Earthworm Jim -- and TinEye's bevy of similar images peeking out around the edge.

I can see myself using TinEye reverse search quite often, really -- to find a higher-quality version of an image, for example. It's a welcome power-up for my right clicks.

 

Remoting -- which looks to be Google Chrome's answer to RDP and Terminal Services computing -- has taken yet another step toward its inevitable debut. In recent Chromium snapshot builds, Remoting now appears on the about:labs page.

However, unlike the other Labs options -- like side tabs, tabbed settings, and Instant -- Remoting still isn't usable. After enabling and restarting Chromium, you'll be able to hit set up remoting under the wrench menu. A login box will appear, but that's as far as you'll get.

It's safe to assume that an actual Google or Chromium.Org account (internal, not the ones you and I use) is required at this point, but with Remoting cropping up in Labs it shouldn't be too much longer before we're able to take the feature for a test drive.

 

The fact that Google Chrome supports extensions is great, but there's one thing I'd like tweaked: those somewhat-frightening messages Chrome displays about an extensions API access.

For example, there's Typing Speed Monitor which I recently posted. When you install it, you'll receive the following alerts:

...which certainly might look scary to the average user. TSM's developer happened to stop by a post a comment to allay those fears, stating the alerts appear "because the extension needs to use the chrome.tab.* API (which gives it access to the URL's you visit) and it needs to use "content_scripts", which are injected into HTML pages and can manipulate their DOM elements."

There's nothing to fear, however, because your data isn't going anywhere: "[Typing Speed Monitor] can't give that data to anyone else because it doesn't have permission to access other hosts."

Still, the alerts are offputting and even give more seasoned surfers cold feet when installing an extension -- which is where the alert above comes in. Michael Gundlach, who maintains AdBlock for Chrome, used Chrome's extension update support to push a reassuring note to its users about an upcoming change.

I've seen the "requires more permissions" alert before from an extension, but I haven't seen a dev take the time to explain to users what's going on. It's a smart, thoughtful move by Gundlach. Until Chrome offers more insightful (and accurate) alerts, developers might want to follow this example to avoid accidentally scaring their users.

 

System admins generally aren't fond of rolling out new software to their users if they don't have a measure of control over what those users can and can't do with the app in question. Google knows that, and they've been working for a while now to add enterprise-friendly policy support to Chrome.

Now, Google has made policy templates available for download which provide a measure of lockdown functionality. As you can see, after importing the .ADM files into the Windows Group Policy Editor you'll be able to manage a handful of Chrome settings via a local machine policy.

A default home page and proxy settings can be configured and Chrome Sync can be blocked, but the bulk of the options are related to background communications with Google (alternate error pages, DNS prefetch, crash reporting, suggestions, etc.). There are a few things missing right now. For example, while I can choose to disable certain plug-ins, there's no switch to disallow extension installs. I'd also like to disable Chrome's autofill feature, but it, too, is missing.

Google has also provided a separate template for managing Google Update options, which provides policy-based control over which Google Apps can install via the updater.

Providing this type of application control was a key step if Google had any hopes of wresting away enterprise market share from Internet Explorer. Now that it's here, it will be interesting to see if Chrome can make inroads in the workplace.

 

Google will be throwing open the doors to the Chrome Web Store some time in the coming months, and they're currently preparing for a whirlwind global tour to sing the praises of HTML5 and Chrome. On the tour, the Web Store will be a frequent topic of discussion and they've recently announced a couple important additions to the Store's developer preview.

Google Checkout payments are now supported, and developers can sign up for a merchant account on their dashboard page. Page previews have now been added -- so you can see how your app will look in the Store prior to publishing. Pages can be customized with header images and Google is also allowing devs to upload their own promotional banners (they'll be displayed when your app is feature in the store).

One downside for developers hoping to sell their apps in the Web Store is that Google Checkout might be the only payment option. Checkout still isn't available in that many countries, so international devs looking to deliver localized Web apps will have to wait for Google to make good on their expansion promises.

ed note: it's become an expected part of app stores, but as you can see in the screenshot the Chrome Web Store will offer recommendations based on what other users install.

 

Instapaper is a great way to save all of those Web pages you encounter that you can't read right now. Their official bookmarklet is handy for adding items to your queue, but you have to click through to the page before you can utilize it. Wouldn't it be nice if you had the option of right-clicking a link to send a page to Instapaper instead?

If Google Chrome is your browser of choice, the Send to Instapaper extension is exactly what you're after. Rather than merely replacing a bookmarklet with a browser action button, this extension adds an entry to your context menu. Right-click a link that you'd like to check out later on, and it's added to your queue.

You'll need to be signed in to your Instapaper account first, as the extension doesn't store your username or password.

 

I haven't been using a dual-monitor setup for long, so I'm still figuring out how to work with all the extra pixels I now have at my disposal. Since I spend a good portion of my time working in a web browser and that browser happens to be Google Chrome, I think QuickShift is going to become one of my most-used extensions.

What does QuickShift do? It allows you to move your current tab to a different Chrome using a hotkey combination: Ctrl+Alt+Right/Left arrow . Often when I'm writing I need to pop a source article over to my secondary monitor, and this is an incredibly elegant way to do it.

QuickShift also adds Windows 7-style tab switching. In the same way that you can tap Win+[a number] to launch or switch to an application on your taskbar, QuickShift allows you to change tabs in Chrome by pressing Ctrl+Alt+[1-9]. Like most Google Chrome extensions which interact with your tab, you'll need to reload any active tabs before you can utilize QuickShift.

Now if only someone would pay me a nickel for every millisecond I save by not tearing tabs off and dragging them to my "reference" monitor...

 

The Tracktor's website is an incredible tool for those of us who shop on Amazon.com frequently. Over the weekend, Tracktor introduced a new Google Chrome extension which automatically adds their historical pricing data to Amazon product pages as you browse.

Both new and used price history is displayed, and the extension also adds a notification box to the right side of the Amazon page. Set your target price, specify new or used, and Tracktor will let you know when it's time to buy!

 

Just unveiled a few days back, Google Scribe's autocomplete superpowers are now available via the Chrome Extensions Gallery. Sure, a pair of developers beat Google to the punch and released their own interpretations first, but most users will probably opt for the official version from the Mountain View crew.

So is the Chrome extension any different from the bookmarklet? It does seem to be a bit faster -- if I slow down my normal typing speed slightly, Scribe actually gets a chance to make the occasional suggestions. It's using the same JavaScript back-end provided by Google Apps, so why it's faster I can't say for sure. Perhaps it makes requests via Google's SPDY protocol instead of HTTP?

Either way, I still find that Scribe just isn't all that handy for competent, speedy typists. You'll have moved on to your next word long before suggestions ever appear in most cases.

For Chrome users who type at a more modest rate of speed, however, the Scribe extension may very well be worth installing. If you find autcomplete helpful while texting on your cell phone, Scribe is probably right up your alley.

One gripe: the default activation hotkey is Ctrl+J -- which is the same sequence used to access Chrome's downloads page. How about making this customizable, Google?

One additional gripe: if you're typing into a field which already auto-suggests (such as tag fields on various Web apps like wordpress), Scribe could give you some grief. Make sure you turn it back off before typing in such fields.

Bonus points to the commenter who submits the most LOL-worthy comment created entirely with Google Scribe!