14 DAY TRIAL // Google is taking one of its big features, Google Now, and it is trying to integrate it into the web browser. Chrome Canary is currently featuring the popular cards, which we can only hope will survive and be integrated into the stable version of the browser.
Chrome Canary is an early development version of Google’s browser that is updated daily with the latest features. It’s usually developers and early adopters that actually use Canary, so they’re quick to pick out the faulty features.
The Google Now tool can be enabled by going to chrome://flags/#enable-google-now and switching from “Default” to “Enabled” and relaunching Chrome.
If you’re signed into Chrome, the Google Now notification should be displayed, along with a list of cards. These can be seen via the Chrome notification interface that’s available both on Windows and Mac.
“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 writes about the new feature.
Google Now is the company’s intelligence personal assistant that provides information based on location, interests and search history.
It was unveiled on June 27, 2012 and has since received multiple updates and additional integration of various services that Google can provide. For instance, it’s possible to get information from Gmail, such as flight data, package tracking information, hotel reservations and more.
The tool is quite helpful and has been praised by Android users, so bringing it to the desktop would get Google a lot of thumbs-up.
It remains to be seen whether Google Now will even survive Canary, but it’s clear that it’s going to be a while before we can hope for it to be added to the stable browser version.