14 DAY TRIAL // Google Chrome is now almost certain to get much better support for extensions very soon, at least in the developer channel builds. After the first clues of an online extensions gallery were spotted yesterday, Google made it more or less official with the latest Chrome release, which now features links and notifiers to a still non-existent extensions gallery. What's more, Google's own sample extensions are now working on in the latest Chrome builds.
While Google doesn't say it, with the latest Chrome 4.0.249.0 ,extension support is almost fully baked both on the technology front but also in the user interface. Users will notice that the corner in the new tab page has changed and now links to an online extensions gallery. There is also a notification at the bottom, alerting users that Chrome now supports extensions and bookmark sync.
But probably the most telling clue is the fact that the extensions which Google provides as examples can now be installed with just a couple of clicks. There are three Google extensions at the moment, a Gmail checker, a feed subscriber and the BuildBot Monitor. The Gmail checker is self explanatory, it adds a small icon to the toolbar showing how many unread emails you have. The feed reader subscriber extension adds an RSS icon to the address bar when feeds are available in the page, exactly like Firefox handles the functionality. Finally, the BuildBot Monitor isn't really of any good to Chrome users, as it's designed to keep track of Chromium development.
Google Chrome has had some support for extensions for months now and it looks like the developers believe it is mature enough to introduce it to a wider audience. No doubt the extensions gallery, hinted at in the new builds, is maybe days away, but for the moment Google is staying mum. Expecting a big announcement to be coming soon though.
The latest Google Chrome 4.0.249.0 with full extensions support is available for download here.
