14 DAY TRIAL // Google seems to think that the only piece of software you still need is your browser. Everything else is online. That's the main idea behind Chrome OS. But it's not even content with that, Google wants the browser to be linked to the cloud as well and Chrome's sync features are a perfect example of that.
So far, Google has been working on making more things inside Chrome sync to the cloud. Settings, bookmarks, even AutoFill data is sent back to the cloud and then synced to any device that you're using.
At this point, Google has most of Chrome's features and data covered, with a few notable exceptions. So it's moving to other peoples' data as well, with the extension data sync API.
Code for the API has just landed in Chromium and early Chrome builds. Once complete, the API will enable developers to sync the local settings of extensions across browsers.
This will mean that you won't have to configure your favorite add-ons on each browser you use every time.
Granted, there hasn't been a huge need for such an API. So far, most extensions try to keep local settings to a minimum, partly to not force users to spend a lot of time configuring them every time they install them.
At the same time, developers could have implemented their own cloud sync solution, thought this would have been harder and more complex than it's worth for most extensions.
Recently, Google Chrome has started to sync installed extensions as well, so you don't have to install all of them over and over again. The extension sync API is another step forward.
That said, there is one big thing missing from the cloud sync support in Google Chrome, open tab sync. What's interesting is that Google has been working on it for a lot of time and has experimented with the idea for for more than a year now. For whatever reason, it hasn't implemented it yet.