Chrome OS now includes Google Now in launcher, providing a customized experience

By Jon Martindale March 27, 2015

chrome os app beta google now googlenowlauncher — Google

The next version of Google’s Chrome OS launcher will push the company’s original service, its search tool, that bit more, by including a Google Now bar along the top of it. The search bar will sit right alongside shortcuts to your applications and some Google Now cards giving you information on local weather, upcoming events based on your calendar and other personal information linked to your habits and preferences. For example, the launcher might highlight a concert from a band you enjoy that’s happening near you.

Of course you’ll need to be a Chrome OS beta user and have Google Now enabled in order to reap the benefits from the answer-before-you-ask service, but if you are and you do, there’s soon to be a bunch of handy information at your finger tips.

Since the launcher is the Chrome OS’ equivalent of the start button – in that it’s the place you go when you want to do almost anything – it makes sense to have even more functions built into it. More so, since searching via Google is one of the most common tasks people complete on their PC, it’s a useful place to put Google Now. Improvements like this seem small individually, but put Google’s operating system that much closer to Windows competition.

Other new features coming as part of the update include the ability to unzip password protected files and a method of remembering the code for you; an automatic update to the system’s timezone, meaning you won’t ever need to manually tweak your date and time when traveling again, and on top of that, a number of applications have had facelifts. Do some digging to see which ones you can find with a fresh coat of paint.

What do you think of the new additions to the Chrome OS beta app launcher?

Topics

Computing Coordinator

Jon Martindale is the Evergreen Coordinator for Computing, overseeing a team of writers addressing all the latest how to…

Computing

Chrome is still a RAM killer, but this new feature would be a huge help

Google Chrome icon in mac dock.

Google’s Chrome browser is infamous for consuming a lot of RAM. While recent updates have attempted to solve this problem from a technical side, a new feature may put more of the management in the hands of the user.
With the latest beta version of Chrome Canary, users can now simply hover their mouse cursor over a tab to gain access to real-time memory usage of that specific tab.
Up until now, you had to dig into the Chrome Task Manager to see how much memory each tab is consuming. But as reported by Windows Central, the new feature would give you quick and direct access to this important information. The prototype feature was first posted on X (formerly Twitter) by user Leopeva64 and showed the tab RAM usage.

Of course, it only gives a small overview and doesn’t offer the same detailed information (such as running processes, tabs, and extensions0 as the built-in task manager.
Practically speaking, having a small indicator on the top is going to make the process of clearing unwanted tabs a lot easier. The new feature is also said to inform users about whether Chrome's Memory saver feature has actively frozen a tab to save memory similar to Microsoft Edge's Sleeping tabs feature. Of course, this feature only works when a certain tab is inactive for a long period of time.
Google is said to be testing this feature, but if you are using version 117 on the Stable Channel, you may get access to it. To enable the memory usage feature, head to Chrome://flags and search for Show memory usage in hovercards. Select the dropdown and enable it. A quick restart may also be required.
Recently, we saw Google testing on a feature that helps organize tabs in a more efficient way. Using the Organize Tabs features, the browser attempts to reorder your tabs into groups of similar pages. It even lets you rename these groups, and create tab groups automatically once it has categorized your tabs.

Computing

Google has a great idea to fix your tab chaos in Chrome

Google Drive in Chrome on a MacBook.

If you use Google Chrome and are sick of managing an unruly mass of tabs in your web browser, help may soon be at hand. That’s because Google is testing a new feature that could bring order to your tab chaos.

As spotted by Leopeva64 on X (formerly Twitter), a new edition of Google Chrome Canary (a version of Chrome that lets users test out experimental features) contains a new tool called Organize Tabs nestled in the top-left corner of the browser.