Today I'm going to talk about something which rolled out quietly on Monday but got little press coverage mostly due Marissa Mayer leaving Google to become Yahoo's new CEO on the same day. Anyway the developer version of Google Chrome got an update which is not such a big deal as it happens every few weeks but one of the most interesting new features was a new type of extension or app it allows.
When people think of browser plugins they think of extensions like Add Blockers, screen capture plugins, Gmail and Facebook notifications, extensions that aid in search or bookmarking. All pretty simple and basic stuff.
A few months ago Google introduced Browser Apps which allowed stuff like Gmail and Google documents to operate offline. Games could also be played with these new apps but on Monday Google introduced something completely new - Packaged Apps.
These apps are like browser plugins that can escape and run free from the browser. They can launch directly and look and feel like regular native software, not a browser. Added to this they can run C and C+, have access to things like bluetooth, USB and other parts regular pugins don't. Google has for some time allowed extensions and tabs to run independently unlike other browsers so if one tab crashes the whole browser doesn't. This means these packaged apps which can also run in the background won't interfere with your regular computer experience.
What does this mean? Well it opens up a whole new world of potential for packaged apps. Software like Autoposters, Download and file managers, Communication apps like MSN, Skype, media players, etc could all operate through the browser but like native software does. You now just code it for Chrome as a Packaged App and it will work on Windows, Mac, LynxOS, Android, etc. It will really help Google's ChromeOS which doesn't allow you to install software. It could sync across all your devices when you sign into chrome and as it's a browser plugin it's also the way Mozilla's FireFox, Safari and Opera are going so has the potential to work on these too in the future.
While it's still really early and only in developer stage and will be a few more weeks before it hits stable release the future is promising and the possibilities are really endless for these apps.
