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Google Is Building a Way To Launch Chrome Apps Without Installation

Posted by timothy on from the playing-the-long-game dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Google really wants Chrome apps to take off. Not only has the company added rich notifications, in-app payments, and an app launcher into its browser, but now it's developing ephemeral apps that launch by just clicking a link. There are two separate components here. Ephemeral apps (you can enable this under the chrome://flags/#enable-ephemeral-apps flag) let you try a Chrome app before installing it. Linkable ephemeral apps (under the chrome://flags/#enable-linkable-ephemeral-apps flag) meanwhile allow you to launch said apps from hyperlinks."

5 of 135 comments (clear)

  1. Google Chrome virtual machine? by jez9999 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Am I the only one thinking that Google are basically making Chrome into another VM? Its "apps" are programs that the Chrome VM can run, JavaScript is the main language you use to code stuff for it, but that can even be compiled into obscured JS which is about as readable as bytecode (or less), the DOM is the mechanism you use to create the UI, etc. Apart from being arguably faster, what are the fundamental differences between what Google wants Chrome to be, and Java?

    --
    == Jez ==
    Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
    1. Re:Google Chrome virtual machine? by daveime · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This. Did we learn nothing from IE6 and the ActiveX legacy?

      At a time when developers should be writing stuff that works across any browser (HTML5, CSS, JS), Chrome is trying to divide the web again with things that "only work" in their browser.

  2. Chrome Apps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Alternatively, "chrapps" for short.

  3. We all slated Windows for doing this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm as guilty as anyone else, but when MS windows did this it was a major security problem, is this really any different?
    Launch a program by clicking a link? Did we not call people retards every time they did this?

    It seems like every new platform just repeats the same crap from every previous platform. Vendor bloatware should have been the blatant warning sign.

  4. Re:Still becomes a brick. by SunTzuWarmaster · · Score: 5, Informative

    This isn't true at all... I made a "Mirror" app yesterday (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mirror-tds/fapfdhoailemkonegpjdhngmjfpmdjdj) on my Chromebook which works just as well as a "flipped webcam image" offline as it does online.

    My other app to graph relationships between objects (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tensity-grapher/keomiemppflejbjkafeaepbdhigggifd) also works offline.

    As does Google Docs (Offline), as the calculator, as does a timer, and my calendar, and many of the apps I have installed (I'm frequently offline).

    I don't have a GSM subscription (I use wifi), Google Chrome doesn't sell such a subscription (try it with your own laptop, with whatever wifi/service you have), and many apps work without internet connection.