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What could be coming tomorrow in Chrome 20

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Chrome’s Native Client powers new games (screenshots)

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Google usually celebrates a new stable Chrome release with a blog post touting its new features. But with Chrome 20 today, all we got was a long list of high-paying security bug fixes. That can’t be right.

Or at least, that can’t be all there is in Chrome 20.

If Google sticks to its approach from past years, today’s I/O keynote will focus on mobile hardware and Android, while tomorrow will be about the Web and Chrome. But what’s in Chrome 20?

Demonstrating the power of Native Client I expect a lot of talk about Native Client, which Google has been diligently sewing up the bugs for. Native Client (NaCl) is an open-source tech that allows C and C++ code to be securely run in the browser. Basically, it runs code in two protected sandboxes. This has the security benefit of cutting down on browser-based threats, but security is only part of the picture. Google wants NaCl to power Web apps to run as smoothly as natively-written programs hosted on your hard drive.

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Google demonstrated at the Game Developers Conference in March that it’s gunning for games, and that makes a lot of sense. Chrome has been one of Google’s most successful projects, going from zero to around 20 percent market share in under four years. Google’s Colt McAnlis, the Developer Advocate for Native Client, told CNET at the GDC that they’re looking at integrating games with Google+ and monetizing them, too. If the company can get people to spend cash in the browser using their browser technology, that would be an unheard-of win at a time when everybody looking to mobile and native apps.

The games demoed over the past nine months haven’t been the simplistic designs of Farmville, but rather full-on console-style rendering. It’s a play for developer attention, browser market share, and pushing the limits of the Web rolled into one.

Not all game developers have been on-board for this, though. Notably, a small handful of developers including Electronic Art/PopCap’s Bejeweled Blitz have yanked their support of Google+.

Google also has in place a nearly-seamless update system. Although Chrome 20 is available now, it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility that some features could have been held back today but pushed out in an update tomorrow.

Native Client could be huge for Google, if it gets other browsers to adopt it. Serious demonstrations of its potential could go a long way towards making that hard sale.

What about Dart? A weaker possibility is that we’ll see some announcements for Dart, Google’s new programming language that the company eventually wants to replace JavaScript. Dart has met with a mixed response, though. Microsoft outright panned it, and others weren’t pleased that it was developed without consultation from other Web standards advocates. http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-57380050-264/googles-dart-language-arrives-in-chrome-test-version/

Another strike against Dart is that it’s too soon. While development has been active — JavaScript and Dart interoperability now has a sample Maps app to test — there’s little publicly available that indicates that Dart is ready for prime time.

Of course, there will be minor feature improvements in Chrome 20, too. We know, for example, that Chrome 20 has a Chrome to Mobile option for tabs. But the big news will be the emphasis on the browser as a platform.

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via CNET Latest News http://download.cnet.com/8301-2007_4-57461962-12/what-could-be-coming-tomorrow-in-chrome-20/?part=rss&subj=latest-news2&tag=title

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