Google Now Arrives In Chrome For Windows and Mac

An anonymous reader writes "Google today announced Google Now is coming to the Chrome stable channel for Windows and Mac 'starting today and rolling out over the next few weeks.' This means Google Now notifications will finally be available to desktop and laptop Chrome users, in addition to Android and iOS users. To turn the feature on, all you need to do is sign in to Chrome with the same Google Account you're using for Google Now on mobile. If you use Google Now on multiple devices, you will need to manage your location settings for each device independently (change Location Reporting on Android and iOS)."

Re:Watch out

[mystikkman]

Google will track which stores you visit if you turn on Google Now on your Android phone.

http://digiday.com/platforms/g... [digiday.com]

Not just Android phones, even iOS devices.

If iOS users open their Chrome, Gmail or Google Maps app in a store, their location can be deemed a store visit

Even the Gmail app snoops on you. Why does it need your location? Sigh.

I am so glad I dumped Chrome

[Anonymous Coward]

Interface changes, surprisingly bloaty, crashed all the time... I've been using Chrome since it launched in 2008 and watched it slide from a fast, albeit memory heavy app with no cruft to a confusing, massively bloated, unstable beast that gets worse with every iteration.

I went back to Firefox everywhere except my workstation and the change has been night and day.

Google can suck it for all I care

Re:WTF is Google Now?

[Khoa]

It's a location-driven, search-driven, email-driven user interface that reads your, well 1) searches, 2) emails/contacts/birthdays/meetings, and 3) location and delivers you what it thinks will be the most relevant information to you. Have an Amazon package? It will read your email from Amazon, parse the tracking info, and display the tracking info for you. Read a blog recently? It will display the latest blog post as soon as it's updated. Searched for "March Madness"? It'll display scores, game broadcast times, ticket prices, etc. Searched for "Frozen showtimes"? It'll display showtimes at the nearest theaters. I'm not saying it isn't creepy. But the service is pretty neat...

Re:Google Now scares the living

[Anonymous Coward]

Creepy, but useful.

It all comes down to how much you trust Google. For me, I trust them enough. At least they show enough respect to let you turn it off. That's a lot more than I can say about the NSA. (Plus, Google doesn't have SWAT teams ready to smash down my door at 3am).