Google Adds New Background Feature to Chrome

To be competitive, Google (News - Alert) continues to add new features to its web browser Chrome. Last week, the search engine giant announced a slew of enhancements to the beta version of Chrome 10. Besides boosting JavaScript speed, Google added new password sync features and revamped the browser setting.

On Wednesday, Google added a new background window mechanism to Chrome.

As a result, apps and extensions that use the new “background” feature can continue to run in the background—even if the user closes down all of Chrome’s windows, according to a blog post in the Chromium blog.

 “Background apps” will continue to run until Chrome exits. The next time Chrome starts up, any background windows that were previously running will also be re-launched. These windows are not going to be visible but they will be able to perform tasks like checking for server-side changes and pre-emptively loading content into local storage, as per the description in this blog.

The blogger wrote that the way to use background windows is to preload content and data so that they are immediately available when the user opens the app. Another benefit is that the browser can alert the user when important events occur. For example, a friend wants to initiate a chat session. Interestingly, there are plenty of possibilities here, and the blogger wrote “we look forward to seeing what you’ll do.” 

Obviously, there is security risk here. So to protect users’ privacy, Google has made this functionality available only to apps and extensions. Regular websites will not be able to open background windows. Developers will also need to declare the “background” capability on their apps. 

As explained, users can easily see which background apps (and extensions) are running in their system through the “Background Apps” menu of the Chrome icon in the system tray (Windows/Linux) or dock (Mac). Chrome will automatically load background components when the user logs in, and the Chrome icon will remain in the system tray or dock as long as background apps are running- even if all Chrome windows are closed, wrote the bloggers. However, to close all background components, a user just needs to exit Chrome.
Ashok Bindra is a veteran writer and editor with more than 25 years of editorial experience covering RF/wireless technologies, semiconductors and power electronics. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Charles West