RSSGoogle Chrome to sync with Google accounts
By Tim Conneally | Published August 3, 2009, 2:28 PM
Google's Chrome browser will be getting Google account synchronization, a post from Google Engineer Tim Steele in the Chromium developer group revealed today.
"A bunch of us have been working on a feature to sync user data in Chromium with a Google account," Steele said. "We have built a library that implements the client side of our sync protocol as well as the Google server-side infrastructure to serve Google Chrome users and synchronize data to their Google Account."
The sync feature will be limited to bookmark data at first, but it will eventually grow to include other browser data, developer documents say. The result would be similar to the Firefox browser extension Google discontinued last year, which synced history, persistent cookies and passwords across different machines.
"To make this sync infrastructure scale to millions of users, we decided to leverage existing XMPP-based Google Talk servers to give us 'push' semantics, rather than only depending on periodically polling for updates," the FAQ says, "Using XMPP pushes, the sync servers don't need to waste cycles for no reason."
Steele continued, "We can't wait (*really*) to work on this with the rest of the Chromium community and going even further in creating the best browzr ever! "
great sounds cool thumbs up to the developers
Score: 0
|I'm using a service far better than that at this very moment: Opera Link!
Score: 0
|So it's like Mozilla Weave for Firefox without the features, the extensibility, and the privacy?
Greeeeaaaat...
Score: 0
|Once again, it's a step toward using the Google office applications offline and uploading files when a connection is available. It's a free browser, but the money is in the services to small businesses.
Score: 0
|Don't get me wrong I enjoy Chrome's browser experience, however who in their right mind would allow Google to store their passwords on their server?! Actually, come to think of it, who in their right mind would let their browser store their passwords?
Score: 1
|Assuming, of course, that you're willing to register for a Google account and be signed into it while using Chrome. Remember that (by default, unless you specifically turn it off) Google automatically saves a history of all your Google searches while you are signed in, so if we assume that many bookmarks are based on a search result to begin with, you're already stashing some of this information on Google's servers. Now they want to reach even farther into your private information. Don't forget that Google makes the vast majority of its money on targeted ads; all other revenue is just a drop in the bucket, so it's just a matter of time before they start generating targeted ads based on your synchronized bookmarks, history, and maybe even words found in your passwords.
Score: 0
|Holy crap, more relevant ads? NOOOO!!! I mean it's bad enough that they have advertising on Google apps and services (which they already do, regardless of whether you're being "tracked"), but god forbid they actually be something I might be interested in. It will certainly make them harder to ignore (though not harder to block!).
Score: 0
|