Google Chrome OS - FAQ

We've been getting a number of questions in reference to our 'Introducing the Google Chrome OS' blog post, and so here are a number of your most frequently asked Qs – along with our As. We'll be sure to add more to this list as popular questions come in.

Is Google Chrome OS free?
Yes – Google Chrome OS is an open source project and will be available to use at no cost.

What companies is Google working with to support Google Chrome OS?
The Google Chrome OS team is currently working with a number of technology companies to design and build devices that deliver an extraordinary end user experience. Among others, these companies include Acer, Adobe, ASUS, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, and Toshiba.

I'm a developer – how can I work with you?
Thanks for your interest. Later this year, the Google Chrome OS code will be open sourced. We're looking forward to working with the open source community and making our own small contribution to the great work being done out there. Please stay tuned.

If you are interested in a full time position as a software engineer please visit the jobs pages for the following offices and indicate that you are interested in Chrome.

• Mountain View, US
• San Francisco, US
• Kirkland, US
• Santa Monica, US
• Reston, US
• Montreal, CA
• Aarhus, DK
• London, UK
• St. Petersburg, RU
• Tokyo, JP

Posted by Sundar Pichai, VP Product Management and Linus Upson, Engineering Director

Update on 7/8/2009: We updated the list of companies we are working with.

Lost a tab? Not to worry.

Google Chrome has a lot of features that make your browsing easier, but you might not notice them all right away. This is because we've taken great care to keep our design clean, so features don't get in your way when you're not using them. A great example of this is our session restore functionality, which lets you reopen tabs and windows you recently closed. Here's how to use it:



Posted by Nick Baum, Google Chrome team

Google Update, Updated

A few months ago, we released the source code to Google Update, our software that ensures that users are using the latest and greatest version of Google Chrome. Today, we are making another improvement to Google Update such that it will run at periodic intervals, as opposed to running as a continual process. Learn more on the Open Source Blog.

Posted by Jason Toff, Google Chrome Team

Land of the Rising Chrome

Google Chrome is available in 50 languages, but that's not the only thing international about it. The browser was developed by open-source contributors and Google engineers from around the globe, including our Tokyo office.

Engineers at Google Japan developed the Navigational Suggest feature that makes it faster to get where you want to go. For example, if you type "tokyo tower" into the Omnibox, the nifty search and address bar, you'll see a suggestion that will take you directly to the landmark's official website.



Our Japanese engineers also figured out how to speed up Google Chrome's rendering of double-byte languages like Japanese, Chinese, and Korean.

Since comics (or manga) are quite popular in Japan, we thought Japanese users would enjoy a comic book about the contributions of our local team. So we created a brand new issue of our comic book in Japanese. Even if you can't read Japanese, I think you'll enjoy it.




The illustrations are by a talented Japanese artist named Yutanpo Shirane, who picked up right where the first comic left off.

Posted by Kaori Negoro and John Fu, Google Japan

Get to where you're going, faster

Google Chrome's New Tab page is designed to help you get to where you're going, faster. In the following video, I'll show you an overview of how it works and the newly added ability to remove items from the page.



Posted by Glen Murphy, Google Chrome team

Join the Google Chrome icon project

A few weeks ago, a few of us on the Google Chrome team decided to experiment with creating the Google Chrome icon out of different objects. We started off simple, using things like spoons and balloons, and eventually progressed to more elaborate creations, using stop-animation and other video effects. We even created a cake!



We know from past experience that users are the ones who come up with the coolest stuff. So with that, we now turn the challenge to YOU to make a video showing the formation of the Google Chrome icon in a big, unusual or creative way.

Imagine a bird's eye view of a parking lot with carefully arranged cars, coordinated outfits in a stadium's bleachers, a 10,000 M&M mural, etc. We are excited to see what you come up with and we'll showcase the best submissions!

Here are the details:

• You have until July 22 to submit your video
• Users from all over the world are invited to participate
• The best entries will be featured on Google & YouTube

To start you thinking, here's a quick video of our team's experiments. It also includes two great ideas from FlippyCat and Anna the Red:



To learn more and submit your video, visit google.com/chromeicon09.

Posted by Jason Toff, Google Chrome team

Get to know the Omnibox

Looking at usage statistics, we've noticed that many users don't take full advantage of the search capabilities of the Omnibox, our combined search and address bar. So we decided to make the following short video to show you the basics of how it works. I hope you enjoy!



Posted by Ben Goodger, Google Chrome team