Google Makes Chrome Browser Logins Official
Google Makes Chrome Browser Logins Official
Posted 12/13/2011 at 3:55pm
| by Ryan Whitwam
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After months of trials and tweaking in the Chrome experimental and beta channels, Google has finally added multi-account logins to Chrome’s official build. The feature is now called “Sign in to Chrome,” but was previously being called Chrome Sync. Users will have the option to authorize any copy of Chrome they use to pull down bookmarks, web history, extensions, and more.
The feature is nestled in Chrome’s not too obvious settings menu under the wrench icon. The default setting is to sync everything, but users can exclude some data if need be. Any change made on one connected client will be replicated on the others instantly. This applies to the desktop program, ChromeBooks, and the Android 4.0 browser. Multiple profiles are also possible with the new update.
Users can switch profiles on the fly to get to the individual user profiles. Google also offers to encrypt all the data that is stored in the cloud, but the default setting is only to encrypt passwords. Have you signed into Chrome?
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haboh
December 14, 2011 at 9:32am
Doesn't sound very usefull. I browse different things at home and at work, and on my laptop and have no need for it to sync up. In fact half the stuff on my home browers would hit the firewall at work and get logged by IT (no, game stuff, not NSFW stuff..). Extension sync is a little more usefull though
theplustwo
December 14, 2011 at 10:19am
I could see using it at home, so when a family member wants to use a shared machine they can switch to their profile instead of logging me out of GMail and Facebook and such to check their stuff. You can set up separate Windows accounts, but that's a lot more to manage, and usually people won't bother to log out of Windows and switch accounts if they "just want to check a couple things."
Obviously at work everything's managed by the domain and I'm the only one who uses my account and browser on this machine, so it wouldn't be useful there.
My guess is that this feature is probably really driven by Chrome OS, where it is likely the only real account switching that needs to occur, since the browser is the OS.
livebriand
December 13, 2011 at 10:29pm
I don't quite trust google't privacy track record, plus I prefer firefox's addons. Really, as long as you download the addon compatibility reporter, it's completely fine. I uninstalled chrome a little while ago and won't be going back.
Holly Golightly
December 13, 2011 at 10:06pm
I have not signed into Chrome. To be honest with you, Chrome is not my primary browser. I use FireFox mostly as it has the better extentions. I do like the idea of having a cloud option to save... Just don't force me to log in to use the browser.
someone87
December 14, 2011 at 5:46am
Not sure what all these extensions are that people keep talking about with FF.
I use vanilla Chrome, and have never needed additional functionality.
Maybe I am a simple user, maybe I just don't mess with things too much, maybe I don't know what I am missing, but vanilla Chrome simply rocks.
bugmenot1234
December 14, 2011 at 7:14am
vanilla eh. they have lime builds now for chrome os.. anyway.. yes you don't know what you're missing and/or are a simple user. Nothing wrong with being a simple user.
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