Google Gussies Up Chrome Browser For Business Use
Google said the launch last week of new Google Chrome features and updates that made Google Chrome more secure got the corporate world excited about how businesses can leverage the browser capabilities of Chrome while being able to configure and customize it.
"The good news is that businesses don’t need to wait any longer to deploy Google Chrome. Today, we’re announcing that Chrome offers controls that enable IT administrators to easily configure and deploy the browser on Windows, Mac, and Linux according to their business requirements," Google Chrome Product Manager Glenn Wilson and Software Engineer Daniel Clifford wrote Tuesday in a blog post showcasing Chrome's business capabilities.
To ease Google Chrome's infiltration into the business world, Google has launched an MSI installer, which lets businesses that use standard deployment tools install Chrome for all of their managed users. Google also added support for managed group policy with a list of policies and a set of templates so admins can customize browser settings to manage security and privacy. And for older Web applications that aren't yet updated for Google Chrome, Google added group policy support to Google Chrome Frame, a Microsoft Internet Explorer plug-in that provides Chrome-quality rendering while also defaulting to host rendering for Web applications that require Explorer.
The browser version of Google Chrome, which has many of the same capabilities as Google's upcoming Chrome OS, is another move by Google to take on Microsoft in the enterprise. Chrome lets users access applications built on HTML5 and AJAX. Offering Chrome in the browser also enables Google to be installed on existing Windows PCs without the requirement for businesses to swap out their machines or OSs.
Wilson's and Clifford's blog post said Google is offering phone and e-mail support for the new administrative features in Google Chrome to Google Apps for Business admins as part of their Google Apps deployment. Google said that non-Apps for Business users can also deploy Chrome inside their businesses.
According to Google, the new administrative controls inside the Google Chrome browser are the first of many updates with businesses in mind.
"What we've built is just the start of what we'd like to offer businesses with Google Chrome," Wilson and Clifford wrote. "We're excited by the features built so far, and we're working hard on polishing the next set of policies that will make Google Chrome even more customizable and useful to users in the future."