I have a dual boot machine, a Win 7 Home (and this is for my family usage and if I want to test apps using iTunes) and a Ubuntu (which serves as my primary development machine).
When Google Chrome updated on my Windows 7 OS, the people manager module seemed pretty nifty.
So now, I do not have to bother about being encumbered with the same set of plug-ins on the browser that the other members of my family use. More importantly, I can switch between two profiles (one for Dev, the other for Marketing which ostensibly uses a lot more Google Chrome extensions).
So what’s new?
Power users of Google Chrome would be quick to point out that all of these functionalities existed even previously. So what’s new with this version?
Well, you see power users have been using these functionalities all along, but now even a lay person (the mango man) can start using these facilities. I can for an instance leave my user session logged in and my wife can just switch to her profile on the same user session.
This is done via the new widget at the top of the browser window.
In a nutshell, it’s a small usability feature that has been rolled out, but this small feature enables families to have a more custom experience while browsing the net.
Families
A family that stays connected, stays together. With the advent of Watsapp, Facebook, I am in touch with almost all of my family (barring a few pesky cousins! :-D).
These days, we share the internet at our home with everyone. When my wife wants the kids to pay attention to what she is saying (and this is for the more important things), we switch of the internet. The rest of the times, everyone has their own handheld devices.
A shared browser such as Google Chrome addresses the needs of such families pretty effectively!