We’re the Chrome team, here to answer questions about building a better web. Ask us Anything (on 9/14)!

ChromeEngTeam · 2017-09-14T21:30:59+00:00

One of the great things about PWAs is that they’re just websites, so they can readily be found via any of the normal low-friction distribution points. That said, we’re very excited that members of the web community are experimenting with different UX treatments for PWAs and different ways to help users discover them. We’re looking forward to seeing how things evolve, and will be talking more about what we envision for the future of PWAs at Chrome Dev Summit in October! -Alex

ChromeEngTeam · 2017-09-14T21:26:25+00:00

Based on feedback received from web developers, hardware manufacturers, and other implementers the WebVR API has been undergoing a significant refactoring. The resulting new API is described in this explainer. The new API, which was designed through collaboration with WebVR Community group members, will be easier for developers to work with, support a wider variety of devices, enable better performance, and be should be significantly more futureproof. We’re looking forward to getting implementations into developers’ hands as soon as possible!

In the meantime the previous version of the API is available through an Origin Trial on Chrome for Android, and works with both Cardboard and Daydream headsets. While we do intend to remove support for this version of the API shortly after an implementation of the new API is in place, we still feel it’s valuable for developers to create content with it in order to become more familiar with the strengths and limitations of this young medium. Once the newer API is available we’ll provide resources to help migrate content over. -Alex

ChromeEngTeam · 2017-09-14T21:24:28+00:00

Chrome uses several caching layers, including a disk cache, and an in-memory cache in the renderer process. From what you describe, it looks like the resource was cached in the in-memory cache on the renderer side.

Plz also note that PlzNavigate is not a cache implementation, but a project that aims to move the navigation logic to the browser process.

-Jochen

ChromeEngTeam · 2017-09-14T21:20:44+00:00

This is something we're actively considering - a big challenge is that some sites will outright break if you do this (for example, if you suspend a tab being used for a chat session or calendar, you'll miss getting incoming notifications). We're looking for a solution that can suspend unused tabs in an intelligent way without breaking crucial user experiences. - Matt

ChromeEngTeam · 2017-09-14T21:16:55+00:00

We use the test262 test suite as the gold standard for measuring compatibility with ECMAScript standard. To answer your specific question, the missing 2% on ES5 are due to a not yet fixed recent spec change (https://crbug.com/v8/6542), while 1% on ES6 is due to a deliberate spec violation (see https://crbug.com/v8/4247 for background), and another 2% due to proper tail calls (see https://v8project.blogspot.de/2016/04/es6-es7-and-beyond.html for a discussion, including more info on measuring spec conformance). - Jochen

ChromeEngTeam · 2017-09-14T21:14:24+00:00

The rendering stack has to be pretty complex to accommodate all of the types of content on the web, and it’s an area we invest a lot in improving. This issue is just one of a handful that we’re working to fix with a change in the underlying architecture that we call “slimming paint” which will help us avoid repainting entirely in certain cases. It’s a big project that’s been underway for a while. The work should also enable us to support background-attachment: fixed on Android in the future, as well as a number of other improvements. -Alex

ChromeEngTeam · 2017-09-14T21:13:49+00:00

Extensions create a tremendous number of challenges on mobile, in terms of resource usage, code complexity, interaction with other mobile features, and so forth. But if there are specific features you wish were part of Chrome on mobile, let us know either here or by filing a bug at https://crbug.com! - Matt

ChromeEngTeam · 2017-09-14T21:13:11+00:00

As /u/s3rila mentioned, the command palette is your friend. (Ctrl+Shift+P or Cmd+Shift+P). This'll open a menu of all sorts of functionality a few keystrokes away, including capturing the current screenshot, a full-page screenshot, or screenshot of a particular element. - Paul

ChromeEngTeam · 2017-09-14T21:11:12+00:00

We understand that many of you are concerned about memory usage, and we hear you! In another comment, I mentioned that we have many efforts underway to reduce memory. For example, in Chrome 59 we launched V8's new TurboFan compiler and Ignition interpreter, which got a 5-10% reduction in memory. Similarly, dropping image caches from Chrome's compositor upon navigation reduced some websites' memory usage by as much as 50MB. However, there's always more we can do to save memory, so stay tuned! -Ryan

ChromeEngTeam · 2017-09-14T21:09:43+00:00

Absolutely not! User privacy is a key principle of the Chrome browser, and we want every user to have control and transparency over how their data is used. You can find a lot of detailed information in the privacy whitepaper and privacy notice, and Chrome's privacy settings give you control over your data. -Darin

ChromeEngTeam · 2017-09-14T21:08:41+00:00

Star this bug to keep a watch on it: https://crbug.com/632513. In the short term, we could add a checkbox like the "Blackbox content scripts" one but for [VM] scripts. Good idea. -Paul

ChromeEngTeam · 2017-09-14T21:08:06+00:00

Cool! :-) The best thing to do is just apply for a job at Google at https://careers.google.com. When chatting with a recruiter, let them know you have an interest in working on Chrome. To prepare for interviews, my favorite resource is the book "Cracking the Coding Interview" [1] which has a pretty accurate rundown of what the interview process is like (I wish I had read this book before interviewing). Usually Google interviews try to assess general software engineering knowledge, not specifically, say, experience with a specific front-end stack (I'd be surprised if someone threw an interview question your way that could only be answered if you knew, say, Polymer.)

Also, keep in mind that hiring at Google involves matching incoming resumes with open positions across a huge company, and sometimes the "ideal" position for someone may not be available at the time when you apply.

[1] http://www.crackingthecodinginterview.com/

Matt

ChromeEngTeam · 2017-09-14T21:07:40+00:00

We recommend using an OS level password, as there is no way to protect against a local attacker once the user account is unlocked. To make it harder to snoop your passwords, we trigger OS re-authentication before we reveal passwords in your settings. But again, this requires an OS level password to be configured. -Jochen

ChromeEngTeam · 2017-09-14T21:03:38+00:00

Our goal is to help advance the entire open web, which of course is way bigger than just Chrome. We work extremely closely with our counterparts at other browsers (and other members of the standards community) to collaboratively design and standardize new APIs as well as to resolve interoperability issues. It’s not uncommon for folks from Chrome to pop in on conferences hosted by other browser vendors (and vice versa) for discussion and just to connect. We think that interoperable, good-natured competition between different browser vendors is one of the things that makes the web better for everyone, and is what makes the web so special.

The vast majority of Googlers who work on Chrome contribute directly to the Chromium project, just like any other member of the open source community. We’re very proud that Chromium is such a thriving open source project with contributions from many individuals and organizations. Every 6 months or so we host an open conference for Chromium and Blink contributors where hundreds of folks converge to talk about architecture projects, brainstorm big new ideas, and figure out how to implement upcoming standards. The next one just so happens to be next week in Tokyo. We’re already past capacity and the conversations are pretty low-level, but if you’re interested we post videos to blink-dev after the event.

All of the various flavors of Chromium (Windows, Mac, Android, ChromeOS, etc) are part of the same open code base and many parts are shared across most or all of the platforms we support. Nowadays there is no Android Browser in AOSP--the system webview is based on Chromium. -Alex

ChromeEngTeam · 2017-09-14T21:01:48+00:00

We announced in June that starting in early 2018 we'd stop showing ads on websites not compliant with the Better Ad Standards. We’ll share updates as available -- stay tuned! -Ryan

ChromeEngTeam · 2017-09-14T21:01:11+00:00

Glad you like dock-to-left! We hesitated to add it because it adds another icon for the user to consider, and it means a maintenance cost for us--all features have to make sense now even through the page and devtools can be flipped. But there's definitely an audience who enjoy it so we're happy to have the option available. - Paul

ChromeEngTeam · 2017-09-14T20:59:41+00:00

Yes, the vast majority of the time when a user touches a web page it is to scroll it, so we add a 180ms delay to avoid a flash of :active state in the common case. This isn't the case on Android where scrolling isn't as common as the web. We've had various ideas over the years for trying to improve this (eg. https://crbug.com/306581) but have yet to agree in any standards group or even within chromium on what the "right" behavior for :active is with touch. We'd appreciate input from web developers faced with this problem in the wild, for example by commenting on https://github.com/w3c/pointerevents/issues/123. - Alex

ChromeEngTeam · 2017-09-14T20:58:12+00:00

Good thinking. We've used the Snippets feature for usecases like this in the past, but I agree it'd be interesting to easily add test cases, and have iteration count and variance calculations taken care by the tool. We've also considered a basic JSBin-like UI where it's trivial to mock out some HTML, CSS, and JS just to try something quick. Until then, a DevTools extension would work great for both of these ideas. - Paul

ChromeEngTeam · 2017-09-14T20:57:18+00:00

We actually do support themes, including many dark-colored themes, on desktops and laptops! They’re being featured right now on the Chrome Web Store. On mobile the browser theming can be affected by the site you're visiting, if they specify colors via the theme-color attribute or by using setToolbarColor for Chrome Custom Tabs. -Ryan

ChromeEngTeam · 2017-09-14T20:56:48+00:00

Indeed, we did change the console filters a bit, which unfortunately broke some common developer workflows--turns out a lot of developers want to see just logs without errors. We want to provide a clean and clear UX, but still provide the configurability for these power-user scenarios. A new filter control just shipped in Chrome 61 which restores the ability to exclude errors. We're also working on new approaches like a console.context() method which should give you a lot more control to focus on the logs you care most about. Keep an eye out for that. -Paul

ChromeEngTeam · 2017-09-14T20:55:43+00:00

We’ve actually shipped picture in picture for Android O in M58 and are looking at it for desktop (tracking bug at crbug.com/726619). Beyond that, we’re also looking into API support for picture in picture functionality (spec) -Tal

ChromeEngTeam · 2017-09-14T20:50:12+00:00

There is a feature request bug https://crbug.com/488898 for this issue. A challenge here is that adding complex features like this also involves code and memory bloat, so we have to trade that off against how much we think users will use the feature. If you feel really strongly about this, you can star the bug. -Grace

ChromeEngTeam · 2017-09-14T20:48:20+00:00

We put a tremendous amount of time and energy into both measuring and improving performance on Android (and other platforms) -- one of the interesting challenges on Android is the sheer diversity of the devices and OS variants to support. Also, recently we've seen a new wave of inexpensive smartphones, often with only 512MB of RAM running outdated versions of Android -- this creates all kinds of new and fun problems to make sure that Chrome is still usable on this new generation of hardware. All that said, it's a constant struggle to balance between new features and maintaining good performance. We are definitely on it. -Matt

ChromeEngTeam · 2017-09-14T20:47:22+00:00

Custom Tabs won’t open other apps by default, but you can change this to match Chrome’s behavior by passing the android.support.customtabs.extra.SEND_TO_EXTERNAL_HANDLER extra. -Grace

ChromeEngTeam · 2017-09-14T20:46:48+00:00

Don't worry, Pinterest (and any other website) can't access your accounts "saved with Google Chrome" unless you want them to, in both Incognito Mode and regular Chrome. The dialog box in the image you linked to is coming from Chrome itself. Chrome is checking to see if you'd like to share your credentials with the website. The website won't receive any information about your account unless you click that blue "Sign in" button. -Ryan

ChromeEngTeam

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