In a step to help browser-based apps catch up with the abilities of other software, Google has made it possible for programmers to push notifications to Web apps running in Chrome.
On Thursday, Google enabled a service called Google Cloud Messaging for Chrome (GCM) that brings push notifications to its browser and to Chrome OS, its browser-based operating system. Mark Scott, a Google product manager, announced the service in a blog post.
The technology means that servers can send a message -- a stock price alert or news item, for example -- that triggers an action in the browser. To use the service, developers' own servers send a message to Google's GCM server, which then communicates with Chrome, which then communicates with the developers' Chrome extension or Chrome app, which takes the appropriate action like popping up a notification or opening a particular Web page.
