Good news for Chrome users:  A Netflix plugin for Chrome and Chrome OS is ready to be released. This is based on the reports that are coming in over at the Chromium site.

This upcoming Netflix plugin will enable the streaming of movies via HTML5 technology, rather than Microsoft’s Silverlight software, which requires the user to download and install it onto their computer -something you’ll only be able to do in limited functions with Chrome OS.

Netflix has been working for quite a while to implement HTML5 for its video streaming. Back in December 2010, Netflix stated its plans to implement the technology, convinced it would lead to a better user experience.

John Ciancutti, VP of Personalization Technology at Netflix, explained Netflix’s decision to pursue HTML5 technology in this way: “The technology is delivered from Netflix servers every time you launch our application. This means we can constantly update, test and improve the experience we offer….Our customers don’t have to go through a manual process to install new software every time we make a change, it ‘just happens.’”

The release is conveniently coming in time for the release of the new Chrome OS devices expected to be announced next week at Google I/O.

Considering Netflix has more subscribers than Comcast and 7% of people subscribe to Netflix, this is a big win for Chrome and Google, who is a big proponent of HTML5 technology. It is also worthwhile to note that this will also enable Linux users to enjoy Netflix as well.

UPDATE: The link to the Chromium report has been password protected. Go figure.

via ChromeStory

The GigaPan Time Machine is an “interactive panorama” that uses camera technology to capture a subject in high detail. This is yet another example of how far our browsers have come from the old days of text and links. Once again, we’re seeing a blurry line starting to form between native and web applications.

via Official Google Blog

Chrome continues to be the leading-edge browser technology, and this is ever more apparent in the fact that the newest builds of Chromium for Mac come with the Web Audio API that you can enable in the “about:flags” section in Chrome Experiments. You can get the latest Chromium for Mac build here.

Here is Web Audio’s proposal last year for WC3. Essentially, the audio tag in HTML5 is not enough to provide for complex sound capabilities. It can be used with C++ and JavaScript. Over the last year it has developed to finally be included in Chromium.

Windows and Linux versions should be available soon, but if you’re a Mac user and want to check it out head over here for some examples on how it works. Essentially it allows you to use HTML5′s canvas tags as well as 3D capabilities with WebGL to create richer web environments.

Already someone has taken the Google Translate API to allow you to talk directly to the browser, so I cannot wait to see what other interesting things are done with an addtional API such as Web Audio.

I don’t have a Mac, so sadly I’ll have to wait until the newest Chromium builds for Windows have this feature. Let us know in the comments if you find this API useful, and what you can envision it being used for!

via Peter Beverloo

Yesterday Google released a 3D graphics project called Body Browser. It allows one to take a look at the various systems of the human body up close and with great detail. You can see bones, muscles organs and so on.

The best part about Google Body Browser? It runs right in the browser.

This is a Google Labs project, and it’s clear what the aim is here: show off what HTML5 and WebGL technology can do. HTML5 is the next step in a more interactive web, and allows developers to do more in the browser. WebGL is a technology that allows for 3D rendering . It’s an API that uses the canvas tag and the best part of it is that you don’t need to plugin to run it.

The Beta channel of Chrome was recently updated to include WebGL, so if you have that channel, go ahead on check out the Body Browser. It’s a cool little piece of technology.

Hey, when are we getting Google Earth in the browser?

via ZDNet

Today’s Business Insider daily graph takes a look at the increased adoption of the use of HTML5 in online video.

As ZDNet’s Kevin Kwang deftly pointed out recently, a main differentiator for developing on Chrome OS as opposed to Android is a heavy dose of HTML, and that also means the new HTML5 tags. Yes, the two don’t share programming languages, but that is by design. Chrome OS is a webapp-only platform and video is an ever growing property on the web, which bodes well for it.

What impact do you think HTML5 will have on developing for Chrome OS versus Android?

Well, we thought perhaps the launch of Google Demo Slam would have to do with HTML5 awesomeness, and it still might, but it’s really in place to be a way for tech demos to be hyped up. Oh yeah, and the videos have to use Google technology to do so. Take a look at one of the entrants.

ReadWriteWeb is reporting that longtime Microsoft employee Chris Wilson is leaving the company to become a developer advocate for Google’s web standards. The battle between Google, Microsoft and other large tech companies for the web and thus users has been heating up, and this is another win in Google’s plan to acquire or otherwise amass the talent to compete.

There’s no doubt that Google needs quality people to promote its web platforms for developers because without them the application ecosystem could seriously falter. Companies like Apple have understood this, and have derived a great amount of success from its devices from allowing developers to profit from creating simple to use apps.

Google is currently touring around the world talking to developers about creating webapps with HTML5 for the Chrome Web Store. Wilson, who worked on the IE team for fifteen years, announced on his blog, “I’m very excited to work for a company that invests so much in making the Web platform better for developers and consumers”.

Google is trying to get web developers pumped up by going on a worldwide tour to promote HTML5 and the Chrome Web Store.

GigaOM’s Sam Dean wonders if Google has taken too long to deliver Chrome OS.

Search engine optimization firms claim that Google Instant hasn’t changed the way that we search on the web.

eWeek ponders whether Internet Explorer 9 is better than Chrome.

Here’s a chart counting the acquisitions Google has made this year, along with those of previous years.

The dev channel has been updated; Omnibox changes and wrench tweaks on Mac are part of the release.

Garrett Rogers of ZDNet calls Google’s new Voice rollout “disruptive”.

Google’s game developer advocate Mark DeLoura is leaving the company after only five months on the job.

Despite having a HTML5-based app, there are no plans right now for Google Voice on the iPhone or iPad.

Here’s a graphic that lays out all of the Google acquisitions over a nine year span.

Seeing interesting new webapps is always fun, especially if they consist of using the new interactivity of the web in ways I have not yet seen before. Witness Keylight, created by Stockholm-based developer Hakim El Hattab using JavaScript and the HTML5 canvas tag.

By double clicking on different places of Keylight, you create points that generate sounds. The “playhead” then bounces around creating a succession of notes. There are six different levels of tempo you can modify as well in the upper right. This can create a nice little ditty at best or some really terrible dirge depending on where you place the points.

Once you have perfected your masterpiece, you can share the URL with whomever you would like, since the webapp saves it as a permalink you or anyone else can return to later.

Keylight can be hard on the ol’ CPU but that’s because of the way it was coded. According to Hakim, “It does eat up a lot of CPU, mostly because the sound effects are generated/synthesized through code at runtime rather than playing audio files from the server.”

Check out Keylight right here.