thechromesource – Google Chrome and Chrome OS News and Forum

The Google + Chrome App- It Does Nothing

Posted on 01. Aug, 2011 by Nicholas Greene in Chrome, News

Some of you might have heard talk of a Google + App for Chrome that’ll somehow let you access the site, shunting the whole invite process, and ignoring the various workarounds available for it. Most notably, the app was mentioned in this blog post. According to the post, you can download the app, use it to access Google’s site and then sign in with your Google Account to sign up for Google +. That sounds pretty awesome, doesn’t it? It also sounds too good to be true, right?

That’s because it is.

The Chrome application in question is one of two identical apps, neither of them official. All they do is provide a link to plus.google.com. That’s it. I’m not sure why there are two of them, or why anyone thought to provide an app that does pretty much the same thing dragging a URL onto the quickbar would accomplish- it all seems a little strange to me. What’s strange is that, apparently, the method described on Tech18(Install the app, use it to access the site, log in) actually worked for some people. That was back at the beginning of the month, though- I doubt it’ll work now.

If you folks are really desperate to try out Google +, here’s a workaround that actually, well…works. I’ve managed to get about ten of my friends onto the service with it.  I’m pretty certain, given the amount of press surrounding this workaround, that Google’s already aware of it, too. They’re probably leaving it up so that anyone who does manage to get into the service gains some small degree of pride at ‘outsmarting’ the search giant.  And a lot of you probably think I’m paranoid for believing that.

Fact is, the alternative truth is that Google’s uncharacteristically clueless about a rather large hole in the coding of their latest pet project. Which do you think is more likely?

via Tech18

Tags: Chrome applications, get into Google +, Google, Google + beta, Google + Invite