Today’s beta release of Chrome enables users to sync different accounts across multiple computers. This allows more than one person to sign into Chrome on a shared computer and have access to all their browser data. It also enables one person to have different Chrome profiles with different email addresses, e.g. work and personal, that can all be accessed from any computer by logging in.
Chrome currently syncs bookmarks, extensions, passwords and other personalized settings to the user’s Google account. Signing into Chrome from anywhere, on any computer, will bring up the user’s browser, just like at home. But the current stable release only allows one account. Today’s beta makes it possible to use multiple Chrome accounts on any copy of the browser.
Multiple Accounts Is The New Feature
The Chrome team’s blog post makes sync itself sound like a new feature, which it isn’t exactly. Chrome added syncing of different pieces of the browser at different times over the last two years. But multiple account syncing is a new way of thinking about it, which is why the Chrome team reintroduced the feature today.
Google engineer Miranda Callahan told us “it’s the same sync feature; multiple accounts is the new part. The real new thing is that multiple accounts makes syncing easier, because you can now sync to separate accounts, rather than being restricted to one set of browser preferences.”
Convenience Versus Security
Google notes that this feature is built as a convenience, and that it “isn’t intended to secure your data against other people using your computer.” Since “all it takes is a couple of clicks to switch between users,” that’s just fewer steps someone would have to take to access your data. It’s a trade-off between security and convenience, but having all one’s browsing data available with just a login sure is convenient.
Which browser(s) do you use, and why do you use them? Share your thoughts in the comments.
