Coverflow coming to Chrome OS

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 14 May 2010 at 08:55

Google is considering implementing a Coverflow interface for navigating around its forthcoming Chrome OS.

Coverflow has been a staple of Apple's iPod range for some time, and was recently introduced to Safari - allowing users to flip through their visited web pages as they would the covers of their albums on an iPod.

Although Google was keen to stress “designs are subject to change”, it appears Coverflow will make an appearance in some form, with Google considering two implementations for Chrome OS.

The first design adheres fairly closely to Apple's template, and allows users to flip through applications and web pages with "hotkeys and swiping gestures". Favicons will be displayed beneath the pages, allowing users to click these and head straight to the application.

However, Google's also considering "a lightweight version available for quick alt-tab switching."

"This would be sorted by most recently used (versus the ordered, ctrl-tab switcher) and would potentially include recently closed items from history," the development team says on the Chromium blog.

"When switching, the contents in the background would swap to match the currently selected thumbnail/icon," it concludes.

Also under consideration are application panels housing notifications, media players and chat windows. These customisable panels would float free allowing "a user to multitask without leaving the view of their current application".