Google Now notification cards land in Chrome beta

Google has updated the beta version of its Chrome browser for Mac and Windows with Google Now notification cards.

Google Now was launched on Android 4.1 as a personal assistant to track calendar appointments, flight information, emails, news, sports scores, traffic, stocks, and more. It can answer questions through natural language, and was even named by Popular Science as the "Innovation of the Year" for 2012. Google Now was launched on iOS in April 2013 and now Google wants desktop users to reap the benefits as well.

Within the beta version of Chrome, Google Now is enabled when you sign-in on the same account you're using for Google Now on Android or iOS. Notifications can be viewed on the desktop by clicking the bell icon on your Mac or Windows desktop or the numbered box on ChromeOS to open the Chrome notification center.

The first glimpse of Google Now on the desktop was through a bit of hacking in January. Now it's even easier to get going.

Google has continuously added new cards, alerts, and notification features to Google Now since launch. The company has also been working on Chrome integration for Google Now since at least last summer.

Google didn't provide word on when the functionality might be available in the version of Chrome available to all users, but it shouldn't be too much longer. Google Now notifications in Chrome will be available only in English initially, with other languages supported soon, the company said.

Missing is a sync option for Google Now between the desktop and phone, so if you swipe away a notification on one, you don't have to see it on the other. Nonetheless, if you want to give Google Now a try on the desktop, you can download the Chrome beta from Google's website.