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Google is working on a new project to help you watch all your streaming video services in one place.
They call it Chrome Kaleidoscope, at least for now.
Add Videos from Websites You Visit (“Watch it Later” Service?)
Update on 25-August-2020: This service will have the option to automatically add videos from websites you visit.
It reminds of me “Read it Later” services like Pocket. Is this going to a “Watch Later” service to save videos from the web so that we can watch them later?
The page also says “Your favorite sites will frequently update your Watch page with fresh, personalized videos. Chrome uses SafeSearch to filter content.”
chrome://kaleidoscope/
The new page, chrome://kaleidoscope/, is currently available on the Canary version of Google Chrome. However, this is not functional yet.
I usually get the following message when I visit this page.
“Chrome Kaleidoscope is not currently available for your account. If you are a Googler check out go/kaleidoscope-not-available for more information.”
Today, however, was different. Just before showing the same notice again, I could see two pages. This gave me a brief idea of what this project is about.
Yes, I took screenshots.
Netflix, Amazon Prime and More
From the initial impressions, Chrome Kaleidoscope is a project to unity all the streaming video platforms that we use.
For example, I got Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney Hotstar when I visited this page.
I selected all three and clicked next. On the next page, Chrome said “Continue watching across all your devices”.
The page, however, was blank. This is quite expected because the feature is still not ready. That’s exactly what the next page said:
“Chrome Kaleidoscope is not currently available for your account. If you are a Googler check out go/kaleidoscope-not-available for more information.”
My educated guess is that Googlers are currently dogfooding (internal testing) this feature. We might not get this working until they flip the switch on the server.
Conclusion
I am truly excited about this feature, even when we do not know everything about it yet.
What do you think Google is trying to build here? Share your thoughts in the comments section.
it sees like a new search. interesting if they will go to other places too
Yes, but there is a place to “Continue watching”. Google wants this to be the place where you to find content and to resume things you started watching.