UPDATE Jan 2014
After a long wait Google Now Cards have finally arrived on our desktops via the latest Canary build of Chrome.
The initial post I made about Google Now possibly coming to our desktop computers was way back in April 2013; so when I checked Google Chrome Canary this morning and saw the following 'cards' in my Chrome notifications I was somewhat taken aback because I wasn't 100% sure what I was seeing at first, it took a couple of seconds to realise what these new notifications were.
There are numerous images popping up on various sites just now with different Google Now cards (weather, birthdays, sports scores, stocks, commute cards etc.) so it looks like it is working perfectly. Not seen any News Updates Cards in any images yet though, maybe that is one that is not being used for desktops/laptops.
Just make sure you have the following flags enabled and you should start seeing the cards yourself (on Canary only at the moment unfortunately. UPDATE now available on beta).
chrome://flags/#enable-google-now
chrome://flags/#enable-rich-notifications
From the Google Support page for this new feature.
"If you use Google Now on your mobile device, you can see certain Now cards on your desktop computer if you're signed into Chrome, including weather, sports scores, commute traffic, and event reminders cards," Google said in a help page post. "Google Now on Chrome shows a subset of the Now cards you see on your mobile device."
April 2013
Yesterday Chrome Canary was updated to build 29.0.1544.2. If you had the Google Now flag (chrome://flags/#enable-google-now) enabled from previous builds you would have noticed a new notification appear after it had updated. The notification says 'Enable Google Now Cards - Would you like to be shown Google Now cards?'. Just click yes and it is enabled for when Google Now cards are fully working on your desktop.
François Beaufort stated in his post yesterday that even though the notification may suggest Google Now is working, it isn't, so don't get too excited. But this notification could be a sign that it is a little closer.
On a side note I also noticed a couple of extra things whilst having a look at the changes that were in the latest version of Canary.
If you have 'Always Show the Bookmarks Bar' enabled in 'Settings' then you will see the bookmarks on your NTP now look slightly different.
I also noticed a new flag as well. The flag was 'Enable Scroll Prediction' (chrome://flags/#enable-scroll-prediction)and it 'Predicts the finger's future position during scrolls allowing time to render the frame before the finger is there'.
I have tried it out but not noticed anything different when I have enabled to when I have it disabled. But it is a new flag in the Canary version of Chrome and as we know enabling flags doesn't necessarily mean they will work as they should in unstable versions.
