Google wants to make sure that embarrassing ‘blue-screen-of-breath’ in the shop window doesn’t have to be a thing anymore – it’s aiming squarely are replacing windows as a dominant platform in the digital signage industry, thanks to new updates that add to the Google browser’s single app kiosk mode. These include a new Chrome sign builder, an app builder for fully-interactive kiosk software, and new continuous reporting and rebooting tools for spotting errors in signage deployments and fixing them on the spot.
Chrome’s new tools offer ways to build signs, schedule their appearance, and deploy them across huge installations. You could swap out a breakfast menu for a lunch one without breaking a sweat, for instance, even in a multi-chain restaurant business. Likewise, the app builder offers the same kind of thing for interactive self-service kiosk installations, with the added benefit of taking away the need for a “first-run” configuration process on each. The reporting tools provide notifications if any single screen running the display goes down, and offers remote rebooting capabilities. You can also remotely run screen-caps to see what observers are seeing and make sure it lines up with your intent.
Chrome and Chrome OS powering digital signs may not seem like a huge deal in terms of most people’s daily usage, but it’s an angle on Chrome OS outside of education and consumer-focused hardware that may not be readily apparent, but that nonetheless could help push Chrome as a whole forward, and have implications for the consumer track later on.