“Chrome” is Google’s all encompassing brand for their internet browser, but there are actually quite a few different versions. There’s Chrome for Mac, Chrome for Windows, Chrome for Android … you get the idea. More importantly, each of those versions also come in three distinct flavors. There’s the stable version of Chrome that 99% of people, myself included, use on a daily basis. There’s the beta version of Chrome that’s also considered to be quite stable, but it’s not perfect. And finally, for the crazy ones, there’s the alpha version of Chrome, which Google calls “Canary”, like the bird miners once used as a crude oxygen meter.

Last night, Google updated the alpha version of Chrome for Windows and Chrome for Mac and added Google Now support. In much the same way that your Android phone tells you about upcoming flights, appointments, sports scores, and so on and so forth, you’ll now have that information available on your computer.

How long until Google Now ships in the stable version of Chrome? Google tends to update the stable builds of Chrome every six to eight weeks. The fact that Google Now is showing up in an alpha version instead of a beta version tells me that we’re several months away from seeing this hit Chrome stable. Take Chrome’s new data compression feature as an example. It’s been in Chrome Beta since April of last year, but it’s only now hit Chrome stable.

So in other words, I haven’t got a clue as to when you’ll get it.