A newly reported issue with Google's open-source Chromium Web browser hints that preparations are being made to launch rich notifications for Apple's OS X, which could in turn be used to build out a Mac version of Google Now.
Source: François Beaufort
As noted by The Next Web, Google has been in the process of porting its Chrome OS notification system to Chromium, and subsequently the Chrome Canary development browser, over the past few months. Previously, only Chrome OS and Microsoft Windows users were able to access rich notifications, but Tuesday's discovery shows support is now being tested for Apple's OS X.
First to report on the update was Chromium evangelist François Beaufort, who found an issue log in Chromium's Code Reviews, titled “[Mac][MC] Implement notification updates and relayouts.â€
Citing the log entry, Beaufort noted that rich notifications for Mac are "still under heavy development but you can play with them by running chrome with the --enable-rich-notifications switch (no flag yet)."
The discovery suggests that Google Now, the card-based intelligent personal assistant, may soon be available to Mac users as the notification center is key to implementing the service. Chrome OS and Windows users have access to Google Now, though the implementation is a bit rocky compared to Android and iOS offerings.
Google recently rolled out Google Now for iOS a little over one week ago in an update to the Google Search app. Currently, the service is limited to weather, traffic, news and sports scores.