It has been a few months since we last heard about progress for Google’s next-generation bookmarking extension ‘Stars’.
We reviewed a leaked version of the Chrome extension for Stars back in June, and found that despite a few rough edges it was more than deserving of a five star rating (not least for bringing browser bookmarking ‘bang up to date’).
This week a brand new internal nightly build hit the web through the canny code hunters at German tech site Caschys. While there’s still no sign of a public release, it’s reassuring to know development of the feature is continuing.
So what’s changed between the June build and the new August nightly? Based on a quick hands-on most of the improvements are superficial and minor, and includes:
- New ‘placeholder’ images
- List View added to view options
- Tick emblem during selection now on left
- Toolbar pop-over now offers ‘Last Used’ entry
- Slide-in animation now staggered
- New sidebar entry: “Bookmarks Bar”
- Support for importing bookmarks
- ‘Filters’ now called ‘Auto Folders’
Mobile View
In addition to finding, prepping and leaking a new version of the Chrome add-on, the awesome folks at Caschys also shared some screenshots of how the bookmarking service is shaping up on mobile.
If you’re clued-up on your Google news then you’ll instantly recognise the UI: the web app is designed according to the Material Design language announced at I/O 2014.
Looking good, right?
Hopefully we won’t have to wait too much longer before we can play with a legit version of Stars. Rumours suggest we may hear or learn more about Stars and ‘material redesigns’ of Gmail, Hangouts and other Google apps around the release of Android L, which is expected to drop in October.
- Source: via Caschys (German)