Best of Google Chrome — January 2026

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   Article

   Chrome Developers·19w

   Introducing the <geolocation> HTML element

   Chrome 144 introduces the `<geolocation>` HTML element, a declarative alternative to the JavaScript Geolocation API. This element requires user interaction (clicking a button) to request location data, reducing accidental blocks and browser interventions. It evolved from a generic `<permission>` element after origin trial feedback showed improved user trust and success rates. The element simplifies implementation by handling permission states automatically, supports attributes like `autolocate` and `watch`, and includes styling constraints to prevent deceptive patterns. A polyfill and progressive enhancement strategies ensure backward compatibility with browsers that don't support the new element.

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   Article

   Bram.us·18w

   Chrome 145 adds Experimental Support for Vertical Tabs

   Chrome 145 beta introduces experimental vertical tabs functionality behind a feature flag. Users can enable it by navigating to chrome://flags/#vertical-tabs, enabling the flag, relaunching Chrome, and selecting 'Move Tabs To The Side' from the tab bar context menu. The vertical tabs can be collapsed to a minimal form for a more compact interface.

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   Article

   Chrome Developers·20w

   Increasing web push notification value with rate limits

   Chrome is introducing rate limits for the Push API starting this month, targeting sites that send excessive notifications with minimal user engagement. Sites identified as disruptive will be limited to 1000 push messages per minute, with HTTP 429 responses for excess requests. The rate limiting is based on three factors: push messages per time spent on site, permission prompts per time spent, and user engagement level. After disruptive behavior is detected, rate limits apply for 1 day initially, then 7 days, then 14 days for subsequent violations, with a 42-day reset period. This change aims to combat notification spam while not affecting legitimate sites that send valuable, timely notifications.

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   Article

   Chrome Developers·19w

   What's New in WebGPU (Chrome 144)

   Chrome 144 introduces two new WGSL language extensions: subgroup_id for accessing subgroup identifiers within workgroups, and uniform_buffer_standard_layout for simplified memory layout alignment between uniform and storage buffers. WebGPU is rolling out on Linux starting with Intel Gen12+ GPUs. Performance improvements include up to 2X faster writeBuffer() and writeTexture() operations. The Android GPU team released the first alpha of Kotlin bindings for WebGPU through Jetpack's androidx.webgpu package.

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   Article

   Frontend Focus·17w

   Frontend Focus Issue 726: January 28, 2026

   Chrome Canary now supports testing the new text-scale meta tag, which allows websites to respect user text size preferences more effectively than traditional zooming. The newsletter also covers CSS stacking contexts, introduces Color Palette Pro (a color palette tool with a synth-inspired UI), mentions Typed.js reaching version 3.0, and highlights impressive web ports of classic games including Super Monkey Ball and Quake using Three.js.

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   Article

   Frontend Masters·19w

   JavaScript Engines Zoo – Frontend Masters Blog

   JavaScript has numerous engines beyond the well-known ones. Major browsers use engines like V8 (Chrome) and JavaScriptCore (Safari), while lightweight alternatives like QuickJS exist for embedding JavaScript in applications. A comprehensive list of these engines is available at zoo.js.org.

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