If you use Google Chrome in your business, keeping track of your users' settings just got a little easier: Google announced a new admin panel for Google Apps for Business and Education customers that will allow administrators to manage Chrome settings, installed applications and extensions, and other browser behaviors on a wide scale. The available controls are very similar to what already exists for managing Chrome OS—we took a look at those features last year.
Using the new control requires your users to be signed into Chrome on their computers. Non-Google Apps customers should still be able to manage Chrome using Google's list of Active Directory-compatible group policies. Both the admin panel and these group policies put Chrome far ahead of other third-party browsers when it comes to enterprise-friendliness. Internet Explorer can be controlled using group policies, but neither Firefox nor Opera expend many resources focusing specifically on businesses.
For businesses using the control panel, Google has also released a new plugin to help with legacy sites that require an older browser. The new "legacy browser support" plugin can open certain links in Internet Explorer for sites that require ActiveX controls and other IE-only features. Administrators can whitelist sites and install the plugin from the Chrome management console; the plugin won't do anything if your Chrome installation isn't being managed by the Admin panel.
Chrome's new features compete with other software that aims to solve browser compatibility issues for businesses tied to older Internet Explorer versions. The Admin panel and the legacy browser support plugin both offer many of the same features as something like Browsium's Catalyst, though Catalyst supports Firefox in addition to Chrome and IE.
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