Google is working on a feature where it asks you to ‘thank the creator’ while browsing content on the web. What exactly is “Thank the Creator” – we do not know yet.

Thank the Creator

When I first read the name of this feature, it sounded like a religious slogan. Here is the Chrome flag that I spotted today:

Launch Thank Creator actions in standard tab:

Launches Thank Creator actions in a traditional new tab; default is a custom tab. For internal debugging.

It looks like a work-in-progress feature not yet ready for Chrome users outside Google to test. However, thanks to this new flag, we know that such a project exists and Google might even be testing this internally.

Internally, Google calls this project “Crow“. I browsed through a few code change requests and feature bugs, looking for additional details on the project, but no luck.

Here is the only thing I know so far. While browsing content, you will have an option to “Show thanks to this creator”. It will open the website in a new Chrome Custom Tab.

The “Thank the creator” feature is also somehow connected to the Chrome feed as well. Maybe you are expected to thank creators for content from the feed.

All I can say for now is, to wait for a week or two and we should see some action in the Canary channel. I will update this article with more details when available.

Source: Chromium Gerrit & bugs.chromium.org.