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When Google was working on the first Chromebook, they decided to give away some prototype Chromebooks to developers for free. There was a web form to request on

by m0dest 6y ago

When Google was working on the first Chromebook, they decided to give away some prototype Chromebooks to developers for free. There was a web form to request one. A small portion of the requests were granted. But they also took a more targeted approach: If you appeared to be a frequent user of the Dev release channel of Chrome (unstable), an offer would appear on the New Tab page to immediately claim a prototype Chromebook for free. I only know this because that’s how I got mine. A coworker of mine was interested in developing a ChromeOS app, tried switching to the Chrome Dev channel like me, and received a similar offer in a few days. It was great targeting. We both ended up making ChromeOS-specific improvements to a popular web app. When you compare this to the cost of paying a company to port their app to your platform, this was a good deal for them.

Maxious 6y ago
If you do a lot of searching for development keywords on Google, you get invited to https://www.google.com/foobar/ https://www.google.com/foobar/
- dylkil 6y ago
  ive been searching development keywords for the guts of 5 years now, no invite.... i guess im not worthy
  - wolfgke 6y ago
    When you have to google for web development keywords, you are certainly not worthy. ;-)
    - CobrastanJorji 6y ago
      I profoundly disagree with that sentiment.
isiahl 6y ago
Ah, the CR-48! I was watching the Google I/O when it was announced, and they shared a link to request the prototype. I filled it out right as they showed it and a couple weeks later I had a new laptop on my doorsteps. I was around 11 at the time so my mom so it first and thought it was like a bomb. The packaging for it was really cool, I won't forget it and it came with a bunch of dope stickers. I'm even still in the Google Group for the testers, but now and days it's mostly people talking about how the hinges broke on theirs.
- otachack 6y ago
  My then-roommate got one and I remember being impressed at the lack of branding. All laptops until then have had a company logo.

by m0dest 6y ago

Maxious 6y ago

If you do a lot of searching for development keywords on Google, you get invited to https://www.google.com/foobar/ https://www.google.com/foobar/

dylkil 6y ago
ive been searching development keywords for the guts of 5 years now, no invite.... i guess im not worthy
- wolfgke 6y ago
  When you have to google for web development keywords, you are certainly not worthy. ;-)
  - CobrastanJorji 6y ago
    I profoundly disagree with that sentiment.

isiahl 6y ago

Ah, the CR-48! I was watching the Google I/O when it was announced, and they shared a link to request the prototype. I filled it out right as they showed it and a couple weeks later I had a new laptop on my doorsteps. I was around 11 at the time so my mom so it first and thought it was like a bomb. The packaging for it was really cool, I won't forget it and it came with a bunch of dope stickers. I'm even still in the Google Group for the testers, but now and days it's mostly people talking about how the hinges broke on theirs.

otachack 6y ago
My then-roommate got one and I remember being impressed at the lack of branding. All laptops until then have had a company logo.