First, it brings a new “App Install Banner” that allows websites to show a prompt to users that asks if they want to add your site to their home screen. The idea is that Google wants to encourage users to start pinning the sites they frequent to their home screen, just like apps.
So what exactly are Chrome push notifications? Basically, desktop and Android Chrome users can now opt-in to receive notifications from their favorite websites including Facebook, eBay, Pinterest, Vice News, and Product Hunt. For Android users, the feature sends notifications in the exact same way a native app would — placing them right in the notifications bar.
Google introduced the ability to monitor websites for changes in content. Set up the monitoring feature on your favorite website, and Chrome will fire up a notification when the content is changed. Unfortunately, this new feature will not work out of the box, as web developers need to implement the new Google Push API for Chrome. Possible use case scenarios include the ability to be notified when your order status changes. To prevent abuse, the user will have to explicitly set up permissions for these notifications, and the notifications messages themselves include a site setting button.
Notifications are an essential part of the mobile experience, so it's high time that the web got a solution for them. Notifications are also one of the best ways to get attention on the next frontier of mobile: wearables.
