Google Stars, Google's rumored new bookmarking service, was published on the Chrome Web Store.
However, just as abruptly as it was published, Google has also taken down the extension without an announcement.
According to Engadget, the published Google Stars was most likely a leak of an internal version. This is because, when the extension is installed, a pop-up appears saying "Thanks for dogfooding Google Stars."
The Google Dogfooding Program is where services and products by Google are first tested so that glitches can be worked out before being released to the public.
"We're always experimenting with new features, but have nothing new to announce at this time," Google said in a statement to Engadget.
However, Florian Kiersch, a Google watcher, was able to download the extension and has made it available to other Chrome users. However, the extension needs to be installed using Chrome Canary or a development channel for Chrome.
When Google Stars is downloaded and installed, it takes over the Chrome browser's bookmarking system. A sign that Google Stars is installed is that the star that is clicked on Chrome's address bar to bookmark a page is replaced by a similar star that is inside a gray box.
Google Stars replaces your regular bookmarks page that lists your favorite web sites by an image-filled grid system that allows you to select which folder to place a new bookmark in. Google Stars also pre-fills information regarding the bookmarked website, including an image, the website's title, and a note on the website.
Not all features can be accessed in the leaked version though. On top of additional search features, Google Stars is also supposed to be able to automatically organize the bookmarks of users, though how this will be done is not yet known. Users can also share their bookmarks with others, with users setting their bookmarks as either public or private by default.
Google Stars will also be able to automatically delete bookmarks of dead pages, which is a very useful tool for users that have accumulated so many bookmarks over the years.
The concept and details on Google Stars was first leaked in early May by Kiersch, after he discovered clues such as lines of code pertaining to the service. As the leaked extension looks to be polished, this makes it more likely that Google will formally launch the service in its upcoming I/O developers' conference on June 25 in San Francisco.
