Apps make their return to the Google Chrome New Tab page

For quite some time, Chrome displayed your apps -- such as they were -- at the top of its new tab page. One day, however, the section was removed and it's still not visible in the Dev Channel build. Fortunately, a little Canary told me that Apps are on the way back.

As you can see, the New Tab Page in Chrome Canary 8.0.550.0 has brought back Apps. The section is collapsed by default so that your most visited section takes center stage, but a simple click of the triangle brings the default apps into view: Docs, Calendar, and Gmail. The Web Store link is there as well, but it still points to the Chrome Extension Gallery.

Interestingly, the Apps section in Canary lacks the descriptive text from Chromium's version (screenshot after the break).

We're getting close now, people. With Apps re-landing in a user-facing change like the New Tab page, it won't be long before they're back on display in the Dev Channel. And once they're in the Dev Channel, we might just get some real Web apps to play with in Google Chrome. Here's hoping.