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Managed Chrome Extension Rollout
Managed Chrome Extension Rollout
Cindy Chang avatar
Written by Cindy Chang
Updated over 2 months ago

To facilitate adoption and usage, a company managed roll out of the Glean Chrome extension can be pushed to all employees. This means all employees will automatically have Glean’s chrome extension installed on company managed computers.

Key capabilities of the extension:

New Tab Page

Extension users have an option to use Glean as their new tab page. The Glean homepage will open every time users open a new tab and provides easy access to

  • Search

  • Knowledge management tools

  • Announcements and resources

  • Intelligent content feed

  • Calendar

Side tab bar and sticky sidebar

Pressing cmd+j for Mac and alt-j for Windows opens Glean search in a sidebar on any page. This allows for a quick search without breaking flow.

Go Link enablement

Using simplified Go Links to access specific web pages requires the Glean extension. If you do not have DNS Go Links or the extension, Go Links will not redirect to the final destination.

Refer to Glean Browser Extension [External] for the full extension capabilities


How a Managed Chrome push can help you and users:

Overall, the Glean extension provides better user experience and creates habits for higher adoption and usage, allowing everyone to get the most out of Glean. Users can access Glean search anywhere they want and can find what they need even faster.

Higher employee adoption and usage, create habit

The New tab page reminds users to search on Glean before asking a coworker, searching for documents in the wrong platform, or wasting time without finding what they are looking for.

Better admin insights to understand employee needs

With more robust usage of Glean search, the admin dashboard gets a better understanding of search activity. Admins can identify what type of knowledge and information employees need the most help with.

Better search results

Users can save even more time by using the Glean extension as search results and the discovery feed is more personalized for those using the extension.

Get search results from additional platforms even if the app isn’t connected to Glean

The extension can help recognize/index title and URLs from the browser history so users can find documents that are on platforms that aren’t fully connected to Glean.

Access Glean search from anywhere to increase efficiency

The extension allows users to search on Glean without disrupting their workflow. The URL Bar search, sidebar, native search, all enable users to find what they need from any platform or website.

Increased visibility to company resources and announcements

Announcements and resources will be pinned to employees’ new tab page so no one misses them. Admins can share the most important information with employees (ex: quarterly earnings report, performance review info, etc) so that they can stay up to date on the latest information and help comms/HR deflect questions.

Easier to discover relevant and trending content

Intelligent and personalized feed on the homepage will enhance discovery of key information and content for employees

Access frequently used websites with Glean shortcuts

The extension allows users to quickly access their most frequently visited websites with a single click, saving time. Additionally, users can personalize the shortcuts to display websites according to their preferences.


Managed extension push info:

  • Users can't disable/uninstall the extension if it's installed through Managed Chrome

  • By default, if someone has another new tab page like Momentum set up, and the extension is force installed through Managed Chrome, the Glean extension will take over the New Tab.


Managed extension push settings and options:

  • Through the Managed Chrome console, you can assign users to organizational units and roll this out only to a subset of employees.

  • Users can disable their individual New Tab Page under Glean's Home page settings.

    • Due to browser/extension limitations, their New Tab Page will change to their browser's default New Tab Page and not a previous extension’s New Tab Page (e.g. Momentum). To restore a previous New Tab Page extension, they will need to uninstall and re-install that extension.


Steps to enable Managed Chrome push

  1. Ensure you have or work with someone who has Google Workspace Admin privileges.

3. Use the left bar to choose the organizational unit you would like to deploy the extension to. Even if this is being rolled out company-wide, it’s good to select a company-wide organizational unit so that the extension will only be pushed on the Chrome profile associated with employees’ work account.

4. Hover over the + button in the bottom right corner and select “Add from Chrome Web Store”:

5. Search for “Glean” and select the option corresponding to the Glean work extension (the first one pictured here):

6. Hit “Select” on the top right:

7. The extension should appear as below. Click on it to open a right nav bar.

8. In “Policy for extensions” enter:

{ "BaseUrl": { "Value": "https://YOUR_COMPANY_INSTANCE-be.glean.com" }}

Please ask a Glean employee to confirm your company instance. An example is shown below.

9. Hit “Save” at the top after entering the “Policy for extensions”:

10. Hover over Installation Policy for the extension and choose “Force Install” or “Force Install + pin to browser toolbar”:

11. Hit “Save” at the top:

12. You’re all set! There can be a delay on Chrome’s end for when this gets pushed out to users, but we expect at most 1 - 2 days.


Customizing the New Tab Page Onboarding Experience

Upon installation of the Glean Chrome extension via Managed Chrome, all new users will see the below page to prompt them to log into Glean. The [company name] populated below is set up in your Workspace Settings.

Suggested Company Communication:

Email Template

Refer to below email template for a company-wide communication to inform managed chrome extension install

Subject: New browser extension available for all employees

Subtitle: Key updates to your Chrome browser

In our [company name]’s continued effort to support employee well-being and productivity, we are rolling out a new company-wide search tool, Glean. Using Glean, you can search across all work applications we use at [company name]. Whether the document or answer you are looking for lives in [GDrive, Slack, Email, Jira *customize with company’s tools] or with another colleague, Glean helps you search for and discover what you need to get your work done. All without remembering where all your documents are hosted or messaging multiple people.

Starting [launch date], Glean will be installed on your Chrome browser. Note that this launch will replace your current default new tab page to Glean so you can easily access search across all apps.

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