Google brings virtual reality directly to your web browser

Escaping into virtual reality is now as easy as typing a URL into your browser.

Google announced that VR experiences will be more widely available on Chrome in a blog post on Thursday. With the new update, the company said it's now "as easy to step inside Air Force One as it is to access your favorite webpage."

The update integrates a technology called WebVR, which allows VR experiences to be hosted on websites. WebVR is supported by industry giants like Firefox, Samsung, Facebook and Microsoft in addition to Google. Adding it to Chrome is a huge step in giving VR creators a larger platform to showcase the experiences they design.

If you have one of the few Daydream-ready phones and a Daydream View headset, you can just browse to a VR experience of your choice, select the VR option and put the phone in your headset. If you're missing a headset, you can watch VR content on any phone or computer with Chrome and interact using your finger or mouse, though obviously that's less immersive.

There are already a few VR-enabled sites that you can try, like Bear 71, which explores the intersection between humans, animals and technology, and Matterport, the largest VR library of real-world places.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Several award-winning experiences can be found on Within, and there are more than a million 3D scenes in VR on Sketchfab. The WebVR Lab from PlayCanvas is an experimental playground where you can try experiences like playing a record with your Daydream controller.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Support for Google's own Cardboard and other headsets will be coming soon.