The internet juggernaut says that the removal will take place gradually over the coming months, starting with disabling the launcher upon initially installing a new application in a few weeks. The full-on end point is July -- three years after the launcher hit Windows. And in case your friends don't read Engadget, Google says it'll notify users that the launcher is going the way of the Tyrannosaurus.

It's part of Google's moves to make its browser less bloated, with the blog post explicitly citing last summer's removal of the Chrome notification center as an example of those efforts. Here's to hoping that some of this results in the browser being less of a resource hog that strains even the most resilient ultrabook's battery life.