Like 5Words? Subscribe via RSS.
Chrome bookmark syncing is coming.
Microsoft introduces a 720p Webcam.
Exploding iPhones are “isolated cases.”
Update on Twitter hacker defense.
Tag Archives | Google Chrome
Chrome Gets a New Version. No, Not for the Mac.
Google has released a new beta of the Windows version of its Chrome browser. The company says it’s faster, and it’s also added basic skinning, an improved New Tab feature, tweaks to the Omnibox address bar, and more HTML 5 support.
I say “the Windows version,” but that’s the only version of Chrome to receive a formal release to date, more than eleven months after Google got into the browser business. Developers builds of the OS X version are increasingly polished, though. Wouldn’t it be cool if Google celebrated the browser’s first birthday by finally bringing it to Mac users? (For now, Chrome is the browser I use most often these days when I’m using one of my Windows PCs; when I’m on a Mac, I’m usually a Firefox person.)
5 comments
Google Ties Chrome to Cloud Services
Today, Google fired a new salvo in the browser wars, announcing an upcoming synchronization service for its Chrome browser. A preliminary mockup of the service will be released to developers later this week, with general availability possible later this month, according to reports.
The service will first deliver bookmark synchronization –something that’s already possible with Firefox via plug-ins as well as Opera. Google will add other types of browser data incrementally. If Google carries out its plans effectively, Chrome will provide users with a seamless user experience across many devices. Other browser makers will have to follow.
Netbooks, which have the focus of Google’s most ambitious development efforts, will be an obvious beneficiary. The synchronization service will also give a boost to OpenID, which Google users to authenticate digital identities (with its own proprietary twist).
All in all, Google is continuing to blur the line between desktop software and the cloud. It is not alone in its thinking–I’m convinced that Microsoft, which is often perceived as its biggest competitor, will eventually follow suit.
Last year, I detailed Microsoft’s Midori operating system development plans. While Google has not announced anything as ambitious as Midori, it is going down the path that Microsoft laid out in the memos that I reviewed.
One of Microsoft’s principal design motivations is to support the ability of users to share resources remotely, and for applications that are a composite of local and remote components and services. The Web browser is just beginning to enable the application side of that vision.
3 comments
Eleven Questions About Google’s Chrome OS
Here’s one of those breaking stories that’s stunning at first–until you think about it, whereupon it feels like it was always inevitable. Google announced tonight that it’s working on an operating system for PCs, turning a hypothetical scenario that’s been around for years into reality. Almost by definition, it’s the most direct attack possible on the Microsoft hegemony, since it puts Google into competition with Windows itself.
Google isn’t revealing much in the way of specifics, other than that the OS is an open-source project based on its Chrome browser with a Linux kernel, and that it’s working with multiple hardware manufacturers to bring it to x86- and ARM-based netbooks in the second half of next year. It says the goal is to build an OS that boots in seconds and runs Web apps really well.
Like many big Google announcements (such as the unleashing of Chrome itself last September) this one prompts more questions than it answers. Such as the first eleven that popped into my head…
63 comments
Firefox 3.5: The Technologizer Review
Was it really fewer than five years ago that Firefox 1.0 debuted? Its arrival ended the dismal period in which only one browser–Microsoft’s mediocre Internet Explorer–seemed to be viable. With Firefox, Mozilla proved that millions of people were itching to adopt a better browser. And today, we find ourselves with multiple better browsers: Not just Firefox, but also Google’s minimalist Chrome, Apple’s flashy Safari, the ever-inventive Opera, the highly social Flock, and even the no-longer-calcifying Internet Explorer 8.
All of which means that Firefox 3.5–which Mozilla plans to formally release today–is no longer a shoo-in for the distinction of being the favorite browser of browser fans. (As I write, Firefox 3.5 hasn’t replaced 3.0 yet on the Firefox home page, but the Windows and Mac versions are live on Mozilla’s FTP site.)
After having spent months with various pre-release versions of 3.5, though, I’m convinced that The Little Browser That Could remains the best choice for the widest array of folks. That’s as much for the virtues that Firefox has possessed for years as for new stuff: Version 3.5′ s improvements are about better speed, useful tweaks to existing features, catchup with other browsers, and early support for emerging Web standards. In other words, the browser sports no knockout new features. But the moves Mozilla has made are smart, and they’re more than enough for Firefox to keep pace with its fast-evolving rivals.
After thr jump, a look at what’s new in rough order of importance. Continue Reading →
66 comments
5Words for Friday, June 5th, 2009
Lotsa Pre news this Friday…
Pre/Sprint exclusivity: how long?
Acer’s Android netbook runs XP.
One comment
5Words for Thursday, May 28th 2009
Wave? Makes me think Jobim…
Nice detailed Google Wave overview.
Palm Pre very first impressions.
One comment
Google Chrome Gets the TV Treatment
When it comes to advertising, Google believes in eating its own dogfood–it uses its own ad platform to promote some of its own services, but it’s rare to see Google self-promotion off the Web. But not unheard of: There used to be billboards in San Francisco touting the GOOG-411 information service, for instance. And Google blogged today it’s going to try advertising its Chrome browser on TV, starting this weekend.
Here’s the ad, which was produced in Japan, originally for online use:
It’s fun to watch for sure. But although I’m a Chrome fan, in part because of its uncluttered feel, I must confess that I didn’t get the point of the ad until I read Google’s post. It’s saying that Chrome is simpler and more streamlined than other browsers. Wonder what percentage of couch potatoes will figure that out–or even understand that Chrome is a Web browser?
I was going to say that this may be the first time a browser has been advertised on the boob tube. But then I found this Internet Explorer 7 ad–also a rather oblique sell, and apparently from A Country That Isn’t The U.S.:
And the Firefox community produced scads of user-generated, TV-style ads for Mozilla’s Firefox Flicks contest a few years ago, although I’m not sure if any wound up on TV:
Any guesses as to whether browser market share will perceptibly change based on Chrome’s exposure on TV? (Side note: Around seven percent of Technologizer visitors use it.)
7 comments
Chrome for the Mac: Still Waiting!
It’s been seven months now since Google released its Chrome browser for Windows and said that versions for OS X and Linux were in the works. In the time since then, Chrome has become the browser I turn to first when I’m using Windows. And when I’m using a Mac? Well, I spend a fair amount of time brooding about the absence of Chrome, not to mention the absence of any reliable information on when it might show up.
Charles Arthur of the Guardian did more than brood–he downloaded a developer build of Chrome for the Mac, and found it to be a work in progress. And it sounds like a lot more progress has to be made before the browser is ready for mass consumption–many basic features aren’t in place yet.
On one hand, it’s reassuring to know that Chrome for the Mac isn’t in limbo, but I’m now recalibrating my expectations for when it might arrive in a form that anyone’s going to use as a primary browser. I’m thinking it’s going to take months, not weeks, and I’ll be relieved if it’s ready before Chrome for Windows celebrates its first birthday.
5 comments
5Words for March 18th, 2009
Here’s what I’m reading this morning:
Google Chrome: In beta! Again!
Jailbreakers dive into iPhone 3.0.
Fujitsu sells a color e-reader.
Privacy group wants Google investigated.
McCain Twitter interview: kinda lame.