Firefox 3.5 Top 10 Features

Firefox strikes again, this time with a new version 3.5, a bit fresh logo and some more cool features. No need to tell how new is HTML5, firefox this time has got the experimental support with HTML5.

Get the Firefox Release Candidate 2

It has some greatest features to what firefox is known for, let's see some of them.
1.  Videos with HTML5


If you're viewing a page coded in HTML 5 with video in an open-source format like Ogg Vorbis or Theora, Firefox 3.5 treats that video like it's just part of the page, not a separate little island of Flash content. That means instant commenting on videos. It could also mean offering links from inside a tutorial video that offer more details on what's being shown—soldering tips on an iPhone repair guide would be keen. In general, it's just a promising step forward into a seamless melding of video and text on a future web.

2. Javascript Engine, TraceMonkey

As Mozzila Said, some Months ago, about in-development Javascript Engine, Tracemonkey is "20 to 30 Times faster" than the old Spidermonkey in Firefox. Even if TraceMonkey is ultimately outpaced by Chrome and/or Safari, its innovations push the whole browser market forward and give us all a bit less load time to complain about.

3. Geo Location
If you type post office into a maps site, you probably don't want the headquarters of the U.S. Post Office, or post office listings from two towns over. Integrated geo-location, powered by Google's Wi-Fi triangulation and simple IP address information, looks to know roughly where you are and help you when you're looking for something local. You can disable it if you'd like, but, realistically, signing on from any IP address reveals a bit about where you are anyways. If a good number of sites pick it up, geo-location could bring to the browser what a lot of people are already enjoying on their phone.

4.  Improved Session Restore

Firefox even features a crash recovery tool, for smarter Session Restore, It'ld allow user to select the tabs to load get back.


5. Tab Tearing

Tear tab feature in Firefox 3.1 Beta 2 from Percy Cabello on Vimeo.

The feature enables user to drag a tab to make a new browser window to it.

6. Undo closed Windows
The most precious, previously firefox got the ability to restore previously closed tabs, this time a much necessary feature restoring of Closed windows is also there. The feature should also restore the text you typed into it. It can be found in History menu, named Recently Closed Tabs.

7. Forget this Site

There are addons for Private Browsing, but would be nice to wipe a particular site off the History. Firefox 3.5 offers a convenient "Forget This Site" feature. 
It doesn't cover subdomains, and your network traffic and Flash memory would still hold some details, but it's a handy tweak however you cut it.

8. Smart Keyword suggestion

Firefox 3's AwesomeBar/address bar offers a speedy list of suggestions to complete whatever you're typing. That's great, but that list comes from your page history, bookmarks, and tags, and can be matched by URL or name, leaving some results almost uselessly cluttered. This gets fixed with special character filters in the next Firefox. Restrict a search by typing "life *" for just your bookmarks with the words "life" in them, or just your tagged "lh" items with "lh +". Anything that really makes getting backs getting back to importantly web destinations quickly is a welcome upgrade.

9. Private Browsing Mode
Now, it should be there, like for Gift Buying, Sensitive research, for bill pay, accessng your friend's browser for a quick look to your emails. Likewise, anonymizing some of your searches and cookie collection on your own machine isn't a bad idea, and a private mode can do that too. You don't need it all the time, but you might be glad it's available.

10. Colors getting Real

 

Different cameras, monitors, and capture devices grab and set colors in different ways. On the web, most colors look the same, though, because they're filtered and optimized for quick viewing in every browser. Firefox 3.5 introduces dynamic color profiles for each picture, meaning that whatever the graphic designer or photographer saw when they were doing their work, you'll see it on their web page.

I would sincerly like to hear your words, please Comment.

Multi process Support in Firefox

Firefox, the world's second most used browser, by the looks of it will soon receive an update that will add multi-process support.

By multi-process support we re talking about the similar feature seen in Google Chrome and IE8 that runs multiple, separate processes for each tab, which allows the browser to function without issues even when one tab has stopped responding or has crashed. This method of splitting processes increases stability and offers performance improvements as well.

As for why the speculation regarding multiprocessor support arose, that is because of a recent project that the Mozilla has initiated. The project is being co-coordinated by Benjamin Smedberg, who is a long time supporter of Mozilla. While little is known abut the project itself, we have a roadmap which suggests that we should be seeing a simple implementation of this in action by July this year.

That being the first phase, there will be three other phases post this, which will deal with the interactions between process types. The third phase will comprehensively test APIs for extensibility, accessibility, and performance. The fourth phase will deal with the final implementation and sandboxing. 

Looking at how things are moving now, it would be at least an year from now when we would see a final release version of Firefox with multi process support.

Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope

The name's ridiculous, but "Jaunty Jackalope," the next release of the popular Linux distribution Ubuntu, is seriously focused on the user experience. Dig what's new and improved in the beta of Ubuntu 9.04, released today.

One feature I couldn't show in the screenshots was the improved boot time in Jaunty. Having lived in it for about a week and installed a few apps, it took 24.9 seconds from choosing my OS to boot in Grub to a login window, and about 19 seconds more to get to a fully-loaded desktop (about 43 total).
What's below are screenshots taken from the last alpha version before it. If Jaunty's release schedule holds (and it almost always does), a final release is just a month off. Ubuntu's beta releases are usually pretty close to the final thing, though, and it's easy enough to download an ISO file, then live-boot and test it without harm using UNetbootin from Windows or Linux.
Yada yada technical geekery. Here's how Ubuntu 9.04 looks and works different from before; click on a thumbnail for a bigger view and description:






For a thoroughly detailed screenshot tour of the KDE and Xfce-based variants of Ubuntu 9.04, Kubuntu and Xubuntu, check out Softpedia's review of Ubuntu 9.04 Alpha 6.
What are you liking about the Jaunty Jackalope? What's still on your must-have list before a Linux switch makes sense? Tell us everything in the comments.

Ubuntu 9.04 Beta [Ubuntu.com]

Fie! Do You need Your Hard Drive? Really? I don't think So!

Chicago (IL) - Google Drive, or Gdrive as it is better known, has to be the most anticipated Google product so far. When it arrives, Gdrive will likely cause a major paradigm shift in how we use computers and bring Google one step closer to dethroning Windows on your desktop.

 

WHAT IS GOOGLE WEB DRIVE? Mac users at MacRumors forums noticed that Google's recently released Picasa for Mac offers the option to move image collection to Google Web Drive. The company remains silent on the finding while most view this as an indication of imminent launch of the so-called "Gdrive service."

The service has the potential to eclipse even Gmail, Google's second best-known product after their google.com search engine. That said, it's no wonder users have been ripe with anticipation for years - yes, that's how long the rumors have persisted. Gdrive is basically online storage where Google servers have enough capacity to hold the entire contents of your hard drive. It will likely also come with enough brains to do cool tricks now with bigger things down the road - like booting your computer from online drive to load the Google operating system.
Gdrive is basically a cloud-based storage that should have two faces: A desktop client that keeps local and online files and folders in two-directional sync via a web interface for accessing your desktop files anywhere and anytime, using any network-enabled computer. In addition, it will come tightly integrated with other Google services to enable editing of supported document types, like spreadsheets and presentations via Google Docs, email via Gmail, images via Picasa Web Albums, etc.
This opens powerful possibilities. For instance, you could start working on a spreadsheet at home and continue via Gdrive web interface accessed in an Internet cafe. When you arrive back home, changes to the spreadsheet have already trickled down from the cloud to your desktop. The idea, of course, is all but revolutionary, but Google's execution could set it apart.

SkyDrive, MobileMe, Back to my Mac
Microsoft's SkyDrive offers 25GB of online storage free of charge but is limited to 50MB per file. The software maker's more advanced beta service (dubbed Live Mesh) comes with a less spacious 5GB of online storage but with more intelligence: Its service keeps your files seamlessly synced across desktop, web and mobile worlds. The latter client also allows you to access files from your desktop using a Windows Mobile-powered cellphone.
Apple has promised similar desktop, mobile and web file syncing between Macs, PCs and iPhones via a MobileMe cloud service, but the feature was delayed due to ongoing MobileMe difficulties - even though Apple built it into its desktop. Called "Back to my Mac," this OS X Leopard feature pairs with MobileMe online storage to let you search, access and edit files stored on a remote Mac. Besides such offerings from industry heavy-weighs, there are similar free or low-priced online storage services from others that let you do more or less the same.
Storage for your entire life
Most of the aforementioned services are crippled in one way or another, however. None of them gives you enough storage in a free version, but paid upgrades are too expensive and you're better off buying a bigger hard drive for less money. It is these weaknesses that Gdrive aims to exploit as Google allegedly plans to offer an unlimited (or nearly unlimited) storage either free of charge or at a small fee.
If the company applies its "free-everything" policy to Gdrive, a free version should give us enough online storage to match the capacity of hard drives typically found in the machines of average users. Paid versions could offer true- or near-unlimited storage. Added intelligence could enable other neat features as well, like comprehensive backups with the ability to go back in time like Apple's Time Machine and revert previous file versions, automatic file scanning against known viruses and malware, searching the hard drive on your desktop remotely via google.com, and more. Yes, we're speculating here, but there are facts which indicate that Gdrive could arrive soon, and likely this year.


It's not vaporware
For instance, Google Apps in the past identified "www10.google.com" URL that led to the service login page as a Gdrive service. Although the reference was removed, you can still login to the mysterious "www10" service of Google Apps, although you can't do anything with it. Google also added CNAME entries for the "webdrive-client.l.google.com" subdomain,  suggesting a product named "Webdrive." In addition, WHOIS check of googlewebdrive.com reveals that the domain points to Google's name servers.
As revealed in this MacRumors forum entry, the latest piece of evidence comes from several Mac user who noticed that Google's Picasa for Mac application, recently released as beta, offers "Google Web Drive" as one of the choices in the context-sensitive menu that appears when you right-click on a folder with images. Another Mac user confronted Google on Picasa forum to clarify this feature, but the company remained silent. Finally, Google's Todd Jackson, Product Manager for Gmail, alluded to Gdrive in a recent interview with Cnet. "We know people's file sizes are getting bigger," he said. "They want to share their files, keep them in the cloud, and not worry about which computer they're on. Google wants to be solving these problems."

So, Google gets to see all my stuff, right?
With Gdrive, privacy implications could overshadow its benefits. Remember how privacy advocates chased Google "to hell and back" for indexing content of Gmail messages? It also didn't help any that the company scanned your email in order to serve better, more relevant ads when viewing a message. Gdrive would scan everything you upload to it, just like Google Desktop - the company's application that brings the power of its search engine to your desktop (it scans the content of authorized files and folders on your machine).
We don't, however, see a problem if Gdrive will let users exclude any file or folder from being sent online, plus if indexed Gdrive stuff can't be associated with our personal information. As long as Google uses Gdrive indexing to provide better search and serve better ads, most would be willing to trade tiny bit of their privacy for a free online storage. [I wouldn't, not in a million years. -Rick]

Google built an empire on "free services - a bit of privacy" strategy and it'll certainly work with Gdrive. Yet, we have no doubt that Gdrive will become holy grail for privacy advocates around the world.

Pieces of the Google operating system fall in place

The Gdrive "leads and hints" mentioned in this article does not mean that a product exists, but they strongly indicate a new Google-branded online storage service is in the works. Google Web Drive, Gdrive, or whatever name Google decides to call it, may be just around the corner. Online sources are now sure Google will unleash Gdrive in 2009. Google watchers have no doubt that the product will stun users.
If the company can really deliver cloud-based storage with enough free space to hold entire content of your hard drive, it will be a key paradigm shift. Although Google once led in free email storage with Gmail, and still rates high with 20GB per account, rivals overtook the search giant with general-purpose online storage. Most of them offer around 50GB of cloud storage free of charge. Of course, that is not to say there is no innovation left in Google anymore. The company of its size and millions of users may prefer to wait for the right timing to do the job right.
We have no doubt that Gdrive could have a huge impact on everyone, especially the cloud-based generation that's coming up and running mainly web applications - doing most of its computing online. We're also pretty certain that Gdrive, Chrome and Android are important pieces of the bigger picture, the one that replaces Microsoft logo on your desktop with Google's. So, don't be surprised if the computer you'll be using a few years down the road comes with no hard drive at all, but boots the Google operating system entirely off Gdrive and the Internet.

RSS Feeds for Google Web Search Results

 

A rumor that's been floating around the web lately is that Google will offer RSS feeds for new results in basic web search. Today Search Engine Land confirmed that Google will "soon" offer this functionality. Why is this big news? Because there's no better way to keep track of new mentions of a company, person or concept online than through RSS.

As Search Engine Land's Matt McGee points out in his post, Google is the only major web search engine to not offer feeds for basic web search, as they do in blog search and news. We'd previously recommended Live.com for web search feeds, but who really cares about Live.com search results? They're terrible. Google feeds are good news.

Google says that the new feeds will be part of the Google Alerts product, which currently delivers e-mail alerts for new search results in web, blog and other result types. Google Alerts are widely used but are, we'd argue, like training wheels for people not yet comfortable with RSS feeds. There's nothing wrong with that, but many of us want our feeds.
Though blogs and news sites are of growing importance, there's still nothing quite like good old Web Search for getting a broad picture of who is linking where and what kind of online mentions are occurring. Google says it cannot confirm when the web search feeds will be available.
We hope that Google web search feeds will include "site:" searches for new mentions of keywords inside particular domains (Live and Yahoo do), and that they will deliver nice clean direct URLs - which Live.com feeds do but Yahoo search feeds do not.
There's still no alerts or feeds available for Google Image Search, probably because the index is so woefully behind the web at large.

You Comment, Should I Follow?

When Google Inc. spearheaded the fight against comment spams in 2005, it received immediate and wide acceptance from different websites, especially from bloggers who were sick and tired of deleting spam after spam after spam of useless comments on their blogs.
It is meant to solve a major drawback to receiving comment spams, by discouraging spammers from leaving a comment because search engines will ignore the link anyway.
In so doing however, it also discourages readers from commenting because they too are being ignored by search engines! It thus creates a dead link between a blogger and its readers who leave legitimate comments to the site. This ‘flaw’ takes away the camaraderie and sense of community between bloggers and readers as the rel=”nofollow” tag takes away any incentive of commenting to a post.

What official Google Blog says about nofollow?

“From now on, when Google sees the attribute (rel=”nofollow”) on hyperlinks, those links won’t get any credit when we rank websites in our search results.”

Example of Nofollow link:


General Link:

<a href="”http://techmania-shail.blogspot.com/”">I Didn't Know That!!!</a>

Link with Nofollow:
When you have rel="nofollow" in your blogger template, the tag automatically gets into the link saying search spiders "Not to follow".
<a href="”http://techmania-shail.blogspot.com/”" rel="”nofollow”">I Didn't Know That!!!</a>



Read Wikipedia on rel="nofollow"


You can encourage people to comment on your blog once they recognize that links in comments are being followed. To discourage spam enable comment moderation in your Settings---->Comments. Also put a prominent text widget in your sidebar proclaiming that links in your comments are followed by the search bots. This will act as a freebait by sharing your link juice with fellow bloggers.

MODIFYING THE TEMPLATE

To do this login to dashboard and click on layouts of your blog. Then click on Edit Html subtab of Template tab. First backup your template by clicking on the Download Full Template link. Put a check in the Expand Widgets Template Checkbox at the top of the Edit Template text box. This expands the Blog Posts Widget Code within which is the comments code.

Using Firefox search ctrl+F5
search rel='nofollow'

Delete the words in the code : rel='nofollow' and save the template.

There are other linuxes besides Ubuntu also!

One of the pleasures of Linux is that you can try out different distributions to see which one works best for you. You likeUbuntu, but you want to fine tune the desktop engine? OK, tryKubuntu with its KDE desktop then. Some worthwhile distributions, however, don't get as much attention as they deserve. So, here's my list of five great distributions that you might want to try.

Before launching into my list, let me preface it by saying that this is a list of what I consider relatively easy to use desktop distributions. So, while Debianis a great distribution, I haven't included it because to get the most out of it you should be an experienced Linux user. I also haven't included special purpose distributions like my favorite system repair Linux, SystemRescueCD. It's a great system repair operating system. Even if you don't care for Linux and your job is bringing misbehaving PCs back into line you really should get a copy. It, however, isn't a good, general purpose desktop.

So, without further adieu, here's my list of the five best desktop Linuxes you may not have tried.

First, on my list is an old favorite of mine: SimplyMEPIS. What I like about this distribution is that, more so than any other Linux I know, it just works. It really does. I install it on any machine, it runs and life is good. I especially like that its creator, Warren Woodford, includes several small, but extremely useful utilities to make using the desktop easier.

So why haven't you heard of it? Well, MEPIS is in many ways a labor of love. Woodford isn't just the creator; he's also, by his own choice, the only major developer. That means that when sometimes life pulls him away from the distribution and that happened recently. Now, however, Woodford is back to working on his Debian-based distribution so a new version of MEPIS should soon be arriving. Trust me; it will be worth your time.

Another distribution which fell on hard times, but is back and looking really good is gOS (Good OS). The first version got a lot of attention as being the "Google operating system," because instead of emphasizing desktop applications it focused on bringing users Google's applications. It's not that, but after a 2.0 version, which wasn't that well polished, the latest version gOS 3.0, though, looks really sweet.

It's meant really for OEMs to install on netbooks, but you can download and use it on your own PC. It includes an installer for a small horde of Google Gadgets, as well as links to Google Mail, Calendar, Reader, etc. etc. You get the idea. You'll never want to run this distribution without an Internet connection, but with one, I'm finding it to be a lot of fun and darn useful.

Now, one of the constant pains of desktop Linux is that so many media codexes aren't available in open-source versions. Mint, which is a child of Ubuntu, acknowledges this and then includes the proprietary programs needed to play Microsoft media formats and the like.

The result is, in my experience, a very pleasing desktop experience. While it can't run everything -- Apple's FairPlay DRM (digital rights management) encrypted tunes from the iTunes Store is beyond its powers - it does pretty darn well with everything else. If, on the other hand, you want to try life without any proprietary software, the distribution for you is gNewSense.

Another Linux that's worth a look is PCLinuxOS, which is based on Mandriva Linux. This is a solid desktop distribution that uses a KDE interface to good effect. If I could use one word to describe PCLinuxOS it would be 'sturdy.' Like MEPIS, it works well and with a large variety of hardware components.

I'm not the only one who thinks well of PCLinuxOS. While it doesn't get much press attention, it's long been one of the most popular distributions, according to DistroWatch's listing. Go ahead and give it a run and you'll see why PCLinuxOS has quietly gained many fans.

Of course you can also use straight Mandriva Linux, and perhaps you should. At one time, Mandriva was a well-regarded and well-known Linux distribution but over the years it's dropped out of sight. It's time to check into it again.

The newest Mandriva, Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring, comes in several versions. Besides a choice between the KDE 3.5.9 and GNOME 2.12.9, it also comes in a version without any proprietary software and another, the Powerpack edition that includes many useful proprietary programs. All versions also include a handy Windows migration tool that can bring over not just documents but Windows fonts. It can also read and write to Windows' native NTFS hard drives. Mandriva does a pretty darn good job at bringing over Windows files and the like and for that reason alone I think you should give it a try.

So, did I miss any of your favorites? Let me know. In the meantime, give these a try, your usage may vary, but I'm sure you'll find at least one of the less common distributions to be worth your time.

You Tube videos will be Undownloadable(legally)

YouTube, in its quest to make nice with copyright holders, has partnered with Nexicon, a Malibu-based digital rights management provider.

Under their arrangement, Nexicon will monitor YouTube for copyrighted material. When Nexicon identifies videos that violate a copyright, it will give the copyright owner the option to have the videos removed from the site or to leave them up and monetize them.

It's been more than a year since Google rolled out Video ID, anidentification and content management system. And in that time, the company says content providers -- including Viacom -- are increasingly choosing to leave copyrighted videos up.

That's bound to make users happy. The more videos, the better.

Know what else would make users happy? If videos on YouTube could be downloaded. It's not impossible -- anyone could probably figure out how to do it. But given the fact that YouTube technically could track videos offline (for advertising purposes) with available software, and given the fact that users want the option to download videos, why isn't it officially possible? Lots of content providers are playing with the idea -- NBC, for example, is experimenting with free downloads with commercials with an initiative called NBC Direct.

But it will never happen on YouTube, says Forrester analyst James McQuivey.

"I don't think YouTube has any incentive to create that experience," says McQuivey.

For one thing, he says, it would kill off traffic to the site if anyone could download a video to their hard drive and forward it to friends in an e-mail. And another potential problem: The videos are too short, and the advertising is too insignificant to justify the cost of that sort of system.

"[NBC] is experimenting with 30-minute or one-hour shows. In that environment, advertisers are willing to pay a premium to get in front of those viewers. But nobody's paying a premium to advertise on YouTube. The currency YouTube has right now is traffic."

Another reason why it won't happen, says McQuivey, is that it's not compatible with Google's vision of the future, in which high-speed wireless access is available everywhere and it won't matter whether anything is stored on a hard drive or online.

"Every other software solution Google has tries to push you to the web rather than your hard drive. Google's vision is that in the future everyone will have wireless high-speed access on any mobile or fixed device, so going offline to watch videos is unnecessary since you're never offline."

McQuivey is equally skeptical that YouTube could ever roll out a pay-per-view plan.

"ITunes is having a hard enough time selling TV shows for $3, can you imagine trying to sell a 3-minute clip of a skateboarding accident? What are you going to do, sell it for five cents? I just don't see that being feasible."

Of course, Google has done it before -- the billions of dollars it earns from advertising are generated pennies at a time in page views.

Google Chrome with IE and Firefox

In a rather surprising move, Google has announced that it will dive into the browser wars with its own web browser, dubbed Chrome.

Google Chrome will be free, open source and, at least for the time being, limited to Windows users. A beta version for Windows should be available for testing early Tuesday afternoon. Google says that it’s already hard at work on Mac and Linux versions, but hasn’t offered a timeline for either.

Chrome is a browser built to empower web applications. It features a new approach to page rendering that isolates web applications inside each of the browser’s tabs — a crashing web app might cause a single tab to crash, but that won’t affect anything outside that tab. The rest of the browser remains stable.

One of the biggest complaints about web apps is the stability of the browser. When you’re doing mission-critical work in a web app and the browser crashes, it isn’t an annoyance, it’s a deal breaker — e-mails are lost, documents have to be rewritten, web forms need to be filled out again. Chrome’s ability to sidestep a full crash could prove a huge boon to Google’s bid to replace desktop apps with its own web-based alternatives.

Many users remain skeptical of online apps, which require an internet connection to be useful. But Chrome has that covered as well. It will ship with Gears, Google’s offline data storage tool, already integrated. Gears is available for most existing browsers as an add-on.

According to the official announcement, the new Chrome web browser is Google’s effort to “start over from scratch” and build a web browser that’s specifically geared toward today’s complex web apps — which, of course, form the core of Google’s business.

Chrome’s announcement came in the form of a comic book which was accidentally e-mailed out before the Chrome team was ready to launch. Apparently realizing that there was no point in trying to cover its e-mail gaffe, Google quickly made an official announcement and prepped the beta release.

The result is a shot across Mozilla’s bow, but the clear target is Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. As longtime Firefox evangelist Chris Messina argues, the real news in Chrome is that “the web will rev at the speed of the frameworks and the specifications, and will no longer be tied to the monopoly player’s broken rendering engine.”

Microsoft’s next browser, Internet Explorer 8, is currently in beta as well. It will feature a tab-isolation feature similar to Chrome’s when it ships at the end of the year.

While the larger target may be Internet Explorer, Chrome isn’t sparing Mozilla. Despite its recently renewed allegiance with Mozilla, Google’s Chrome will use the WebKit rendering engine (which also powers Safari). In the comic book which Google is using to explain the Chrome concept, the company quite blatantly rejects Mozilla’s Gecko rendering engine as bloated and overly complex.

However, despite using WebKit, Chrome looks to be a very different beast than Safari, Firefox, Opera or other familiar browsers.

The primary difference between Chrome and browsers you’re already using, is Chrome’s multiprocess rendering model. Essentially each tab (or single window) in Chrome runs as a separate process. The net result is, according to Google, “a bit more memory upfront,” but far less memory used over time.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Chrome’s rendering model is that it subtly shifts the blame for crashes and poor performance away from the browser itself and puts it squarely on the site causing the problem. To further the idea that sites are responsible, Google is including a “Task Manager” where you’ll be able to see which page, apps and sites are using the most memory, downloading the most data and so on.

If Chrome catches on with users, web developers may be forced to write better, more efficient code or face the wrath of Google Chrome users.

Google’s multitask approach makes Chrome much more like an operating system than a browser. While we wouldn’t go so far as to say that Chrome is a “Windows Killer” (which doesn’t make much sense given that Chrome requires Windows to run), it definitely looks like a key component for Google’s assault on Microsoft Office, Outlook and other desktop apps that Google is trying to duplicate on the web.

Given that Google is a major Mozilla funder and Firefox backer, for the company to turn around and launch its own browser seems to many like an expression of frustration with Firefox’s lingering issues — stability, memory footprint, performance and more.

As Messina puts it, “I just can’t read this any other way than to think that Google’s finally fed up waiting around for Firefox to get their act together.”

For its part, Mozilla claims to be unconcerned with Chrome. Mozilla CEO John Lilly claims he isn’t worried about Google’s entry into the browser market, though he does admit that the long-term implications are unclear. For the time being anyway, Lilly sees Chrome as yet another competitor. “There’s been competition for a while now, and this increases that,” he writes, “so it means that more than ever, we need to build software that people care about and love.”

Google to developers??

Google's Vic Gundotra said he wanted to move the web forward

For Google the future is about beefing up the browser and its bottom line.

This honest explanation of what motivates the search giant was given at Google IO, its developers conference being held in San Francisco.

One of the "reasons we invest in moving the web forward is if it benefits Google economically," admitted Vic Gundotra, engineering vice president.

But he also stressed: "The more money Google makes, the more it pours back into open source projects."

High on the agenda at IO was Android, Google's open source software platform being designed for smart phones.

A demo at the conference revealed some new applications for its Android mobile operating system.

These include a way to unlock phones by drawing a specific shape on the touch screen, a compass tool that automatically orientates maps when a user looks at photographic images of a city, a magnifying tool to zoom in on web content and a mobile version of the video game Pac Man.

The Android touchscreen is reminiscent of the iPhone

The phone being used at the conference relied on fingertip touch but Andy Rubin, who is overseeing the project, said Android could also be tailored to work with a tracking ball.

The first phones powered by Android are due out in the second half of this year.

With about three billion mobile phones already on the market, some analysts believe Google could make about $5 billion annually within five years.

'Key goals'

Google's engineering head Mr Gundotra played down any notion that Android is set to take on the iPhone even though it looks and acts a lot like Apple's phone.

"I wouldn't say that at all. I think the iPhone is just a world-class device with a great web browser that delivers in many respects on one of Google's key goals; to bring the web to the mobile device."

"I am a very avid user of Apple products. I buy everything they make. We wish every mobile phone was as good as the iPhone. Apple demonstrates there is plenty of opportunity to go around."

A demo of Pacman on the Android platform was shown

Many of the developers at IO had come to hear about Google's App Engine, which was launched six weeks ago as one of a host of development platforms aimed at encouraging developers to put the browser ahead of the desktop.

Ten thousand people signed up for beta testing while another 150,000 went onto a waiting list.

The reason so many developers want to work with the engine is because it uses the same infrastructure that Google uses for many of its applications.

Create something

During a conference presentation, Kevin Gibbs, the technical lead for the project, announced to cheers and applause that the engine would now be open to everyone and there was no waiting list.

Google hopes Earth in a browser will be as popular as Google Maps

"You can log in immediately and start using it, so please create something and let us know what you think."

Google also unveiled a rough draft pricing plan which will be finalised and become effective later in the year.

Under the new structure, developers start with a free quota of 500MB and enough computer processing power and bandwidth for about five million page views per month.

Mr Gibbs estimated that an application which received a total of 10 million page views would cost the developer about $40 (£20) a month.

The web has won

As a company known primarily for search, Google is trying to extend its reach and lure developers away from designing applications for the desktop and opt for the web instead.

"We want to accelerate the capability of the browser," Mr Gundotra said during his keynote speech to developers.

Google employees are on hand to demonstrate the browser is the dominant force

"The web is maturing at an amazing rate and it's getting better and better. I don't think there's any question that in terms of the question 'What has become the dominant platform?', the web has won."

Demonstrating the power of the web and the browser, Google said its Google Earth 3D visualisation software could now be embedded on web sites using a simple plug-in.

Google Earth technical lead Paul Rademacher said he expected it to be popular with property sites, where people can get 3D views of houses, and on travel sites where consumers can see the view from a hotel room.

"Now inside a web page, you'll be able to fly through San Francisco or see a 3D model of a cabin with exactly the view out the window of the mountains."

Huge rise in touch mobiles

As Apple's new iPhone is launched, Dan Simmons tests some of its features and investigates how it and its rivals are changing our mobile habits.

Touch screens are changing the way people use mobiles

Although smartphones were common before the iPhone debuted in June 2007, few had the impact of Apple's first handset.

Since then it has set the industry benchmark, said Darren Neylon, managing director of mobileshop.com.

"It's the operating system, in my view, that makes the real difference," he said.

Four years of research resulted in a large, responsive touch screen which invited play and made internet use easier.

Research suggests iPhone owners are five times more likely to surf the web than the average mobile user.

Though the original iPhone was expensive - $599 (£300) at the US launch for the 8GB model - the touch screen and "all-you-can-eat" data tariffs helped drive internet use.

It showed the mobile industry how to crack getting the web on the move - something the mobile industry has dreamt about since the introduction of 3G data networks in 2001.

Hacked phone

But there have been some problems.

Customers were locked in to one network in most of the nations in which it was launched and it did not work with the fast 3G networks speeds accessible via other smartphones.

Two months after the launch the iPhone was hacked. This meant it could run non-Apple programs and work on any operator's network.

These issues aside, it has become an icon and made other manufacturers focus on offering better web browsing on the move.

Mobile web

That seems to be paying off as in 2008 mobile web use has taken off.

A survey commissioned by Vodafone suggests almost a quarter of 18-25 year olds in the UK now use their mobile to check social networking sites.

The same study of 700 users suggested around 40% of all UK mobile users now access the internet on their handsets.

A separate report, carried out by marketing research company Gfk, suggested that for 1 in 5 users in Japan, their handset has replaced the PC as the way they go online.

Touch screens

Other phone manufacturers are tapping into touch.

In the past year, touch screens have gone from business-type PDAs to stylus-free style icons.

Some phones have combined touch screen with a traditional interface

There are even models for avid texters unsure about making the leap.

Slider models like LG's KF700 offer a more traditional keypad in addition to the touch screen and there are rumours that Apple may produce something similar too.

Nokia, which sells more phones in one week than Apple does in a year, says it will release at least one touch screen smartphone later this year.

"I think they're pretty keen to be public about that, to show that they're doing something. Because for a big company like Nokia not to be doing something, I think that's not great for them or the consumer," said Mr Neylon.

It [Windows Mobile] had so many options to choose from, they [users] had lots of trouble trying to find the stuff that they wanted to use HTC marketing director, Rui Antunes

"There are a lot of loyal Nokia fans out there who want to see an iPhone rival in their hands, that's for sure," he added.

Touch has given operating systems a facelift too.

Both HTC (Diamond), and Samsung (i900) felt Windows Mobile was powerful but awkward to use.

Both companies have developed their own graphical interface to guide users through the most commonly used features of their Windows handsets. Though users can drill down to the original Windows interface to use office apps and fine tune settings, for instance.

"It had so many options to choose from, they [users] had lots of trouble trying to find the stuff that they wanted to use," said Rui Antunes, HTC's european marketing director.

"We tried to make things easier, and bring out to the top level the key things they were used to using, and make that very interactive, visual and engaging," he added.

Maps and photos

Apple's new 3G iPhone replaces the old one with faster web surfing and also has GPS mapping.

GPS is becoming an increasingly popular feature on mobiles

Photos taken on the 3G iPhone can be geo-tagged automatically, much like the free Flickr Uploader application found on a Blackberry.

The new iPhone lacks a search facility for files or e-mail, it has some Office-style software and easier syncing through Microsoft Exchange, or if you are a personal user, through MobileMe via an annual subscription.

However, it may not be what is inside touch smartphones that makes them popular.

Price drops could be a factor that helps. Increased data use means operators make more money and can subsidise the handset.

Some operators offer a phone for nothing if customers sign a lengthy contract.

But making these phones customisable by support for widgets and applications will also drive sales.

Apple apps

Apple is just getting started with its App Store but already on offer for other phone are thousands of programs, scattered on different sites across the internet.

Alex Reeve, director of Windows Mobile in the UK, said Microsoft had 18,000 applications developed for the Windows Mobile platform.

"There's everything from games, music mixers, solutions for sales forces if you're in the business side, sat-nav because a lot of our phones now have GPS built in," he said.

Security will need to be tight, and users will probably want better parental controls too - a feature provided on the new iPhone, but lacking in many other handsets - but the floodgates for new ideas on mobiles are now wide open.

Open source handsets

Nokia is opening up the Symbian operating system, giving third party developers a freer hand.

Open source on Openmoko allows users to reprogramme their phones

Blackberries now offer much more than just e-mail and Google promises to release a suite of applications on its Android platform on new handsets by the end of this year.

And opening things up reached new heights, when Openmoko released a new open-source handset based on Linux.

Every aspect of the phone can be reprogrammed, so a USB port could be used to attach a camera or USB stick rather than just be used for charging.

The new iPhone may be stealing the headlines but there is no doubt that the entire mobile industry is changing at a rapid pace.

Content overloading, Turning off

Once upon a time, the web was a straightforward affair. Lots of links - to lots and lots and lots of text. A decade on, it is virtually unrecognisable - a multimedia extravaganza where text has to compete with video, podcasts and animation.

The former Genesis frontman has backed "The Filter" since 2005

Enriching? Definitely. But daunting, and very, very noisy as well.

So how do you tune out that noise and tune in to stuff you do want?

Enter the concept of filtering - and enter alongside it, rock legend-turned-serial tech investor Peter Gabriel.

"It's one thing to have access to unlimited information," he says.

"But you feel like you're drowning sometimes - there's just

too much stuff, and you really want the good stuff, the stuff that's going to excite and inspire you," he adds.

Three years ago the former Genesis frontman gave his backing to an iTunes plug-in called "The Filter", which was designed to automatically generate playlists from your music collection.

'Life-jockey'

Now it has relaunched as a website with the more ambitious goal of being a "life jockey"; actually learning your taste in entertainment, and delivering appropriate content to you.

The site uses artificial intelligence called Bayesian mathematics

It takes a mathematical approach to work out the probability that you will like something based on your designated preferences.

This analysis is then combined with other people's playlists and purchases to produce - fingers crossed - a list of media suited to your taste.

"It's trying to say actually how do we make good choices - and that's partly through expert systems and algorithms," says Peter Gabriel.

"It's also partly through people that we trust - friends, experts - so we're trying to integrate a system which takes the best of man and machine."

Relationships

This time round it is not just music that The Filter has in its sights. Web, video and even movies are all part of the taste-predicting experience.

"We believe there maybe some real relationships worth exploring," he says.

"A very obvious example would be if I love Goth films, I may also like Goth music. If I like obscure foreign language arthouse films, then I may tend to obscure music."

But he accepts it is ambitious to make definite conclusions.

"It's only as good as the usage the community gives it, so the bigger the database of information and references, the better the predictions.

"Some maybe totally fanciful, but I think the more we look at it, the more it seems that there are connections you can make," he adds.

And, he says, users will still be able to find the unpredictable "left-field" material for which the internet is famed.

"On the site there's a bar which has got 'expected' and 'unexpected'. So, if you feel like an experimental day when you want all new stuff, unfamiliar things, you can select that," he says.

"If you want more tried and tested, that's available too."

Rivals

The concept of recommendation sites is nothing new, as any visitor to Amazon will know.

Founded in 2002, Last.fm says it now has more than 20m users

And whilst The Filter has celebrity backing, other similar filtering sites have become stars in their own right.

Start-up Last.fm was snapped up by CBS last year for a cool $280m (£143m) and iLike boasts 20 million users.

Pandora employs an entirely unique approach, looking at musical attributes in songs you like - things like vocal harmony and orchestration - and then trying to find the same attributes in other music.

Peter Gabriel accepts The Filter faces stiff competition from the other sites operating in this area.

"For sure, we're behind," he admits. "We're a small English operation and we don't have some of the resources.

"I think Last.fm did the social network side of the music thing very well and it's a well-designed, well-executed site.

"I just think we're doing something a bit different, and filtering is coming in a big way. So I hope we can do it well, and we've certainly got some very smart people working on it."