Google Chrome Review

After having successfully launched their own webmail service, RSS reader, online suite and many other apps, having a Google web browser was only a question of time.

Google Chrome has joined the so called web browser battle with a neatly designed web browser which, in spite of being still at a development stage, already shows a lot of potential.

The first thing that caught my attention when launching Google Chrome for the first time was its minimalist design. Besides a couple of bars and a couple of buttons, there’s nothing else on the interface to steal screen space from the websites you visit – not even a status bar, as it automatically shows and hides whenever it’s necessary.Another feature I loved is the fact that Google Chrome uses the same keyboard shortcuts and mouse wheel combination as Firefox. With a zero learning curve, you immediately feel at your element and there’s no need to start testing new shortcuts or reading the documentation. Other similarities to Firefox in Google Chrome include a complete download manager (which reminded me a lot of the Download Status bar extension) and a handy password manager.

If you don’t want Google Chrome to track down your browsing movements, try the incognito window. This special window won’t save anything about your session (no browsing history, no cookies, etc.), so no breadcrumbs will be left after you close it.

But if there’s a feature that makes Google Chrome really stand out, that’s having separate processes for each one of the tabs you open. That means that you can check the amount of system resources used up by each tab, and close any of them in case of trouble without having to shut down the whole browser.

That said, I don’t think Google Chrome is perfect yet. Like I said before, it’s still in development so there’s still plenty of room for it to grow and improve. I must say I had some stability issues when trying to install the Flash plug-in, and that I was totally unable to make the Java Virtual Machine work – which eventually prevented me from using certain web services. Despite these flaws, I really liked Google Chrome and I think it may become a serious option when choosing your web browser. Only time will tell.

Google to Launch New Web Browser - Chrome

Mountain View (CA) - Google had a big Labor Day announcement – stating that the company would launch at beta version of its “Chrome” web browser in more than 100 countries on Tuesday.

Do we really need another web browser, next to Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Opera? Google thinks so and hopes to outshine all other web browsers with a new browser that has been designed from scratch with a purpose not only to display text and pictures but to run applications. Google claims that Chrome can do this faster and in a more stable and more secure way than its rivals.

“We realized that the web had evolved from mainly simple text pages to rich, interactive applications and that we needed to completely rethink the browser,” Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management and Linus Upson, engineering director at Google, wrote in a blog post. “What we really needed was not just a browser, but also a modern platform for web pages and applications, and that's what we set out to build.”

According to the post, we can expect a browser that has a “streamlined and simple” user interface: “Like the classic Google homepage, Google Chrome is clean and fast. It gets out of your way and gets you where you want to go.” Below the simple surface, however, Chrome is described to be able to run “today's complex web applications much better.” The browser is promised to be released as Open Source.

“We improved speed and responsiveness across the board. We also built a more powerful JavaScript engine, V8, to power the next generation of web applications that aren't even possible in today's browsers,” Pichai and Upson wrote. Both emphasized that Chrome isn’t done and may need much more work, so all we should expect is an idea of what Google is working on. “We're releasing this beta for Windows to start the broader discussion and hear from you as quickly as possible. We're hard at work building versions for Mac and Linux too, and will continue to make it even faster and more robust.”

In our mind, the most recent releases of Firefox 3, Opera 9.52 and IE8 may not be perfect, but they are very good browsers with lots of product development, engineering and market experience behind each of them. Google certainly has built up our hopes that it will reveal a browser that can trump all three – and we can’t wait to see if that in fact is the case.

How to Export Firefox Bookmarks to Delicious

The easiest way to do this is to use the del.icio.us plugin. Once you install it just go to del.icio.us in the menubar > del.icio.us website > import bookmarks. You will have to be logged in to do this step.


If you don't wan to use he plug-in it is possible to upload the bookmarks that you have in Firefox manually as well.

Once you are done backing up your Firefox bookmarks, you are ready to export them into a HTML file. To do so

1. Click on Bookmarks in the menubar
2. Click on Organize Bookmarks
3. Click on File and then on Export

Then a window should pop-up prompting you to choose a file name. Just choose a file name and remember where you saved it.

Log into your del.icio.us account and click on settings in the upper right hand corner of the window. Then click on import / upload.

Here, browse for the HTML file that you just created, and then choose your desired settings. Once you click on the import now button, delicious will automatically start importing all the bookmarks. Once its done, all you're bookmarks will be stored on delicious forever, and you can access it from anywhere.

Google Adwords Quality Score Update

Google has made certain important quality score updates in their algorithm. Please read excerpts from their blog -

In July 2005, AdWords introduced minimum bids for keywords based on Quality Score. This system allows us to show very high quality ads to Google users, while also giving advertisers control over their keywords. Since 2005, we've improved Quality Score in many ways, such as the inclusion of landing page quality and landing page load time as factors. Along the way, we've also received much helpful feedback from both users and advertisers.

Today, we'd like to let you know of further improvements we'll introduce in the coming weeks -- based, in part, on this feedback. First we'll outline the key points, and then dive into the details:

• Quality Score will now be more accurate because it will be calculated at the time of each search query
  
• Keywords will no longer be marked 'inactive for search'
  
• 'First page bid' will replace 'minimum bid' in your account

A more accurate Quality Score

Most importantly, we are replacing our static per-keyword Quality Scores with a system that will evaluate an ad's quality each time it matches a search query. This way, AdWords will use the most accurate, specific, and up-to-date performance information when determining whether an ad should be displayed. Your ads will be more likely to show when they're relevant and less likely to show when they're not. This means that Google users are apt to see better ads while you, as an advertiser, should receive leads which are more highly qualified.

Keywords no longer marked 'inactive for search'

The new per-query evaluation of Quality Score affects you in that keywords will no longer appear as 'inactive for search' in your account. Instead, all keywords will have the chance to show ads on Google web search and the search network (unless you've paused or deleted them). Keep in mind, however, that keywords previously marked 'inactive for search' are not likely to accrue a great deal of traffic following this change. This is because their combined per-query Quality Score and bid probably isn't high enough to gain competitive placement.

'First page bid' will replace 'minimum bid'

As a result of migrating to per-query Quality Score, we are no longer showing minimum bids in your account. Instead, we're replacing minimum bids with a new, more meaningful metric: first page bids. First page bids are an estimate of the bid it would take for your ad to reach the first page of search results on Google web search. They're based on the exact match version of the keyword, the ad's Quality Score, and current advertiser competition on that keyword. Based on your feedback, we learned that knowing your minimum bid wasn't always helpful in getting the ad placement you wanted, so we hope that first page bids will give you better guidance on how to achieve your advertising goals.

It's worth mentioning that the impact of these changes will vary from advertiser to advertiser; some might see no changes to their ad serving, while others may see a noticeable difference. As always, we recommend optimizing ads to prevent them from receiving a low Quality Score.

Putting it all together

Here's an example to illustrate how per-query Quality Score works:

Nancy's Dairy advertises on the keyword 'milk.' Nancy's ads perform better on the keyword 'milk' in the U.S. than in Canada. Her ads also perform better on the query 'milk delivery' than on 'milk,' and better on certain search network sites than on others. Instead of one static Quality Score and minimum bid that determines whether the keyword 'milk' is eligible to trigger an ad for all search queries, we will now determine eligibility dynamically, based on factors such as location, the specific query, and other relevance factors. For that reason, Nancy's keyword 'milk' will be able to trigger an ad for search queries where it's likely to perform better, i.e., in the U.S., on 'milk delivery' and on certain search network sites.

We're working to update the AdWords API and AdWords Editor so that, in the future, they will support first page bids. Until then, both the AdWords API and AdWords Editor will continue to show the minimum bid field. However, the information shown in this field will be based on the new per-query Quality Score. You may keep current with upcoming API releases on the API Blog and learn about upcoming AdWords Editor releases via the AdWords Editor Forum.

Finally, please note that we'll release these Quality Score changes to a very small segment of advertisers within the next day or two, so that we can gather feedback before launching to all our advertisers. We will, of course, post again in advance of the time that these changes go live for everyone.

In the meantime, please see this comprehensive list of frequently asked questions for more information.

Gmail Introduces New Privacy Settings

Google has come up with a brilliant idea of introducing a privacy setting in Gmail that shows information about your last activity on your account and also whether you are logged onto the account via other device. You can also check out the details section and access more info like how many devices are you logged on from and also the IP addresses. What more, Gmail also introduces a remote log out feature using which one can log out of every device other than the one currently being used.

Now how cool is that?

Customize the Way Your Gmail Looks

Are you tired of looking at the plain, old and boring Gmail User Interface (UI) that hasn’t been changed ever since 2004? Even though Google has been constantly rolling out new features for its services, it has never bothered to update the UI for many of its services. For example, take a look at how Gmail looks in its present state.

Gmail is high on features compared to the other email services out there, but it seriously lacks on the UI front. Google may have its own reasons for not rolling out a new look, but that doesn’t stop us from customizing it our own way, does it?Here’s how a customized Gmail looks.

There are other kinds of looks available too, but we’re only focussing on the one by Globex Designs. Let’s take a look.Here’s what you need:1. FireFox 2+ (FireFox 3.0+ is highly recommended)First, visit the following URL and download and install the ‘Stylish’ extension for FireFox.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2108

You need to restart your browser to complete the installation, so make sure you save all your work before you do that.Next, proceed to visit the following URL.

http://www.globexdesigns.com/gmail/gmail.css

Now, all you need to do is right-click on the Stylish icon in the bottom right of you browser and click on ‘Add File to Stylish‘ and you’re done. Visit http://mail.google.com. If you did everything correctly, this is how the sign up box will show up.

Cool, isn’t it?

iPhone Killer? Samsung Omnia