The Playground

Today Google released its first Web browser, called Chrome. An online comic book published on Monday gives a run-down on why Google thought users were ready for a new browser.

Features

The address serves all your browsing needs: web search, web history, address bar and gives suggestions as you type.

Every time you open a new tab, you'll see thumbnails of your most visited sites, most used search engines, and recently bookmarked pages and closed tabs.

Drag tabs out of the browser to create new windows, gather multiple tabs into one window or arrange your tabs how you want.

Every tab you're using is run independently in the browser, so if one app crashes it won't take anything else down.

Incognito mode for private browsing.

Google Chrome warns you if you're about to visit a suspected phishing, malware or otherwise unsafe website.

Just click the star icon at the left edge of the address bar and you've bookmarked the page.

Import settings from your existing Web browser: bookmarks, passwords and browsing history are all brought over.

Hover over a link and information appears in the status bar. It only appears when needed.

And best of all, it's fast.

Drawbacks

If you're a Firefox user like myself you have an arsenal of add-ons that you've come to rely on, and already I'm missing a couple of these. Since Chrome was only released today, there's none available yet.

The browser history is not as extensive as other browsers so bookmarks will bloat.

Conclusion

I'm sure there'll be other disappointments but so far I'm impressed. I like the clean, uncluttered look, the fast page loads and the new tab feature. Blog posts about Chrome are popping up all over the Web since this is a Beta release, we can only expect more improvements to follow.

Posted by Toni at 7:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) |

The results are in from last week's public vote for its favourite doodle from the Doodle 4 Google art competition, in which Google invited students in grades K-12 to design the Google logo around the theme "What if...?"

I picked 3 out of the 4 winners and am happy the judges shared my good taste :)

National Winner 2008

Up in the Clouds

My doodle, "Up in the Clouds," expresses a world in the sky. This new world is clean and fresh, and people are social and enlightened. Every person here is treated as family no matter who they are. The bright sun heats this ideal place with warmth, love, and brightens everyone's day.
Grace Moon
Canyon Middle School
Castro Valley, California

Grades K-3 Winner

If the Whole World Rocked

I think that people can express themselves in a creative and energetic way with music. I think that the whole world would be happier if they rocked out to the music they love.
Spencer Norton
Ashbrook Elementary School
New Jersey

Grades 7-9 Winner

What if Rainforests were saved?

In the future, what if there were rainforests everywhere? What if people could work together to preserve and restore nature instead of destroying it? The world's rainforests are shrinking and many species have lost their habitat because of humans. What if we could change this?
Rebecca Olene
Pioneer Ridge Freshmen Center
Minnesota

Grades 10-12

Splashing Google

When I think of "What if…" I think of an abstract idea to express your opinion. So what better way can you think of than "Abstract Impressionism?" What if the Google logo was up to Jackson Pollock? This is my impression of Jackson Pollack and the Google logo together.
Gabriel Kitzman
Elbert School Dist. #200
Colorado

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Google Inc. has knocked Microsoft Corp. from its perch as the world's top-ranked brand, according to findings released on Monday.

That's the lead-in from Reuters reporting on the release of the 2007 BRANDZ Top 100 Ranking, compiled by market research firm Millward Brown.

Google ranked No. 7 a year ago, and the jump to the top proves how quickly the Web search leader has become an everyday name. The company uses relatively little advertising, instead relying on word-of-mouth promotion. Other top brands included GE (2nd), Microsoft (3rd), and not surprising, Coca Cola came in 4th. Some of the other big movers on the list included Apple Inc., which rose 13 spots to No. 16 and Starbucks Corp., which rose 13 spots to No. 35. Those losing ground in the brand rankings included Intel Corp., Home Depot Inc. and Dell Inc.

The full list is an interesting read, and the Press Release gives some mind-boggling figures on the worth of these Fortune 500 companies.

Posted by Toni at 11:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) |

Google Inc. has knocked Microsoft Corp. from its perch as the world's top-ranked brand, according to findings released on Monday.

That's the lead-in from Reuters reporting on the release of the 2007 BRANDZ Top 100 Ranking, compiled by market research firm Millward Brown.

Google ranked No. 7 a year ago, and the jump to the top proves how quickly the Web search leader has become an everyday name. The company uses relatively little advertising, instead relying on word-of-mouth promotion. Other top brands included GE (2nd), Microsoft (3rd), and not surprising, Coca Cola came in 4th. Some of the other big movers on the list included Apple Inc., which rose 13 spots to No. 16 and Starbucks Corp., which rose 13 spots to No. 35. Those losing ground in the brand rankings included Intel Corp., Home Depot Inc. and Dell Inc.

The full list is an interesting read, and the Press Release gives some mind-boggling figures on the worth of these Fortune 500 companies.

Posted by Toni at 11:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) |

Google just recently launched another site called Google Gadgets. It's a collection of add-ons that you can use on your web pages to add dynamic content. You can add third-party applications from Google Maps to Picasa Web Photos, a simple calculator to jokes and games. This is part of the announcement from the Google Press Center:

With almost no effort and at no cost, webpage owners can add complex, dynamically updating content to their own websites using Google Gadgets. Because there is such an enormous variety of Google Gadgets to choose from, webmasters also have a great deal of freedom to select only the gadgets that will best complement their own page. There are games, news clips, weather reports, maps, and more.

There's over 1500 different gadgets, and creating a gadget is easy — anyone with even a little experience with web design or programming can do it. Here's a simple calculator, created with one line of code.

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If you ever wonder if anyone links to your site there's a very easy way to find out.

Go to Google and type in:

link:http://www.yourwebsite.com/

Your results list the websites that have links to your site. You may find it interesting.

Posted by Toni at 10:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) |

You have to give credit to this guy that keep coming up with the exceptional Google doodles. He's designed over 150 of the Google doodles and posts on the Google Blog.

My name is Dennis Whang, and I'm the guy who draws the Google doodles. But the doodle tradition started here before I did. The first doodle was produced by (who else?) Larry and Sergey, who, when they attended the Burning Man festival in summer 1999, put a little stick figure on the home page logo in case the site crashed and someone wanted to know why nobody was answering the phone.

He said that when a user writes in to suggest that they honor the once-every-122-years Transit of Venus on the Google home page, they actually do it! He invites anyone with an idea for new doodles to send them in.

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Google Page Creator is a free online tool that makes it easy for anyone to create and publish useful, attractive web pages in just minutes.

• No technical knowledge required.
• Build high-quality web pages without having to learn HTML or use complex software.
• What you see is what you'll get.
• Edit your pages right in your browser, seeing exactly how your finished product will look every step along the way.
• Don't worry about hosting.
• Your web pages will live on your own site at http://yourgmailusername.googlepages.com

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In Australia we celebrate Anzac Day on April 25th and Australia Day on January 26th. Google never fails to delight us with special Logos for those dates. Here's a collection that goes back the last couple of years.

Posted by Toni at 10:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) |

I have over 250 different Google Logos on my computer. I love the special logos that Google comes up with for holidays and events. I'll add a few at a time so as not to bog down download times.

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