Before this purchase, the company was regularly releasing updates for both its free and pro versions, which were available for both Mac and Windows computers. If you want to take advantage of the software, you will need to download it here, as nearly everything on the site (including these downloads) will be taken down within the week.

A Web-Based Operating System

Google will either incorporate the desktop environment into Android for mobile devices and tablet PCs or introduce it in a more stripped-down version of their Chromium/web-based operating system. It is likely that a lot of changes will be made before it is converted to either of these systems, but there is certainly the potential that it will be included in some form.

For the mobile devices, it would likely make it easier to arrange and display applications as well as status messages from social networking sites. The interface wold certainly allow a user to interact with the display using fingers for control.

Competition Against Apple

Again, this purchase may also have something to do with Google’s fight against Apple. Google may have figured that Apple was going to purchase the company and stepped in to do so before the Cupertino-based company could. At this point, the purchase’s outcome is as clear as what Apple is going to use Lala’s purchase to do: integrate it into iTunes or offer another cloud-based solution.

In the war of two of the biggest technology companies, one company will stand out from the rest, and that is the company that is able to out-innovate the other, while still being able to maintain the high consumer satisfaction.

I experimented with some of the scripts, but didn’t have any luck getting them to work. Many of these can be quickly written, and using a beta product doesn’t help. Aaron Boodman, who wrote the post explaining how these scripts work, states that between 15-25% of the scripts will not work in Google Chrome, and that you should consider letting the author know.

Even if you have never used an extension before you might want to consider checking out Userscripts.org, which is the repository for all the Greasemonkey scripts. Simply click the install button, and you’ll be on your way to installing and using the simple productivity solutions.

What I still need in Chrome before I begin to use it more of the time include the following:

• A better experience. Currently, it is (like Firefox) a pain to use, compared to Safari.
• A faster experience. I figure users with slower connections like the speed of Chrome compared to Internet Explorer, but between Safari, Firefox, and Chrome, Chrome is remarkably slow.
• Options. Sure, there are options included like within Firefox, but many are unusable at this point or appear to be hastily integrated into the browser.

Google’s latest project, which the company is putting a lot of emphasis on, is the Chromium OS, which is an open source project. The primary focus is on netbooks, but it may eventually scale to other devices, including tablets. A mockup and UI concepts have emerged on this page, which indicate the direction Google may be taking when it begins producing a device for market.

The main UI and features included will be as follows:

• Keyboard interaction with the screen will be anchored, split, attached to focus.
• Access to websites will be provided using touch or search.
• Contextual actions triggered through speech or touch input.
• Zooming UI for multiple tabs.
• Tabs presented along the side of the screen.
• Creating multiple browsers on screen using a launcher.

If Google goes after the tablet market like they have been going after the phone market, it is likely that multiple manufacturers will be sporting devices powered by the Chromium OS, although Google may have the last say as to what can be customized and what can’t be.

The main problem with how Google is trying to corner these markets is the same reason Microsoft ultimately failed at launching products like the Zune and their Windows Mobile phone platforms (which are both dramatically losing sales). While many respect Google for their search business, which is shown with their share of the search market, those who aren’t familiar with their motivation behind releasing these products will fall in the trap. With the Nexus One and any devices Google releases under their branding, they have full access to everything on your phone, which is said to “improve Google’s search results.”

Apple is in the market of providing evolutionary devices. We’ve seen plenty of tablets in the past, but Apple’s approach on how the tablet should be used is completely different. Never before has a company launched a device with an extremely successful application store. There are less apps available for the iPhone OS than the Windows platform, but they are generally regarded (as a whole) to be better and easier to use.

Many of Apple’s products have had nearly two decades of research behind them. The MessagePad, the first device made available under the Newton platform, was released in 1993. Some of the overall technology and ideas behind the device made it into the iPhone and later, the iPad. Google wasn’t even a company at this time. Those who purchase Apple’s products are accustomed to an experience regarded to as higher than the competition.

The Nexus One, Motorola Droid, and Palm Pre are all in the smart phone market, yet none have really been able to steal significant sales from the iPhone. Perhaps they are slowing the growth of the iPhone in the near-term (next several months), but this may simply be due to the fact that Apple hasn’t updated their iPhone since last summer. Flooding the market with devices won’t help Google: support has reportedly been horrible for their Nexus One launch.

Upfront costs for these devices are all quite similar, between $179 and $199 for contract-base devices and in the $529 to $599 range for devices without a contract. Two-year plans are also quite consistent across the board, only changing when data plans must be included or the carrier is different.

Google’s marketplace for their tablet computer will be much like the experience of Google Chrome. While they promote a clean, fast experience, as soon as you begin using the software, it becomes evident that the speed and interface haven’t been polished. Apple’s iPhone has been polished (as well as many of the included apps).

When someone spends $2,500 to $3,000 on a device over the lifespan of a contract, will they choose a device that works as intended or a device that looks like it should work as intended, that has all the specs. to go with the look?

Ultimately, the tablet market will boil down to some of the same principles as the latest saga of the smart phone market.

For now, we have user-created mockups and a video showing how the Chromium OS will look on a tablet device. Remember, the device is still in “mockup” stage, and there have been no prototypes displayed yet. Apple’s device will hit the market in about two months’ time.

Concepts and UIs

Video Showing Tablet UI

If stats are correct, anywhere from 11-14%, up to 21% of all Internet Users are still browsing the web with IE6. Generally, these are users in corporate and business settings, where the process of rolling out an update to IE7 or IE8 was skipped due to cost and compatibility issues. While the update is free, development on new programs to be compatible with the browser, including the support staff/development team costs can reach into the millions. Therefore, like Windows XP, these businesses will try to hang onto the version (as it works “perfectly fine”) for as long as possible.

A post from Google recently offers a brief explanation behind the lack of support for IE6, as well as their direction for the future. Beginning March 1st, Google Docs and Sites features may not work properly in other browsers. Rather than gently phasing out support of IE6, they are going with the approach of “we’re dropping compatibility (rather than support), so you must upgrade.”

IE7+, Firefox 3.0+, Chrome 4.0+, and Safari 3.0+ are the currently supported browsers of most sites around the web, although it might be better at this point if everyone moved away from Internet Explorer altogether. At the current rate of adoption and support timeframe, we’ll be dealing with a similar situation with IE7 in five years’ time. Microsoft will continue to support IE6 until 2014, 13 years after release. At the time of this writing, Internet Explorer 6 is still the most popular version of Internet Explorer, making up 20.99% of all browsers. Internet Explorer 8 comes in at 20.86% of all browsers, and 36.27% of Internet Explorer browsers. This information is according to Net Applications.

Should businesses skip Vista (and many are) and go directly to Internet Explorer 8, or switch operating systems/browsers altogether, the web may be given the opportunity to evolve at a faster rate. Flash may also be less prevalent in five to ten years’ time if enough websites stop using it.

The ultimate question is this: will businesses listen to a company that is ultimately trying to cause a huge disruption in the industry? Not likely. If the web apps built by many companies has been tested to be compatible with IE6 only, and they don’t see the benefits in the cost of upgrading to Windows 7 and IE8, why should they upgrade? Many companies refuse software updates for these reasons alone, and simply blocking access from web search, online office suites, and YouTube won’t necessarily persuade companies to upgrade.

Just five days after the official Version 4 release and about a month and a half since Version 3.0 was released, Google is trying to release as many updates as popular to the browser to ensure that it evolves quickly, already matching some of the many features found in other browsers from Microsoft, Apple, and Mozilla.

Version 5 is now available, and it includes a number of new features for both Windows and Mac users (Linux users may have to wait a few weeks, as the latest development version is still in the 4.0-range). For the latest development version, please refer to either this page or the snapshots.

The main changes have been outlined on their Dev Channel. Because this is a developer version, it isn’t recommended that you test this unless you are willing to deal with crashes and unstable software. However, if you want to test the latest features of the browser, it may be wroth trying out.

Windows Version 5.0.307.1

The downloads will be moved to the default directory on Vista and Windows 7, except where it is the desktop.

Work has begun on a Content Settings window which, like other popular browsers, brings in additional options for changing how the browser deals with cookies, images, JavaScript, plugins, and popup windows.

Macintosh Version 5.0.307.1

The following changes have been made or addressed in this version for Mac.

• Improved plugin stability.
• Fix crash that happened when tabs were dragged around.
• A fix for %cpu in task manager.
• Cookies manager is given a search field.
• Copying of large images had been made more robust.
• Task manager resizing behavior has been improved.

Are you using Google Chrome, and if so, what features need to be added to convince you that it is one of the best browsers?

Their main effort is highlighted on their Privacy Principles page, which basically puts their Privacy Policy into everyday terms.

A summary of their Principles:

• Use information to provide users with valuable products and services.
• Develop products that reflect strong privacy standards and practices.
• Make the collection of personal information transparent.
• Give users meaningful choices to protect their privacy.
• Be a responsible steward of the information we hold.

In conclusion, we are given just a few words and a new video to go along with the Privacy Principles. Google is an advertising company, and earns a good portion of their revenue through their AdWords program. As consumers, we directly give this information to Google, unlike any other company in recent history. Bing, Yahoo, and all the other search engines keep personal information, but don’t have the tight integration into nearly every website on the web.

What do you think of these principles Google has created, and do you think they will stick with them?

On Tuesday, open-standards guru Will Norris announced that he will be starting a new job at Google on February 1st, and will be joining other new hires. Their main goal will be to “contribute to the merging standards and growing developer community in this space,” he wrote on his blog Tuesday.

Several employees from other “social” companies are also leaving, as is the case of Joseph Smarr, who left Plaxo (who was chief technology officer) to join Google.

Google likely sees the opportunity in social media to “harvest” more information from users, such as all the business reviews provided through the Yelp service, although the deal fell through. Creating a single site that allows everyone to post content to would be ideal, although we already have a similar service, called Posterous, as well as some other services.