Google : We're looking at you Microsoft (Update 2)

There was a lot of speculation last year when Google announced their own Internet browser Chrome.

The search giant was developing a competing product to Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Firefox (heavily funded by Google), Apple's Safari (and numerous other products).

This morning, Google reintroduced Chrome as an Operating System.

Cloud computing has been in heavy development by both Google, Microsoft and others.  Essentially, using the web for your applications rather than having them loaded on your hard drive. 

In a prelude to today's announcement, Google dropped the Beta tag (finally) from a host of online products including GMail, Google Docs, Google Sites, and more yesterday.  The Google online 'office like' suite was, in fact, one of the first, and now competes directly with Microsoft's Office Online (now known as Microsoft Office Live)  which has been growing a rich feature set as well.

Enter Google's browser Chrome. Available in three 'flavors'. Developer, Beta tester, and a stable release.

Initially targeting Netbooks (mini-Notebook PCs), Google has used the phrase Google Chrome OS for the first time today and announced that Netbooks running the Google Chrome OS will be available in the second half of 2010 confirming that Google is also working with hardware manufacturers.

While some will speculate that Google is taking a shot at Microsoft with this announcement, it's more likely that Google is looking at the bottom line and other products and services that make money.  Google needs to go beyond search and this is one direction they are taking seriously.

With there's little doubt that the tech community will be all over this rollout, it still remains to be seen whether or not large enterprise users will embrace (or trust) cloud computing.

Our take for now is that this very possibly could effect the price of Microsoft's (and other) client products as well as their online offerings, depending on how aggressive Google gets.

Everyone is looking at the huge potential of an economic turnaround (worldwide) and the outright fact that almost every company in some way (including most in the Fortune 500) have a lot of delayed technology upgrading to do.

Competition is healthy for the consumer.  Google just kicked it up a notch for next year.

Update 1: An informative Q and A has been posted regarding the Google Chrome OS to the Chrome Blog here.

Update 2: Google has confirmed (on the Chrome Blog) that they are working directly with hardware manufacturers including Acer, Adobe, ASUS, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, and Toshiba.

Beta invites go out - Microsoft Hohm

 

A few hours ago, beta invites were received by a variety of Microsoft Connect members, other registered Microsoft users, and even by quite a few users that simply have a .net log-on address.

The Hohm beta website, which is open to ALL, is now live and can be found here. 

You'll need a .net logon (IE: @live, @msn, @hotmail, etc.) to access the site.

A critical examination (with links to other articles as well) was posted this morning by my colleague Peter Troast at Energy Circle here.

Friendfeed on Steroids - NO LIMITS

It's no secret that I've been a fan of Friendfeed from just about the beginning.

Watching the service mature, change, experiment and react to suggestions by users has been not only fascinating ..... but I've always felt just a preview of the 'next big thing'.

While I'm the first to admit I've never taken the time to truly leverage Friendfeed's capabilities like Robert Scoble, Louis Gray and others have (particularly lists), those of us that have watched Friendfeed evolve and participated as possible, easily saw the potential of what these ex-Googlers were doing.

The one thing Friendfeed still lacks is a guide of sorts for new users. The feature set is not yet obvious despite numerous changes.  (I have been asked by lots of people why I'm so loyal to Friendfeed.  The reason they ask is that if you just stumble across it, you can engage, learn, even have some fun .... but you won't really  realize what it can do).

Factually, in the past year, some of my best (and profitable) business contacts have been made on Friendfeed.

Earlier in the week, Friendfeed added a few themes.  It had to be a teaser, although I like the Helvetica theme a lot:

This morning, Friendfeed which is already real time with no limits on followers, unleashed Friendfeed Real Time search.

This is more than gravy.  This is back to ' Friedfeed month one'. It's a whole new ball game.

Example (hat-tip Louis Gray):

This is my current Friendfeed:



If you're currently logged in to Friendfeed, you can literally access it right from here. There's no denying it. This is HUGE (and updating in Real-Time!).

Get lost?  Type in a couple of letters to Friendfeed's new search box and locate your groups, follows and more .... in seconds.

Then came a suggestion by Googler Matt Cutts:



It was implemented in less than a couple of hours (and yes, you can embed someone's else's stuff in your blog too .... :)

The reality (that Scoble, Gray, more recently Leo Laporte and others) have been trying to drive home is that if you take the time to set up Friendfeed to your own taste (including over 50 online services, most with import and export) you can have discussions, get serious, have some fun, or network the way networking should be.

Do yourself a favor and head over to the newly-updated (again!) Friendfeed.

Join in ..... or just find out more on the 'FriendBlog' here.

Just try not to get addicted ... like I did all over again tonight :)

Twitter just got better

As noted by Biz Stone just a few moments ago on the Twitter Blog .... the team at Twitter just rolled out a few changes aimed at making it easier to work with your 'follower' and 'following' lists (directly from the web interface).

The ability to SMS, Follow, Direct Message, and more just went live.

I doubt anyone would argue that most of these changes are long overdue.

Simple on the surface, yet Twitter just got better.

Microsoft - 2 Huge New Green Data Centers

Microsoft announced the addition of two mega data centers to go online during July.

The first goes live tomorrow in Dublin, Ireland.

Spanning 303,000 square feet, this new data center currently has 5.4 megawatts of critical power available and is expected to be expanded to 22.2 mega watts.

The second is in the US. The Chicago data center will go online July 20th. The facility is 700,000 square feet (or the size of 16 football fields!) and will utilize the latest 'container' technology.

Both facilities have been built to new (Generation 3) energy efficiency standards.

More on the new Microsoft mega data denters can be found at TechNet here.

Details on Microsoft's practices for environmentally sustainable data centers can be found here.

Bing Photo Contest and Webmaster Toolbox

Microsoft's new search engine, Bing, continues to roll-out a variety of new marketing and webmaster initiatives.

The Bing Photo Contest on Facebook lets you enter your photos for your own 'moment of fame' on Bing's front page.

Webmasters were introduced to the Bing Toolbox over the weekend with updated information including how to get your website listed in Bing, submitting XML sitemaps, and a new Bing API.

It's worth noting that Bing, like it's predecessor Live.com, still relies heavily on the sitemaps.org robots.txt file standard (IE: Include that XML sitemap line in your robots.txt file!). 

You can also ping your new or updated XML sitemap to Bing directly from your browser.  The new layout is:
http://www.bing.com/webmaster/ping.aspx?siteMap=[your full xml sitemap URL]

Bing IS still producing a significantly higher organic return than Live.com on websites that I watch.

Is it novelty or do people like it?

Time will tell :)

Got News? Google and YouTube Want You!

Many of us have noted significant changes at YouTube over the past few months.

• YouTube has ramped up monetizing. Not only with large banner ads right on the front page at times, but within videos themselves, as well as YouTube promoted videos.
• A cool feature that lets you link to mark specific spots within in your videos.
• Expanded use by of YouTube by Google themselves, with new and expanded Google Channels, and most recently ....
• Brand Channels, expansion of the YouTube Reporters Channel , integration of YouTube videos in Google News, and ...
  
• The very cool YT Screening Room.

 As noted in a post of the YouTube Biz Blog as short time ago (and cross posted to the Google News Blog), the YouTube News Channel is partnering with Google News and is rolling out the welcome mat.

It's important to note that Google IS including 'citizen journalism' video as well as 'unique' news organizations  deemed to be 'authoritative' in the news partner program.

It's pretty apparent that Google and YouTube want to be 'the' online video news portal while making Google News faster and more relevant.

With Video and Mobile still on the cutting edge of search and no doubt the continuing next chapter on the Internet, Google wants to be all over this .... and right now, they're offering you a chance to be part of it.


More details on how to be featured on the YouTube News Channel (or other new channel) can be found here (or here).  The YouTube Partner program can be found here.

Firefox 3.5 likely for this week (Updated)

Earlier today, I noticed a post on WebMonkey that the public 'final' version of Firefox 3.5 could be available as early as Tuesday.

Apparently, BetaNews confirmed this info a short time ago.

Firefox is still my default browser.  The reason, for the most part, is the myriad of extensions that just make it an easier and customizable Internet experience for me.  I do use Google Chrome (the dev versions), and seem to have had a better-than-most experience with the version of Internet Explorer 8 version that's comes with Windows 7 RC.

My earlier attempts with various release candidates of 3.5 were not as 'healthy' but that's what Beta and Release Candidates are all about......  To get those of us that like messing with this stuff to help get the bugs out (while getting the word out) ... for free :)

Late this afternoon, I downloaded the latest RC (3) of Firefox 3.5.  I installed it using Windows 7 RC on a laptop with reasonable system resources.

There IS a 'noticable' difference and it's been running smoothly with no crashes or huge 'memory blocks'.  While I don't (never have) benchmark software because I think it's a very safe assumption that there are too many variables (IE: Your hardware, Internet connection, existing running processes, etc.), I think it's safe to say that Mozilla has a fairly substantial improvement on the way with Firefox 3.5.

The Firefox 3.5 Release Candidate 3 can be downloaded here , or, you can 'play it safe' and wait for Tuesday :)

Great Weekend you guys ...
Charlie

Update 1:  Some major websites are not yet recognizing Firefox 3.5 including the new Google Adwords PPC interface.

Update 2: June 30, 2009 11 AM ET:  Firefox 3.5 has been released.  The current 'available languages' download page can be found here, and the release notes are here.

Microsoft launches special Windows 7 pricing (Update 3)

Microsoft Investor Relations (NASDAQ: MSFT) announced they will be holding a conference call  / webcast at 8 AM PDT today to explain the new Windows 7 upgrade program (and discount program for early purchasers) and related accounting information for investors.

The Webcast and Powerpoint presentation will be available here.

Some insight was been provided earlier in this video from the Windows Team Blog:


Announcing the Windows 7 Upgrade Option Program & Windows 7 Pricing

Update 1 - 6 PM ET:  ArsTechnica appears to have the rundown on upgrade and full pricing in an updated piece here.

Update 2 - Channel 10 (owned by Microsoft) has confirmed the pricing being reported.

Update 3 - Friday June 26, 8 AM ET - The two Microsoft Windows 7 upgrade program websites are now live here and here, although some individual manufacturers are still putting up their own pages.

Microsoft is also now offering the Windows 7 pre-order pricing at the Microsoft Store.

What's beyond a Black Belt ? A Gmail Master?

In a post to the Official Gmail Blog a short time ago titled So, you want to be a Gmail ninja? ....
in a way I suppose only Google can do, the Gmail team introduced a new chart explaining the in's and outs of Gmail, which ... ugh .. allows you to rank yourself:

White Belt .. Green Belt .. Black Belt, or (have a seat?) .... Gmail Master!

From what we can tell, there is no bodily harm potential (IE: Kicking, quick movements, splitting bricks).

Just a good understanding of what you can do with a Gmail account.

You can 'peek' at the chart right here. (Note: It will open as a PDF) ... or .... you can order an (official) laminated one from www.barcharts.com/gmail for $1.25 US.

The 1024 freebies that Google offered earlier today are already gone.
(Yeah, I know, bummer).

There's also a new online Gmail tip page just launched here.

I have a feeling we may see a few of the laminated babies floating around SMX East or the next Google get together ...

We'll see :)

Microsoft Unleashes Free Antivirus Beta (Updated)

Announced in November by Microsoft, the long awaiting (beta) successor to OneCare arrived a short time ago.


We downloaded copies from the Microsoft Connect Website for both XP and our Windows 7 RC box.

Set-up was essentially seamless.

Being a touch cautious, we offloaded Avast (on the XP3 box) and AVG (on the Windows 7 box) before installing.

The program goes through a validation check (IE: You must be using 'genuine Microsoft software') prior to installation, then in an easy step-by-step fashion, downloads current virus signatures and goes through a quick default scan of your PC.

Unlike other beta testers, Windows Essentials (previously code named 'Morro') found no spyware or viruses lurking here.

Perhaps that's because we use CCleaner on a regular basis to clean out our caches, junk files, cookies, etc ... or ... the other AntiVirus software just worked ? :)

Interestingly, there was no problem logging into Microsoft Connect using Firefox to download the new Beta.

While some other pre-release articles are noting a limit on downloads, we were unable to confirm this plus (check this out?), Microsoft is currently running ads on Google announcing the release:

Security Essentials will replace Windows Defender on your PC if you use it.  So far, memory use on both boxes appears minimal.

Microsoft has stated that Windows Essentials is not an attempt to replace commercially available AntiVirus solutions but to spread a touch more security to those that can't afford more elaborate programs.

Of course, with plenty of free programs out there, most notably AVG, there could be a bit of an argument to be made there.

On the other hand, if Redmond designed the program to run better with their own software as well as proprietary pieces, it might be 'a good thing'.....

Update 1 - 2 PM ET:  ZDNet is reporting that downloads will be capped at 75,000.  Liveside.net is saying it 'might be changed'.
Update 2 - 10 PM ET The beta is still available at this hour (no doubt exceeding 75,000 downloads) and is also available with an interesting write-up at BetaNews here.
Update 3 - 11 PM ET An alert Digg user (with thanks to 'diskserious') noted that the disabling of Windows Defender is not yet active.  The Microsoft explanation can be found here.
Final Update - 11 AM June 24 - As of this morning, downloads were no longer available in the US.

Google - A new landmark in computer vision

This morning, Google announced an initiative for computer recognition of thousands of landmarks around the world.

Cross-posted a short time ago from the Google Research Blog to the Official Google Blog, the research team is presenting a paper (see below) at the CVPR Conference in Miami that explains "a new technology that enables computers to quickly and efficiently identify images of more than 50,000 landmarks from all over the world with 80% accuracy".

The Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition conference is put on the by the IEEE Computer Society and is ongoing now until June 25th.

You can read the entire Google paper here (Note: will open as a PDF).

You can also follow the CVPR conference on Twitter @CVPR or check out their Facebook page here.