“Living In The Google World” – Day 2 and Day 3

How has it been “Living In The Google World”, only using Chrome and online apps?

Ok, I have a confession to make. Actually a few of them. 

The last 2 days have been relatively light in terms of producing work online. There was a good amount of offline things I’ve had to do (if you filed for an extension on your taxes in April, you know they’re due now).

I also started using my hard drive for storage. More on this below.  

In any case, I have done some work and have a few new insights. 

1.  I’m crawling along still without Robofrom, but things are getting easier on the password front because Chrome is remembering all of them. Unfortunately my upgrade to the Chromium nightly build means I’ve had to re-enter the passwords I had already stored in Chrome. 
 

2. I ditched the online storage issue. I’m sure there’s an answer out there somewhere waiting to be found and I’ll find it sooner or later, but right now, I store images on my hard drive and then upload them to Amazon’s servers. Doing this made my life MUCH easier. I can still edit in Photoshop.com but not having to save the image over to Picasa Web Album removed a few steps and reduced frustration. 
 

3. Chrome is a little finicky with the refresh on some sites, Awstats (stats program that shows information about your website and it’s visitors) is one of them.

When I hit the site’s “update” link, the screen flashes like it’s doing an update, but then I have to do a “refresh page” with Chrome to get the page to redraw.
 

4. When I select a bit of text to copy, I sometimes stumble into the situation where the whole page is selected by Chrome. This means I have to unselect, go back and more carefully select the text I want.

I think this happens more often when I’m selecting text in a text box, but I’ll keep watching and see if I can figure it out. 

 

So there ya go.

Not much drama, but then again, I wasn’t doing much hard core work online today. Tomorrow will be a much different story as I have a couple of deadlines to hit. 

I haven’t bit the bullet yet to convert all my email accounts to flow through Gmail, but I always know it’s there for me. 

If someone knows of a simple and transparent “online hard drive“, please post a comment.

Chrome: Google’s Present To Microsoft

So the idea of a cake with a stick of dynamite in it isn’t new.

But what about the idea that Google’s Chrome is actually a “gift” in many ways to Microsoft? 

Let me explain a few obvious examples of what I mean. 

1. History has proven time and time again that Microsoft is great at taking competitors ideas, incorporating them into their own software and selling a bunch of copies.

With Chrome, Google just gave Microsoft a whole lot of ideas. 
 

2. Chrome signals a new paradigm for the future and possible scary competition to Microsoft. Ever the competitor, this “crisis” gives credence to the demand for “CHANGE” and is many ways a “license” by the public for Microsoft to take bolder steps than maybe they felt comfortable with in the first place. 

In other words, Microsoft can now go into “Battle mode”, making rapid changes, upgrades, etc. which will all more likely than not, be better for their users. 
 

3. Chrome is a great example of the concept of completely separating the app from the OS. Sure it runs “web pages”, but when normal users start creating little desktop short cuts to their “Chrome Apps”, people look at things differently.

Indeed, given the release of Chrome, it makes sense now for Microsoft’s to release a slimmed down Windows 7 OS that encourages users to run online apps using Windows Live, eliminating the need to bundle Windows Mail, Windows Photo Gallery and Windows Movie Maker with the OS. 

 

4. Chrome inspires new thinking and new creativity. Combine it with Android and “WOW”, everyone’s imagination is fueled. Beyond more ideas to copy, web developers and programmers everywhere are inspired by it.

It’s likely that some of that inspiration and new creativity has touched some of the developers at Microsoft too. It will be great fun to see what pops out of it. 
 

See the idea now? We already know Chrome was Google’s gift to the “ecosystem”, but it’s also a gift to Microsoft as well.

 

If you know of other examples on how Chrome is a gift to Microsoft, speak up and post a comment. 

“Chrome Lite” Called Most Impressive Feature of Android

With all the reviews and reports about T Mobile’s G1 Android controlled phone hitting the web, one thing is clear, the “Chrome Lite” browser included with Android is mentioned repeatedly with in glowing terms. 

In the Financial Times (FT.com),  New York based Paul Taylor says that the Chrome Lite browser and it’s sleek integration are the “most impressive features” of the new Android based G1 phone from T Mobile. 

The Financial Times is not alone. 

Eric Zeman of Information Week writes that the Chrome Lite browser does a “phenomenal job browsing the web” and that web pages “loaded in a snap and looked fantastic”. 

Could it be that the future of computing on the desktop is staring back at us from the Android cell phone? 

 

See Paul Taylor’s Financial Times article here.

See Eric Zeman’s Information Week article here.

« Previous Page — Next Page »