Posts Tagged ‘Google’

During its quarterly earnings call, Google ended up in a open discussion about its key products. Chrome may be free, but it is critical to the company’s future.

There has been quite some buzz about the Chrome touch UI lately. Following our initial report from March 20, Cnet recently uncovered more evidence that Chrome (OS) will be getting a touch tablet version and now we are seeing a screenshot (?) of the onscreen keyboard. Oh, and Google has quietly reduced the page load time of Chrome for pages on its own servers by a stunning 50% by modifying the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP).

It would not be accurate to say that Larry Page is wasting time in his new and old position of the company he co-founded. He is leading an empire that has a solid business foundation, massive resources as well as deep pockets to reach well beyond its core market. Page’s management changes set new incentives are clearly designed to keep its top leadership hungry. Google’s eyes appear to be laser-focused on Microsoft. Is Google strong enough to bring Microsoft down to its knees?

Often we get so tied up in looking at individual companies that we don’t step back and look across the technology eco-system and see the much bigger picture.  Individually, AMD fired its CEO, COO, and head of strategy, Microsoft’s CMO is being replaced, Google is being turned back over to its founder, Acer’s president was fired, and Steve Jobs has likely left Apple. The causes aren’t related, but this is, collectively, a huge power shift across the technology industry and it is likely to have a big impact.

Google has updated its Maps application for Android to version 5.3, which now features a location history feature for Latitude.

Google today unveiled predictive web browsing in Chrome. A preview version of the browser can now communicate with Google’s servers that foresee content published on the web up to three weeks in advance. Google considers this feature as a revolutionary step in the browser speed race and said that it wants to settle claims of the world’s fastest web browser once and for all.

For the first time ever, Microsoft has filed an antitrust complaint with the European Commission – in an effort to create a pathway to facilitate greater competition in the broader search market.

Analysis – Google, Microsoft and Mozilla have all updated their browser with major new versions this month. Despite the fact that the browser market is changing quickly and can make a 360-degree turn within 6 months, we feel comfortable predicting that Microsoft will have no chances of gaining market share in the browser market in 2011. Microsoft will have to realign its browser strategy, if it wants IE to play a role in the cloud computing age.

There is a hidden new feature in Chrome 11: Speech input that is integrated in web pages in a similar way as you would use your Android phone. It’s not perfect yet, but the recognition rate of spoken words is impressive. Is Google planning a release of Chrome for Android?

Google is upgraded its Maps API with an additional view in select locations around the world. Structures areas are now displayed in a much more realistic 45-degree angle, or airplane view.

Google just released a new stable version of Chrome 9, which includes 19 patches just in time for a major browser hacking contest. It is quite possibly the most expensive software you can download free of charge.

Has Mozilla gambled Firefox’ future away? Browser market share data released today indicate that Firefox may have suffered a big blow against its market share, while Chrome and especially IE8 were able to gain. Both Net Applications and StatCounter now state that Chrome has reached a milestone and now has more than 50% of the market share of Firefox.