education & tech

Google’s days of unchecked growth may soon come to an end. They are quickly becoming the new Microsoft. Yes, you might say, but why? Chrome, the Webkit-based Google browser that launches tomorrow at google.com/chrome, will give them a real foothold on the desktop and way more control over how web applications perform. While it seems that Chrome is aimed at IE and Firefox, the target is really Windows.

Expect to see millions of web devices, even desktop web devices, in the coming years that completely strip out the Windows layer and use the browser as the only operating system the user needs. That was going to happen anyway, but Chrome + Gears just made the decision a whole lot easier for hardware manufacturers to make.

Google Chrome will be free, open source and, at least for the time being, limited to Windows users. They've said it's been worked on Mac and Linux but no deadlines had been offered.

One of the biggest complaints about web apps is the stability of the browser. When you’re doing mission-critical work in a web app and the browser crashes, it isn’t an annoyance, it’s a deal breaker — e-mails are lost, documents have to be rewritten, web forms need to be filled out again. Chrome’s ability to sidestep a full crash could prove a huge boon to Google’s bid to replace desktop apps with its own web-based alternatives.

On the other hand, Microsoft, which crushed Netscape Communications to win the last major browser war in the 1990s, played down the threat posed by Chrome. Microsoft predicted that most people will embrace its latest version, Internet Explorer 8, which it released in test status last week.

The inquisitr.com makes a review and Raphael says, "as for overall success [of Google Chrome], it’s hard to imagine Chrome being able to dethrone IE. For better or for worse, Microsoft’s browser accounts for the overwhelming majority of the market — around 70 to 75 percent, depending on whom you ask. Being that many of those users are on it simply because it’s the Windows default and they don’t know or care to change it explains a lot."

Let's see what happens with prognosis that Gmail and Google Docs will roar and if really people wants to covert.

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Steve Rubel is PR guy well respected by us and we trust him when he says, "despite what some think, I am not being paid by Friendfeed to endorse their service."

While some people are flocking to Plurk (rival of Twitter) some others are holding to lifestream.fm However, Friendfeed is also useful if you want to work around social networks. Bloggers are being signaled as journalist by some and as pastimers by others, but at the end, bloggers have voice and are being listened. Let's take Steve word: "People are increasingly turning to their peers for news, information and recommendations. And Friendfeed is more than an aggregation site or a community that's layered on top of others. It's a recommendation engine that surfaces content (both pro and amateur) via your peers - and that's huge. Sure there are things wrong with it, but I believe Friendfeed is incredibly disruptive. It's the next big thing online for consumers. It may even become the next Google."

Well, I am not so sure about his last assertion but Friendfeed has a long way and if you still don't have an account , just try it and feel free to add or subscribe to ours!

Not everything has been bad news for Yahoo!, Microsoft still wants to own it and now AOL wants to survive. I know, many of you already are familiar with the faulty e-mail storage, the nonconformity from many users about the video feature in Flickr and other stuff we don't to get in detail.

Bloggers are not marketers even when Steve Rubel thinks the blogosphere is now plagued by marketers, bloggers still need the web analytics , we hope Yahoo! provide not only for enterprise service but publishers as plain bloggers, looking to catch up with the 'me too' tendency in Google.

Mel Carson, brings in the note and for further information please head over his post.

Technorati: yahoo, web analytics, google

Jeremiah Owyang is a Web Strategist based in SF Bay Area and I've been subscribed to his feed a while now and of course reading everyday his updates. With today's posts he comes to conclude something everyone is doing but not in technical terms as he's put it, read and pay close attention:

Recently, I was at a swanky restaurant in SF, a CEO was picking up the tab so I could order whatever I wanted. I asked folks on Twitter “what should I order at Restaurant X” I received several responses, and immediately noticed a pattern and ordered the ribs with confidence, it was a success.

I frequently ask questions about what people think about in the news, I often receive popular opinion back from politics, tech issues, and other question. There’s a lot of gray answers here, but it’s a quick way to scan and obtain the variety of opinions about a particular topic. This method fuels the start of my initial research phase, I can get all the ideas on on a table, then hone in on the ideas that matter.

Lastly, referral content is shared, topics spread and people will offer up new suggestions, related content that isn’t necccearily going to be found in a web search.

Again, I have my account in Twitter but normally I am not using it and exploiting as many experienced ones are doing it. I guess, Jeremiah's post will oblige me to re-think my posture in about this so popular microblogging tool and now a 'social computer'

Technorati: twitter, jeremiah+owyang

GIMP is an open-source image editing program. It is supported by a huge open-source community that is open in every aspect. As the author of this post quipped: "what better way for me to admire GIMP than by presenting a list of some amazing, beautiful and stunning brushes?"

Support Techzilo and his hard work in favor of Open Source, heading to Digg and make his job well known.

Please, go and Digg it now.

Thanks to our dear RugJeff's Blog. it came to our knowledge a new program called Qassia. We all bloggers are looking for comments, links and maybe money for the professional or so called A-bloggers.

"Qassia is fantastic because you get credit for sharing your intelligence. The more credit you earn, the better your websites will rank. And you get a backlink to your website for every intel you add - only Qassia gives you unlimited quality backlinks."

So, why not give it a try. Sign up, validate your email and start sharing your vast knowledge right now. You can also visit our newly created profile at Qassia.com.

But I just remember something, blogosphere is about contents, it's about social networks; nothing to be with the lazysphere. If you still haven't word about what Steve Rubel is claiming, please head up to his page:

The Lazysphere... rather than create new ideas or pen thoughtful essays, they simply glom on to the latest news with another "me too" blog post. Their goal is largely to land on Techmeme and sometimes Digg - perhaps Google in an archival/Long Tail perspective. These sites - and Twitter too - have perpetuated a lot of lackadaisical writing. The Attention Crash is another factor at work here. People don't have as much time to think.

Will you keep up with the Lazzysphere? Will you please, start producing rather than consuming info? Rubel just spill the beans!

Soicialnetworking will keep growing and advertiser are glad things are coming this way. According to Suzzane Vranica from The Wall Street Journal this year firms will be spending over the traditional 5% of their online marketing budgets, so as she mentions with the growth of online video and social networking, ad experts expect that 5-10% percentage to jump significantly this year.

Economists had already predicted a recession for the American economy around first quarter and living in New York will more expensive than before now that the gasoline is overpriced as ever before in the States. This will get thing worse when neighbor states as New Jersey are experiencing a constant demographic outflows. Not that new jerseans are coming to NY but, people are increasingly leaving the high-cost Northeast and economically-challenged Midwest regions for destinations primarily in the lower-cost South, and secondarily to the Mountain states of the West.(James W. Huges).

In the big revolution approaching around music and wireless services, its being said Jay-Z is partnering with S. Jobs to start a Record label (http://www.profy.com/2008/01/03/jay-z-and-apple-ceo-steve-jobs-to-start-record-label).
The wireless services providers need to watch what's going to happen at the Sony CES 2008 and the predicted alliance to provide calls services between Skype and Sony. Any other partnerships to get afloat the Sony blue ray?

Users trying to take advantage of Facebook need to think twice, not even authorities in the A-list bloggers can get away with the policies violations. Scoble got suspended and after clarification, reinstalled, his account because he was trying to test a Plaxo script to pull and match e-mail addresses. Is Robert Scoble a corporate spy?

It came to my attention after reading my today subscriptions a great wiki that it's being managed by someone very well know in the educational field. We are talking about the Digital Dialog (http://digitaldialog.ning.com/) which aims to be a social network created to "provide parents, educators, and other care-givers with resources, ideas and links related to encouraging regular communication between younger and older learners about safe, appropriate, and fun uses of digital technologies."

Related:
The Scoble mess and data portability.

Most important of everything is the Big Giant is after Flickr, to in terms of ownership but on its footprints. They already released Windows Live Photo Gallery which I personally like it but today after reading TechCrunch it seems Ballmer needs a piece of that cake, even after saying they (Microsoft) had dominated the net.

I have a Sony Ericsson w810i and I really had fun so far, however after the fever of the iPhone I am still holding for any of those two babes: the w960i, the SO905iCS or the Voyager. The second one released only for Nipponese and the other two still awaiting to be put in the market. I don't think none of these cell phones might be comparable with the 'Invent of the Year' as Times Magazine nominated the iPhone but marketers of Verizon had said the LG Voyager comes to fight Apple consumers.

We don't concentrate paying much attention to what's going on in the mobile business but certainly this week jkOntheRun got a great round up: Nokia is working on tactile feedback for touchscreens that promises to shake the tech world up. The Open Handset Alliance is all over the place with Google getting everyone excited about the new handset platform Android and, Apple tablet rumors emerge once again!

Finally, three application you might want to try. After checking out our Ma.gnolia subscriptions what we've caught is Mobile 9 offering free downloads such as wallpapers, ringtone and screensavers for you cell phone. The second one is the Buzziest Pics in the net and, Bookr, a good way to create a photobook using your Flickr uploaded images.

I don't know if this has to be with my roots but since I started doing my activities online, the very first website I met was Yahoo (credit to MSN for its Messenger) and even when right now I've switched my main e-mail account to Gmail I have to admit I still love and admire Yahoo. Because I have an account as ISP with Verizon, I've got a pro account to my Flickr and all pictures stored in the old Yahoo were transfered without any problem.

We all know Yahoo has being mutating (I don't want to say , changing) and all credit goes to the new CEO. Yahoo is playiong hard to compete with giant Google in searching, open API and SEO services. You don't need to forget about the Pipes services where everyone now can optimize his RSS subscriptions and get all updates in one single place.

Yahoo also has contenders for Tech buzz but certanly they are still in the game. And yesterday more than one of the most visible bloggers were talking about the new Kickstart, no matter whethet this is the old College try, I've having my profile over there and I've just added the University where I got my degree back in my home country.

Did I mention FireEagle? Please, do your own seraching... Not to mention what's going on in the neighborhood.(Last release).

More in Scoble's blog.

This is note today hit all sites and blogs I guess. And being an active user of Firefox I can be less than happy. Why? Because as they justify the mobile platform for Firefox, all people now a day use Internet in their mobile devices, so far FireFox is the most popular open-source browser; and, many companies already run Firefox in their phones such as NokiaN800, Ubuntu Mobile, and the Intel Internet Project.

Hector Russo during his daily searching had found a very useful tool in terms of online collaboration built by former students of Berkeley University. The project is called Vyew and as owners say: "Vyew is a FREE online meeting service that brings people and content together. Use Vyew to host LIVE conferences or collaborate over time, asynchronously(a fancy word for 'at your own convenience')."

Now, what this dating thing has to do with technology? Nothing. It's just a way to close this post with something very human and just in case some of our readers still need some guidance or advice in this field. Are you tired of online dating?. Check out the 25 ways to find a date offline, single oriented, though.

Thanks to our dear friend Avatar we've got to know this new tool for publishing online, IMfied. Still in Beta but certanly it "is a productivity tool that offers instant access to a growing number of web applications over your instant messaging client. Imified simply helps you get things done faster", according to Dave & Anthony, their dvelopers.

I you check their forum you will notice they ( the community) is working real quick to provide integration with other application like Facebook, Powce and the New Blogger itself.

The process of registration is very easy but you will need to have an account i any of the mayor IM providers, add imfied as a friend and ther you go. I just made it. Quick and easy. I haven't tried though, but I do believe what Avatar is saying about this application. Imagine all people who use IM now with chances to publish their blogs without even sign out of IM clients! Is this productivity? I don't know but as for me it really sounds interesting. Let's see what happens in the days to come.

You might be already into microblogging and reading blogs like Micropersuasion will make your day a productive one specially if you are in the go and don't have other thing handy than your Treo or iPhone. Everything is getting in these small gadgets thanks to the RSS system, even when only the 5-6% of American online population is penetrated by this service. According to a recent BlogAds survey, "only 12 percent of the blog reading audience said it used RSS always or often".

W. Richarson wonders about six things of what he thinks is the most powerful of all of these technologies:

1. What’s your optimum number of feeds to read? -Not sure yet, maybe 30.
2. How do you not become 'married' to the feeds you already have? -New and better subscription appear everyday!
3. Do you rely too much on a handful of feeds? -Absolutely. It's like talking with a darling girlfriend.
4. How many individual pieces of information can you realistically make sense of? -Unknown, rely on filtering.
5. How do you best organize the information that is most useful? -Firefox help me to keep windows open.
6. Should I read ideas, or should I read people? -Both to me even when ideas are the most important resource.

So, dear reader, what's your wonder about RSS? Share your concerns and will give you a link back. Deal?

Hey, we all love the concept of open source. It excites us. Despite the fact that the vast majority of computer users rely on creations born of a proprietary nature for most. In an ideal world, everything should be “open”. I’m sure you’d agree. If not. please make me eat my words.

From Ubuntu to Wikipedia. I am sure you all are familiar with these names. The brainchild of Jimmy Wales has grow prominently and is one of the most widespread online sources. He also has wikia for business porpouse and lately has being said he's bought LookSmart. Why? Because he's thinking of a Open Search Machine, a new search engine that focuses on quality results, rather than complete and total crawling. "Search is part of the fundamental structure of the Internet and should be transparent and open." says Wales.
According to Reuters, "The new Wikia search service will combine computer-driven algorithms and human-assisted editing when the company launches a public version of the search site toward the end of 2007".

However, according to search analyst Greg Sterling, he has doubts about how successful the venture can be. For Wikia’s open-source search engine to work, he said, the quality of search results will have to stand out. Previous open-source efforts, such as the Linux operating system, have worked and have managed to threaten proprietary technologies such as Microsoft’s Windows. But the situation with Google and an upstart like wikia is not quite the same, Mr. Sterling said.

As for ourselves, we still have confidence in the open source. I will be a prominent user of this new project at the end of this year when it's planned to be launched.

I've already dugg it but I would like to share this link with you because certanly many people is running to Facebook just to get a piece of this big social cake.

I've jumping around with all socialnetworks that had been launched. I am part of LinkedIn, Peopleized, Spicy not to mention iLike, Twitter or Pownce. But one that make me stop, think and stand is Facebook not only because it's for college students but all people looking for contacts, information and sharing. However, using professionally this socialnetwork application has other connotations:

If you haven’t gotten drawn in by the hype, it may surprise you to learn that many people have already found Facebook to be an essential addition to their web working toolbox. Why? Because the Facebook social networking experience can be precisely what you want to make of it. Think of Facebook as a professional tool, and that’s what it is. It doesn’t matter how millions of high school and college students are using Facebook to get out of doing homework.

Follow up all others interesting post Judi Sohn has written in Web Worker Daily. As for me this is one of the most important ones.

Update:

Facebook is so over.

I've always believed that a product gets better sold if it is very well known or advertised. But this is the market and real products. What happened when you have to sell content, knowledge, information?

The market, by 2011 will grow to a whopping $4.3B, Steve Rubel quotes but, it will be very hard competition to grab a penny of that market. There is when the socialnetwork comes just in hand. If I have a circle of friends who happen to visit this blog at least one hundred times a day, that means something for a advertiser or any maketing expert. I do belong to many social networks and the intention is precisely grow the circle of people who can at least see our blog, read our content and eventually buy something from this blog.

Is socialnetworking a waste of time? Please, think twice and let us know we all are not wrong about the buzz.

As you all know, Feedburner now is owned by Google. This made happy all Blogspot/Blogger users. Why? very simple:If you want detailed stats on who is reading your Blogger blog, it’s now easy to do. The integration also works with blogger blogs not hosted on the Blogspot domain. (Sumesh, still waiting for the script!)

Now that everyone is trying to make money throughout Social Networks, such integration came just handy.

Feedburner’s instructions: "log into your Blogger account, select Settings | Site Feed, enter your FeedBurner feed address and click 'Save Settings'."

As all you know Pownce just came and is playing hard with Twitter. That only disgusting thing about it is that my gmail account is getting full with Pownce notifications. I still don't know how to shut notifications down. But what I love is the chances to interchange files. If you still don't have an account just drop me an email or leave a comment asking for an invitation and I'll gladly spare some of those left.

Ramani is the person who designed the theme for Education & Tech. Now you can get it for your blog for free (he's revamping the new NEO). Thanks Ramani. Don't get to Hackosphere without checking first his review of Pownce using Adobe Captivate.

Brilliant the Joe Hewitt's work that has been developed now that teachie guys are playing with the 'future', their iPhones. The Firebug he is talking about has being tried on Mac OS X, but it should work on Windows or Linux, says Joe. I have only tested the console in Firefox, but it should work in other browsers, he continues.

The instruccions for using Firebug for iPhone, are detailed:

1. Download ibug0.1.zip and unzip it somewhere, anywhere on your computer.
2. Make sure you have Python installed - if you are on a Mac, it is already there, if you are on Windows, download it here
3. Open your terminal and cd to the ibug directory that you just unzipped
4. Run python ibug.py launch - it will start the web server and open the console in your browser. If you don't want to open the console, remove the launch argument.
5. Copy the snippet of HTML that you see in the console and paste it into the head of any HTML pages you want to debug on your iPhone
6. That's it! console.log() calls on the phone will now show up in your browser, and you can use the command line to enter JavaScript commands that execute on the phone. To stop the server, just hit Ctrl-C.

Wanto to give it a try?

Happy July 4th, for all those living in America. Today is the National Day for all U.S. people.

Google have launched the first version of the photo software for mobile devices. Like the desktop version, it conveniently groups together all your images into easy to navigate groups. You can also click ‘My Favorites’ from the main screen to connect to the internet and see the latest photo albums that your contacts have posted to Picasa Web Albums and leave comments. I am not a Picasa user but I am feeling like trying to use it now.

Google say there’s no messing around with resizing either - all images are automatically re-sized for your device’s screen so that they download quickly. There’s also a built-in search that lets you retrieve any photo you’ve posted online, find photos posted by your friends or simply just have fun exploring other people’s photos. Note that you’ll need a phone with a web browser and WAP plan to access the service. The convenient blogging function that allows those using Blogger to post photos directly from their phone is an interesting options. The mapping functions it offers allowing you to link photos to locations might be another important feature.

What do you think?