Work(ing Title)

After a half hour with Google’s new browser, a few things have become apparent. I’m not really interested in rehashing the business and industry implications that everyone and their mother wants to focus on, so instead I just thought I’d throw out some of my experience just playing:

First, the integration of tabs could be perfect. By including the navigation elements within each tab, they are strongly reinforcing the notion that each tab is its own web page. While the underlying plumbing hammers this point home far more thoroughly, I think it’s just as important to help the user understand that each tab is its own, fully-independent portal to the web. So independent in fact that tabs are easily moved between windows, or grown into their own windows, with a simple drag and drop. Perfect.

Second, the UI design or ‘chrome’ from which it takes its name is exquisite. The latest Firefox release never made it into my lifestyle because I thought it was just hideous. In fact, most of the reason I have dutifully used IE7 since moving to Windows is that it blends into the UI of the whole OS. With the integration of the search and address bars (not to mention the inclusion of navigation elements within each tab), Google has really laid down some serious Kung Fu to build something so powerful and yet so understated.

Third, the speed increase is so significant that the browsing experience changes. While a faster connection to the ‘net or a fresh machine are the typical ways in which one finds a ‘faster’ browsing experience, this is something else. Because of Chrome’s updated processing schema, the browsing experience feels more like a desktop application, despite the fact that it is the Internet application. The first analogy that comes to mind is something akin to using an iPhone touch screen for the first time; the software responds so quickly that you find yourself no longer noticing any sense of speed.

All in all it’s an extremely pleasing product, and I hope it will challenge the team behind Internet Explorer to step up their game. Also, I look forward to hearing reactions from all my OS X friends once they get their hands on it.

I got an invitation to Yahoo’s new Fire Eagle location-sharing service this morning. While it’s still not fleshed out yet (the only function appears to be updating your location from the website directly). It’s somewhat hard to see what use the service will provide, but I don’t care about that. The polish on the Inferno Pigeon site is so well-executed, I want to use it regardless of what it does.

This screen is so human, so soft, so downright fucking cuddly, I just love it. Props should also be given to whomever on the Fuego Sparrow team came up with this privacy ping function. As the default is for the site to email you monthly to check that it’s still OK for them to share your location data, this is a great way to protect against irrate users. Nice work team Flame Heron; now just tell me what I’m supposed to use this Backdraft Canary thing to do.

PS - Yea, I think the name is funny, and I would’ve loved to be in the room bouncing those ideas off the walls.

Of the thousands of Microsoft bloggers, few are more thoroughly entertaining than Steve Clayton: Geek In Disguise. While executing his day job as the CTO of Microsoft UK, Mr. Clayton produces a stream of thoughtful, entertaining, and refreshingly brief posts. A couple from today have been cunningly titled cool site #1 and cool site #2.

Just to be difficult, let’s start with site numero uno: http://startdoingmore.com, which has been designed to highlight the experiences that are possible with Windows Mobile 6 software. The site showcases hardware as well, but mostly focuses on the sort of things that can be accomplished with our mobile tools.

He also posted a link to http://zunejourney.net, which has been launched alongside the next wave of Zune devices (which are only ten days away). The art direction on the site is simply stunning, and you’ll spend more time than you thought possible flying around to explore every corner of the Zune universe.

The brilliant bit of coincidence here is that both of these sites were developed by a creative firm here in San Francisco, and a close friend of mine, whose birthday is today, has a hand in building both. How’s that for fondest wishes?

Do the current crop of personal computer designs make you yawn? Can you just never find that one machine that speaks to you and compels you to spend your hard-earned money?

If you want to do something about your sad state of affairs, look into the Next Generation PC Design Competition. Mock up a machine designed specifically for your own digital media compulsions, but don’t neglect the entry questions, such as concerns around actually building the thing and the customer experience from the moment they sit down with the box.

Your online submissions must be recieved by December 14th, and then come February 15th, the voting public will spend a month punching their radio-button ballots for which designs they really want. The five finalists will end up as special guests at WinHEC, with enough cash and cache to get your masterpiece bourne into the real world.

Remember all the sketches you did as a kid of your dream car? Well those wacky French have got a thing for people like us. I just posted on 10 about this Peugot Design contest, and how Xbox has partnered with them to include the winner of the annual design competition in an Xbox 360 game (in addition to the full concept vehicle that get’s produced for the Frankfurt show).

The more exciting thing though is what sort of critiques we’ll get from Monzel on the cars that have already been submitted. Go to the voting section of Peugeot’s site, click on ‘Start selecting’, and then throw your comments in below. Include their names so everyone can follow along ;)