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.

 Joshua Allen lays out a great recap of Open Social’s first two months of life, and the tea leaves are not reading in Google’s favor:

Social networking is Facebook’s core business, while it’s a side project for Google. Although Google has just attempted to add social networking to Google Reader (via Scoble), and is trying to take on Wikipedia with Knol, it remains to be seen whether they can be a great social networking platform. Even Umair Haq, the perennial Google fan-boy, admits that Google might not have the right DNA.

It has become clear that the new fighting ground for voice recognition is search on mobile phones. Developing an application that has great user experience, and can be deployed onto a variety of handsets across a number of carriers…you may as well start working on turning lead into gold.

Both Microsoft and Google have woken up to the value of leveraging the voice user interface for their local search offerings (it’s what the bloody phone was designed for anyway). Live Search 411 and GOOG-411 have been put through their paces, and the results of the Ars Technica review are very promising for the humans.

While Google’s service was less quirky slightly faster, the functionality of Microsoft’s won their hearts:

"Microsoft’s LiveSearch411 is the perfect service for anyone traveling or planning to travel, and I highly recommend it. I also loved that it remembered my last search, because I’ve been disconnected or had to redial 411 countless times in the past. Further, it offered to share my results with another phone user, which is a great option for those traveling in groups that are trying to reach the same destination from different cars or starting locations. LiveSearch411 was also able to find destinations in low-population and obscure areas, which is probably when 411 is needed most during a road trip."

Vic Gundotra leaves Microsoft for Google?! This isn’t funny anymore guys. Scoble nailed the joke and Bill managed to annouce his departure before the press cycle moved on. I wonder if announcing one’s departure will become the new-hire joke of 2007?

Good luck Vic, you’re awesome and I wish I could’ve worked with you a little while longer at least. I’ll have to show you the super-awesome Mexican place near the ‘Plex, assuming you can justify paying for your meals ever again ;)

(via Niall)

My man John Markoff teamed up with Saul Hannsell to break the story on the massive Google computing center project in Oregon. The Dalles, Oregon is the home to the first visible move in the anticipated $1.5b investment in capacity this year. Microsoft’s share price got a slap last quarter when it was announced that $2b wouldn’t be handed back in dividends, but rather would be spent on ‘development.’

The next few years are going to feel a lot like the late 80’s with the Soviets and the Yankees making more missles than ultimately anyone would ever need. I haven’t figured out the design yet, but there are t-shirts to be made here; something involving Cyrillic and fiber and The People…