OStatic has put Google’s new open-source browser, Chrome, through its paces. While it found Chrome to have a clean interface — and to deliver on its promise of working efficiently with numerous tabs open — OStatic notes the power Firefox still gets from the large collection of useful extensions with which it works. Chrome is built to be extensible in interesting ways, but it will need to play catch-up with Mozilla.
I can’t believe that in this age of Twitter, 24-hour news cycles and always-on access, anyone needs to point out that slow web sites alienate customers, but just in case, there’s an interview at Royal Pingdom with Steve Souders, who works at Google on web site performance and is the creator of YSlow software, which measures web site performance. It’s a nice reminder that there are many links in the chain that create a user’s web experience, and it focuses on what developers and site designers can do to make pages load faster.
Steve Ballmer sent an email to Microsoft employees this week in which he acknowledged the success of Apple — and what the Redmond giant needs to do in order to better compete. “Today, we’re changing the way we work with hardware vendors to ensure that we can provide complete experiences with absolutely no compromises,” he wrote. “We’ll do the same with phones–providing choice as we work to create great end-to-end experiences.” For the full story, head over to jkOnTheRun.
Microsoft has agreed to buy Silicon Valley-based semantic search engine Powerset for over $100 million, VentureBeat is reporting today, a move that will apparently be announced next month. Powerset’s search technology uses the open-source, cluster-based technology Hadoop, which provides fast answers to queries by using the resources of many computers. And of course, Microsoft has been very focused on shoring up its search offerings. For more, head over to OStatic.
The launch of the final version of the Firefox 3 browser is not going the way Mozilla planned. This was supposed to be Download Day — an attempt to set a Guinness World Record for the most software downloaded in a 24-hour period. Instead, after the browser was pre-announced to arrive at 10 am PST, all of Mozilla’s download sites are down. For full coverage of the PR vs. the reality, check out OStatic.
The East Coast version of Graphing Social Patterns, a conference for developers and marketers building and distributing apps for MySpace, Facebook and the myriad of other social networking platforms out there, will kick off next week in Washington, D.C. GSP East will tackle social networking from two angles — one, business and marketing; and two, app development and technical strategy. As GigaOM is a media partner for this event, we have one free ticket to give away, and it’s valued at $1195. Simply tell us in the comments section what conference topics you’d like us to cover over the coming year. (Don’t forget to leave a valid email so that if we pick your answer, we can get in touch with you.) Or go here to register and use code “gspe08gig” to get a 15 percent discount off the ticket price.
Internet video portal and software maker Veoh has raised $30 million from Intel Capital, Adobe Systems Inc. and Gordon Crawford, senior vice president of Capital Research Global Investors, NewTeeVee is reporting, bringing the company’s total funding to just shy of $70 million. The funding for Veoh was just one of the $60 million worth of investments unveiled by Intel Capital; the investment arm of the chip maker also led funding rounds in online security company Accertify, workforce management software maker TOA Technologies, energy efficiency and smart grid company Grid Net, online health video network HealthiNation and Latin America-focused social networking company Vostu, as well as India-based online education company Vriti Infocom and Czech Republic-based online retailer Internet Mall.
Yahoo is following the footsteps of other technology giants by launching its own desktop/web hybrid application called BrowserPlus. The plug-in is only available as a sneak peak with a few demos, such as using BrowserPlus to drag-and-drop photos from your desktop into Flickr. Yahoo’s product clearly isn’t ready for prime time yet, but perhaps the excitement around MySpace taking advantage of Google Gears to improve its email capabilities galvanized them. Yahoo’s vision certainly looks more compelling than mere offline access to online apps, so I’m eager for more functionality.
Orgoo, an L.A.-based startup that provides online communication tools, has just beefed up its offerings with a host of new features, including new video chat, two-way SMS, and more. The company plans to open Orgoo to the public soon, but in the meantime it’s offering invites for 500 GigaOM readers. To get your invite, go here.
Is Net Neutrality essential for democracy? What role will AI have in the future of the web? What will Web 4.0 look like? On June 11, in an attempt to answer these and other questions, Tim Berners-Lee and other leading web authorities will gather at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., for an old-fashioned debate with a social media twist: The content of the debate will be collaboratively created by web users, who can submit questions and promote them through a user-based ranking system similar to Digg. The most popular questions will form the basis of the debate, which will be webcast live. Viewers will also be able to interact with the panelists by submitting questions and comments in real time. For more details about this interactive event, plus instructions on how to submit and rank questions, go here.
