Instant Pages will be available by default in the latest stable version of Google Chrome. This feature will help users to save precious time by loading the pages they are searching for faster than before. In fact, as the name of the service suggests, the page will open almost instantly.

When a person conducting a search clicks on the topmost result, if that result has been determined to be the most likely one to be clicked by the searcher, Google will ensure that the page will open almost immediately when clicked.

This will be possible through pre-rendering technology available in the latest version of Chrome.

Only when it is almost certain that a user will click on the first search result, will Instant Pages start to load that result even before the user clicks on it. In cases where the first result on the Google search results page is not an obvious choice, Google will conserve computing power and let the page load in its natural time as and when the user clicks on it.

Navigational queries and brand-related searches are likely to benefit from this speed improvement most of all, as they are the sort of queries where searchers tend to click on the topmost organic result.

This should give Chrome an edge over other browsers, as users are always impatient for their pages to open, and when they’re performing a navigational query, reducing the time to reach their destination could have a significant net positive impact as it would make the act of searching akin to or even faster than typing the website address directly into the URL / search bar on Chrome.

According to Google, a Chromebook is a computer-like object that will allow users to do everything that they can on the Web, so that they get a “faster, simpler and more secure experience without all the headaches of ordinary computers”.

The Chromebook will have a start-up time of just 8 seconds. The device will ship with Wi-Fi and 3G access built in, and everything will be stored in the “cloud”, thus enabling users to work from any place with network access. This will also eliminate the need for anti-virus protection. The operating system will automatically update, eliminating the need to buy expensive new operating systems every 3-5 years.

With a starting price of $350 or £216, the Chromebook will be cheaper than a high-street PC or laptop or even the iPad. However, it will not be cheaper than entry-level Dell notebooks, which could make it less attractive to corporate buyers who also prefer the familiarity of Microsoft Windows, which comes pre-installed on Dell machines.

“We think this will fundamentally change the way people use computing in companies”, said Sundar Pichai, Google’s senior VP of Chrome.

The Chromebook will be made available on June 15 on Amazon.com and Best Buy in the USA and other outlets in the U.K. France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.

Details on the Chromebook can be found at:

google.com/chromebook

Corporate Chromebooks

Business buyers will have two Chromebook hardware options to choose from:

The Chromebooks for Business subscription will include:

• Chromebook computers running the Chrome operating system
• Web-based management of user, device and application policies via an easy-to-use admin console
• 24/7 email and phone support for Chromebook administrators, as well as access to the Google Enterprise Support Portal, which has answers on how to set device and user policies as well as other Chromebook related topics
• Device replacement and warranties.

Google is currently only able to process Chromebook for Business orders of 10 subscriptions or more.

This is the first nationally broadcast television ad for the Chrome browser. It is a 91-second ad and was aired during the popular US television series, Glee.

Reddit, Facebook, Twitter and Digg users have been sharing the video widely since its release just 3 days ago, generating almost half a million views on YouTube and a lot of discussion for and against it.

This isn’t the first time that Google has shown a definite pro-gay bias. They were pretty vocal about their stance on gay marriage too, when Proposition 8 was up for debate in California. However, this is the first time such a large corporation has launched a major product ad campaign on the back of a strong pro-gay and pro-equality stance.

Everyone from the President of the U.S.A, Barack Obama, to Lady Gaga, to regular gay and heterosxual users have posted messages supporting the campaign and voicing their solidarity with the gay community. A similar campaign in the U.K, called “It Gets Better Today”, featured Prime Minister David Cameron and the Home Secretary, Theresa May.

Well known writer and columnist, Dan Savage, who used to play agony uncle to gays through his column ‘Savage Love’ had first started this campaign. He used it as a means to encourage teenagers that life does indeed get better, by referring to his personal experiences with his partner, Terry. His original video has been viewed well over a million times.

He had said then, “When a gay teenager commits suicide, it’s because he can’t picture a life for himself that’s filled with joy and family and pleasure and is worth sticking around for. So I felt it was really important that, as gay adults, we show them that our lives are good and happy and healthy and that there’s a life worth sticking around for after high school.”

This campaign is especially thoughtful as it seeks to help youngsters who need to come to terms with their so called “different” preferences, and deal with their family friends and colleagues who may have a lot of prejudices towards them and can end up hurting or being mean to them at a very delicate phase of their lives.

At the same time,  this ad will help Chrome to compete with its competitors, Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox, which currently have a much larger market share than Chrome.

The tool, called the Personal Blocklist extension, can be downloaded directly from the Chrome Web Store.

Once users download the extension for their Chrome browser, they can decide which sites they want to block from the search results pages they view and can communicate these decisions to Google.

Thus, if a user finds that that the results obtained from a particular site are not up to the mark in terms of quality, or they have just been copied from another site, the user can click on a link added by the extension to block that site from appearing in future search engine results pages.

Blocking sites from SERPs using the Chrome Personal Blocklist extension

When a site is blocked, a signal will automatically be sent to Google regarding this. Google will then study the feedback received in this manner. If they find that certain sites are being blocked repeatedly by individuals, they could eventually decide to block the site from their search results entirely.

A user who blocks some sites will be able to check the list of blocked sites by clicking on the extension icon on the top right hand of the Chrome window. The user can also unblock a blocked site if he wishes to.

This extension is an effort by Google to help reduce spam in their search results. It is specifically aimed at content farms, which are sites that host lots of content that is merely duplicated from other sites or is not of much value in and of itself.

The extension is still in the testing stage and is currently available in English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Portuguese, Spanish and Turkish.

Doomed For SEO / Spam Misuse

In the past, Google has tried to enable users to indicate which websites were good and which ones were bad in the search results. They did this through Google SideWiki and search results customisations. However, the endeavour was mostly used by SEO specialists and spammers. This new tool is more than likely to meet the same fate.

So, unless Google has figured out a really good way to crowd-source policing of the SERPs without opening themselves up to competitive malpractice, the new extension is likely to fail too.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) wants the browser developers to install a system similar to the ‘Do Not Call’ system, which prevents telemarketers from calling users on their phones.

As a result of the pressure from the FTC, developers have started incorporating measures to prevent advertisers from tracking users against the wishes of the user.

Google has built a Chrome Extension that enables users to permanently opt out of ad tracking. The tool is known as ‘Keep My Opt-Outs’. This feature preserves the user’s privacy settings even if cookies are wiped out. Users will, however, have to opt out of ad tracking themselves.

Google Chrome extension ‘Keep My Opt-outs’

Mozilla, on the other hand, provides an HTTP header that lets users declare a preference along with the basic information they provide to any site that they visit. However, there is one major catch in this system – for it to be successful, advertisers will have to agree to honour the user’s preferences as declared in the HTTP header. According to The Wall Street Journal, no advertisers have agreed to be a part of this deal, so far.

Microsoft has also announced that their new browser, IE 9 will include a feature that will provide “Tracking Protection” to their users.

While it is a good sign that browser developers have started moving in this direction, many advocates of user privacy believe that these opt-out features are just not enough.

A number of privacy advocates insist that instead of opt-out features, which leave the task of opting out to the user, thereby going un-noticed by the non-techie majority, the browsers should enable opt-in features, which safeguard user privacy by default. This way, user tracking by default will be forced to end, and advertisers would only be able to track users who have clearly indicated that they are happy to let advertisers study their browsing habits and target ads at them accordingly.

Google stands to gain a lot by developing an operating system, especially one that is based around their Web browser Chrome, which serves as a direct gateway to the Google search service.

When the Chrome OS was first officially unveiled, 11 months ago, it had been scheduled for release by the end of 2010. In fact, it was expected to be launched before the holiday season began. If current indications are to be believed, the Chrome OS will probably be launched on the 11th of November. Available reports indicate that the operating system is presently in Release Candidate (RC) status, and its current build version is 0.9.78.1. (The product will be ready for release with build version 1.0).

Rumours about the Chrome OS launch date are based on a Google employee referring to the date in the Chromium OS public forum and the fact that the Chrome Web Store is ready to be launched this month, which is expected to be around the time that the OS would be made available.

The 11/11/2010 date could just be the date when another new version (perhaps 0.9.9) of the code might be released or could be the date set for a final code freeze and the official launch could take place a week later on the 19th of November, which is the first anniversary of the unveiling of the Chrome OS.

Google engineers are supposedly working on features such as screen savers and colour highlights at present, which typically are built during the final stages.

A spokesperson for Google told TechCrunch, “We are very happy with the progress of Google Chrome OS and expect devices will be available later this year. We’ll have more details to share at launch.”

Critics say that when the Chrome OS was first announced, the Android OS was not as good as it is now. The Chrome OS development team will therefore have to work even harder to match up to the Android OS.

Application developers will be keen to develop new apps for the system. In fact, unofficial Chrome OS builds have already been available for some time now. Chrome OS powered netbooks and tablets may also be available soon.

Google TV

The biggest single announcement at Google I/O was probably the launch of Google TV, which is an open platform built on Android and meant to run on the Google Chrome browser.

Google TV will enable users to access the shows they want to, when they want to, on their television screens. Google TV features integrated search to allow users to find relevant content across channel listings, DVR, and the Internet, as well as a picture-in-picture layout to access multiple windows simultaneously. With this service, Google undoubtedly has its eyes set on the $70 billion U.S. TV advertising market. Google TV enabled devices will go on sale in autumn 2010.

www.google.com/tv

Clicker TV

Google also introduced Clicker TV, which is basically a TV guide that allows users to find programmes by scrolling through the options with a remote control or arrow keys on a keyboard. The Clicker TV website can work on any browser and will be a free service in the U.S.

Android 2.2 (Froyo)

Android 2.2, which has been nicknamed Froyo (from Frozen Yoghurt), was also announced at the event. The new version of the platform will be much faster, will have new enterprise features such as Exchange calendar synchronisation and will include portable hotspot functionality, the ability for apps to participate in device messaging and data backup and will support Adobe Flash.

Google Wave

Google Wave has been brought out of beta and is now available to everyone. It is supposed to now be much faster and easier to use than before.

Chrome Web Store

The Chrome Web Store is scheduled for launch later this year and will be an open marketplace for Web apps. Google Chrome and the Chrome Web Store will support installable web apps. Applications from the Chrome Web Store will allow users to install their favorite web apps. An installed web app could be separated visually from other tabs, could integrate better with the operating system and could be granted increased permissions.

chrome.google.com/webstore

Storage for Developers

Google Storage for Developers, a new service also announced at the I/O event, is a RESTful cloud service built on Google’s storage and networking infrastructure. With the API, developers can connect their applications to reliable cloud-based storage that is replicated across several U.S. data centres. This service is being previewed with only a few developers initially.

Photographs, illustrations and Flash videos have been uploaded onto Chromium, which is the open source project behind Chrome and Chrome OS.

While Google hasn’t specifically stated so, it is assumed that the photographs indicate what the tablet version of Google Chrome will look like. Certain bloggers are quite convinced on this point, simply because the illustrations were uploaded by Glen Murphy, who is the designer for Google Chrome.

It is widely expected that there will be several versions of the Chromium user interface for tablets, since Chrome OS has to be compatible with several different types of devices. These devices will have to meet with certain minimum specifications laid down by Google, in order to ensure the OS performs optimally.

One particular type of tablet could potentially become Google’s flagship tablet computer, just as the Nexus One has become The Google Phone.

It is likely that the first Chrome OS based notebooks will be launched by the end of the year. They will be manufactured by third party hardware manufacturers.

Google base their claim to openness on the fact that they have opened up the source code for the Android mobile operating system, Chrome Web browser and Chrome operating system and a few other products so that the larger developer community can improve on them.

Rosenberg says, “at Google we believe that open systems win. They lead to more innovation, value and freedom of choice for consumers, and a vibrant profitable and competitive ecosystem for businesses.”

While all this discussion about openness is fine, one cannot help but notice the fact that Google’s largest source of income is their search engine, which ranks web pages to create relevant search results for user queries. And nobody really knows how the algorithm for this ranking system works, apart from the few people at Google who are in charge of the algorithm.

Google’s argument against making this algorithm public is, of course, that spammers would misuse this information if it were easily available to all.

This argument seems weak, however, as it has been proved by other open source projects such as the Mozilla Foundation’s Firefox, that while an open algorithm may seem to help spammers, there would be an army of developers ready to combat the spammers.

If anything, all of Google’s talk about the importance of being open seems to be a cheap dig at Microsoft, and an attempt to make Microsoft seem like the bad guys just before Google launches a full-blown attack on Microsoft Windows by launching their own operating system.

Chrome, which was launched just over a year ago, certainly does not compete in terms of popularity with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla’s Firefox, both of which have been around a lot longer.

It looks as though Google has decided to take up the challenge to change the situation, and has started actively promoting the browser through some rather unexpected channels in the UK.

Just yesterday, the Metro newspaper, which is distributed for free on the London Underground was “wrapped” in a cover that advertised Chrome.

On the front page of the wrapper, Chrome was described as “A fast new browser. Made for everyone”. On the inside of the cover details about the browser’s unique features, such as its stability and the incognito tab handling methods, were mentioned. On the rear page of the wrapper were ‘notes’ made by a supposed user of Chrome, followed by the line “6 tabs. 0 crashes. 1 browser”.

The Metro is distributed free on all weekdays and readers generally read it during their morning commute. It has a circulation of 1.3 million of which 738,000 users are based in London.

Twitter users have also reported spotting billboards advertising Chrome in London and Manchester. In fact, one such hoarding was placed right across the front gate of the head quarters of Google’s recent critic, Rupert Murdoch’s company, News International.

Magazines, television and blogs are also propagating another Google campaign, promoting Chrome as a free Christmas gift accompanied by a slick flash micro-site that “wraps” the Chrome logo and sends it as a gift with a personalised message to anyone a user wishes to forward it to.

These advertising strategies point to the fact that Google is either trying to advertise Chrome to people who are not yet hooked on the Internet, or they’re running out of ideas to boost Chrome’s popularity.

A number of marketing specialists have criticised the campaign, saying that Google should know better than to target advertising for a product in a medium where prospective adopters cannot convert into users easily. In other words, people reading a newspaper or seeing a billboard will not be likely to go online and download the Chrome browser. However, what the ads will do, is build brand presence in consumers’ minds, which might then help Google when they launch the Chrome operating system.

Chitika recently conducted a study that revealed that users of Microsoft browsers and operating system have a tendency to click on advertisements more than users of other services such as FireFox, Safari, Chrome etcera. Not only that, even users of Windows click on ads far more frequently than users of other operating systems such as Mac OS or Linux.

The findings of this study are significant as it was conducted using a sample of over 130 million impressions across 80,000 sites.

The details emerging from the study are as follows:

• Internet Explorer users on average have a click-through rate (CTR) of 1.05% compared to 0.66% for Firefox users, 0.50% for Safari users and 0.21% for Chrome users
• Windows users have a CTR of 0.92%, while Mac users have 0.52% and Linux users have 0.46%

These findings have been indirectly validated by TechCrunch, where reports that users of Microsoft’s search engine Bing have a higher CTR than users of other search engines. Bing users have a CTR of 1.74% as opposed to 0.98% for Google users and 1.37% for Yahoo! users.

TechCrunch insinuates that the higher CTRs from Microsoft users is because these users are more gullible and easier to dupe than others, which has ruffled a few feathers, even though it is probably true.

Microsoft users don’t click the most, though. AOL, which is a much smaller network has the highest CTR of 2.5%.

At an event in Google’s Mountain View office, members of the press and some developers got their first official glimpses of the Chrome OS and an introduction to the search giant’s latest product, so that developers could start building applications to contribute to it.

Google V.P. of Product Management, Sundar Pichai, and Engineering Director for Google Chrome OS, Matthew Papakipos, were the main speakers.

Chrome (the browser), which was launched about a year ago, already has 40 million users. Chromium OS will focus mainly on 3 factors. Speed, Simplicity and Security.

While the average computer takes at least 45 seconds to start, Chrome OS is expected to start in just about 10 seconds.

Also, all applications on the Chrome OS will be Web applications. There will be no native applications. That means that most work done by a user will be saved on the Internet, instead of being saved on the computer. It will thus be possible to access all data from any computer. Even if a user loses his computer, he does not lose any of his data.

All Web apps will be stored within individual “security sandboxes”. Each tab on Chrome OS will be locked down and handled individually by the system, just as tabs in the Chrome browser are, thus making it difficult for hackers or viruses to access the user’s data and corrupt it.

Google already supports the Android OS, so it is only natural for people to wonder why they want to develop another OS, and whether it will continue to support the Android OS. Apparently it will not.

Speaking at the press conference, Google co-founder Sergey Brin said, “Call us dumb businessmen, but we really focus on user needs rather than think about strategies relative to other companies and whatnot.”

What is Google Chrome OS?

Google Chrome OS Open Source Project Announcement

Sony has already conducted a test run this last May, and the test phase is now almost over.

It may be safe to assume, though, that other browsers will also be available on Sony PCs as they would not want to upset their users.

The deal is a first for Google, and they hope to be able to win similar deals with other computer manufacturers as well, in order to promote Chrome.

Chrome’s market share might get a slight push by this means. Personal computers from Sony account for less than 5% of the US market share. This could be a very good first step in the right direction. However, Google should have probably waited to win some bigger players over to their side before announcing their strategy to their competitors!

With competitors like Microsoft, Google had better watch its back when trying to make in-roads into the PC market. Microsoft pretty much has that market cornered. Internet Explorer comes with the Windows operating system, which is used on over 90% of all PCs shipped.

Internet Explorer and Mozilla’s Firefox browser are way ahead of Chrome in terms of market share. They have, of course, been around for a much longer time.

According to Net Applications, Internet Explorer currently has about two thirds of the market share among Internet users, with 67.7%, Firefox has 22.5%, Apple’s Safari has 4.1%, while Google’s Chrome has a mere 2.59%.

Mozilla is expected to launch the latest version of their browser, Firefox 3.1, shortly. In Russia, however, the default page will now be Yandex, the leading Russian search engine, instead of Google.

According to Harvey Anderson, who is the General Counsel at Mozilla, they have conducted a very extensive and detailed study into the matter before arriving at this decision. He says, “Russian users really wanted direct access to Yandex search services in official Firefox RU builds. As a result we’re planning on setting Yandex as the default search provider for the Firefox 3.1 Russian locale builds.”

The change by Mozilla from Google to Yandex at this point of time is particularly interesting, given the fact that in August 2008, the Russian online ad market grew by 73% compared to what it was in the same month a year earlier. It has also been estimated that the Russian online ad market will grow from $400 million in 2007, to $4 billion by 2017, which is a 10-fold increase in a span of just 10 years.

This move will certainly boost the fortunes of Yandex at the expense of Google.

In the past, Google and Mozilla have shared a mutually beneficial or symbiotic relationship for quite a long time. Google received exposure by being the default home page and default search engine on Mozilla browsers, and in turn, Mozilla earned a major share of its revenue through Google.

This happy situation may now be on a slightly sticky wicket, given that Mozilla will replace Google with Yandex in Russia and Google is now promoting its own browser, Chrome.

Chrome, which was launched for beta testing only in September this year, has already performed well in such a short period, and now Google is going all out to promote it even further, and increase their customer base.

Thus the latest changes to the EULA have been made keeping this target in mind.

Some of the noteworthy changes are mentioned below.

Earlier, people who were not of a legal age to enter into an agreement with Google, were not allowed (legally) to use Chrome. Now, that restriction has been totally done away with.

Google had made it mandatory for users to provide personal identification and contact data, and also keep it up to date, while signing the EULA. That section is now no longer applicable.

Google had specifically banned the use of automated access to their browser. They have now decided to delete that clause, as long as the user does not indulge in any activity that could interrupt or disrupt the services.

During the beta phase, Google had laid a condition in the EULA, requiring the user to acknowledge that there may be some secrets in the software of chrome, which would obviously remain as the intellectual property of Google, and the user would not have the right to divulge these secrets to a third party in any way. This clause too, has been deleted.

Users had been provided with instructions, about how they could extract themselves from the EULA if they wished to do so. They had to send a letter to Google in advance, stating their desire to terminate their contract with Google. This facility has now been omitted. However it does not seem likely that this particular change would raise much of a hue and cry, given that most users today, are quite addicted to the services offered by Google.

Reportedly, Google Chrome, already has a customer base of around 10 million and with the new Linux and Mac compatible versions getting ready for release, its growth is expected to be much more.

Google is also reportedly in talks with computer manufacturers to incorporate Chrome as the default browser on their new machines.

Sundar Pichai, Google V.P. Product Manager, said during an interview published in The Times, “We could work with an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) and have them ship computers with Chrome pre-installed.”

According to Pichai, there is no reason why Google should not be able to do so, once they are satisfied that their product has no teething troubles and is ready for general use. They will then work hard to make their browser easily available and accessible to all users.

Pichai further adds, that newer versions of Chrome, which would be compatible with Linux and Mac computers will also be ready in the first half of next year, thus making it possible for Chrome to work on 99% of all computers.

Currently, however, there are still some flaws in the browser, as pointed out on ReadWriteWeb, and add ons that make Firefox so popular are absent from Chrome. Google should get to work seriously towards eliminating these issues.

If Google does manage to get Chrome preinstalled on all new computers at the time of shipping from the manufacturers, it could easily become the defacto browser for many of the users who currently use IE simply because it is the only browser their systems are shipped with.

An OEM relationship of this type, if correctly orchestrated by Google, could make Chrome a very dangerous competitor for IE and Firefox and could further seal Google’s future as the default search destination.

According to reports by GetClicky, Chrome accounts for under 2% of all web site visits at present. On the other hand, reports from Net Applications, show that Chrome holds only 0.74% of the market, as opposed to Internet Explorer’s 71.27%, Mozilla Firefox holds 19.97%, Safari holds 6.57% and Opera holds 0.75%.

The first thing that strikes users about chrome is its speed. The browser installation is really quick. It opens up faster than Firefox, and pages certainly load faster than Internet Explorer. The interface is quite clean, without too many icons, menus, or toolbars that clutter up the page. However, there is also a disadvantage to it as some everyday tasks take longer in the absence of toolbars.

Most surprisingly, the browser does not even take up space for branding. During normal operation, there is absolutely no indication that Chrome is a browser made by Google, except on the start-up screen alongside the most visited websites and when the browser window is restored.

The regular address bar, however, has been very smartly hijacked by Google and turned into an “Omnibar”, which now also works as a search box with in-built search and URL suggestion.

It is possible to move tabs from the main window to separate windows, and then back to the main window – a feature that has limited use, but looks cool nevertheless.

Chrome also has a multi-threaded setting, as opposed to the single-threaded setting on other browsers, which means that it is at least crash resistant, if not crash proof. In theory, this means that when a webpage opened in one tab freezes, it is not necessary to close the browser or PC or press CTRL+Alt+Del. Instead, with Chrome, one can just shut the affected tab, and the system then continues working as before. This does not work as well in reality, though, and once a user starts multi-threading with more than 3 or 4 open tabs, the browser seems to be much more prone to crashing than Firefox is.

Another nice feature for everyone who enjoys a bit of Internet porn is Chrome’s ‘Incognito’ mode. When the browser is set to incognito, users stop leaving a trace in the search and browser history, so that their online activity remains private during that session.

While most regular browser features are present, the option to ‘send this page’ is missing, form history does not seem to work or is missing and RSS feeds are not automatically imported or supported. There are no plug-ins either.These could be just teething troubles, which are bound to occur during the initial stages, and can be easily taken care of.

After all has been said and done, Google seem to have come up with a winner, especially when one thinks about the possible damage this could do to Microsoft if Chrome became the defacto browser of choice for all users, instead of Internet Explorer.