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Google Chrome and IE – is it war?

While catching up on news over the weekend I came across Boagworld’s well reasoned post “Can Google Chrome topple IE?”. He asks “The question is whether we will need to start testing our sites in Chrome? Well, take has been strong with figures rising up from 1% to over 6% shortly after launch. But is Chrome going to finally overcome the dominance of Internet Explorer or just cannibalise the market share of IE’s rivals? That is harder to judge.”

I would have to say – NO! Having the benefit of dealing with quite a few members of both my immediate family and circle of friends in, as in normal with being into technology, helping them sort of computer problems, etc. As has been said elsewhere (most) everyone associated the internet with that little blue ‘E’ on their computer. So I believe Chrome will hit Firefox rather than IE since it is the tech savvy people who have moved to Firefox and it is those very same people who may consider moving to Chrome if it answers their needs, for the rest of the population this will be a small sideshow and IE will rumble on.

You only have to look at the usage stats for the major sites out there to see that it is the sites frequented by the tech savvy which have most Firefox visits and it will be those very same sites that see Chrome usage creep up (to the detriment of Firefox).

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The MacBook Air – The Missing Link?

Lots of articles around on the MacBook Air including The Fishbowl: Heavier than Air. But what is the Air really missing?

Well to my mind the real missing link here is a 3G cellular solution just like the iPhone – what’s up with Steve? I see the main problem is Apple’s intense focus on the US market, time after time Apple adds product features which only make sense, or can be used, in the US. If Apple really wants to take on Nokia or Sony then it needs to get a real global view, and for both the iPhone & Air this is having true wireless capability no matter where you are, I don’t want wifi in a product like this, I want true wireless freedom and that means using the cellular networks. Just take a look at Europe and the Far Eastern companies and you will see that using the mobile network for internet access is fast becoming normal.

So there is the challenge to Apple, to really make a difference look globally, I mean with the financial meltdowns in the US it may be the only place to sell such a high-end product.

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Internet Explorer – making it a better experience

Day to day I still tend to use Firefox as my main browser but do end up running one or two windows in IE7 since I reguarly visit sites that just don’t quite get it right in firefox (often Microsoft sites!).

Paul Thurrot’s recent post on Firefox Goes Head-To-Head With Microsoft’s IE7 just made me remember how I make my IE7 experience better and more firefox-like, I mean when I have to use IE7 I want the same experience. So without further ado my list of must have extentions:-

*IE7Pro – adds mouse guestures & session restore, and lots more beside

[* InlineSearch – need I say more] – don’t need this as IE7Pro provides this feature

* ieSpell – adds spelling checks

So while I still prefer firefox these addons just IE7 that bit more useable for when I need to use it. Having said that I also have IE7 set as my default browser since I often had problems launching firefox from links in email from Outlook.

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Now why would they want that?

Great new feature in iTunes 7 = Album Art. BUT you have to have an Apple iTunes music store account and you can’t have one of those without giving out you credit card details. Now why would I want to do that when all I want is to have album art!

 Apple again tries to up the lockin, you’ve got an account – oops you’ve just bought that song! Here at least Microsoft lead as you can have album art in Media Player without any accounts anywhere, it just goes out and gets it.

Apple come on, time to wake up and smell the roses. Don’t try to tie me in and I might, just might, buy into an iPod. Starting to like iTunes, love looking at iPods and almost lust after one but games like this just make me reluctant to buy in. So posts like this start breaking down the resistance and then this!

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Enough Already !

Stop this nonsense labelling everything with 2.0! Ever someone coined the phrase Web 2.0 nothing is cool unless you label it with a 2.0, the lates of which is lunch 2.0. Come on this is just getting ridiculous. Just cause you label it 2.0 it does not make it a success, or new, or intresting.

Rory gets it with his post Hello v2.0, time to hold back on that 2.0 moniker and make sure it really makes sense. Just adding 2.0 does not make it interesting, good, worthwhile.