Chrome - Proof that it is much more than a browser for Google

As I had guessed in my earlier post, Google must have had a very good reason to bring out a new browser.

And today as I read Tim O'Reilly's insightful post on how and why Microsoft is losing ground to Apple and Google, the below words were ringing in my ears throughout the day.. much of a realization for me on why Google must have released Chrome.

Let me be absolutely clear: Chrome is not a Web browser, it's an application runtime. Chrome is really Google Gears with a browser facade.

Thats a very interesting and thought provoking description - Application Runtime. Aahaa! So thats it. Google wants to build a runtime that is independent of an operating system. And of course you cannot rely on other browsers when your web application demands much more than what a browser can provide.

I can prove that Chrome is intended to be runtime for web application. One very good demostration of this fact is the "Create application shortcuts.." option in the menu.

What this option lets you do is that you can create a shortcut to particular web page and place it on your desktop, quick launch bar and even the start menu !!

And the next time you click on one of these shortcuts, it opens the web page inside Chrome. But as you see from the screenshot below, none of the browser related aspects are visible. It just appears to be like a normal application windows. Now thats interesting, because, for me, I essentially have a Gmail client (as it appears for me) which I can launch anytime.

Though creating shortcut for webpages and launching browser window disabling menu and other toolbars is not something new, but the way Chrome does this gives us a clue about the bigger plans Google might have in mind.

Just imagine, tomorrow you have an office suite from Google (Google docs) which launches inside the Chrome "runtime". The web app may look so rich that you would be unable to distinguish it from a local application residing in your hard disk.

And this article in Cnet - Chrome's JavaScript challenge to Silverlight, convinces me more about the fact that Google Chrome is much more than a browser and is something close to a runtime.

Google's Social Graph API - Making a social application really social!!

Google recently released a new web API called the Social Graph API.

Now, this I feel is really cool.. because it lets social networks "understand" eachother. Yes.. it lets social network only understand each other and NOT communicate with each other (thats what I have understood from their blog.. please correct me if i am wrong).

So, whats the big deal about social networks understanding eachother. Well, rather than me trying hard to explain to you.. i suggest you see this video below where this Google Engineer (Brad Fitzpatrick) explains very clear what this is all about.


If you don't have a good broadband connection, then please read this Google blog post on Social Graph API.

Would be great one day when social networks also talk to each other. But why would that happen.. if I were to develop a social network site, I would rather use the Social Graph API, the way it is today to invite more friends to my social network.

Social networking is the current vogue and it is no brainer that Google would want to ensure that social network related search is also taken care of.

Btw, I also found this post from Dare Obasanjo on his thoughts on Google Social Graph API. Who the hell is Dare Obasanjo.. :) ??!!

I just found out that he is product manager at Microsoft. Interesting to see a guy from Microsoft appreciating the useful of Google's social graph API.

What is more interesting is the fact that he is the son of former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo :)

Ditching Google Bookmarks and moving to..

I finally had to ditch Google Bookmarks because of its deficiencies (which I will explain below). The only regret is that I am moving my bookmarks outside the Google ecosystem. Maybe, if I keep using Google Bookmarks for quite some time, it might improve and there might be better integration of Google Bookmarks with their other services which would make my life easier.

What I mean by advantages of Google ecosystem and its integration is that, say for example, I can create a document in Google Docs and later on I can post that as a blog into my blogger account (I might have given a bad example.. if you have a better example, please let me know). So, it lets me move my information and thoughts across different web applications with ease. All my information is consolidated. That's what I mean by "Google ecosystem and its integration advantages".

I might still be updating or taking copies of bookmarks in Google Bookmarks for the above mentioned reasons. But it depends on my time.

Now, I don't blame Google for its deficiencies in Google Bookmark because they never claimed that it was a social bookmarking site. In fact, its a pretty decent personal bookmarking web service. Its just that I am need of some advanced features which are available only in some good social bookmarking sites. Let me just list out as to what kind of features will take it from "good to great" bookmarking service.

Sharing of bookmark: This is one of the main reasons why I want to move out. When Google has been great at exposing information in the form of RSS feeds in most of their web service (for example, feeds from blogger or shared items in Google Reader), I could not understand why they could not do so for such a simple but yet powerful web service.

Private and Public bookmarks: Of course, I can ask for this feature only if the first one is implemented. I would like to share some bookmarks and hide some of them.

Integration with Social Networking sites: This is an era of social networking and if you are an average user, I can bet that you must be having an account in at least one of the following: Orkut; Facebook; MySpace. Most of the other web applications provide ways to share their application in these kind of social networking sites. For example, I can put my twitter profile in Facebook. So, it would be great if I can share my bookmarks in such social networking sites.

Grouping Tags: Its good that I can tag my bookmarks. But it would be great if I can group them into categories or folders. When I could do this in Google Reader then why not in Google Bookmarks.

Blog Integration: Allowing me to add link and/or tag roll widgets into my blog is missing in Google Bookmarks.

Basically, I am asking Google Bookmarks to mature from a personal bookmarking site into a social bookmarking site.

I know Google has been working towards an other web service called Google Share Stuff which is an effort at bringing in the concept social bookmarking. But it is still in its infant stages and has a long way to go before it matures (out of the Google Labs as well.. talking of Google Labs and their beta applications, I am not if Google Bookmarks has graduated out of Google Labs.. I am assuming it did).

Now, I went out hunting for a good bookmarking site. Not many useful reviews or comparisons were available (at least I could not find them). But I did get some pointers on which were the most famous one. And after quick look at each of these services and considering their usability and look'n'feel, I decided to go with Del.icio.us.

Del.icio.us deserves a separate post for itself where I would like to explain its features and advantages. But for now, to tell you in short, its a great web service.

White Paper on growth of Web Apps

This survey from Rubicon on growth of web applications is interesting. Email and games still are the most favorite/used web applications.

Also one interesting fact to notice was that people spend 58% of their time on internet of which 22% is spent on web apps, of their total time spent on the computer.

Email and Games may be the leading web apps because I feel that the majority of the crowd using web apps is pretty young and obviously email and games are on top of their list. I am sure as the crowd gets old, their needs would change and different web apps may lead the race.

Yahoo! Web-based Messenger - better late than never

Finally Yahoo has come up with a better web-based messenger. This should have been done long time back when Google started integrating gtalk on the web in every means it would - Gtalk is intergrated with gmail, google personalized home page as a gadget and finally you can add their gadget to any page that you might want.

Of course right now gtalk is not used for any kind of revenue generation. Whereas yahoo web messenger screen shows Ads once you've logged in.

All said and done, you have one more PC-based application available in a web-based form. The whole world seems to be moving towards web-based applications!! :)

Windows Live Writer lost its gas ??!!

It has been 10 months since I wrote my detailed review on Windows Live Writer. Though I liked the Windows Live Writer a lot then, I never really used it for blogging actively.

After so many months, I thought I wanted to use Windows Live Writer for one very lengthy and comprehensive review of something on the web (not going to tell you what it was about :) You will have to wait to see that blog). Blogging a lengthy post staying online would take lot of time. I thought using Windows Live Writer, I could blog as and when I find time and then publish it in one shot.

But then I just remembered that my PC was reinstalled with Window XP once and I had not installed Windows Live Writer since then. So went about searching for "Windows Live Writer" on Google and came across this official blog cum home page for Windows Live Writer. I believe this is being maintained by the developers of Windows Live Writer.

Having been away from Windows Live Writer for so long I was really curious to know what was happening to this blogging client. So I clicked on this link to see their posts. To my surprise, since November 2006 there has been not a single post in their "OFFICIAL BLOG" :)

Has Microsoft realized that blogging client is by no means generating money for them. Whatever be the reason, one thing is for sure - Windows Live Writer has lost its gas and I believe you are not going to see any more releases of Windows Live Writer.

Windows Live Writer.... RIP!!