I’m the sort of person that looks at something and wonders why it isn’t as good as something else I have. Example: In your modern browser you have tabs, and you can click-drag these to reorganise. Something you don’t need to do that often, but it’s nice to have the option. So I wondered why Windows doesn’t have this functionality for the Taskbar?

Well it turns out Jay Erox thought the same thing, and wrote a utility to fix it. Download Taskbar Shuffle (XP & Vista) and you can drag your Taskbar buttons around to your hearts content. My life is complete again - for the time being at least.

I know, we shouldn’t be getting the pallbearers ready just yet, but after the release of Google’s Chrome it does raise the question of how it will affect Firefox & the Mozilla Foundation.

The Foundation is largely funded by Google so it presents a complicated situation for the two groups. On one side you have Google, with an open-source, Google branded browser - and on the other you have a foundation that receives funding from Google, with their own browser already available and widely adopted. Competition you could say. So can Google justify investing in Mozilla when they have Chrome?

You could argue that the two entities are approaching the browser from different angles. In my opinion, Google are looking to create a modern, stable browser, capable of running their web apps as quickly as possible (hence the V8 rethink), and at the same time make it all open-source for the good of other browsers that might want to adopt the code. Whereas Firefox is looking to be the Swiss Army Knife of the browser market with add-ins that make it capable of doing everything you need (and at the same time making it slower because of this), a really good grip of web standards and a very large and dedicated community base.

Both of these browsers are competing with Internet Explorer’s dominance (and to a certain extent Opera and Safari). They’re aren’t fighting side by side, however, but rather in their own respective corners - and I can see only one winner from the two if Google want to get serious. But are Google going to get serious? It’s interesting when you realise the exclusive Google search contract in Firefox - based on referrals (which by the way generated 85% of Mozilla’s funding in 2006 - or $56 Million) is up for renewal in November of this year. Is it just coincidence that Chrome has been launched now?

Google Chrome was made available for download, by the public, from here, during a press conference & webcast at Google HQ (which I was lucky enough to view), which detailed the features of the new browser.

A few things I noticed during the conference, was a lot of direct comparison between Internet Explorer and Google Chrome - intentional of course as it is the most popular browser, but interesting how Firefox, Opera or Safari weren’t mentioned at all. The tests were impressive however, with rendering times much quicker, and a basic Java benchmark literally making IE look like a Penny Farthing in the middle of a Grand Prix. Another thing that was mentioned quite a lot was the open-source nature of Chrome - another side-swipe in Microsoft’s direction I thought.

Next up, the “Omni-bar” as it’s called was demoed quite a bit - showing the power of search in your browser. For instance, not only will the Omni-bar intelligently learn your browsing habits, but it will also make a note of search engines within websites when you use them. So if you search on Amazon a lot, Google Chrome will remember your preference and give you the option to search amazon straight from the bar. The other options you’re likely to see pop up when you start typing are pages you’ve historically been to, stuff in your favourites, and google suggestions (where I think their ads are really going to make an impact). Also, if Chrome thinks you’re generally interested in finding things with your search engine, the results will be the search results page you would normally see. All very similar to Firefox’s Awesome Bar, as it’s been called, but I think a bit better.

Another really nice feature that was showed off was the ability to take a web page and turn it into an “Application Shortcut” - blurring the distinction between Desktop and Cloud. For instance, if you’re the sort of person always with a Gmail tab open in your browser, you can create an Application Shortcut to it, which will be placed on your desktop. When you double click the shortcut, it loads the webpage in Chrome, but without all the web buttons and address bars and things - stuff you don’t need if you just want a window to check your email in.

During the conference, the browser was made available for download, so I nipped over to the download link I posted earlier, and grabbed a copy for testing.

After the initial quick download and install, the initial thing that hits you is the speed. The speed of the browser is a lot quicker than Internet Explorer, and is a little quicker than Firefox. The other thing that hits you is the clean feel to the browser. No unwanted buttons or gizmos, just the normal forward, back & refresh buttons, plus a page button (for creating new pages or adjusting how the current one is rendered) and a config button, for changing the browser options.

When starting up it imports browser settings from anything else it finds on your system, and then you’re pretty much in. As you use the browser it learns your favourite places - with the pages you like the most displayed, by default, on your homepage.

I think it will take a few weeks to fully test the browser and to notice any problems arising or bugs appearing, but in the meantime I can say I am happy with the overall feel to the browser - and it renders techsnake.com perfectly too! In fact, it renders it so well, this post is being written with Chrome right now.

To download the browser either visit here or here. To visit the newly opened code project “chromium” go here. Remember folks it’s still Beta, so treat it as such!

Here is the link to download Google Chrome - Please bare in mind that it isn’t active until the Google HQ wakes up - at the moment it resolves to Google’s homepage.

Download Google Chrome

Google - the world’s favourite search engine, has decided to step up and compete in the browser market.

Competing with, more obviously, Internet Explorer, but also the likes of Firefox, Opera & Safari, Google’s Open Source “Chrome” browser (to be launched today in Beta) seems like a bold, but very logical step.

It makes perfect sense to me that Google should bring out a browser. Not only can you (hopefully) have all of your online apps in one, integrated place (I for one use lots of Google’s online products) but it means the perfect place for them to target their ads to it’s users as well. The only other integrated browser is Flock. Flock, based on Mozilla code, integrates into the social networks very well. However, as there is a huge list of online apps available from Google it would be nice to have some of that functionality at your fingertips. Maybe combined with Flock-like social networking tools, it could be the next killer browser?

Of course, all of these features are a great idea, and to be honest, would greatly improve anyone’s online experience. However, what really matters is the rendering engine, and also how closely Google’s new browser will follow the web standards. Hopefully these points will not be lost when Google release to the waiting public.

For up to date news on the release of the browser, keep posted!

The Mozilla camp have announced the launch of their new add-on for Firefox, called Snowl. It can be thought of as a messaging aggregator, which takes all of the information you want to read from different sources and knits it all together.

Just step back for a moment and think about that. Everything in one place. All of your RSS feeds, your email, your twitter accounts, your facebook messages - all in one place. A great idea, as long as the interface doesn’t let the concept down - it would seem very easy to get snowed under by the huge amount of information. You can download the plug-in now if you want, although it’s in a really early stage of development, so expect bugs and frequent crashes.

Among the concepts talked about for Snowl, one of them is a “River of News” format, which is like a columned newspaper that runs horizontally. There is mention of prioritising certain types of information, which I think will be the key. After all, you’re more likely to want to read an email from a family member, than a news article. I am very interested in the project, and will be keeping an eye on it in the future - I’m always after ways of making my online information easier to get at, and therefore making me more efficient.

Even though I’m not that sure how many people will be buying, after the news that Apple is suing, Psystar still think that they’ll be selling in the future - with their website open for business as usual.

To add weight to Psystar’s cause, their founder, Rudy Pedraza says, “What if Honda said that, after you buy their car, you could only drive it on the roads they said you could?” - Apple don’t say you can only use the Mac to surf apple.com by the same analogy. Or only use Apple software. That’s just missing the point. Anyway, if Honda said you couldn’t drive their cars on anything but their roads, you just wouldn’t buy a Honda - it doesn’t give you the right to buy the engines from a dodgy supplier and put them in Nissans, because they are cheaper and then drive them on Honda’s roads.. I know, it’s a bad analogy!

It’s a nice idea, and to be honest I think there shouldn’t be restrictions on what piece of hardware you can install an OS on, if you’ve paid for that OS. And I still think that this is a good thing for Apple, and advertising the OS. However, if those are Apple’s rules, and they’re the ones selling the OS, that’s how it is. If I had a product I was selling and built into the restrictions that it could only be sold to people who have moustaches, that’s my failing and I will ultimately loose out if it’s a bad idea. But it’s still my choice nonetheless. Not for somebody to interpret. Just as it is Apple’s choice to only allow OSX to be installed on Apple hardware.

Everyone who participated in “Download Day” for Firefox 3 should pat themselves on the back. It has officially been given the Guiness World Record kudos for the most downloaded piece of software in 24 hours.

The final figure was 8,002,530, which is pretty impressive considering the servers didn’t respond too well to the huge amount of traffic initially. However, once they came back up they were pretty solid. If you are one of the people who participated in download day, you can fill your name out at spreadfirefox.com and get a certificate to print-out and keep. Just their little way to say thank-you I guess!

Yeap, the last day for Mr. Gates - and a short history, with video, on the man has been compiled by the BBC. Well worth a look.

This day 60 years ago, the first modern computer, nicknamed the Manchester “Baby” was switched on to run it’s first successful program. Baby was the first computer to store information digitally, using a Cathode Ray Tube (or CRT), and is the predecessor for how we store information in modern RAM chips.

The invention and concepts 60 years ago were monumental after people realised for the computer to be of any real use, the information would have to be stored permanently and electrically by the machine. Although the data was added by hand, the Baby would constantly read and refresh the bits on the CRT, it’s memory, electronically to keep them from decaying, and is a concept still in use by RAM today. By the time it was revealed this method was capable of storing 4096 bits.

The first program was run on the Baby, this day 60 years ago. One of the inventors, F.C. Williams, spoke of the monumental occasion, “A program was laboriously inserted and the start switch pressed. Immediately the spots on the display tube entered a mad dance. In early trials it was a dance of death leading to no useful result, and what was even worse, without yielding any clue as to what was wrong. But one day it stopped, and there, shining brightly in the expected place, was the expected answer. It was a moment to remember. This was in June 1948, and nothing was ever the same again.”