I debated where to write this post because I wanted it to reach the right audience. I settled on using my personal blog to reach a more general audience. Typically, I would love to share this with educators, but too much of the Chromium project is beyond the permissions of feasibility of classroom use due to restrictions placed upon them in their school districts.

I think I just lost half my readers, so lets get to it.  Google Chrome is a web browser designed for efficiency, simplicity, and stability. It serves as the flagship application for the Chromium Browser Project.  If you are Gmail user, you need to install Chrome on all of your computers. The benefit of using Chrome with your Google account is that it syncs your web history, bookmarks, browser themes, preferences, add-ons, and autofill data. Of course, you can customize each sync option if you panic over the idea that Google will use this data against you (maybe they will).

Features

When you install Chrome and open it up for the first time, you’ll notice that seems to lack all the ‘stuff’ that other browsers have. That’s probably because your current browser has been cluttered up with toolbars from your antivirus program, add-on toolbars, and bloatware aplenty.   Below, you’ll notice a shot of the Chrome address bar. There’s not much to it, Back, Forward, Home, the universal search box, and to the far right is the customization icon. Of course you can add gobs of additional features and fatten up your browser and it will run just as sluggishly as Firefox and Internet Explorer.

I am using the latest beta release of Chrome because I was eagerly anticipating the Google Cloud Print feature promised. The Cloud Print feature allows you to have one computer connected to printers via a network and sending the print job from another computer using Google Chrome. The print job is sent through your Google Account to the desired workstation. Just note that you should be careful sending sensitive data through the net to be printed in a location you aren’t able to get to anytime soon.  If you’re interested in doing more with Cloud Printing, just read through their Frequently Asked Questions and support.

Add-Ons

I’ve got five must have add-ons for Chrome. Of course there are many more out there, but here’s my highly biased list.

• goo.gl URL shortener – a service connected to your Google Account that gives you shortened URLs for easier sharing. It collects valuable data regarding the link you share. The data includes clicks, countries, browsers, and platforms accessing your links.
• Delicious bookmarks allows you to sign in to your Delicious account to quickly catalog, tag, and share your bookmarks.
• Chrome2Phone has got to be one of coolest tricks available to Android phone owners. It allows you to send the content you are viewing in your browser directly to your phone. You’ll need to have Android 2.2 or later, but you won’t regret adding this to your must haves.
• Webpage Screenshot helps you easily capture the contents of a web browser to share for training materials, blog entries, or general editing purposes to create publications promoting your website.
• Chromed Bird for all of you Twitter addicts who need another option to access your Twitter feed without another application.

Apps

Oh my god, another application ecosystem. I can’t take it anymore. If you have been following tech news lately, you notice that Apple has an App Store, Android has their Marketplace, and Amazon is working on their own App Store. Chrome provides a limited set of apps that you can ‘install’ in your browser. The applications are available in the Chrome Web Store. Some applications are free and others might be available for purchase. The unique thing about this app market is they install inside the browser and sync to your Google Account so it will automatically load in all your Chrome browsers. Some interesting applications I have found include the Full Screen Weather application, the Google Body Browser, and Kid Mode. The application directory is not extensive, but there is hope that more Android developers will adapt their programs to function in Chrome.

Now that I have thrown the entire pile of Chrome features in your lap, I’ll leave it up to you to adopt the latest alternative browser. There are some limitations to Chrome, mostly due to a lack of developer support. Certain financial institutions and multimedia platforms will not work properly, but with time this will change, just as it did for Firefox.

Do you have experiences with Chrome? Are they good or bad? What do you hope to see happen with this web browser in the next year? I imagine we’ll hear about it at this year’s Google IO conference. Either way, it’s up to users to decide the fate or success of this web browser.

So when you misplace your handset, AND YOU WILL, I have a great solution to ease your worries (unless you dropped your phone in the Atlantic Ocean). Where’s my Droid is a free application available through the Android Marketplace.  If you have  QR code reader, you can scan this URL and get a head start.

So why would I want to download this application? It’s free, so it can’t be that great. Wrong! Where’s my Droid allows you to send a pre determined text message to your Android phone that will activate the ringer for a previously decided upon length of time. Additionally, if some ne’er do well has your phone you can send a separate message that will activate your handset’s GPS and return a Google map and GPS coordinates of where your phone is.

I doubted the rich feature set of this application, but I installed it and tried it out after hearing about it at the end of Episode 78 of This Week in Google, I had to jump into the Marketplace and dig through the four possible entries that were listed under the same name. I tested it out in my home, while my mobile device was still in my own possession (as I recommend everyone do). It worked flawlessly. I used my Google Voice account to send a text message to my mobile number and received the messages you see here.

Is this application perfect? Probably not. But it certainly is a great option if you don’t have some enterprise level of security on your device. There are many other options available as you set up the default behaviors, many of these applications even offer a remote wipe option to clear all sensitive data from your mobile phone. If you have an Android device, make sure that this is in your top five applications when setting up your applications.

This isn’t the only ‘oops’ found on Google Maps Streetview, so share if you have any. In fact, until recently, you could request directions from New York City to Paris. The directions were very accurate -with one major issue….A short swim across the pond, also know as the Atlantic Ocean. Here are a few other interesting finds on Google Maps: http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2007/03/google-maps-shows-funny-directions.html

So here’s the text…check out the level of interaction that you have..zoom, pan, scroll, just as if it were yours for the taking.

So what would you do with a tool like this? (other than buying a copy of this great text)

I came across Viewzi and was pleasantly surprised to see a creative new approach. Instead of searching indexed sites as Google does, Viewzi is a meta-search. It provides a visual approach to search engine results.

Here’s the sales pitch. It’s slick design has been a popular hit. The question is – how are the results compared to Google?

Other questions to consider:

1. How long will Google stay on top?
2. What search engines have you found that are equally as valuable to you (either in your line of work or otherwise)?
3. What is the risk of using only one search engine to cull data and research?