I have been testing out Google’s latest addition, the Google Chrome Browser. Everything is good as the hype so far. It hasn’t crashed on me yet and it hasn’t slowed down on me. So I agree it is fast and reliable.

However, the one top reason why I love and would switch to Google Chrome Browser is because of the control you have over the browser through tabs. This new power allows you to drag and drop the tabs from within one browser to a separate one etc, this is a great way for me to organize my surfing habits. These tabs run in their own memory spaces with their own process, hence it is more reliable. The tabs feature is a built-in feature, hence no need to find plugins like other browsers do to keep tab configuration options intact everytime you startup the browser. Lot more to learn but this is a great start…

One reason I hate Google Chrome and I will be reluctant to keep it as the default browser for sometime is my worry around privacy. There has been ton of stories around the web on Google and Privacy issues and how much data they share with advertisers. Imagine now, Google pretty much have the control to follow you from the minute you launch the browser to when you close the last site. They can track all of your activity and sell advertisements accordingly. I was so concerned that I didn’t visit any site with Chrome that requires a user/pass for me to gain access. I know this is more than just privacy, more like security concerns, but hey it is new and it is in beta version. Given the history of Google, that beta is here to stay as beta, I am hoping that Google’s Chrome will evolve and be transparent to people so they can it.

Now I would like to hear about your experience on this. Have you kept it or have you removed it? or are you waiting for others to feel comfortable before you download it? Send me an email…

Recently I was contacted by Tony Parusis from EuropeanKiss.org. Tony asked us to write about his site that has adopted a few social networking features into a traditional dating site.

According to Tony, EuropeanKiss.org is a vibrant and unique completely free social dating community for singles who appreciate the European culture and lifestyle seeking: travel buddies, fun, friends, romance and love.

Seems like EuropeanKiss.org took traditional online dating to the next level by integrating social networking features and giving singles the tools to communicate and have fun. This social dating community is the next generation in online dating with many great features including:

Components users can add, delete, modify on their home page. (friends online, new users, new videos, popular blog posts, new groups, new topics, birthdays), notification when friends are online/upload new photos/new blog posts/profile comments,  1-on-1 flash based instant messenger with live audio/video and text chat, users can broadcast live video to their profile, video profile recording, video uploads, embed YouTube videos to their profile, post unlimited photos, community group features, including group chat rooms with audio/video streaming, group events, group photo galleries and group message/discussion boards, polls, profile/photo rating, photo contests, view local and global online users and appear offline login. (allows users to login without marking them as online. This is useful if they simply want to check their mailbox, but not engaged in chats, etc)

According to EuropeanKiss.org, it is the only dating community to use Windows Vista gadgets and Windows desktop message notifier. I don’t spend time on dating sites, hence I will have you let you be the judge for this claim.

Gadgets are easy-to-use mini programs that give you information at a glance in real-time. Now days, for a website to be successful, it has to be dynamic and be live, gadgets are a way to get at it.

They currently provide two gadgets: Quick Stats Gadget; shows up-to-date information about photo rating, new mail messages, profile views, interests received, new users, users online. New Users Gadget, randomly shows new users photos based on their gender preference. Windows desktop message notifier is a Windows tool that sits in their system tray and notifies them when there are new mail messages.

“Much thought and research has gone into developing this free social dating community. We at EuropeanKiss.org wanted to create a site where our members will enjoy a positive experience that cannot be found anywhere else on the web. Going out on a date is fun, so should online dating”, said Tony.

Check out Europeankiss.org.
 

Recently we were contacted by Jeff Murnane from Omaha NE and asked me to review his site - CrowdPicks.com. Jeff had launched this site in 2007 along with his friend Cassius Almeida. They both have funded this venture out of their own pockets and hoping to make it a successful venture.
 
CrowdPicks.com is a sports picking community where members make score predictions on games instead of the traditional “pick-a-side” style used by most websites.  Scores are then aggregated to create a member based game prediction that is available for free.  This data can be filtered by historical accuracy with our “CrowdFilter” so members can see aggregate predictions from members that meet a certain criteria, such as members that are 60% versus the spread or better, or 70% accurate at picking a winner, etc.  This functionality is available by subscription along with daily reports on the best picks of the day which are based off of proprietary algorithms.
 
CrowdPicks has typical social networking functionality in profiles, blogs, comments, chat and messages, but everything centers around sports credibility.  By picking games members build their sports credibility and depending on how well they do, they get recognized more throughout the site with things like, exclusive invites to the weekly college football poll, trophies for their personal page and a more decorative avatar.
 
According to Jeff and Cassius, the most unique thing about CrowdPicks however is the revenue sharing functionality.  They ask their members to write blogs, invite friends and make accurate picks in exchange they share the revenue that the site generates.  Members can earn a bigger share by creating page views for their blog, inviting friends, getting their picks selected in the daily picks reports, etc.
 
Here is what Jeff had to say about why they started this site in the first place:
 ”We started this website for a few reasons, #1 my partner and I were tired of working in corporate America and we wanted to work for ourselves, and #2 we had this community picking idea for years and finally decided to act on it.  We plan on Marketing the site through social networking and mobile apps.  We are building useful and fun apps. that are free but branded and hope that once people experience CrowdPicks “lite” on their current social network they will give us a try for the full experience.  We also plan on marketing the subscription services to bookmaking and gaming websites.  We feel that our site is different because we are trying to monetize now and we are asking our members to have a hand in doing this while allowing them to experience the rewards that go with it.  The score predictions and aggregation tool are unique as well.”
 
We recommend you visit CrowdPicks.com and support their ventures.

Earlier today, I wrote why another browser for the internet is a good thing for the people like you and I who spend most of our time browsing for information. However, as the day goes, as my brain tried to put together all of the bits and pieces; some didn’t fall into place - that’s when it clicked - someone who lives off of gathering information from millions of websites, what better tool would give them more information than a browser itself about user’s surfing habits?

Google has launched their Chrome Browser today. A browser with an elegant interface with much better user of memory space, etc.

There is a lot of fear out there about Google’s knowledge about you and I. With the addition of this browser, Google now has one more tool to gather information about you and others around you. This is information many of their competition will not have, which makes Google stronger. Is this good for you or not? If you were scared of Microsoft owning your operating system which you ran the previous browsers on; now think of Google’s Chrome browser as a platform where you will be pretty much running many web applications off of; hence you should get ready to be scared of providing more knowledge about you to Google! I am not in any way saying that Google will be spying on you, which I don’t know, but just saying that they have yet another tool to gather information if necessary.

Google definitely wants to lead the internet. As good as the browser is, this is really scarier as one business dominates majority of the internet’s tools businesses - this will lead to monopoly and what better would this be than yet another Microsoft?

Download Google’s Chrome browser, you won’t regret it. It is fast and it is good but keep in mind what I’ve said above about privacy etc if you are someone that worry about such things…

Today, Google will launch a Webkit-based opensource Google Browser named Chrome Browser. Google introduced their Chrome Browser through a Cartoon.

This should come with no surprise for many people, with today’s increased demand on web browsers and an ever increasing use of dynamic web applications, this sort of competition makes a lot more sense. At the end of the day, this is good for you and me - who spend a good chunk of our personal time on a browser. As time goes on, a browser is probably all you will need to run many of your applications - they can be mobile, independent and simple.

This is because today’s need for internet is much different than it was 15 years ago when internet was its infancy. Today almost all of the well known sites such as Facebook, allows developers to create their own applications - to give users what they want and how they want it.

Here is where I believe Google’s Chrome Browser can help. It can help your browser experience a much more enjoyable than ever before - no more crashing of all of the sites you’ve been browsing because of a single malfunction on one site.

Google developed their browser with multi-process engines that is built into separate tabs, which allows users to use each tab for different purposes. Each tab runs on its own memory space and does not depend on one another - hence when one crashes, the other does not!

Google also made tools available with the rumoured Google Gears - this will provide you with many tools that will also enhance your experience. Google also introduced their own Javascript engine - V8. Today we depend on Javascripts more than ever. I still remember trying to make a web page with Dreamweaver back in the days, and not being able to run it on a website because the browsers were not able to handle them - today it has totally changed; web page really can’t be successful without the use of dynamic contents.

Google will launch in 100 different countries today for Windows Operating Systems. Mac and Linux versions will folllow shortly.

You can get further details here:

Google Blog

Technical Details