Firefox Grabs European Top Slot From IE

Microsoft's Internet Explorer has fallen from its number one slot as the most-used browser in Europe. According to StatCounter, Firefox grabbed 38.11% share in Europe in December, edging out for the first time IE who had some 37.52%. Chrome had a 14.58% but was up from 5.06% for the same month a year earlier.

A contributing factor is thought to be Microsoft and the European Commission anti trust agreement which was reached in October 2009 and that dictated that Windows users be given a clearer choice when selecting a default web browser and also presented them with a ballot screen in which they can change from Internet Explorer to one of 11 other browsers.
IE is still dominates in North America with 48.92% market share and where Firefox has only 26.7% , Chrome at 12.82% and Safari 10.16%

It is clear that the domination of the Browser market by Microsoft is coming to and end and alternatives now are able to both compete and attract users.

Google's Tablet A Trick or Treat?

First their was an iPhone then there was a NexusOne, then there was an iPad to be followed by a GogglePad? Steve Jobs has hardly stopped dismissing and denouncing the ‘evil’ one for stepping onto their patch and Google have now fired the return salvo with a tablet mock up video on YouTube.

The mockups, posted on Google's Chromium Web site, depict a multi tasking device with an on-screen keyboard and a touch screen. There are many internet rumours that Google has been working with the Nexus One builder, HTC and rumours that the work has been halted. Who do you believe in this high tech world of spin and counter pin?

Irrespective we may now face the challenge of Apples app SDK approach with strict control of hardware, connectivity, software and applications in one vertical Appleworld versus Google’s open source, open platform, multi manufacturer Googleworld and cloud. Personally we still prefer the wonderous insights given last week by Pranav Mistry

Google Sets Its Sights On World Domination

We haven’t had time to digest the latest maneuvering in the Google Book Settlement, but will do so soon. Meanwhile Google continues to stretch its tentacles in the technology world.

The world of VOIP is best known to many through Skype and its services which offer free telephony to a huge community over the Internet. Now Google has acquired VOIP startup Gizmo5 and the assumption is that they will roll into its telephony application Google Voice, which in turn it acquired in 2007 from GrandCentral. The combination of Google Voice’s telephony and Gizmo5’s VOIP offers some potentially sea changing opportunities. Gizmo5, unlike Skype, is based on the same open standards that underpin that other offer Google Wave.

So do Google want to offer free calls and take on the big telecom companies such as AT&T? The $30 million Google paid for Gizmo5 starts to look like chump change that potentially offers a huge return. So will Google become the next telecom company, or ‘the’ telecom company?

Then there is the increasing penetration of Android in the mobile world. Anyone who has missed the Android creep must be asleep as we now see many new devices adopting it almost every week. LG has just announced its Android GW620, Motorola launched its DEXT,Sony Erikson has adopted it for its Xperia X10 family of products and of course we have the HTC’s offers.

However you have to also add this to their $750m acquisition of mobile advertising outfit AdMob.

Finally, just when you may believe that its focus is all mobile you must also note that TechCrunch claim that Google aim to about to release its Chrome operating system for download. The Chrome OS was announced last July and unfortunately adopted the same brand name as their free browser. The confusion increases and is not just between the use of the Chrome branding but their other Android operating system.

The Chrome OS is an open source operating system that will sit on top of a Linux kernel and will use a new windowing system. What this potentially does do, is provide the Linux world with a consolidated offer that may win consumer confidence with it being backed by the Behemoth - Google. Will the netbook players choose Windows 7, or will they stay with Linux and now adopt Chrome OS?

Finally,just when you think about indigestion Google has also announced 'Noop', a new testable programming language.

Amazing that a company so young is poised to dominate so much; search, advertising, operating systems, office applications, mobile communications,email, maps and surveillance (Earth downwards), video (YouTube), news, media, books (Search, Editions and Settlement), libraries…

Enough to make you Google-eyed!

Google Spreads Its Reach

So what does Google want to be when it grows up, or should that be what doesn’t it want to be when it grows up?

Last week we had the announcement of Google Editions at Frankfurt which made Google ebook wholesaler and retailer. We already have them as a potential book orphan works custodian and of course librarian to all. We now read that they want to be the digital music service prodiver and maybe return to the much expected gmobile provider. It’s sometimes hard tracking a company that is spreading its net so fast in so many directions but what is clear, irrespective of what materialises, the Google we know today will not be the Google we will see tomorrow.

TechCrunch website was first to raise the potential and imminent news of the launch of a new "Google Music" or "Google Audio" service. They even has screen shots which may or may not be accurate and it was unclear whether Google saw themselves as a universal Spotify streaming service or a iTunes wholesare and retailer of music downloads, or both. Of course as you would expect of any company in its position Google’s response when approached was, "We don't comment on rumour and speculation." Cnet claim Google are woring towards a ‘one box’ service that on searches will provide a thumbnail with the picture of the artist, some background information and listings of the music that can be previewed and also claims that all four major record companies are on board. The speculation is also linked to the ‘one box’ concept used by Google for other services such as video, financial information and weather search results. Techcrunch also claim in a later article ‘Google Music Service the Screenshots’, that Google is partnering its music offer with the LaLa and iLike services. We can only wait until next week when it is claimed they will officiually announcement the service at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles.

Google versus iTunes makes sense for smartphones and Chrome OS based notebooks and importantly will tether users to Google and its vision of keeping everything in their cloud.

Amid the Andriod announcements on its new version 2 release on Sony Eriksonn, the bundling of Spotify on HTC Hero by 3 Mobile, Spring Design’s Alex ereader and B&N’s Nook and the imminent Dell Android phone we read in The Street that Google is claimed to be working with HTC to produce a Google-branded phone or phones available to sell in their thousands through retailers. It would obviously remove the carrier influence and give Google tight controls over the features and applications on phones even offering user configurable phones. More interestingly it starts to position Google head to head with Apple as a provider of integrated hardware and software offerings, similar to Apple's iPhone and iTunes Music Store.

So we return to the question we started with and wonder what Google will be in the next few months and years.

So Which Browser Do You Use?

Having just experienced replacing our hard drive on the laptop we understand technology pain and frustration. We also understand the opportunity to declutter and delete those files and applications that just grow like fungus on your computer. So we went from having four browsers to two.

So it was interesting to hear that the browser wars are getting warmer with the news that Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) market share dropped under the 70% last month for the first time since Net Applications started monitoring market share. IE is now down 7.6% points in the last year.

Rival browsers from Mozilla, Apple and Google are benefiting with Mozilla's Firefox, next most popular with some 20%, Apple next with 7.1% and the new Chrome offer from Google slowly bring up the rear. The change appears to be the shift from corporate to home users who obviously prefer Firfefox and Safari and Net Applications state that Firefox and Safari usage climbs on weekends and after work hours.

Microsoft have said that it will launch IE8 in 2009, but as more users shift to the home market it could be continued bad news for the giant Microsoft.

Google Wants to be Everything

Today Engadget post some blurred pictures of still awaited Google’s Andriod phone. The phone is built around a large LCD and is clearly is designed to compete with iPhone. The screen slides to unveil a QWERTY keyboard.


Just as we await the phone Google is now planning to launch a web browser called Google Chrome aimed at challenging the Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari alternatives. The Wall Street Journal reported on its website that the browser is likely to be announced soon. Google Chrome is designed to make it easier and faster to browse the Web. The product will be open-sourced and offer enhanced address-bar and other features that they believe are different from the pack.

What next? We now have the big technology companies lining up to fight each other on many levels. This should be god for business and consumers as it should lead to keener pricing and less monopoly but more options can also cause confusion whilst the dust settles. As always the big question is interoperability.