Google Chrome becomes UK's second most popular web browser

Google's Chrome is Britain's second most popular browser, a sign of the internet giant's increasing grip on the UK search market.Three years after launch, Chrome last month captured 22% of UK users and marginally overtook Mozilla's Firefox browser, according to the web metrics firm Statcounter. Microsoft's Internet Explorer is losing market share to Chrome but remains the most popular browser for UK users with 45% – although it has a head start by being pre-installed on almost all computers sold in Britain. Apple's Safari is UK number four, with a 9% share.

Google's rise in the browser market is in part down to nationwide advertising – Chrome is the first Google product advertised on British TV – but is largely attributed to its speed.

Lars Bak, the Google engineer responsible for Chrome, said the goal had never been to attract a huge user base, but to energise a dormant browser market: "Speed is a fundamental part of it, but it's also about the minimal design and the way it handles security. If you as a user try [to load] a webpage and it feels snappy, it's really hard to go back [to another browser]. It has shown that people spend more time interacting with the web."

Unlike most of Google's talent based at its Mountain View headquarters in California, Bak works from a converted farmhouse in the Danish countryside two hours from Copenhagen. He has become obsessed with speed, and despite numerous tests that show Chrome outstrips all rivals, he thinks it could be much faster. "You should never be happy with [existing] speed," he said. "Of course it gets harder to make substantial gains, but it's all healthy competition. From the beginning we wanted everybody to be fast, and now all browsers are fast. I'm absolutely flabbergasted [by the improvements made by rival browsers]."

Chrome is the number three worldwide, with a 20.65% market share according to Statcounter. But analysts expect it to edge ahead of Firefox, which has dipped steadily since January. Microsoft's Internet Explorer has also fallen heavily, to 43%, with warnings about security vulnerabilities.

Google last month announced its Chromebook laptop, based on its browser and seen as another ambitious attack on Microsoft; it will be made by Samsung and Acer, companies that previously made computers running Microsoft's software.

Unlike most computers, the Chromebook has almost no capacity to store and hosts most data online in a "cloud". Bak said: "The Chromebook is really important because it tries to simplify the machine – it is basically no maintenance, which means you can cut the price. If all you are doing is using a browser it's a fantastic tool."

Red Hot Actress Rachel Weisz

41 year-old actress Rachel Weisz looked lovely in a short red dress at the screening of ‘The Whistleblower’ in New York City the other day

Emmanuelle Chriqui Talks About Entourage Season 8 at Hamptons Cover Party

Emmanuelle Chriqui talked about Entourage season 8 just one night before its premiere on HBO last Sunday. On Saturday evening, cast and crew members attended Chriqui's Hamptons magazine cover party with anticipation for the final season high.

With Entourage in its last season on HBO, fans are eager to find out what will happen. On Saturday night, cast and crew unwound at the Hamptons magazine cover party with Emmanuelle Chriqui at South Pointe Nightclub in Southampton, NY, presented by Baume and Mercier. The beautiful Emmanuelle Chriqui was at the center of attention. Also in attendance were Entourage creator/writer Doug Ellin and his wife, Melissa Hecht.

With the Hamptons having a heat wave, the night became even hotter when Chriqui entered the party wearing a fabulous reddish orange gown. As Chriqui smiled and mingled with Hamptons elite, everyone swayed to the sounds of internationally acclaimed DJ Flexican of Steel Artist Management.Chriqui graciously spoke to Huliq about the upcoming season of Entourage, her career and personal life. The lovely actress started acting in her native Canada when she was about 16 years old. After doing one-liners, two-liners and bits on shows, one of her big breaks was a McDonald's commercial.

Originally, Chriqui auditioned for three episodes of Entourage and landed the part of Sloan McQuewick. She was surprised to be part of the show for six years and never anticipated its success. Chriqui admitted there might have been room for another season but stated, “We're leaving on a high note and let's see what's next.”

With regard to the final season of Entourage only having eight episodes, Chriqui promised, “There's eight, but they're eight strong. It's really a strong season.” Chriqui also admitted, “It's amazing to be part of something so successful. I'm looking forward to whatever comes next.”One of Chriqui's current successes was her cover shoot for tony Hamptons magazine. Her pretty face on the cover of Hamptons magazine graced every corner of the party venue. Chriqui said about the cover, “I am really happy. You don't generally hear yourself saying you're happy with a cover.”

Besides the Hamptons magazine cover, Chriqui confirmed she is the voice of Cheetara on the upcoming Thundercats animated series. She also joined Showtime's 2011 series The Borgias, playing Sancia. Chriqui's past credits include 100 Girls and You Don't Mess with the Zohan with Adam Sandler. In May, 2010, Chriqui topped the AskMen.com "Most Desirable Women of 2010" list.

Chriqui did not discuss future projects but said there were “lots of irons on the fire” and “moving onwards and upwards...that's the goal.” The attractive actress admitted to having a long-term boyfriend but was “way too private” to reveal his name. When asked if a baby stroller might be in the near future after Entourage, Chriqui chuckled, “No, definitely not anytime soon!”

Entourage brings to mind another HBO success story, Sex and the City. Fans wanted to keep up with their favorite characters, inspiring two Sex and the City movies. There are already rumors about a possible Entourage movie as fans reluctantly prepare to bid farewell to Vince, Eric, Ari, Turtle, Drama and Sloan.

Jennifer Love Hewitt in a Little Black Dress

Jennifer Love Hewitt looked cute and happy in a short black dress that showed off her legs while on a shopping spree yesterday.

Vanessa Hudgens Rocks Short Hair

Rockin' her new short hair style, actress Vanessa Hudgens gasses up her new Audi in Los Angeles, California on July 26th, 2011. The High School Musical starlet has cut her beautiful locks for her role in her new movie Gimme Shelter.Vanessa Hudgens recently chopped her long locks for a movie role – here she is on 2 different occasions, looking cute with a short do

Mozilla Prepping Mobile Operating System for the Web

 

App development is a big business, but one of the frustrating things about the process is that developers must focus on one mobile operating system or develop for several platforms. Mozilla is looking to change this with the development of a mobile OS for the Web that will initially borrow some components from Android.
The company, known for its Firefox browser, announced plans for the Boot to Gecko (B2G) project, which will focus on the development of a "complete, standalone operating system for the open Web."

"We will do this work in the open, we will release the source in real-time, we will take all successful additions to an appropriate standards group, and we will track changes that come out of that process," the group working on the project said in their announcement. "We aren't trying to have these native-grade apps just run on Firefox, we're trying to have them run on the Web."

B2G will draw some of its inspiration from Android. On booting, for example, the project will "prototype a low-level substrate for an Android-compatible device." When asked on the Google forums why the team was taking this approach rather than booting from a PC, Mike Shaver, vice president of technical strategy for the Mozilla Corporation, said "we might prototype some stuff on a PC, but the project is really about the device space. We had to pick somewhere, and this seems like where the energy is best spent."With desktop devices, meanwhile, it's often difficult to find "good open drivers ... without pulling in things like X," Shaver wrote.
Shaver insisted that B2G intends "to use as little of Android as possible." The team wanted to "start from something that's known to boot and have access to all the devices we want to expose."

Another forum user commented that Android often "brings a lot of baggage that's useful for building a mobile phone running Java apps but does less for bringing up a Gecko." Brendan Eich, chief technology officer at Mozilla, responded that B2G "won't be taking any of that stuff ... just the kernel and device drivers."
"These days the device makers are moving to Android. To get all the HAL benefits, we want to reuse its lower layers," Eich continued.

The idea behind B2G is to push the envelope of the Web, the team said. "Mozilla believes that the Web can displace proprietary, single-vendor stacks for application development," they wrote.
They pointed to the pdf.js project, which is tracking gaps in HTML5 that need to be filled in order for it to become a superset of PDF. "We want to take a bigger step now, and find the gaps that keep web developers from being able to build apps that are—in every way—the equals of native apps built for the iPhone, Android, and WP7," they said.

In addition to the Android-based prototype, developers said B2G will require work in several other areas, including the development of new Web APIs that will support things like telephony, SMS, camera, USB, Bluetooth, and NFC. It will also require a privilege model, which will make sure these new capabilities are safely exposed to pages and apps.

The team stressed that B2G is still "in its infancy," but said they wanted to discuss it publicly in order to get as much feedback as possible from inside and outside Mozilla. They encouraged interested parties to join the discussion online.In September, Mozilla Labs released a concept design (video below) for a hypothetical smartphone, dubbed "Seabird," but said at the time that it didn't plan to make the device.

The Next MySpace: Facebook???

A shiny new social-networking site comes along and before you know it, we're all flirting with the frisky startup, leaving our dates back at the table to pay the check. At least, that's how it seems with Google+, the latest competition for our Facebook affections.

In just a few weeks, Google+ has enticed roughly 20 million people to join, according to Comscore. And that's before it's even officially debuted; you still have to be invited to go to this dance. Furthermore, while the service is still in pre-release mode, many of us using it have found it to already be simpler, slicker, and generally better at the social-networking waltz than Facebook (and it always lets you lead).

  

Uber-venture capitalist Roger McNamee of Elevation Partners recently argued that the social network war was over."The last 500 social companies funded by the venture capital community are all worthless," McNamee said during a presentation to a crowd of media types. As far as McNamee is concerned, the social platform has been established, and it's Facebook. He may be right. He has nearly 30 years experience investing in tech, including an early bet on Facebook. And Facebook, according to the company's own tally, has 750 million members.

Plenty of people have offered excellent reasons for abandoning Facebook, however. Some of my FB friends have already switched because changing networks is as simple as a mouse click, and there's no exit cost whatsoever -- indeed there may be several benefits.Many FB friends, for example, would rather switch than fight Facebook's ever-evolving privacy settings. Purposively convoluted, Facebook's pages of inscrutably marked multiple boxes have made it about as friendly as Windows Millennium Edition. So one day your chat line is closed, the next you're open online for everyone to see. It's created Facebook fatigue.

Then there's the grandma factor: If everyone is on Facebook, not only is it no longer cool but it also means I can't say anything without fear of retribution -- or being outed for playing beer pong by my boss or mom. That's no fun at all, and Google+ at least makes it easier to compartmentalize friends, acquaintances, and business associates (unlike Facebook's lists, which are a pain in the you-know-what). Some Google+ members are even creating "frenemy" circles (now there's an idea that's bound to get you in trouble).

There are two other important undercurrents to the rising tide boosting Google+: momentum and the nature of social circles.
The first issue looks ominous for Facebook when one looks back at the fall of MySpace. The switch from MySpace to Facebook seemed predicated on a number of factors. There was the shear clutter of MySpace, which looked like something out of an early GeoCities blog. It became a blinking, flashing, honking mess. And Facebook connected people and conversations more seamlessly. Perhaps more critical was the shear momentum of Facebook as it picked up speed, sucking in more and more friends until it became an irresistible social vortex. Now, Google+ looks poised to possibly do the same to Facebook, draining away members and eyeballs.

The second point is a lesson about social behavior. Switching from one network to another may just be an inevitable part of our social habits. Every once in a while, we simply need a change. No one can eat the same meal every day, and we can't visit the same bar or coffee shop every day without getting bored. Some folks have been on Facebook for nearly 7 years; that's a long time to be hanging out at the same watering hole. And what is it they say about the 7-year itch?So switching social circles may be preordained. And Google+ is simply the next hot hangout.

source: foxnews