Looking how similar the products are I’m curios how long it will take until the patent lawsuit appears. And who will win…

Too much, too early for Chrome

As of today, Google has started heavily promoting it’s Chrome browser on YouTube with the message: “Try YouTube in a new web browser! Download Google Chrome“. So far so good. YouTube it’s a Google property and it’s their duty to increase their market share by all means possible. The problem is that YouTube usage under Chrome is just another reason I stopped using Chrome. Aparently there is an issue between Chrome and the Flash Player (no matter what version) and this keeps crashing it.

If I would be an user that would download Chrome becuase of this ad, I would uninstall it after viewing 2 videos and never look bad again.

So, this is just bad, bad PR, too much too early

Here are my main reasons:

1. Is 2008. No browser is an island anymore. I expect from my browser to be connected to web services and my browsers from different locations. Scared by bad PR Google has done no integration with its services (that’s if you don’t count Gears) and that’s a big down for me. Here is what Google could have done or at least offer the options for the users to enable/disable:

a) Browsing history. In IE / FF, if you have installed Google toolbar, Google keeps a record of your history online and makes that searchable from any point. Some might complain about privacy issues but considering my daily activities the gains are bigger then the looses

b) Bookmarks. Google has a pretty decent bookmarking service. Of course you can use the bookmarklet option but there’s no integration with the browser default bookmarking system. Kudos for Foxmarks on that.

2. Again is 2008. Every user has a wide range of browsing habits and patterns. You cannot make everybody happy and because of that you make your software extensible. FAIL. Maybe in time extensibility will be added and extensions will be created. But I think that’s a distant future we are talking about. Core extensions I missed during this period

a) Google Toolbar

b) Foxmarks

c) Stumbleupon

d) GTDInbox and Xoopit

e) Yahoo’s new Inquisitor (I wished for that from the moment I saw it available for Safari)

f) SEO for Firefox (DUHHHHH)

g) Twitterfox – this is the only app I use for Twitter. Usage pattern has decreased since using Chrome but that will be fixed from now

3. Plugins integration. That was one of the main causes of frustration and cursing. C’monnnnn is 2008 again. Make the god damn flash work. I’m depending on YouTube for my business and I’m a big fan of South Park, John Stewart and Colbert. Constant crashes (can’t remember if I ever played a clip without crashes), slow streaming and so on. Google Analytics is becoming unusable. And let’s not get to Silverlight that I need it for Live Mesh

4. Resources. Chrome is fast. Fast to lunch more precisely but that’s all. I was using DivxLand Media Subtitler that’s using my processor up to 99%. I cannot do anything on my PC and Chrome was dead. Not loading any page. Today I tried Firefox and works like a charm.

Conclusions

I won’t uninstall Chrome. But is not my default browser anymore. I’ll use it mainly for it’s incognito mode to login to multiple accounts without using all my available browsers (7 or 8 i think ). Perhaps in about 1 year Chrome will get better but so far Firefox fits all my working/entertainment/communication habits.

1. User Interface refresh.
2. AdSense now integrated into GA. (private beta only)
3. Advanced visualizations: Motion Charts!
4. Custom Reports!
5. Advanced Segmentation!!
6. The Google Analytics API.
7. Automatic importing of AdWords cost data into Urchin.

Go check all the juicy details (screenshots and walkthroughs) on the new features on Avinash’s blog

UPDATE: Here are the official posts from Google Analytics blog and Adsense blog

Via Techcrunch here are some videos presenting the new features:
AdSense Reporting in Google Analytics

AdSense Reporting in Google Analytics

Advanced Segments in Google Analytics

Motion Charts in Google Analytics

Digging more I’ve found out that  beside the new theme, a new feature has been added. It’s called “site stripe” and allows amazon associates to quickly create links to products or add the products to an existing aStore while browsing amazon.com

Once the Live webmaster tools were announced, I decided to give it a try. The tools that they are currently providing are not enough not raise my interest so I decided to test drive it with the banned (?)  site.

Today, I saw that the site got back, more pages indexed and with more keywords in the SERPs (the traffic still sucks though).

Now I am going to submit a few more websites to see if the pattern repeats.

Here is an example on how some small changes can lead to feature awarness.

A few nights ago, my girlfriend called me that she saw that Google added, to the compose screen, the option to create invites for Gcal. While I knew that this was an pretty old feature, I knew that something has changed but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Happily, you can switch between the old and new interface and than I saw it:

Gmail old interface:

Gmail new interface:

(click on thumbnails for the bigger pictures)

What really changed  so that feature become more vizible to the “regular” user:

• In the old version,  the link to create new event was placed on the far right of the screen. Most people don’t move their eyes so far so is practically invisible even though it’s in front of your eyes.
• Labeling. In the original version, the feature was labeled “” Add event info”. That basically doesn’t say anything to “regular” users. What event? It’s an freakin email. What info should I add?(those questions appeared in the rare case they spotted it). In the new version, the label says “Add event invitation”. This label is more clear and in plain view.

Those 2 small changes might appear as insignificant to most of the people. But I am willing to bet a lot that the spike in usage after the roll out was pretty huge.

So, summing it up. Just because you use the internet on a daily basis and develop web apps that doesn’t mean that those are going to be user friendly. Not even if you are a huge, popular company. Hiring  a team or an usability company, might not also guarantee your success but at least you have more chances than your competitors

Well, after the first flush (hunting those selling links)  when I got from 5 to 2, now I am at very fresh ZERO )). Well it looks that this one was an algorithmic one, flushing all the sites that had a Pay Per Post badge.

Is funny and is funny a lot. I really don’t care about how this site behaves in SERPs or in terms of PR, because this is a testing ground and not a traffic/money machine. But Google movements tend to have the opposite effect on the market. Instead of wiping out an entire industry that has a symbiotic nature, Google is in fact growing it stronger. At the end of the day, the winners are going to be the publishers and the looser will be Google.

And it will be the looser because it will be facing thousands of new stealth techniques.

Regarding my new shiny PR 0, I am very curious how this site will behave on the nex, regular PR update because I’ve removed all my link exchange scripts and the PPP badge.