Tag Archives: chrome

Chrome TV ads – “Browser Wars” Episode 2011 “Attack of the Chromes”

Chrome is the last from “big browsers” to join the race for market share and since 2009 thanks to consecutive campaign in all sorts of media from 0% it went to 20%. Of course this shows power of Google money and Google infrastructure.

Chrome similar to Firefox picked up first users from web related industries. Based on Safari engine it offered plethora of tools for webmasters in original installation. Without add ons people were able to check uploading times inspect web design elements and code in user friendly manner. Application was lightweight to download, start and offered revolutionary tab system where each tab created separated browser window – when drag and drop is there people like it.

There was no more need for multiple bars and boxes – one bar to search write web address it ticked all the boxes in efficiency and user interface simplicity.
And guess what? – It was good enough to change the way browsers operate – two years on we have Firefox 4.0 and IE9 and they all look this same (Safari of course being Chrom’s “mother and father” always looked similar ):

Lightweight design, one box and more internal tools. Only my lovely Opera suffers – with its 3% market share (unchanged for last few years) loved by hardcore group of nerds and unaware users with once great OperaMini for mobile devices seems to fight back with latest 11 version to regain its status of the most edgy browser.

The latest Chrome Ads in UK TV feature new Chrome logo 2011 and several other services it looks like for a moment Google forgot about OS for PC (they’re happy with Android) and try to launch Chrome as one stop shop for internet users (despite the platform). Apart from Chrome features we see all Google arsenal: YouTube, Gmail, Picassa etc, etc
As a viewer you are taken through the journey of email creation by “Daddy” the Google Way, You may have also seen this ad playing at the beginning of Youtube videos.

Google has also aired ads during the Superbowl in the US featuring Lady Gaga.

With growing importance of cloud services for hi-tech giants we see here modular marketing in its best form

TV Ads for software are a very effective way of Gaming the industry. Among browsers creators the first to realise how powerful it is was Mozilla Foundation in 2006 shifting its market share to about 20% followed by folks from Opera with their Mobile version in 2008. Microsoft as usual “slow burner” regarding web related affairs realised TV is a way to go when Chrome was in still in it’s infancy. But for IE8 the 2009 TV campaign was a battle to keep market share while for Chrome it was start of effective offensive.

It looks like 2 in years on Chrome gained 20% of the market most of this market unfortunately half of this was taken from Firefox and only about half from IE. Apart from TV Ads and great push this advance of other browsers on the market comes from legal action agains Microsoft which resulted in need for Microsoft to offer other browser options instead of forcing all windows users to use IE.

Browser Wars - Windows 7 Browser Choice Window

Choose your side in Browser Wars!

Whatever happens next we are glad to see broader adoption of CSS3 and HTML5 which makes modular online marketing simply easier.

Unfortunately there is also the dark side of “browser wars” (“Microsoft strikes back”). The way Microsoft works removes chance for a lot of people to see web in its latest format. Without automated updates for IE many users experience web as it was back in 2005. IE6 remains the only window to internet for about 10% of users (mostly corporate).

We hope this nightmare will be over soon although with IE7 being better than IE8 we are frightened to see IE 10 :-S

Chrome Showing HTTPS Errors on Secure Sites

I’m sure everyone reading this who uses Chrome has had this issue at least once.

Chrome thinks the site you are accessing is insecure when it isn’t, unless Google is slipping up on their AdWords and Gmail security!

Chrome https security alerts adwords

I’ve spent hours trying to fond solutions to fix the HTTPS red line of death to no avail, the only response Google employees gave was a link to the SSL Secirity indicators help page which isn’t helpful!

Some suggestions that worked for others are;

  • Disabling adons (disable each one individually until you find the culprit).
  • Ensure all adons and browser is up to date, fixes are released all the time, so make sure it isn’t an old bug.
  • Restarting the browser.
  • Updating the time on your computer, this seems a bit odd but some claimed it worked for them, check out the thread about it on the Chrome Support Forum.

If you’re trying to debug your site, and an Error is showing up it could be caused by on of the following;

  • Any single element is not being served via SSL (eg. one image on the page isn’t served via SSL).
  • A domain mismatch (eg. SSL certificate is issued for www.example.com but is sitting on shop.example.com).
  • If you have a self signed certificate users will generally need to manually choose to trust it.

Have you had the same issues? Could you fix it? Let us know in the comments.

Google Offers 2 New Products to Get You Fit!

Gmail Motion, currently in it’s BETA stage is one of the two new ground breaking products Google is offering today!

Gmail Motion uses your computer’s webcam along with Google’s spatial tracking technology to register your movements and translate them into meaningful commands, phrases and characters, as shown in the image to the right.

This exciting new technology breaks down the currently existing barriers between humans and the restricting input devices we are lumbered with.

Google Motion can increase your productivity by up to 12% whilst keeping you fit.

Google has also said a Google Docs Motion could be available in the next few months as well.

But that’s not all Google is offering today, in keeping with the physical fitness theme Google Chrome has released Chormercise, a workout for your hands!

Google understands that web surfing can be strenuous, and with browsers becoming faster and faster how can you keep up?

They’ve created a workout to give your hands greater strength and dexterity so you can surf the web faster and loose your phalanges flab!

These products are some of the most revolutionary Google has brought out I hope to see them integrated with all the services Google currently offers (Motion Maps?, Google Buzzerobics?).

Click here to find out more about Gmail Motion BETA and Google docs Motion BETA.

To learn more about Chromercise visit www.chromercise.com.

This may be an April fools joke…

Choose What Sites Google Shows You

Yesterday Google Relesaed an Extension for Chrome which allows user to block selected websites from SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages).

This may look like a poor solution to solve Google ‘s content farm result issues, however it is just a tool they are using to help them combat this issue.

The data from this extension will be sent to Google and analysed to create a “potential ranking signal for search results” according to Matt Cutts (head of the web spam team at Google).

The Extension is called Personal Blocklist Extension.

I decided to try it out myself to see if it is any good. It took less than 10s to download and install and no browser restart is required so you can block as you please straight away.

It’s quite simple to use, when you search for anything on Google a link is displayed underneath each result which can be used to block a domain.

Pages from blocked sited no longer appear on the results page. However they can be allowed back into your current results page by clicking the “show” link that appears at the bottom of the page.

A list of blocked sites can be viewed, edited or unblocked by clicking the red logo next to the address bar.

So all in all it’s a pretty good extension, however for Google web spam team to find the data collected useful a lot more users will need to

a) Use Chrome (currently with only 10% market share)

b) Bother install and use the extension

Great Year for Google

The past year has seen a great success for Google. With Chrome’s market share reaching 9.98%, over 100% increase since January 2010 when they had only 4.63% market share.

However this was not good news for IE, losing over 5% of their market share over the course of the year.

Google Android OS has also see a significant Rise in new users of the Smart phone OS. In the US over the past 6 months, over 40% of new smart phone users choosing Android OS over iOS or Blackberry OS phones. However iOS is still the most popular phone OS with 28% overall market share Android OS is close behind with 25% overall market share.

With the release of Chrome OS and their Netbook the Cr-48, Google is looking to have another very prosperous year in 2011.