Google Chrome is a superior browser to any i’ve used in the past 10 years or so, simply based on its performance. Firefox is great, but i’m not interested in all the add-ons and such that slow a browser down.

What I’m interested in is performance.  As i scower through the web with my many tabs open i want to be able to interact with them quickly as i cycle and rearrange tab by tab.

No other browser has yet given me the ability to browse the web the way Google Chrome has.   Firefox doesn’t even come close when it comes down to the tiniest little details. Lets talk about those details, see if you agree with me?

1. Tab / Memory Management:

Chrome uses much less memory and system resources than many other browsers out there.    This is because of the Multi-process Model built into Chrome.

• Tabs in Chrome: are easy to drag and drop from screen to screen.  You can pop any individual tab out of its parent browser window, rearrange the order and even pop it back.   Sure Firefox and other browsers give you the same functionality, but Chromes experience is far more pleasurable and functional.   Try opening up different tabs and playing around with them, then try Chrome tabs.
• Closing Tabs: When i want close tabs i can right click and close all tabs in Chrome.  That’s a normal option in pretty much any new age browser, however Chrome’s intuitive interface really understands the needs of the user.  For example say i have 10 tabs open and i wanted to close them one by one starting from the right.   In Chrome all i have to do is start with the last one on the right and the others move into place for me to cancel without having the user reposition the mouse cursor.
• Multi Threaded Tabs: If one tab crashes it won’t affect the others.  Google Chrome will allow you to close the tab that is causing problem and switching to other tabs is easy.  This is achieved by the multi-threading as each tab has it’s own memory process.

2.  Speed / Performance:

• Boot Up: When you start chrome it loads up in about a second or two.  I’m on a Windows XP, with about 3 GB ram and it’s start-up speed is just awesome!  Far far better than Firefox’s or any of the other browsers out there.
• Speed: Chrome renders pages much faster than any browser out there, which helps the user get to what he/she wants to read in the quickest amount of time, even with many other tabs open.
• Extensions: Chrome extensions like Googles url shortener, Google Reader install without any fuss or having to restart the browser.

You know the engineers over at Google have tested other browsers and spotted their flaws.  It’s easy to see that they have taken into consideration every little detail into their version of the best browser in the world.

After all every millisecond counts, don’t you think?

Data, data, data – the bottom line. More in this inspirational video on TED by Tim Berners Lee.

Ever wonder what makes all those mashups possible? It’s access to the huge amounts of raw data out there for people to create open source applications that we can learn from and interact with and use for our research purposes.

There’s a swarm of data out there, personal, government, economic, weather, news and still so much linked data (data with connections) is still not available to us.   Imagine if we had access to all the data in the world to play with and create super useful applications? It’s certainly something to think about.

However, the only slight problem is:

We will need tonnes of people with enough criteria to make sense of this huge amounts of information if they are made public. Unfortunately the (lack of proper) education in quite some countries is not helping (at all) in that direction. ~ Gilbert Martinez Gamote

and the semi solution to that might be:

As a programmer I get really excited about mashing up data from different sources, but what it really needs is a single application that automatically combines this data so anyone can do it, at the moment it’s still quite technical. ~ Matthew Wilcoxson

We’ve come a long way since Tim Berners-Lee on the next Web in 2009 and we’re sure to see advances in technology helping others reuse that data in a easier, less technical way.

This has everyone to do with us as data is a part of our lives Tim Berners Lee goes on to say. It’s not just huge companies and institutions that come to mind, it’s your normal human being who wants interopability between social networks on the web.

Now that’s an idea worth talking about…

Notice the cute icons before the links? Try hovering over them and you’ll get a preview too. All thanks to a nifty plugin called Apture, be sure to check that out.

This is the fourth in a series of Internet expert studies conducted by the Imagining the Internet Center at Elon University and the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project.

If you’ve read Nicholas Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” you might also be interested in reading the following quotes:

Technology isn’t the problem here. It is people’s inherent character traits. The internet and search engines just enable people to be more of what they already are. If they are motivated to learn and shrewd, they will use new tools to explore in exciting new ways. If they are lazy or incapable of concentrating, they will find new ways to be distracted and goof off.

As a constant learner i find it fascinating to read about these issues as it’s becoming increasingly apparent that literary intelligence is very much under threat. The report goes on to say:

New literacies will be required to function in this world. In fact, the internet might change the very notion of what it means to be smart. Retrieval of good information will be prized. Maybe a race of “extreme Googlers” will come into being.

As we become more dependent on Google it’s up to us to choose what information we retain, research, reuse and deliver to others. After all how many times have you impressed your friends / family at the dinner table?

Even in little ways, including in dinner table chitchat, Google can make people smarter.

I know i’m going to be doing alot more thinking in the future. As our civilization embraces and changes with the rapid pace of technology and its advancements a final food for thought for all of is crystal clear:

Google itself and other search technologies will get better over time and that will help solve problems created by too-much-information and too-much-distraction.

&

Maybe Google won’t make us more stupid, but it should make us more modest.

Be sure to read the rest of the report here in the embedded document preview, or on the Pew Internet Research Site titled The Future of the Internet IV. I’ve only touched on the first part referencing quotes from some amazing people. Here’s some quick links to rest of the parts:

1. Will Google make us stupid?
2. Will the internet enhance or detract from reading, writing, and rendering of knowledge?
3. Is the next wave of innovation in technology, gadgets, and applications pretty clear now, or will the most interesting developments between now and 2020 come “out of the blue”?
4. Will the end-to-end principle of the internet still prevail in 10 years, or will there be more control of access to information?
5. Will it be possible to be anonymous online or not by the end of the decade?

If you’re upto some more reading over the course of the weekend I would highly recommend, “The Eyes Have It: Real-Time Search Is Still Kind of Invisible to Users” and the superb documentation along with it + If you’re really interested it wouldn’t hurt to follow @Oneupweb & @karaswisher as they are responsible for creating and sharing it with us.

Note: For more documentations and stuff you can embed into your blog and be sure to check SlideShare and DocStoc.

Happy reading and weekend folks!

I’ve been using favorites in the Twitter web app for a while now.   They act as an easy way to bookmark / save tweets for later reference and come in extremely handy.  How many times have you been searching for a tweet that you wanted to reference a couple of days / weeks ago?  :-)

You get my point though.  Here’s some tweets i value and enjoyed:

• Real influence is not in RTs or followers, but in people remembering you if you’ve not tweeted for a while. @ScepticGeek
  (Everyone likes to get Retweeted but seriously it’s not the end of the world if you don’t + 1)
• “The Followers Game Is So 2008. Time for New Metrics.” – http://j.mp/c9rPSV @Jesse @LouisGray
  (Indeed, lists have been helpful – what else ohh Tweetrank!?!)
• TweetRank – Does Twitter Need To Start Penalising Users Who Consistently Break The Rules? http://goo.gl/QYc3
  (Pumpers and dumpers?)
• Ads Drop Dot-Com URLs in Favor of “Facebook Us” http://goo.gl/uHW7 - @SteveRubel
  (Insightful, still corporate urls are here for now)
• “Please Retweet”, “Please RT” & “PLZ RT” please STOP!  http://goo.gl/scpB @webaddict
  (I can’t get enough of this one, old time favorite)
• Cassandra @ Twitter: An Interview with Ryan King http://goo.gl/AoEI
  (Love anything to do with Scaling Twitter)
• Why Everyone Needs a Twitter Follow Policy http://goo.gl/ktiw - @sheamus
  (Ever thought about this, how about being your own filter?)
• Jesse Schell’s mindblowing talk on the future of games (DICE 2010) http://goo.gl/Ayz2
  (One of the most insightful videos i’ve watched in a while, give it a whirl)
• Less Networks.  More Meaning.  http://goo.gl/cYgE @armano
  (Darn cool post, so true – someone i followed after seeing that tweet)
• How Google’s Algorithm Rules Everything http://goo.gl/g4tV @r
  (Who’s that.. hehe)
• Action Streams: A New Idea for Social Networks http://bit.ly/dde9dR @marshallk
  (Interesting idea, remind myself to thoroughly read this post again)
• Rejoice in the prosperity of others. ~Dr. Joseph Murphy @billzl_one @Flipbooks @jeffrago @pramitjnathan
  (+1, no need to hate, just appreciate)
• Enabling A Rush of Innovation — @twitterapi http://goo.gl/OOBh
  (New companies joining twitter.)
• Coming soon: the disruptive molecular age of information http://goo.gl/kL7f @scobleizer
  (Split up two tweets perhaps from different networks into one, very insightful)
• Small Biz Doubles Social Media Adoption http://goo.gl/Ndh1
  (I’m a small business owner, makes sense)
• Facebook Wants to Be Your One True Login http://goo.gl/YZ6X
  (FB the beast, AOL playing the right cards)
• Why You Can’t Work at Work http://goo.gl/HAYN
• What Sort of Checklist Should You Be Using? http://j.mp/ascuww
  (Checklist Manifesto on my todo reading list, so is what they don’t teach you at Harvard Business School)
• Why So Many Are Drawn To Social Media http://goo.gl/OrAs
• 10 Types Of People Who Try To Quit Facebook…And Fail — http://bit.ly/bUFHp3
  (At this stage i’m the explorer, probably move into the entrepreneur after i get my content strategy right)
• Here’s what I hate about the iPad http://goo.gl/xAT2
  (Would love to own one first…)
• Interesting piece / *superb doc. by @karaswisher & @Oneupweb on “Gorillas and Their Search for Real-Time Nectar” http://goo.gl/AzyS

As I continue curating and sharing fine content you can bet that i’ll be using my favorites more often.   For now enjoy some of these & feel free to add anything that caught your eye..

I’ve always wanted dual screen ability on the mobile platform.  Thanks to an innovative Swedish company TAT, Dual Drift’s ground-breaking technology is already underway for the Blaze™ mobile development platform (MDP); a prototype from Texas Instrument Incorporated (TI).

Notable excerpt about innovations in the mobile industry is an understatement …

“There is tremendous innovation taking place today in the mobile applications segment, which will drive use cases into the future,” said Fred Cohen, Director, OMAP Wireless Ecosystem, TI. “We are thrilled with TAT´s ability to show how new interface capabilities, based on our OMAP 4 platform, will change how consumers interact with their devices. Providing multiple display support will be critical as people look for better ways to share information, memories and data on the go.”

as there is already a new augmented reality app that makes it possible to identify people and learn about them just by pointing your phone.

Dual Drift features at a glance:

1. Enables high quality, synchronized multiple screen displays on the mobile device, external high definition monitors or projectors that display the screen on an external surface.
2. Enables smart interaction between screens – such as dragging from one screen to the other, or pointing to something on one screen and seeing the results on the other screen.
3. Compatible with HDMI video standard for outputting HD content to larger screens.
4. Hardware- and platform-agnostic, TAT Cascades can enable multiple screens on any mobile device running on a platform that is capable of supporting multiple displays.
5. Allows the full range of TAT Cascades´ stunning visual effects across all screens, including 3D, shadows, dynamic light sources, animations and transitions

Presently the prototype is used on a Ti (Texas Instruments) prototype which was promoted over at the Mobile World Congress, but I can see this catching on in the mobile mainstream.

ChatRoullette, an addictive new website that links strangers’ webcams is gaining popularity amongst the younger crowd on the web as well as curious individuals from over the web.  Bookmark this site for a later visit when you’re bored or have nothing to do at work as the site is down right now. My bet is that they are trying to scale the web application already, having tons of users getting on and giving it a whirl.

Image Courtesy of BuzzFeed.com

The site is developed by a 17 year old Andrey Ternovskiy from Moscow who created the site for fun and has no preconceived business goals for the future of his product (except that he would like it to be a U.S. based company) At this stage ChatRoulette runs on 7 servers in Frankfurt Germany which hosts about 20,000 hits per day.

For more information and screenshots of Chatroulette.com check below:

The 24 Best Chat Roulette Screenshots [NSFW]
Online voyeurs flock to the random thrills of Chatroulette
Some Interesting Facts About Chatroulette

We’ve all heard about Google Buzz, the new Twitter killer right;  like its supposed to roll out and take control over the social media world.   Personally i think Google has got it right this time around, empowering email  as a “social media” tool.   Google Buzz is more of dig at Facebook and other companies that have a huge user base on their network, especially email users.

Image Courtesy of Campaign Monitor

Like Microsoft and Yahoo aren’t watching, they’ll be soon to follow.  You also wouldn’t want to forget all the mobile devices accessing webmail these days, there’s a goldmine of information and people.

Twitter will always be at the heart of micro-blogging and social media to me and many other folks out there.  That said Twitter still isn’t the end all and b all, its’ the beginning of other social media eco-sytem’s taking inspiration. This time one that has been around a long while – Email.

In terms of privacy Google’s track record is far cleaner than Facebook, they’re a more transparent company providing a very stable platform.  With all the fuss out there about generating followers and privacy issues, I still like the fact that Buzz automatically generates my followers, people whom i email and chat to and most importantly people whose thoughts and insights are an inspiration to me as well.

I’ll be glad to add more than 140 characters to a comment or thread and engage in insightful conversations…

Would love to connect with you on Buzz sometime http://www.google.com/profiles/ahadbokhari.  Do you have a Google Profile yet?  :-)

Ask yourself this question, “Do my followers / friends add value to my network on a day to day basis?” Hmmmmmmm. I’ve been through the motions and i can tell you from experience that chances are apart from your friends, they probably don’t.

For example I have roughly 23k followers. Wow right? WRONG. Out of those 23k followers i would only interact with about 300-500 of them on any given day (which includes other peoples RTs’ as well).

For me this is good news and its exactly when I started seeking for newer people that add more value to me and my network.   (Thats not to say i won’t be there for my present followers and friends, but adding a new dimension wouldn’t hurt). Out of all the recycled content we see everyday, I’ve realized that i wanted something more fruitful and meaningful with my daily twitter routine.

What makes it worse is that there is only that much quality content out there, and chances are I’ve already seen it. After all tweeting ahead of the Western World has its pros and cons.

Ok enough about me here, lets take some simple steps to help you add more value.

1. Follow 1 person for every 10 who you follow.
2. Tweet Less, concentrate on blogging and/or reaching your target audience in different ways.
3. Do simple background checks of your new followers, see what they are interested in – do they match your description?
4. Formulate a simple strategy, see if it works and if it does stick to it.
5. Define yourself and be as exact as you can on your Twitter Profile so that others can clearly see what you bring to the table.
6. Follow lists curated by the best on Twitter.  This is the best way to find interesting people without having to digg too deep.  Try Robert Scoble’s if you’re into tech or head over to listorious.
7. Start reading the articles you tweet not just the titles and descriptions.
8. Don’t be fooled by people with alot of followers.  What you should look for is the follower/following ratios.  Just because some people have alot of followers doesn’t mean that they will add value to you.
9. Don’t be afraid to ask questions to people you respect or admire, even if they don’t get back to you.
10. Stick to it, be consistent with your approach and strategy.  The value will surely follow.
11. Be opinionated.

Try the above steps out, I really feel that they will help you out.  At the end of the day if you feel you add value to others then you deserve the same in return, but its up to you to filter it out.  One things for sure and thats Twitter is changing, for the better.  Go ahead and evolve with the system, Good Luck!!

A new HTML5 You Tube Player by Neo Smart has been born for those who’d like to catch a glimpse of the future of the web. Now you can watch your You Tube Videos without having to rely on Flash, which can be a serious resource hog depending on your operating system.

Most people are used to Flash on video sites and the capabilities of embedded Flash videos are far superior to this working prototype (but resource hoggy). That said its a good start and You Tube has even been testing their own HTML5 Videos on their site.

I tested on Firefox and Chrome over here on my Windows XP machine (yeah yeah i know, XP? LOL!). The player returned no video on Firefox and I believe its a Codec Issue. On Chrome the player runs without any problems, but the scrubbers can get a little buggy. Its a good start but still needs alot of work.

Go ahead and test it out for yourself at the Neo Smart You Tube HTML5 Viewer Page. Also check out the Grease Monkey User Script which adds a link to all YouTube video pages that points to the HTML5 version.

UPDATE: Dharmesh updates Grader every month and things are pretty much back to normal now. Before i wrote this post I was under the impression that the whole algorithm changed.

Sometime over the weekend Twitter Grader changed up their algorithm for ranking their top Twitter Users.   Most of the top users out there that we all know and are fond of (ChrisBrogan, Zaibatsu, BuzzEdition, Scobleizer, GuyKawasaki, etc etc) cannot be found on the Top 100 users list and their grades have bumped down drastically.

A tweet from Grader and Dharmesh himself addresses the change in algorithm:

Just released a *massive* update to the Twitter Grader algorithm.http://twitter.grader.com – Ranks will be erratic for a bit.

My personal grade has suffered drastically and keeps on decreasing! LOL (speaking of erratic!).   I am an advocate of change but can’t help thinking to myself how this will affect so many power users out there who regularly check their grades and compare with others?

Twitter sure seems to be changing, first with lists (and that war is just beginning) and now with this new algorithm that no one really knows much about.  It’ll be interesting to see whats next in their bag of tricks!!