Bye bye Google Chrome

Posted by luke on Nov 10, 2008 in internet news | 0 comments

Like a fickle lover, I switch my allegiance back to Firefox.

Yes, I did find google Chrome to be slightly faster on most sites, but in the end I stayed because of the quick start option on new tabs (where it shows you the most popular sites you’ve vistited in a nice lazy “click on me” style!).

True to form, firefox users can add this “speed dial” plug in to get essentially the same (which is also more tweakable) functionality.

That just left my one big gripe – the lack of active bookmarks in Chrome – why? Dear Google… what made you miss this out? I’ve found my browsing less productive as I prefer to use active bookmarks to a feedreader, chrome just couldn’t hack it. When… (assuming they do?) fix it, I’ll be back to Chrome in a flash… oh yeah and it keeps hanging in youTube… a Google site… FAIL.

LinkedIn enter the social network application space

Posted by tom on Nov 4, 2008 in internet news | 1 comment

I’ve always been mindful of the fact that though Linkedin has great potential as a professional networking tool, it’s never been quite fully-featured enough to take it from a personal showcase hooked up to a directory of contacts.  It’s never been a destination for me, and while I maintain a profile on there, and have had the odd contact from times past, it’s not a resource I check on a daily basis.  Now I get word that LinkedIn are adding application support to their offering- a no brainer seeing as it’s exactly this move which propelled Facebook into the all powerful network it is today.  As you might imagine, the LinkedIn apps are of rather more of a serious nature, and it appears limited right now to selected partners, so we get online file storage courtesy of Box.net, and an app to allow you to share your current reading material via Amazon.  Before Facebook became a marketplace for various useless viral applications (Zombies, Super pokes etc) I had assumed it would do the same- though thinking back I didn’t consider the demographic and the motivation for these apps (ie CPA/CPC ad impressions).  LinkedIn isn’t free, so there’s not the same considerations, and by controlling the apps, LinkedIn will be getting an revenue stream from the Amazon affiliate system and (one assumes) the paid versions of other apps.

I see this as a smart move by LinkedIn.  By maintaining control of the apps, they make sure they remain of a high quality and relevant to their users.  More interaction with the site equals more page impressions, along with a new revenue stream.  It’s certainly something I’ll be looking into in much more detail; if I can inspire others to look at my profile and create genuine new contacts while enjoying the site more than a simple contact manager then I’ll certainly be spending more time on it.  I’ll post with my findings soon

Google chrome is missing RSS

Posted by luke on Sep 21, 2008 in internet news | 1 comment

Google’s web browser – Chrome

If you haven’t tried it yet, then I’d strongly suggest you do – its a fantastic web browser which is without a doubt faster than any of the others I’ve tried. (For the geeks – Firefox, IE, Opera and Safari)

How did I miss the fact it does not support active bookmarks? Wow.

Thats a big miss, not being able to view active bookmarks, no nice little icon that lets you subscribe – as is standard in all of the above.

Google – please fix this, its the only thing stopping me from moving to Chrome 100%