The Chrome browser has come a long way in just under 2 years.
Not too long after Chrome came out, I posted a rant on why it sucked. Well, it's 1 year and 10 months later, and I think I need to re-visit that rant.
What has changed my mind? Well, Chrome has evolved, it's changed for the better, and it has addressed all the issues that I ranted about prior. Plus it is not going to go quietly into the night, so I thought I would switch over to using it. I am now using Chrome for all of my surfing needs, and only occasionally resort to FF3.6 or IE8 if there is a problem that I cannot solve in Chrome. Let's take a look at what I ranted about before, and see what has changed ......
1. Chrome UI has been polished up:
Just like when the Acura Integra first came out with its odd double circle headlights, all things GUI related require time to adjust. They've resolved their scrolling issues, and now have extensions to provide dropdown URL history, and switching to another search engine. Also they've provided a download progress bar too.
2. Flash support:
As I later found out, the Yahoo!Finance site does not properly work on Chrome because Yahoo refuses to recognize Chrome's user agent. So, installing an extension that spoofs any browser's UA string resolved this issue.
3. Browser extensions:
This is a potential game changer, as any feature set available on FireFox should also be doable in Chrome, just need someone to write the extension for it if it does not yet exist.
4. Resource allocation:
Before, I complained that Chrome would hog more memory to implement its novel multi-process browser model. However, now I am beginning to see the reason and purpose behind its need for more memory than FireFox. Simply put, FireFox aspires to be a good browser, but Google Chrome has bigger aspirations.
5. NO longer worse than Firefox:
FireFox is still the yardstick by which all browsers should be judged, but in the past 2 years, Chrome has made visible and tangible progress towards becoming pound for pound comparable to FireFox's feature set.
To sum up , Google has come a long way in the past two years, and if this is any indication, it has big aspirations, especially with its plans for the Chrome app web store. Just more reasons to consider using it now, as I can see the potential for it to dominate like how IE dominated netscape in winning the browser wars in the 90's.
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Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Top 5 reasons to use Google Chrome
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Twitter vs. GOOG
Summary
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I was checking in on my Twitter account just now, and thought it might be time again to start regularly Tweeting again. Then I remembered that I blogged about how Jaiku was better than Twitter (well, I actually blogged about how WallStreak was better than Jaiku, but in that post I kind of implied that Jaiku was better than Twitter), so I thought I would check in on my Jaiku account.
Lo and behold, I find out that Jaiku was acquired by the Mighty G! This occurred back in mid-Oct/07, right around the time I started my 9 to 5 cube farm job.
So, with this acquisition, Twitter is up against the MightyG. Good Luck, if there ever was a David vs. Goliath story in the post-modern era, this is it.
That said, I think I will use Jaiku instead of Twitter to re-start the habit tweeting my updates as random stock thoughts pop into my head in between blog posts.
Monday, February 12, 2007
The Genius That is Google
Google is profiting immensely from the Long Tail of AdSense Publishers....
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There are many AdSense Publishers that are able to derive significant ad revenue due to the huge volume of traffic on their sites. However, there are many more AdSense Publishers who do NOT derive significant ad revenue because their sites have not reached a certain level of traffic volume. If you can imagine the traffic volume as the Y-Axis, and the AdSense publishers (at each traffic volume level) as the X-Axis, you have what I call the Long Tail of AdSense Publishers:
So, you would have JohnChow.com, or TraderMike's blog near the left side of the graph, and mom 'n pop blogs near the right side of the graph. Now what's interesting is the delineating mark between the red and yellow areas of the graph. My theory is that this mark represents the threshold volume that publishers must attain before they get paid by Google. In the past, this threshold was $25, meaning, that AdSense publishers must accumulate $25 worth of traffic (via CPC, CPM, etc.) before they could get paid. However, Google has now moved that threshold more to the left, in the sense that publishers now must accumulate $100 worth of traffic before they get paid. This really screws the smalltime mom 'n Pop blogs, but is really great for Google. Why?
Well, the theory of the Long Tail applied in my context of the AdSense Publishers says that the collective sum of all traffic from all of the small time mom 'n pop blogs cumulatively outweigh the big, thick, high volume sites. It makes sense, because the number of highly profitable blogs is measured in the hundreds, while the number of small time, mom 'n pop blogs are measured in the thousands, if not millions. So, Google collects interest every day on the $99 that the mom 'n pop blogs are unable to access because they are below the threshold level as set by Google.
This interest collected is like a fee, similar to the auction fees that eBay charges. eBay recently increased their auction fees, and their revenues increased as a result. Google recently moved the threshold level from $25 to $100, how much additional interest fees will they collect as a result ?? Answer that question, and you will begin to see genius in the triumvirate (Page, Brin, Schmidt) that runs Google.
Friday, January 12, 2007
Free Real Time quotes on Google Finance
I just found out from TraderMike's links that Google Finance will be soon be offering free real-time quotes on all stocks from NYSE.
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This is very significant for Google. It means that they are fully aware that they do not have the lead in the finance portal arena, but have every intention to wrestle the lead away from Yahoo!Finance.
I don't really use either finance portals too much except for when I want to dig up some news behind a stock price's movements. However, I have been using Google Finance a bit more lately to look up what the blogs have to say about a certain stock that I am watching. I think that's a very nice Web2.0 feature to provide. And once the free real-time quotes are in place at Google Finance, I can definitely see myself using it more often.
A couple features that I would like to see on Google Finance include:
1. Ability to move page elements around much like how it's being done in the new Blogger.
2. Ability to customize my Google Finance home page. For instance, I don't really care for the 10yr bond quotes and would like to be able to replace that with a quote of the TSX Composite index.
3. Link to the other Google services (Docs & SpreadSheets, Blogger, web search) so that I can move back and forth between the services easily. This would be similar to the link bar at the top left corner of GMail (once you are logged in).
4. Ability to add widgets to my Google Finance home page.
Anyways, Yahoo!Finance had better start doing something about this or they will soon lose their lead in the finance arena as well.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Who is Company XYZ?
I just finished reading up on some news about this company, so I imagined what a typical day would be like working for this certain company.
Can you guess what company this is ?
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I wake up, feeling a bit feverish, and not all too well. So, after putting on some clothes, gathering my clothes that need to be drycleaned, and getting my 3yr old daughter ready, we both head out and wait for the free shuttle bus service provided by my company. It comes at the scheduled 30-min. interval, and I hop on. The shuttle bus arrives first at the child care center provided by my company. I kiss my daughter goodbye for the day. When the shuttle bus arrives at my company building, I walk inside and drop off my drycleaning on the way towards the doctors office on the 3rd floor. Luckily, there is only 1 person ahead of me and the wait is tolerable. The doctor prescribes a couple doses of aspirin.
Since I am at work already, I may as well stay and get some work done. But first I grab a hearty company-paid breakfast at the cafeteria consisting of hash browns, scrambled eggs, sausage, and french toast, plus extra glasses of Orange juice (since I also have cold). 
After breakfast, I feel comfortable enough to settle into my cube and get some work done. I periodically take a break by getting some additional cans of juice, pop, and muffins from the fridge nearby my cube. My Outlook reminds me that today is the day for my schedule dental checkup, also on the 3rd floor beside the doctor's office. So I head on up over there, and get my scheduled checkup and teeth cleaning done. But the teeth cleaning means that I cannot eat lunch at the regular noon hour time, so I while I wait the mandatory half hour, I go back to my desk and check up on my company shares (from my espp and stock options). I am glad to see that my company shares are climbing back to within 4.59% of its all time highs. That means a lot of R's for me. It's lunch time now, so I head down to the cafeteria for another company paid lunch - this time it is roast beef with scalloped potatoes, mixed steamed veggies on the side and a soft kaiser roll. That really hit the spot, I must remember to thank the chef. It's back to work, so I head back to my cube to do some more work. On my next break, I head towards the company gym to try and work off my fever. During the workout, I see that CNBC is on the monitor and immediately change the channel. After the brief workout, I go for a swim in the company swimming pool. Then I totally relax in the spa.
On the way back to my cube, a colleague of mine challenges me to a game of pool. I'm the kind of person who never backs down from a challenge, and this dude is just so uber-nerd, so we go to the company rec room and I hustle him for a few hundred bucks of profit. I evenutally return to my cube in time to answer a phone call from the HR dept. They have informed me that the friend that I referred to the company for a certain position was hired, so I will be getting a referral bonus. Sweet! After some celebration, I get some more work done, but not before my Outlook tells me that it is time to attend some company meeting where they will introduce the new Fuel Efficiency Vehicle Incentive program for all employees.
Tonight I will need to leave early from work in order to go and attend my company paid academic course titled, "How to DayTrade Your Way to Financial Feedom." But all it talks about is a bunch of "R" this and "R" that, so naturally I get bored with this course - luckily it's not coming out of my pocket !
All in a day's work.
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Long Live Google
In surpassing $500, the Big G has defied what almost every analyst and armchair analyst said would be impossible to achieve. To say that Google is overvalued is akin to uttering nonsensical words that are devoid of meaning, substance, and relevance. That is because it is already common, and public knowledge that Google is overvalued, and has been almost since its IPO. Google stock may come back down to earth one day; however it becomes meaningless to try and predict when that day will come. Certainly today is not that day.
I also read about how there are no barriers to entry to compete with Google. The fatal flaw with using this as the basis of an overvaluation argument is that building a better search engine than Google does not translate to better monetary success than Google. Sure, anyone can get into the same game as Google, I'll give you that much. A big whoopdeedoo. But to focus on the low barriers to entry is completely missing the point. Once you've entered the game, you need to figure out a way to win at the game. YHOO and MSFT haven't figured out yet how to win at this game. In fact, no one else has figured out how to win at this game. Only Google is winning not just the battle, but also the war.
Anyways, to commemorate this historic event of surpassing the $500 mark, I have uncovered some mildly interesting facts about Google:
- Google has in the past 8 years, grown its market cap to a level that took HPQ 67 years to achieve.
- There are only 7 other publicly traded companies (not BB, Pink's, or preferred's) that have a share price higher than $500:
BRK.A, BRK.B, SEB, WPO, WTM, NVR, CME. Out of this elite group, only the Berkshire stocks have a dollar volume that is greater than the Big G.
- By surpassing the $500 mark, the Big G is now worth more than the likes of IBM, Chevron, and Intel. Goog only needs to hit $540 to surpass Cisco in mktCap. Anyone care to wager that this will not happen within the next few months ?
- I recently discovered that Google Desktop Search v4 requires at least 1.5 Gb hard disk space to index about 160K files/webpages/emails/chats. As of Dec 2004, Google has indexed over 9Billion items. So if this ratio holds true for Google's own search engine, then that means a storage space of at least 90,000 Gb was required back in Dec/04. If this number seems a bit low, keep in mind that this does not account for the Google apps that have been introduced since then, such as Google Base, Google Earth, Google Page Creator, Google SpreadSheets, and Writely, and also storage space on redundant servers distributed across many data centres.
Monday, November 13, 2006
A Peek Behind the Curtain to the Future
I read this CNN article on "The Next Disruptors" (click on title of this post for the link), and a couple of the companies mentioned really caught my attention with their visions of the future. Not to mention the possibility of investing in/trading them if they are not acquired by the time they go public is appealing enough for me to bookmark these companies for future reference.
CogHead - This company provides you with the tools to build your own Web2.0 app - all this without requiring you to know any of the Web2.0 languages, like XML, CSS, DHTML, AJAX, PHP, Flash, etc. Ok, maybe some knowledge of scripting is required, but if you can pretty up your blog, you're sophisticated enough to use CogHead!
Propser.com - I mentioned this company before, and it's worth mentioning again, because the concept of peer-to-peer lending is just the kind of disruptive innovation that can threaten the structure of the traditional loans from conventional banks. P2P lending decreases risk by diversification, enables personal lending on a anytime/anywhere massive scale, and reaches customers that would otherwise be unserved. Another company that is experiencing success with the P2P lending model is Zopa.
It's too bad there is no such service available in Canada, and also doubly bad that these companies are not yet public.
NextMedium - this startup is doing something almost revolutionary, and yet at the same time, almost inevitable as well. Through an online exchange, this company automates and standardizes the process of commercial product placement in TV shows, movies, and videogames. Sort of like an eBay type of marketplace bringing advertisers and media content producers together. The media industry has been dying for this kind of an application with immensely lucrative potential, and for me, the question is whether eBay or Google will acquire them before they go public.
EEStor - This startup is so secretive that it doesn't even have a website. It has also been dubbed the next Google of the clean energy industry. It is developing a hypercapacitor that it claims has 10x the energy capacity of a lead-acid battery of a comparable weight, requires only about 5 mintues to charge up, is not explosive, corrosive, or hazardous, and costs much less to produce than a Li-Ion battery. The initial application for this hypercapacitor is electric vehicles, but can also be eventually extended to basically replace the battery as we know it. Sounds too good to be true, but note that KPCB has been drinking from the same cup of Kool-Aid - and this is the same VC firm that made early investments into Amazon, Google, AOL, Netscape, Tivoli, and most recently, BroadWing.
Monday, October 09, 2006
I've been excluded!
Well after all the hype in the past couple of months, Zecco finally launched their commission-free trading platform today. The only problem is that this trading platform is available only to people with a valid American mailing address and US bank account. That eliminates me on both requirements. That is discouraging for me, since I was looking forward to test driving their platform.
Sort of reminds me of Prosper.com as well. They've been running for a couple of years now, and based on various feedback I've read, you can make decent money as a lender on Prosper.com. Unfortunately, they have the same requirements as Zecco in order to be a qualified lender: you need a valid American mailing address and a US bank account, not just a bank account that can handle USD$.
And in keeping with the theme of this post, here is why I've been tracking Google for the past couple of weeks. It got away from me today, but I believe that the problems that Yahoo! reported last month back are specific to Yahoo!. Will be looking at options on Google in the next few days.
NetVibes Me!
BlogLine This!
FeedBurner This!
