New Chrome Browser from Google

The new Google Chrome is out! This is a new browser from Google, which is going to battle against Internet Explorer and Firefox. Last time Google and Microsoft were battling, Google came on top with superior search engines. The interesting question now is whether Google will be able to take the lead against Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

Chrome promises better performance, better integration with applications such as Gmail and Google Docs (obviously) and features coming from all known browsers. You can read more about it in the Chrome comics http://www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome/#

This is how my blog looks like from Chrome:

When I tried to access my hotmail account throught Chrome, I got the following warning:

Upgrade your web browser

We recommend that you upgrade your web browser so you can get the most out of Windows Live Hotmail. Upgrading should only take a few minutes. To get started, choose one of the browsers below:

• Microsoft Internet Explorer
• Mozilla Firefox
• Apple Safari

If you don’t want to upgrade right now you can still continue to Windows Live Hotmail, but some parts of it may not work and it may not be displayed properly.

Could it be that this is how Microsoft is dealing with the new rival?

Summary of the first day (it just came out yesterday) - very promising, but need to be further explored.

Cuil vs. Google (#2)

Continuing the comparison between the two search engines, here is a small experiment I made trying to find pictures for chocolates (I needed them for the new riddle - http://omer-behindthelines.blogspot.com/2008/08/riddle-4-piece-of-chocolate.html).


I typed in "chocolate pictures" in both search engines and clicked on the first link I was given.


The results

In Google I got the following page:

















In Cuil, they must have thought I was referring to a horse named 'chocolate':

Chocolate Pictures

2:0 to Google, and I think that Cuil might have a great way of handling requests with much less hardware - but they must improve their engine for the end-user to find anything relative.

Cuil vs. Google (#1)

Whilst Google were working on the new internet encyclopedia Knol to counter the leader - Wikipedia, a different company were working on a new search engine and website Cuil to counter the leadership of Google in that area. Were Google blind-sided? Maybe, but as you will see, Google does not yet have a real rival in the search engine territory.

So what is Cuil?

Cuil is a new search engine that challenges Google at the operation level - the number of hardware needed to keep the engine alive is much less than the enormous power needed for Google. But does that interest the user searching for something - probably not. The user is interested in finding what he was looking for, as high in the results as possible. I made some tests to see how good is the new engine, you can review the results below.

User interface differences

Cuil does have a few UI (user interface) differences:

1) The homepage is somewhat of the opposite to the white-empty Google page

2) The results are shown in a few columns, as opposed to the list view of Google

The results

1) I tried to search my own name - I know it can be looked at some kind of an ego trip but actually it's a very valid test. As you can see below, Cuil does not know me at all!! Very sad indeed.

2) I tried to see what I get when searching for "Hapoel Tel Aviv" (my home soccer team). The Google matching was right to the point, whereas the Cuil results were not so good.

All in all, it is 1:0 to the Google.

Themes in igoogle

Are you familiar with igoogle? http://www.google.com/ig Well it is a very nice tool to customize your own home page with whatever gadget and/or information you would like to have.

I started using it for RSS feeds from the blogs I read, for news and weather information and for other general stuff.

A nice new feature is the theme of igoogle, making it somewhat more enjoyable. I set the puppies theme, which shows me a different puppy each time I enter the site.

Aren't they adorable?