HitChrome

Perhaps the biggest threat to Google’s increasing dominance of Internet search and advertising is the rising fear, justified or not, that Google’s broadening reach is giving it unchecked power.

This scrutiny goes deeper than the skeptical eye that lawmakers and the Justice Department have given Google’s proposed ad partnership with Yahoo. Many objections to that deal are financial, and surround whether Google and Yahoo could unfairly drive up online ad prices.

A bigger long-term concern for Google could be criticisms over something less tangible — privacy. Increasingly, as Google burrows deeper into everyday computing, its product announcements are prompting questions about its ability to gather more potentially sensitive personal information from users.

Why does Google log the details of search queries for so long? What does it do with the information? Does it combine data from the search engine with information it collects through other avenues — such as its recently released Web browser, Chrome?

Data gathered through most of the company’s services “disappears into a black hole once it hits the Googleplex and it’s impossible to track that information.” Read the rest of this entry »

Who couldn’t use some extra cash these days? Thousands of dollars in prize money is up for grabs as testers face off in Battle of the Browsers, a seven-day contest that starts today. Applications in the contest’s arena are Google’s Chrome, Firefox 3.1 alpha 2 and IE 8. To qualify, bugs must be previously undiscovered and unreported.

Testers may submit defects for any or all of the browsers. Two prizes of US$200 each will be awarded for each of the browsers; six browser-specific prizes in all. Prizes will be awarded for the “Top Bug” for each browser in terms of defect severity, accuracy of reporting and creativity; and “Best Feedback,” which is described as “the feedback provided during the usability survey” in terms of feature, analysis, etc.

Contestants also will be vying for two overall prizes. A $1000 “Top Tester” prize goes to the person who reports the most valuable bugs and feedback, and to the “Top Novice,” a beginner who shows the most promise as a software tester. Judging will be conducted by the uTest team as well as a few outsiders. “Entries will be judged blindly – with no knowledge of name or background (with the exception of experience for the Novice award),” according to the contest Web site. The emphasis is on “actionable learning” for each of the browsers, as opposed to feature comparisons between browsers.

The bug hunt is being organized by testing community organizer uTest, which boasts more than 11,000 testers in 144 countries doing on-demand testing for organizations in need. If you’re not already a uTester, you’ll need to register; it’s free.

After the recent updates from Firefox and Opera in the form of Firefox 3.1 Beta and Opera 9.6, its Chrome’s turn to go under the knife. Most users might have noticed how Mozilla has concentrated on speed with the latest Firefox update. Opera, on the other hand, now has even more features under its belt, retaining its position as one of the most feature packed browsers available now - off the shelf. And yes, support for three Indian languages in Opera too has been a welcome addition.

Chrome, in the meantime, whose market share dipped to 0.78 percent after reaching a peak of 1.7 just after its launch, seems to be concentrating on security and the occasional performance tweaks. The latest version of Chrome is 03.154.9, a beta release that claims to fix many security holes and offers zippier performance. The update will be automatically applied - however you can choose to “force” update to this version by selecting the update option from the “About” dialog. Note that not all users will see this option as Google seems to be releasing the update in patches. Patience, as they say, is a virtue!

As for the changes, here are some examples. On the security front, the security vulnerability that allowed malicious websites to spoof the addresses in pop-ups has been patched. The download manager has been “enhanced” to be more secure. Read the rest of this entry »