Video demos of Google Chrome Browser

Google has some nice and short demos of what Chrome browser can do (Windows only for now).

Google Chrome is a browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier.

Media browser for kids

I’m testing out a new media browser called KIDO’Z with my son, and think its good enough to pass along here. I found out about it through TechCrunch, here’s the blurb from their newsletter:

KIDO’Z is a pretty nifty Adobe AIR-powered desktop browser app that gives kids a safe and fun environment to play games, watch videos and/or visit pre-approved websites. When you first install the AIR app as a parent, you can configure the age and gender of your offspring as well as your location and preferred language (there are 17 available).

What’s nice is that all these settings are taken into account at a content level, so KIDO’Z automatically caters the media it think is most suited for your kid(s) at first launch. As a parent you get password-protected access to an admin panel where you can add more or restrict access to certain content, set limited time frames for usage, and so on.

All content only shows up when a KIDO’Z team member approved the content beforehand, and to add more layers of security all scripts, file downloads, pop-ups and any other attempts that could lead to content which has not been approved, are thoroughly blocked.

To use the app, kids won’t need to know how to read or write since obviously the whole UI is quite visual of nature, and very colorful to boot. The main menu of the KIDO’Z browser currently consists of three categories: games, videos and websites. All media can be opened and viewed inside the app’s interface, and in fact kids can only leave the KIDO’Z environment by exiting the browser altogether. CEO Gai Havkin tells me the tool will later be extended to a closed network of communication tools, including e-mail and instant messaging features (see last screenshot), making it more of a social experience but without the security and privacy hazards of existing services.

Norwegian Websites Declare War on IE 6

Several large websites in Norway have launched an advocacy campaign urging Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 users to upgrade their outdated web browsers, according to Wired Epicenter. I love this explaination of why its so disliked:

IE 6, released in 2001, is the scourge of web programmers, user-experience designers and technical-support staff alike. The browser is stacked with quirks that cause web pages to render differently from all other browsers, and special considerations must be taken by web builders to accommodate users running IE 6.

Most wish the browser would just go away, eliminating the need to continue supporting it. Numbers vary from country to country, but somewhere between 10 and 20 percent of the web’s worldwide users are still running IE 6 — some because they simply don’t know any better, some because they are stuck with whatever software their companies install on their machines. Finn.no notes that 17 percent of its users are running IE 6. Numbers like that are currently too large for web builders to ignore.

More fun, here’s a site that “is all about the campaign to rid the WWW of Internet Explorer 6 that has devastated web developers and held back the evolution of everything that blocks the tubes for far too long. This can not go on any longer! Off with its head!”

Opera Updates to v9.6

Not that I’m advocating that MIT support more browsers, but here’s one that I’ll be taking for a test drive….Opera (Windows/Mac/Linux friendly) only had 2& of the market share as of Sept ‘08, but is enticing users away with new features and speed improvements. Features include:

• Better syncing across multiple computers
• Preview a site’s RSS feed before you subscribe to it
• Low-bandwidth mode for faster email performance

…as well as its standard features which include Speed Dial, mouse gestures, note-taking, BitTorrent support, and voice-controlled browsing. Read a review on Opera 9.6 at Lifehacker or download version 9.6 from the Opera site.

Move over IE! There’s something leaner…

Google has released a beta version of their new open-souce browser, called “Chrome.”  Here’s a few selections from PC Magazine’s article entitled ” Google’s Chrome Officially Enters the Browser Wars:

The 7-Mbyte download is available now via http://www.google.com/chrome/ in 122 countries and 43 languages. It will run on Windows-based computers running XP or Vista, but Mac and Linux versions are still in the works…

“What we wanted to build was not so much a traditional content viewer but more of a window manager for web pages and applications,” Ben Goodger, a Google software engineer, said during a Tuesday press conference.

When asked how Google will compete against IE, Page demurred. “We’re competing with a product that’s given away by default on most computers,” he said.

Chrome alone will not be a major moneymaker for Google, according to the executives, but if Chrome can improve the user experience, that will encourage more Internet use and ultimately create more revenue for Google, they said.

“If we make our site faster by 20 percent, we can get substantially more usage and that generate directly into revenues,” Page said.