Snap! My destructive stress test of Google Chrome begins

Loading Google software is usually quick and easy.  The new browser, Google Chrome was no exception. I was able to download and install it in a few minutes, having only to exit Firefox while it imported my Firefox  bookmarks.  So far, so good.  If you are a Firefox power user, you will certainly miss the awesome bar functionality. (I love the way Firefox almost reads my mind.)  What I did gain was a browser that seems to be quite a bit faster, but most importantly one tab can crash and leave the others intact.  I will admit that I haven't tried to do anything extraordinary with Chrome, but my normal every day usage of every other browser brings  it to a halt a few times a day.  It's normally script related and I'm in a page that's doing some heavy editing when the browser takes it's nap.  Today, I was pasting rich text into GMail when one of the Chrome tabs went black and filled with the following message:

The good news?  I didn't lose any of my work in the seven other tabs I had open. Count them below.

gMail, gDesktop, gBrowser? Finally, Google to launch a browser

The nerderati already know this due to a slip of the lip at Google.  Google will launch the Google Browser, Chrome, tomorrow.  While Google Fanboys (and girls) are excited at the mere prospect of having a browser emblazoned with the web's biggest mega-property, and the tech journalism and blogging community is glad to have something other than the Republican National Convention to talk about, will the average internet user care? Not at first.

I'm sure you've figured out that Google can do whatever it wants.  Sometimes we care, as in the case of Blogger, and sometimes we don't, as in I've yet to meet anyone in the real world who has heard of Jaiku.

The good news for the browser effort is that there are pain points for Google to address with the Browser.  Despite the efforts of Microsoft, Apple, and the Mozilla project, no one has gotten the browser quite right yet in the space that counts most - stability.

In the announcement in their blog, Google says:

we were able to build the foundation of a browser that runs today's complex web applications much better. By keeping each tab in an isolated "sandbox", we were able to prevent one tab from crashing another and provide improved protection from rogue sites. We improved speed and responsiveness across the board. We also built a more powerful JavaScript engine, V8, to power the next generation of web applications

Despite our great fondness for FireFox, stability is one area they simply are not able to deliver on.  We use Firefox because we believe it less prone to invasion than Internet Explorer, and when we first install it, it is much faster.  Once you have your necessary extensions installed, however, there always seems to be some bad actor or other negative interaction that causes the browser to break down.  It gets slow, and sometimes just stops with a crash.

Firefox was born out of competition.  They felt like they could do IE better, and have.  It looks like Google thinks they can do better than FF, and tomorrow we may find out.

Need something to do until then?  Read the Google Chrome comic book introduction.

How to create a GMail contact from an email signature with Copy Paste Click Click

I've been using Anagram on my desktop PC to add contacts to Outlook. With Anagram, you just copy someone's email address, press a magic key combo and it opens up an Outlook contact record with all of the fields filled in. It is almost magic.

The problem for me is that Outlook has to be open for me to add the contact. I add them to Outlook, then sync to my Blackberry and eventually to Plaxo.

Poking around for solutions that will help me eventually dump Outlook altogether, I discovered that there is an iGoogle gadget for Anagram that will let me grab an email signature and then drop it into my GMail contact list. I tried it and it seems to work just like the software installed on my computer. Sweet!

Here are the instructions you'll need:

1. Add Anagram for iGoogle to your iGoogle page (If you don't have one get one.)
2. Copy an email signature you'd like to have in your GMail contacts list.
3. Paste it into the Anagram for iGoogle box
4. Press [Go!]  (a window pops up)
   
5. Press [Save as GMail Contacts]
   

Done.  Did I mention what a time saver this is? 

Google Health

Google has launched Google Health, a service they describe as a central place to store and from which to share all information about your health.

Let's start with a list of features. With Google Health, you can:

• Build online health profiles


• Import medical records from hospitals and pharmacies


• Learn about health issues and find helpful resources


• Search for doctors and hospitals


• Connect to online health services

The Health profile allows you to enter your age, sex, height, medical conditions, medications, allergies, medical procedures, test results, and immunizations. It's a lot like filling out your LinkedIn profile, or even more like of those applications you get handed every time you go to the doctor's office. That makes a lot of sense. If I can fill out the forms once and then just keep them maintained and then communicate a copy to my doctor's as needed, this whole process ends up being a good use of my time. I enter the data, keep it updated as needed and share it with doctor's and pharmacists as needed.

Import data into Google Health

You can also import information into your Google Health Profile from some pharmacies and health care providers, including Walgreens, CVS, the American Heart Association and Quest Diagnostics.

Google Health looks like an interesting start on eliminating a lot of paperwork. I like the promise of the future, and even what it can do for me right now. At launch, I can import my data from the pharmacy, key in my changes and updates, and then have a sheet of paper in hand with all of my information the next time I go in for a checkup.

Next Step: Take the Google Health Tour

Google buys Jaiku -- you can stop Twittering now.

Jaiku has been snapped up by Google. Here is what Jaiku has to day about it:

Exciting news: Google has bought Jaiku today.

What does that mean? First and foremost, we’re of course continuing to support our existing users. So fear not: your Jaiku phone, the Web site, IM, SMS, and API will continue to work normally.

That said, new user sign-ups have been limited for the time being. The idea here is to enable our team to get right to work with Google’s engineers on delivering a new, better service to you as quickly as we can instead of spending our efforts on optimizing the current back-end. Existing users will still be able to invite their friends, and those who are not yet on Jaiku can send us a request for an invitation to join.

Jaiku is a presence sharing service that shares activity information via the web and mobile phones. I can, for example using SMS, a web app on my Blackberry, or the Jaiku website.

What I have liked about Jaiku is that they expanded the platform with features like replies pretty early on. They also allow you to dress up your messages with icons, and have allowed you to aggregate other feeds so people could basically stay in touch with you. Jaiku is flexible and offers more features for more types of users without actually cluttering up the interface or impeding usability. That's a bit of elegance that seems to have eluded Twitter. Just this week I was enjoying Jaiku and at the same time wondering how they intended to make money with it. My curiosity was borne out of the fact that I like the service and was afraid it might go away if they didn't come up with a revenue stream. The Google purchase lets me know that they figured out how to make money and that both parties intend for the service to last longer than a fad.

All your GrandCentral is belong to Google!

TechCrunch leaked it first, we passed it along and today GrandCentral makes it official. GrandCentral is now a Google property. I know I mentioned it in my previous post, but I think this needs it's own headline. Vincent says in the blog that for the foreseeable future they'll "work with Google to add capacity, work out any kinks, fix bugs, and add a ton more great features." He also mentions that they will continue to offer much of the service for free. It comes as a surprise, because I have been hoping for them to come out and say what the service will cost. I'd like to pay a bit just to get just a bit more control and a bit more response to my occasional technical issues. Also, I think that every once in a while, I'd like to talk to someone about the service. Is anyone listening?

By the way, if you'd like an invite to GrandCentral, which is now in private beta, drop me a line.

Update: first batch of invites sent. See comments.

Listen to the voice mail announcement from Craig and Vincent:

GrandCentral Phone Service Busted! Custom ringtones deleted.

I got bad news from GrandCentral, the ever so cool phone service, that is now a Google property:

Unfortunately we can’t allow the uploading of personal MP3s and any group or individual contact settings that were using one of these will be reset to the default American ring tone. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause.

The cool custom ringtones I uploaded will be deleted and replaced by the some standard, read that boring, ringtone. Why does RingCentral allow me to do this when GrandCentral does not?

Google Street View exposes Las Vegas vice

Google is piloting the Street View feature of Google Maps. Much like the A9 maps of yore, Google Maps now lets you look out the windows while you drive down the street of selected cities. Sure, there are images of New York, Denver, and San Francisco, but I headed straight for Las Vegas. There I drove the strip and checked out my favorite hotels. It didn't take long for me to notice an interesting advertising truck that I was "driving" by.

• Google Maps link: View of "interesting" advertising truck in Las Vegas.
• Introduction to Google Maps Street View feature

Check out this quirky video and see what Street View can do for you: