As meny of you already know I’m sure Google has joined the browser market when introducing Chrome just a few days ago. The interest has been overwhelming, but then again Google has the oportunity to market the browser through their own search portal (that every Internet user visits more or less daily…).

ReadWriteWeb claims Chrome already got 1,5% of the market share, running up behind IE, FF and Opera but in front of all the rest. I assume the numbers are a bit high as most of the registered traffic probably comes from users just testing it out. Then again, if they like what they see they just might stick with it.

I for one am quite happy with FF and all its add-ons, but would really like to hear from the rest of you should you have good (or bad) experience with the newcomer.

Also, do we really need yet another browser? From a designers point of view this seams like more work as we now have to make even more browser specific rules to get the pages right Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad if Microsoft, Yahoo and Google joined forces even though that would mean monopoly yet again…

Update: There seams to be at least one good reason NOT to start using Chrome…

In a presentation for Nvidias NVISION the mythbusters compared a CPU vs a GPU to explain parallel processing and the GPU drew an ACTUAL mona lisa drawing using paint balls in 80 milliseconds!

Cool isn’t it?!

Ubiquity is an experimental Firefox extension that gives you a powerful new way to interact with the Web.Instead of telling telling Firefox where you want to go by typing Web addresses into the URL bar, you can now tell Firefox what you want it to do by typing commands into a new Ubiquity input box.

If you have tried it for more than 10 minutes I’d love to hear from you - both the good and the bad. If you’ve never heared of it have a look at the short video below:

Ubiquity for Firefox from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

The industry giant Intel can more than just create micro processors (CPU’s).

Yesterday, at the California firm’s annual developers forum in San Francisco, Intel’s chief technology officer Justin Rattner showed off a wireless electric power system that analysts say could revolutionize modern life by freeing devices from transformers and wall outlets.

Electricity was sent wirelessly to a lamp on stage, lighting a 60 watt bulb that uses more power than a typical laptop computer. The technology, Wireless Energy Resonant Link, is transmitting energy using the magnetic field not the electric field which does not affect human bodies.

“The trick with wireless power is not can you do it; it’s can you do it safely and efficiently,” Intel researcher Josh Smith said in an online video explaining the breakthrough.

The technology is still in an early stage of development and much research remains before it can be brought to market. However, the implications seems endless. Imagine a world without cables, that would really be something wouldn’t it?!

Some of us may not live to see this happen, but then again technology develops faster than one might think (most of the time). Can you see this happen in the near future, and would you consider it safe?

Source: Yahoo News

What do sex, drugs and software have in common? They are the top three things purchased off spam email.

Have you ever thought about why you receive so much spam every day (for me it averages between 20 and 50 messages a day even after SpamAssassin has done its filtering)? Well, you can blame the 29 percent of Internet users that admit to purchasing items from spam email, according to a recent survey. Often these goods are pirated, counterfeit, or cheap knock-off’s that would be difficult to come by through the legitimate market.

More than 150 billion spam messages circulate daily, accounting for more than 85 percent of the total number of emails sent throughout the world. The sheer volume of spam consumes an enormous amount of bandwidth and remains one of the Internet’s biggest security problems.

And there’s little incentive to stop the spam. Recent FBI prosecutions of “bot-herders” suggest that the going rate is as little as $5 to $10 per million messages. Response rates are generally low - approximately 10 purchases are made for every million spam messages sent - but enough people purchase from spam to make it worthwhile for spammers to continue waging battle on your “Junk” folder in the hopes that one will slip through into your Inbox.

The top spam sellers include sexual enhancement pills, software, “adult material” and luxury items such as watches and jewellery.

The survey of Internet users was done by in June and July of 2008 by Marshal’s Threat Research and Content Engineering (TRACE) team. Marshal’s research indicates that just five botnets account for 80 percent of the world’s spam.

In 2004, only 20 percent of Internet users copped to purchasing items off spam email, according to a similar survey by Forrester Research. The increase in the last few years has led to a dramatic influx of spam email; reports indicate that global spam volumes doubled for the year ending June 2008 from the previous year’s levels.

The trend is not moving in the right direction as you’ve probably noticed. The question is how to fix it!? Maybe the ISP’s should be more active along with all hosting companies offering email services? What do you think could make this problem go away?