Google Releases a Browser

Google Chrome is the new Web browser that was just released for Windows. It is much faster, elegant, and easy to use than Firefox, IE, and Safari. After using it for a day, the I love everything about it except for the following:

• It is not available for Mac yet (currently only for Windows)
• Nifty plug-ins are not yet available (Firefox wins here)

I would predict that the above shortcomings will be quickly overcome and Google will end up having the dominant browser.  If interested, learn more about the features of Google Chrome or why they decided to build a new browser.  

Update: as you probably guessed, development of Mac and Linux versions is underway.  Sign up to be notified when Mac or Linux versions are ready for download. 

Google's Picassa 3 (Beta)

Picassa 3 is now available which has some pretty nice updates. Watch the video above to hear about what has been added. I just wish they had a Mac version available as it is superior to iPhoto. (Note: The current release is still Beta, which means that there will likely be a few minor bugs here and there.)

Social Graph API by Google

Google's Social Graph API allows developers to utilize the public connections among people on the web. The idea is simple, yet it could make it easier for people to connect across sites. Of course, the data all comes through Google, which yet increases our dependence on them. No doubt, other search engines could easily create the same API.

Since Google already saves a copy of all of the web pages that it spiders for search, the task of extracting the annotated links is somewhat trivial. Currently, this will only work as web developers annotate user links with XHTML Friends Network (XFN) and Friend of a Friend (FOAF). It is a great idea, but may take some time before web developers start annotating.
Furthermore, the easy access to people's connections is a nice data source for some new applications and experiments.