This makes sense to me and I have often asked people on Twitter for the kind of stuff I previously used Google for.  However, I see this facility more as a potential mahalo killer than a Google killer!

Of course, to get more obscure answers, you either need hundreds of thousands of followers OR you need to use Twitter’s search facility.  This is where I think the chances of Twitter killing off Google drop massively!

Why Twitter search won’t kill Google

People can easily and quickly manipulate Twitter search results. There are already networking professionals / salespeople among the most highly followed people on Twitter.  With them asking their followers to ReTweet recommendations and links, they could easily and quickly OWN search results for a client or sponsor. Yes, I know SEO guys are also very skilled at generating traffic from Google, but Twitter can be gamed in minutes / hours – not days / weeks / months.

Just realised, these guys would become Twitter Optimization Experts…Yes – that makes them TOE’s :)

Twitter’s future growth is hard to predict

Google has hundreds of millions of users. Twitter currently has (depending on who you listen to) anywhere between 2 million and 6 million users.  Once Twitter finally introduces a business model, if it involves heavy advertising, paying for the service or anything else likely to put people off, the famous ‘hockey-stick growth’ that Twitter has enjoyed thus far, will slow down really fast.

Until we see what happens when they start making money from Twitter, no one really knows how big it will get.

Twitter wins on trust

When I wanted feedback regarding netbooks last week, I went straight to Twitter and asked my followers. Their recommendations were far, far more valuable to me than anything on Google. I think Twitter WILL dent Google because of the human powered search and the added trust element.

However, until we finally see a Twitter business model and get an idea of how big Twitter will really become, it’s hard to say how big a dent Twitter will make in Google.  There’s an alternative opinion on this, over at Lew Moormon’s blog, which I really liked and Robert Scoble has something interesting to say about it too!

As one of the first people to download today’s release of Google Chrome; Google’s new browser, I wanted to be one of the first to review it too.  So, having had an opportunity to thrash it for a few hours – here are my first impressions!

Before I start, you can grab yourself a copy of Google Chrome here!.

Google Chrome – Speed

The first thing you will notice about Google Chrome is the speed of it.  It is fast – I mean REALLY fast! Google Chrome also loads from scratch in less than a second on my machine and I have never seen any browser download a web page faster..

Google Chrome – Page display

These are the very early stages of using Chrome, but thus far – every site I have visited looks pretty much the same as on FF3.  This is in stark contrast to the current beta of Internet Explorer 8; which even in ‘compatibility mode’ renders some pages very poorly..

Google Chrome – Ease of use

Within seconds I was able to find my way around the Google Chrome browser.  It looks pretty basic, which I really like.  You will quickly notice that there’s no dedicated search bar. Instead, you use the address bar and it will automatically do a search using your favourite search engine (you get to choose!)

The settings section is very basic and easy to understand.  There are not that many options, compared with IE and Firefox..

Google Chrome – Nifty tricks

You are going to be hearing a LOT about the Google Chrome’s ‘Incognito mode‘.  It allows you to surf websites without that website appearing in your browser’s history folder.  Also, any new cookies triggered from your incognito mode tab will be deleted when you close it.  When you have a tab open in incognito mode, you get a little picture of a detective in the top left corner – so you can tell at a glance which mode you are in.

You can slide tabs around to arrange them in the right order – and they actually do slide.  It’s a nice effect!

Your bookmarks are automatically imported as soon as you install Google Chrome and your shortcuts will appear in the same order that they appeared in your previous browser – so everything’s where you expect it to be.

When you download a file, there’s a little animation of an arrow that plays – another nice little touch!.

Google Chrome issues

As you would expect from a brand new beta, it’s not perfect!  Here are a few known problems from the Google Chrome help center and one of my own.  You can see the full list of known issues here.

-  Google Calendar – If you create an all day event at the weekend it adds an extra day!
-  Laptops sometimes won’t go to sleep with Google Chrome running!
-  Fixed Width fonts on some sites are tiny on Google Chrome!
-  Fellow WordPress bloggers will find some of the posting tools behaving ‘odd.’.

Overall?

As you can probably tell, I am really impressed.  Google Chrome is fast, easy to use and very polished for a beta release.  I will have to play with it for a few more days to get a REAL feel for it, but my initial impressions are very positive.

Knowing what Google are like, Chrome will probably stay in beta for ages.  It seems very solid and the feedback I have received from friends is that they are finding it equally stable.

The so-called browser wars have taken an interesting turn and I am not sure if this little baby is not going to be the winner.  How crazy is that?  After years of the ‘experts’ telling us that it’s either Internet Explorer or Firefox who will win – there’s a new kid in town who ‘might’ win the war (and far sooner than many imagined!)

I recommend you download yourself a copy and give it a go!.

That’s my first impression of Google Chrome - What do YOU think?

You can download Google Chrome now, here http://www.google.com/chrome

Enjoy!

TheTechNewsBlog
(This is my first post using Google Chrome!)

UPDATE – You can download Google Chrome NOW

IT’S HERE: http://www.google.com/chrome

GOOGLE: “So why are we launching Google Chrome? Because we believe we can add value for users and, at the same time, help drive innovation on the web.“

First glimpse

The beta is initially only available for Windows based machines!  However, Linux and Apple versions will come online soon (apparently.)

Google Chrome will launch with a few nifty tricks up it’s sleeve.  Each tab you open will be in what they call a ‘virtual sandbox’ so that if something happens with another tab, the browser won’t crash!.

Mozilla?

I found this quote from the press release interesting:

“We owe a great debt to many open source projects, and we’re committed to continuing on their path. We’ve used components from Apple’s WebKit and Mozilla’s Firefox, among others — and in that spirit, we are making all of our code open source as well. We hope to collaborate with the entire community to help drive the web forward.”

You can read the full press release from Sundar Pichai, VP Product Management, and Linus Upson, Engineering Director by clicking here!

DOWNLOAD GOOGLE CHROME NOW: http://www.google.com/chrome

UPDATE

- Google Chrome Official – click here!

- Google Chrome Beta Launches in 100 countries TOMORROW – Click here!

The Internet rumour mill has been in overdrive today – thanks to Google and a comic book depicting a ‘new’ Google Internet browser; Google Chrome!.

Google Chrome features

The best place to get initial Google Chrome specs is the blogoscoped blog.  I hate it when people just steal content from other blogs and pass it off as their own, so take a look and let me know what you think.  Blogoscoped have also scanned the pages of the comic book, so you can see for yourself if you think there’s anything in this latest Google browser rumour..

Google browser

There have been rumours regarding a Google browser for ages – and it’s easy to see why!  The idea of Google owning Internet search and yet allowing you to find what you want using another brand of browser makes no sense.  People already write their Internet copy to keep Google happy, they design their websites so Google can find them – so why not look at the Internet through a Google browser too?.

A Google browser will KILL Internet Explorer, Firefox and Co!

In my opinion, if Google Chrome is the real deal – IE, Firefox, Opera and Safari might as well just give up; because a Google browser will kill them off super-fast!  Remember, the whole Internet is designed to be found by Google!

UPDATE – GOOGLE CONFIRMS CHROME BROWSER!

Beta version of Google Chrome to launch in 100 countries tomorrow!
Read about it here!

Am I wrong – let me know!