StatCounter: Google Chr...

Well, it’s official. Or at least it’s official if you believe in StatCounter’s data . Google’s Chrome web browser has overtaken Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. For real this time. Maybe. The stat-counting firm compiled data for the week of May 14th through May 20th, showing that Chrome had a market share of 32.76%, compared with IE’s 31.94%. This isn’t the first time that Chrome has gotten ahead, however. And the race itself is close – perhaps too close to call. At the start of this week, Chrome dipped back down to 31.88%, which was only a bit ahead of 31.47%. There’s also the big concern regarding StatCounter’s data. As Microsoft (of course) has pointed out before , these aren’t necessarily numbers you can take to the bank. Last month, when Chrome briefly won the weekend battle, Microsoft downright ranted about the quality of StatCounter’s data on its official blog. (It appeared, at the time, that Chrome usage surged on weekends, proving that users liked Chrome better when they had a choice – outside of I.T. control at work, that is). Microsoft pointed out that StatCounter doesn’t adjust for pre-rendering (loading pages in the background which the user never sees and may never even click on), nor does it “geoweight” the data to paint a more accurate picture of worldwide usage. Instead, with StatCounter, it’s just raw data. Microsoft also said that if browser share had been weighted appropriately, it wouldn’t have been such a close race. While those discrepancies are notable, it’s still worth pointing out that IE’s share has been steadily dropping for some time now. StatCounter may just be the canary in the coal mine indicting the bigger shift ahead. via GlobalNerdy

Is Chrome Ready to Real...

Normally we don’t pay too much attention to browser wars. After all, it is practically conventional wisdom that the once dominant Internet Explorer from Microsoft has lost its advantage. Actually that advantage was once a vice like grip on the lead in the browser wars because of Microsoft’s death grip on the desktop PC. Fast forward to a world that is less about the desktop, more about the cloud and most about the services available in the cloud and you get the chart below that shows one week (based on data from StatCounter and no one else so do with it what you want) and we see Chrome moving ahead of IE. This moment in time has apparently happened before as reported by The Next Web Statcounter first found Chrome to be ahead for just one day, back on March 18, and its breakdown of browser usage over May to date puts Chrome and IE almost neck-and-neck at around 33 percent for the month. However, given that last week saw Chrome push ahead, May could become the first month during which the Google-owned browser has been the most popular option. While this is a nice moment it is certainly not a trend. Microsoft’s IE 9 has been out for over a year now and seems to be more likable than past IE versions. Firefox is marrying up with Twitter with Do Not Track capabilities to separate itself. That said, this is not over but if Chrome were to become the dominant browser in just four short years it would be a significant victory for Google and a pretty big loss for Microsoft. Now, let your mind go to a scary place. Imagine Chrome increasing in market share and Google deciding to really start to pushing Google+ in ways we have yet to imagine. What those ways might be I really have not given much thought to yet. I am sure Google is working hard to make sure Google+ integration is not forgotten on anything they do. If they can claim the lead i the browser wars do you really think that won’t go unused in its attempts to make Google+ something more than it is now? Now it just depends as to what level they will ratchet up their efforts. With Facebook becoming who they now are after their IPO, Google better be ready for a fight. What is our browser of choice? Why? Let us know in the comments.

Chrome 19 Launches, Now...

Google today launched version 19 of its Chrome browser for Windows, Mac, Linux and Chrome Frame to its mainstream stable release channel. Besides the usual bug fixes and performance improvements, the highlight of today’s release is the addition of tab syncing to Chrome. With this, Chrome users can now have their open tabs synced across all of their devices, including tablets and phones that run the Ice Cream Sandwich-only Chrome for Android beta. This feature will allow you to just pick up your browsing sessions on any other computer or device you log in to. One nifty aspect of this is that Chrome will also sync your browsing history, so even your back and forward buttons will work. Adding tab syncing is just the latest syncing feature Google is adding to Chrome. The browser can already sync your bookmarks, apps, history, themes, extensions and other settings between machines as well (assuming you signed in to Chrome with your Google account, of course). It’s worth noting that while Chrome 19 is out now, Google plans to roll out the tab syncing feature “gradually over the coming weeks.” As part of this release, Google also announced that it paid out around $14,500 as part of its security bug bounty program this time around.

HelloFax: With 51K Inst...

When Google Drive launched at the end of April, a wave of partner apps launched too. Now Y Combinator-backed HelloFax , the startup behind one of those apps, says its Google Drive app has seen rapid uptake, with 51,000 installs in about two weeks. In fact, the company says that number makes it the most-installed of the Google Drive apps. The claim seems a little odd at first, since there are other apps in the Google Drive section of the Chrome Web Store that show a much higher user count — LucidChart, for example, for example, has 332,930. However, HelloFax says those user counts don’t show an app’s strength on Google Drive specifically, because some were previously available as Chrome extensions. So to get the true “lift”, HelloFax looked at the competition’s user numbers on the day Google Drive launched, and tracked how much they’ve grown since then. On that front, the company says it comes out as the winner by a strong margin — the runners-up are Pixlr Editor and SlideRocket, which have supposedly grown by 33,000 installs each. (I emailed Google last night to see if those numbers sounded right. I haven’t heard back yet, but I will update this post if I do.) As for the app itself, it sounds like it mirrors the general HelloFax goal of enabling users to send, receive, and sign faxes online — just, in this case, from Google Drive. It includes 50 free outbound faxes a month, as well as unlimited signing and unlimited signature requests.

Backed By Angels, SiteS...

When New York-based SiteSimon first emerged from Entrepreneur Roundtable’s accelerator program last year, it was as a social browsing tool that aimed to automate the process of finding and discovering personally relevant content on the Web — not unlike StumbleUpon. A good idea, to be sure, but co-founder Steven Gutentag tells us that, in fact, users were less interested in new destinations than they were in finding better ways to filter and discover content from sites they’re already visiting. The team listened to its users and is today announcing a pivot and re-launch of SiteSimon, which sees the startup turning its full attention to the browser. SiteSimon is, for now at least, a Chrome extension that seeks to transform your browser into an intelligent assistant, locating the content that it has deduced will be most relevant to you — in near realtime, within whatever site you happen to be visiting. Right now, SiteSimon is Chrome-only, and Gutentag tells us that the team is focused on building an awesome product, focusing on Chrome due to its traction among early adopters and its (comparatively) stellar developer tools. The team wants to build comparable add-ons for Firefox and Safari, but only if and when the Chrome extension is in fighting shape. So how does it work? The extension integrates with Chrome and crawls your browsing history, learning as it goes, identifying patterns in your clicks, and directs you right to the content it thinks you would find interesting and relevant. “We are trying to create an interest graph for the user,” Gutentag says, in that, as you surf through TechCrunch content, for example, SiteSimon pulls in data as pages load, parsing data and analyzing metadata, titles, and keywords, before serving you relevant suggestions. These relevant suggestions appear in a sliding sidebar — and this is what’s really cool — the team is trying to reduce the annoyance factor, so that it will only make recommendations if it has ones it thinks you’ll like. If there aren’t any good recommendations, the sidebar won’t appear on the site. If you click on its recommendations, the extension gets smarter. And, for those who have recently cleared their browsing history, you can import your history from Chrome and set SiteSimon on its way. Generally speaking, it only takes a few minutes before its recommending you content, although there are exceptions, something the team is working on. Of course, news sites tend to be far richer when it comes to metadata, which means that it’s recommendations really shine on content sites, blogs, and the like, but it still works for others, like Yelp and YouTube, for example. As its powered by learning algorithms, SiteSimon tends to work better if you have a lengthy browsing history. I do on Chrome, and it’s been working like a charm. Some might say that it’s not worth spending the time it takes to train the extension what you like and what you don’t like, but that’s the thing, once you download the extension, it lives in the background and gets smarter just by hoovering up all the activity from your browser. It analyzes keywords and patterns in your browsing, the frequency, how long you spend on the site, and then offers three recommendations for you — no categories, no overloading you, just the three best recs. You can think of it like the personalized results TechCrunch had in its side bar alongside Trending Posts for awhile, or for those who’ve visited Business Insider, a less annoying version of those pop-up recommendations that appear at the bottom of the page. The team likens it to an intelligent personal assistant for your browser. And considering Google and others are busy collecting and using your history for their own purposes, whether nefariously or not, SiteSimon wants you to take back control of your browsing data, insofar as that goes. And, to that point, Gutentag stresses the fact that the extension “discreetly” analyzes your browsing patterns — just as any app or extension that pokes around in your browsing history should. While it may sound creepy, the service is completely secure, 100 percent private, and automatically turns off on any personal sites. Once you’ve signed up for a free account, you can go to “Settings” and type in the sites you don’t want SiteSimon touching, although it already filters out all “https” secure domains and adult content. Again, the extension is still in the early phases, but the concept is appealing. If you’re on a large content site, like TC or ESPN, it’ll recommend new articles, or if you’re on Yelp or Seamless, new restaurants. Best Buy … products. Brands and sites, if they’re paying attention, could get behind the idea, because it doesn’t take you off site, it finds what you want and personalizes your experience once you get there. In my eyes, Google is already using bits and pieces of your Chrome activity to personalize your experience, some transparently, and some likely not. So, if you’re going to have all this data sitting there collecting, why not have a relatively noninvasive, smart recommendation tool that travels with you as you go? At this point, SiteSimon isn’t focused on monetizing, just on building its user base and honing its technology. But, in the end, this is the type of tool that every browser could benefit from integrating right out of the box, and you can see why that’s in the back of Gutentag’s head. Right now, it still has a ways to go before it’s ready. It needs to offer an easier way to shuffle recommendations. If it keeps serving the same three, press a button and move on. Makes sense, right? And learning can be slow. It’s still evolving, but the concept here is sound, and with some help, this could be a really valuable tool. Last year, SiteSimon raised $500K from angel investors, which included contributions from Ken Cron, the former CEO of Vivendi Universal Games and former president of CMP Media, John Ason, an early investor in Diapers.com, Ology.com, and Hotlist.com, as well as Vault.com and Zeel co-founder Samer Hamadeh. The startup will likely begin going after more capital this summer. What do you think? For more, check out SiteSimon at home here .