Microsoft’s Bing.com Search Engine, and Google’s “Chrome” Browser – are two “Wow!”‘s.
Chrome and Bing – a hot browser and search engine, respectively – are worth keeping your eye on.
Live becomes Bing
I had the chance to evaluate search engines from Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft at the SMX Search Engine Marketing conference last November. I was surprised by how much I liked Microsoft “Live” search, and began to suggest to others they give it a try. Now it has been enhanced and rebranded as “Bing”. Looks to me like Microsoft is gaining some traction in the search wars, and may even start putting some heat on Google. Yahoo is already feeling some heat from Microsoft’s scorching tailpipes, I’m sure:)
Chrome is Slick
On the browser front, Google let out an alpha version of Chrome a bit early, which they soon rectified. Now it is looking like the Jaguar of browsers: sleek, fast, versatile, and smart. A quick-launch feature similar to “Speed Dial” in Opera; everything goes into one dialog window (search terms, url’s, commands); everything is in one window, vs many; and many things work in surprisingly improved, simpler fashion. In short, WOW – Chrome can “hook” you, to where you don’t want to use any other browser. Touch for those of us who prefer OSX, but Google has a Beta version of the Mac OSX Chrome client in pre-release.
note: since this article was originally posted, Google has dropped the bombshell that they will be adding a little something extra onto the backend of Chrome: a personal computer operating system (creating “the Chrome OS”), which of course will be based upon a Linux kernel. It will likely be stored in the ROM of Netbooks, providing boot times on the order of several fractions of a second. More on that major development soon, as we develop a better perspective on the likely timing and impact.