This bizarre state of affairs came about after it was revealed that Google Japan was paying bloggers via CyberBuzz, to write about a new feature on the Google Japan website. This was in clear violation of Google’s search guidelines and Google had no option but to penalise the Google Japan website, downgrading their PageRank from a 9 to a 5!

In Japan, where Google lags behind Yahoo!, it seems that they were hoping to game their own search results and perhaps Yahoo’s search results as well.  Whatever they were trying to do, it backfired massively and Google Japan was forced to issue an official apology, as did Matt Cutts on behalf of Google.  As a further humiliation, Google Japan will be forced to submit a reconsideration request once they’re removed the offending posts.

There’s no word yet on whether Yahoo! has penalised Google – but I’d be surprised if they didn’t take the opportunity!

Gregor Spowart is a Director of Mass Media Design, a website design and search engine optimisation company.

Google malware broke

The problem lasted for around 20 minutes and seems to have hit everything; other than YouTube, which of course is owned by Google! Users who were brave enough to click one of the search results, were warned that visiting that site might harm their computer.

With the vast majority of all searches carried out using Google, it makes you wonder would have happened if the google malware detector problem had kicked in on a week day and lasted a little longer.

I like Chrome – but it needs work!

I am not a fan of Google’s ‘near‘ monopoly of the search market – or the way their founders fly a private airliner all over the world talking about the environment - but I DO like Chrome!

I even managed to get my review of Google Chrome on page one of Google.com, with one of the first reviews of the chrome browser anywhere!

However, after a week of using Chrome I have a couple of requests for the developers.

Can I have a proper homepage button please?

I am not a fan of the way Chrome automatically starts with a list of recently visited pages – I like to go straight to my homepage! Why would anyone want to waste time navigating around half a dozen screen clips, to try to find their ‘usual’ homepage?.

Right click reload or refresh

If I want to refresh the page I am reading, I usually right click my mouse and select refresh or reload.  On Chrome, this is not an option! You have to navigate away from whatever you were doing and find the refresh button.  This is actually starting to really piss me off.  I assumed I would just get used to it after a while, but for things like editiing my blogs or checking my website analytics or following a live text coverage on the BBC – I just won’t use Chrome..

Google Chrome: What would YOU like to see included in the next release?

Okay – other than improved security (which I hope they are sorting out), what would YOU like to see in the next release of Chrome?

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?

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

How would you like a quick and easy way to find out the Google Page Rank for every page on your website or blog, at the click of a button?

Well, now you can; thanks to a nifty little free tool called “Google Page Rank Inspector.“.

How Google Page Rank Inspector works

Simply visit http://www.rightscripts.com/pagerank and enter the URL of the site you want to check, then click the ‘submit’ button – that’s it!

This is a great page rank tool!  Give it a go and let me know what you think.

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!