On September 2, 2008 Google quietly launched a free Web browser called Chrome to take on its arch rival Microsoft which would, analysts claim, challenge the dominance of MS Internet Explorer, as well as the Firefox browser.

The use of Internet software and services is rapidly growing, and browsers are a universal gateway to the Internet. Browsers are also increasingly used as a gateway to Web on cell phones and other mobile devices. Google, analysts say, cannot let Microsoft’s dominant share of the browser market without a direct challenge. In a brief statement, Microsoft welcomed the new entrant but expressed confidence that people would prefer Explorer, which is on every Windows PC sold.

Advantages include an uncluttered, minimalist design and doing away with features such as menus and tool bar icons, in addition to several unique features, including quick response time, inbuilt flash player and easy navigation. One of its best features is that each tab runs separate process than the main browser process. In the situation of crashing of a single tab, the entire browser will not crash and the crashed site will show a sad face icon called a ‘sad tab’. In the Explorer and Firefox, the tabs are below the address bar but in Chrome they are above, allowing more space for to travel. All the websites (billions of them) have been indexed on Chrome. So if you type ‘a’ it will give suggestions like ‘search amazon’ and other sites starting with ‘a’. The homepage of Chrome sports a ‘speed dial’ feature that shows the 9 most visited web pages as screenshots.

In spite of its user friendly design and features, there are some disadvantages as well. For one thing, it cannot open *.tiff files and some image extensions. Some Java Scripts are not supported by it. Also, there is no button facility to download a pluggin. But all said and done, Chrome will prove to be the browser of choice as the user volume increases.

Infrastructure and employees cost is increasing in big cities, which is threatening the Indian IT industries. The Indian government has announced its plan to develop 43 new IT cities in the country that will help to tap rapid rise in demand for IT related services in next 10 – 12 years. This will help to maintain its cost effective appeal, reported The Economic Times

This move comes when BPO and Information Technology companies started losing their online business and global benefit with the emergence of small countries like Vietnam and Philippines. Those countries are offering same services at cheaper rates and are endangering India’s outsourcing status at the international market.

The plan seeks to find a way out of the situation where companies find it difficult to recruit quality employees as the allure of BPO jobs dulls and attrition rates go up. Infrastructure constraints in Bangalore, Gurgaon and elsewhere are other spanners in the work.

It is predicted that these new IT cities will provide steady supply of IT workers. The proposal, suggested by a high-level group on service sector, has been cleared by the Planning Commission. Sources said "The modalities for the ambitious plan will be finalized very soon.”

Microsoft’s plan to acquire Yahoo has gone kaput, it is planning for other alternate solutions for fixing the online branding problem. Moreover Microsoft has also ran in trouble due to its Live brand which is very similar to that of MSN. Microsoft also has Hotmail and messenger which are present in the latter too, creating confusion in the market.

Mr. Kevin Johnson, president of Microsoft’s platform and services division announced that- as the acquisition plans for yahoo has been cancelled; Microsoft would be concentrating on finding solutions for its branding problem. This speech was delivered at Search Marketing Expo conference in Seattle. He even said that during the procedure for making bids for Yahoo, the marketing team has to concentrate on other issues as well. But now they are working towards solving the brand problem altogether. According to him- Microsoft believes completely in their marketing executive and have given freedom to decide what steps should be taken to eradicate this problem. Even if launching a new sub-brand is necessary, Microsoft is ready to finance it and support the plan financially.

Johnson reported that although acquisition plans of Yahoo has been cancelled, but some other limited deals are being talked between the two companies. However he did not disclosed much details of it. He even targeted Microsoft’s main competitor Google and stated that Microsoft is ready to use unconventional ways to deal with market competition in the form of business model, user experience and the method through which a customer connects to the service.

Long back Microsoft has started working on this project, the latest example is that of Cashback service where online shoppers get money if they buy products from the listed advertisers in Live Search. This effort may alter the business model and user experience.

Microsoft has announced about a deal with Hewlett-Packard, where there will be Live search toolbar on HP PCs that would be sold in North America from next year.

Google has come up with latest feather in its cap by inserting social websites/ networks features into websites of all types.

This feature is known as Google friend connect which is developed with Open social initiative. Blogging and feedback forms are two of the many social features that have become live without having the need to write the code. According to Mussie Shore product manager with Google told in google blog, website owners are welcoming this feature but finding it difficult to add the social features to their websites.

Friend connect is the latest and technologically advanced feature announced by big and famous internet companies that enables its visitors to observe their friend’s activities carried out in other social websites. It would help in breaking down the barriers that separate one web community from the other; this movement is popularly known as ‘Data portability’.

MySpace website recently announced that its data will be available in such a manner that its users can share their profiles with Yahoo and EBay sites.

Facebook has also announced the launch of Facebook connect which is an extension of its API. Members can show their identities to third-party sites with its usage.

Companies’ announcements indicate that data portability is slowly catching up where there is coalition of different social websites based on common standards. All the three companies have taken this initiative independently.

Google’s friend connect is an extension of social features of web 2.0 phenomenon, build on the standards of OpenID, Oauth and OpenSocial.

David Glazer who is the director of engineering at Google says that Google friend connect integrates the long list of social websites and help them become more social. Many websites neither are not social ones nor want to be a part of social networks yet this feature facilitate them to communicate with each other.

Google promises the site owners that friend connect service would make their web content more appealing and increase the visitor base. If they spend more time on a website it would definitely generate more dollars!

Those using MySpace’s data availability can publish their activities on friend connect websites through their social networks. It is being expected that many more application apart from the ready-made ones including posts and ratings will be available via Open Social developer communities.

Google has started registration of site owners for friend connect waiting list. They are aiming towards bringing more sites into this program and take required feedback from the users, website developers and website owners that are participating.