Google’s brand new operating system

chrome_header_full_whiteGoogle announced the impending release of its new OS called Google Chrome which is a natural extension of the Chrome web browser. It is due to be released in the second half of 2010. It is obviously a typically competitive move against Microsoft 7 which is due to be released sometime this year – after the resounding failure of Vista.

What is good about this is that it is open source and set to work with low cost computers. Here is Google’s announcement on the Chrome blog:

“Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.”  [link]

Cross our fingers and see.

Google Morocco hacked

TechCrunch reports that Google Morocco has been hacked today for a few hours before it was discovered and corrected.

Interesting. I wonder who hacked it? and why Morocco’s domain name in particular? or was it just a coincidental act of randomness?

safari going windows

Apple announced that it is releasing a version of Safari for Windows [link]. This, according to the BBC, reignites the ‘browser wars’. It has been suggested by some developers that this might be because of the impending release of the iPhone. It should be noted that like other browsers, Safari ‘earns money for Apple every time a user searches Google via the integrated search button on the browser’s toolbar’ and:

Google pays a share of ad revenue to Apple. According to one report, Firefox’s developer the Mozilla Foundation earned over $50m in search engine ad revenue in 2005, mostly from Google.

The BBC notes that

Up until now, Safari has captured just 5% of the browser market, while Microsoft’s Internet Explorer accounts for 78%, and rival Firefox 15%.

the ghost in the browser

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Google just released a study entitled The Ghost in the Browser: Analysis of web-based malware [pdf document] in which it claims that 10% of websites contain malicious malware. It conducted an “in-depth research on 4.5 million Web sites and found that about one in 10 Web pages could successfully “drive-by download” a Trojan horse virus onto a visitor’s computer. Such malicious software potentially enables hackers to access sensitive data stored on the computer or its network, or to install rogue applications.” [cnet news]

Not only that, but according to another article on cnet,

An average of 8,000 new URLs containing malicious software emerged each week during April, Cluley said, adding that the notion that such software resides only in the darker corners of the Internet is very outdated. Seventy percent of Web pages hosting rogue software are found on legitimate sites targeted by hackers, according to Sophos.