So the inevitable has happened - Google have built their first browser, set to take on Microsoft and leave Internet Explorer as a distant memory.News of today’s launch was ‘leaked’ to Google Blog-oscoped (the blog by Philipp Lenssen - which is currently down, probably due to having been visited just a bit over the last 24 hours!) via a 28 page comic book style introduction.

Google say they “hit “send” a bit early” and so have now made the comic available to one and all here.

According to The Times Online, Google Chrome will “feature a new format for tabs, the ability to view web pages as thumbnails and better features on the address bar.”

Well I for one will be having a play shortly, and will let you know my vote…

Update 11.51am Tuesday 2nd September 2008

Phew -  whoever said that comic was 28 pages long was wrong - it’s over 30 and there is some serious stuff in there! Basically Google have completely rewritten web browsers as we know them! With each tab having it’s own controls and being quite independent. This gives advantages such as each being able to do it’s own thing at one, and if one crashes the others aren’t effected. They’ve also worked on V8 - to enable fast and efficient use of Javascript in web based applications.

Anywho - Google Chrome is going to be made available any minute now… or at any point during today anyway… just watch this space…

Wednesday 3rd Septemner 2008

Well I waited and waited yesterday until I had to go out - but I now this morning have Google Chrome running on my pc. And so far so good!It’s identifying my most commonly visited pages so that when I open a new tab I can just pick one of them if I wish. I can even slide each tab around to reorder them if I want. One of Google’s major claims is that the browser makes much better use of available memory - so time will tell on that one.

News reports (on TV last night and across the web) are saying this is Google challenging Microsoft. I think it’s more likely to be a challenge to Firefox - which is a shame, seeings they’ve worked well together for a while now (and I can already see Firefox 3 features in Chrome). I recently got a new PC (and am not finding vista as bad as I thought I might!) and it came with Google Desktop installed. So are Microsoft going to keep that allegiance with Google now? Apparently Google were always worried that Microsoft might bring out their own search engine and drive their users straight to it through IE and away from Google.

Whilst Jo Public seem to have an amazing dependence on Google (I am shocked by the amount of web users who believe the Google search box is the only way to access any website), they are also scared of ‘downloading’ anything. Or don’t see a change as necessary. We can see this from the number of existing IE6 users. I’ve got a laptop with IE6 on it that we keep for testing - but even I have to be careful not to accept the IE7 update that Microsoft keep offering. And yet, somehow, so many people do still resist it! So I’m really not sure what will win out - the Google brand, or the lazy and cautious public.

Also - does anyone actually  believe that Google ‘accidentally’ sent that email early?! The Google exec on the news last night, sheepishly explaining their school-boy error (”well we are only 10 years old, so we are a school boy”) did little to sway my thoughts about a pr stunt. 

Meanwhile, what will become of Firefox? The developers favourite. Whilst I’m sat here trying out Chrome (and also - I really don’t like the name!) I do feel pangs of guilt about my former favourite shortcut sitting unused on my desktop - my computer’s hardly ever on without Firefox being open. I feel Firefox - perhaps along with Safari a while ago - set the tone that IE wasn’t up to the job in todays world (in many cases). So I hope they continue to prosper and Google doesn’t take their recent world record title (most downloads in one day) away from them too soon!

We were extremely proud to be commissioned to build the website for the StreetChance supported by Barclays Spaces for Sports campaign recently; a partnership between Chance to shine, Barclays Spaces for Sports, Cricket for Change, Positive Futures and the Metropolitan Police Service. The initiative is a three year project, initially being delivered across ten London boroughs, using cricket to engage young people in areas affected by youth crime and anti-social behaviour.

But such a project means a press launch! At which time the website had to go live! So it was quite a nerve wracking few minutes as the seconds counted down to 10.00am on the morning in question. Everything was already to go - a simple ftp file-rename and it was all there… but I had visions of everyone at the official launch in London having their watches set a few minutes early, and turning to display the website to the national press… just to be greeted with a holding page.

But luckily that wasn’t the case at all! And since the launch the initiative and the website have received great feedback and compliments!

The entire site was put together in just under a week - which when images and content has to be sourced too, is quite a feat. Luckily the clients appreciated the tight deadline and the designers turned a great design around extremely quickly, giving us time to code it nice and neatly!

A few weeks ago I wrote about how Friends Reunited had announced their site is now free for users - in an attempt to catch up with Facebook I presumed.

Well I’ve just seen a TV ad for the ‘new Friends Reunited’ website on ITV! Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think this may be a first? A community site advertising on TV? Comparison sites have been doing it for ages, because there’s direct revenue available from visitors. However with community websites, whilst visitors = popularity = advertising revenue, there’s not the same direct correlation of clicks = pennies.

So are we in the middle of a user war between yesterday’s favourite site and the phenomenon that is Facebook? Or is there no war, and just desperation on the part of FR?

Personally I think, whilst they may be able to pull back some market share, they’ve left their comeback a bit late - about 12 - 18 months too late. Every day people from classes at school are sending me friend requests on FB. Even when I think ‘that’s it, surely there’s no one else from school that’s yet to join here’ someone else will pop up. Meanwhile I’ve had about one message sent to me on FR ever. So I think FB is the place to find old friends, whilst socialising with your current ones - 2 birds with one stone (although FB messages annoy me - send me an email! Then I can ‘reply to all’ without having to log in anywhere). A quick look at the new FR home page shows quick links to ‘RAF friends’ and ‘Navy friends’, which is instantly a way to appeal to a large number of people… but I bet these people have communities on FB already.

One point that must be mentioned that whilst FR are running an ad campaign on ITV - they are owned by the TV station - so I bet they got a good rate

Who else found an email in their inbox this morning, announcing FriendsReunited has gone completely free? The email says “[w]ith over 19 million members, we’re still the best place to find your old friends”. Hint of desperation there? Trying to remind us that there was a world before Facebook?

What with even Vodaphone launching a TV and billboard advertising campaign about free broadband so you “don’t get left in the dark” without access to Facebook, FriendsReunited obviously thought it was time to act - and who wants to pay to send messages to old friends when they can do it for free on another site? However - I’m shocked it’s taken them this long! FriendsReunited could have gone free a year ago, and still raked in a profit from advertising sales. Instead they’ve held out - maybe waiting for the Facebook bubble to burst, or maybe just too fond of their subscription based site. I hope for their sake they haven’t left it too late…

Axminster based salon BOLTS hair and body came to us for a website to match their new image. The company, formerly BOLTS hair design, added a beauty salon to pamper the senses, with holistic treatments such as Hot Stones Therapy, Indian Head Massage and Reflexology, along side more traditional body treatments such as massage, waxing and tanning. There’s also a special something for men who fancy a bit of TLC!

And now, celebrity client Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, is set to feature the salon in his TV show River Cottage Spring next week. Salon regular Hugh, visits the salon in the episode being aired next Wednesday, to have his hair cut, before taking Mandy Bolt and her team fishing!

My roots are in South Somerset, close to the Devon/Somerset border and my Mum lives very near River Cottage, so I’ll be tuning in to catch a glimpse of home! See the show on Wednesday 18th at 9pm on Channel 4.

Anyone else visit http://www.google.co.uk today and think their monitor was being screwwy?

The usually white background was black, with the text in white.

Apparently it was all part of Google’s attempt to raise the UK public’s attention to ‘Earth Hour’ and attempts at conserving engergy usage.

Earth Hour wants people across the globe to turn their lights off between 8pm and 9pm (local time) on Saturday March 29th. Cities all over the world are also holding events to show their commitment to energy conservation. http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en_uk/earthhour/

Google state on the page linked to above, that whilst they’ve ‘turned the lights out’ to raise awareness of the issue, there’s no actually benefit to giving Google a black background generally as contemporary monitors use the same amount of energy regardless of what they display.

And for all your web developers with a great idea that’ll help save the world… Google are taking suggestions for other campaigns to back/promote; just drop them an email.

18a have recently acquired the site wrongwrite.com - “part education, part therapy. We uncover grammatical and spelling errors on commercial signage and advertising, and share it with our loyal readers”.

So hop over and check it out - and keep us in mind next time you see a shocking typo or atrocious grammatical error from those who should know better!

www.wrongwrite.com

Only a couple of months ago 18a Productions opened a business bank account with HSBC. They seemed as good as anyone else, and we’d heard good reports. And out of the 2 banks only a short walk away, they were the ones who returned our call, unlike Barclays.

After a couple of meetings with a less than alert Bank Manager, who knew less about interest rates than we did - it was open.

So I was less than amused earlier today to call in - and queue as usual - only to see a sign saying that our branch is closing on the 1st February 2008! (The ‘8′ of 2008 was written in permanent marker on the glossy printed poster - very professional - almost as bad as Tesco). You’re not telling me they didn’t know about that planned closure when we opened our account 2 months ago?! When we stated we were opening an account with them because the branch was so handy?! I was given a list of alternative branches - all a drive or a 45 minute walk away. So much for “The World’s Local Bank”!

And seeings you ALWAYS have to queue in there, it’s not like they’ve got a lack of demand!

This is just the latest in our string of problems with HSBC -
When the paper work started arriving for our new account - the company names they were coming up with ranged from silly to absurd. Sometimes using my Surname, sometimes using Tom’s name and the 1st 3 letters of mine! No mention of 18a Productions anywhere!

The worst, which used my Surname twice on following lines, was on a Customer Services Questionnaire! Needless to say they’re getting an interesting reply!

This was all after we were informed we HAD to take out a Company Charge card - like a credit card. We didn’t want to but were told we had no choice if we wished to proceed with the account - and seeings we’d already wasted hours with the dopey bank manager, we agreed rather than start again down the road. It was fine - because the card was free… this year. There would be a charge however after the 1st year… a charge for each card and we had to have 2. Bringing the total to £80 for something we didn’t want! So as soon as we’d left the bank we had to ring up and go through the process of canceling the card, which we could do at any stage - but wanted to do it whilst it was fresh in our minds rather than forget and get charged in 12 months… like they hope you’ll do.

So now we’re faced with closing that account and opening one with Barclays afterall - or only being able to visit the bank when we have a couple of hours to spare!

From working in PR and updating websites 24/7 (or so it seems sometimes!) I’ve developed a keen eye for typos. But I don’t think it even takes a ‘keen’ eye to spot this striking blunder on a banner outside a Tesco store in South Somerset! A blunder that’s very likely to have been replicated outside every Tesco in the land on New Year’s Eve!

The banner reads: “You’re local Express Store will be open as normal” - but the incorrect use of an apostrophe makes this banner actually read “You are local Express Store…”!

We were amazed that the graphic designers/printers let this one slip through the net! And that Tesco went ahead and used the banner - as surely it must have been detected at some stage before it was distributed to stores, mustn’t it?! You don’t need to be a proof reader to spot this one!

Please note: Any typographical or grammatical errors in this blog article are purely for comic effect.

We’ve just heard that a new malware (software designed to infiltrate and/or damage a computer) is spreading like wildfire through MSN Messenger.

The Trojan is an IRC bot which sends itself in a .zip file, either as a file including the word ‘pics’ with a double extension executable (DSC00432.jpg.exe) or with the name ‘images’ as a .pif executable (IMG34814.pif).

It was first detected on Sunday 18th November - and was found to be spreading at the rate of several hundred machines per hour. As well as being spread by unknown users, the Trojan is also able to pass itself on as if being sent by known contacts.

You can read more about it here.