Userfriendly today nicely sums up my reactions to Google Chrome.

Today, Google release a beta of their new browser software, Chrome. Like Mozilla Firefox, it will be Open Source.

This comic strip explains the concepts behind it. The ideas look good, very solid.

There is the possibility of ‘Browser Wars’ re-erupting - but if they do, I don’t see it repeating MSIE/Netscape, as there new features were introduced ad-hoc. There is more emphasis today on being standards compliant - and this is a good thing. I don’t imagine that Google would want to promote non-standard html code, it’d make their core business more difficult - and so another standard compliant browser out there will be a kick to MSIE to get those remaining issues quashed (especially with CSS).

The bigger risk is google being too big, too powerful and breaking their ‘don’t be evil’ motto (some would say ‘too late’). Fingers in too many pies and all that. Whilst Chrome has the potential to squash all before it - I don’t get that vibe at the moment. Let’s see how things develop.

Links:

• Dotlife
• BlogScoped
• ZDNet
• Slashdot
• Blogscoped (Screenshots)
• TechCrunch
• Technologizer
• Rough Type
• Download Squad

Most people seeing this will already know - but if you don’t, this is a good intro:

As I’ve said before, I like Google Reader - but whatever reader you use, you might like to use the feeds for this site:

• All Entries :
  
• All Comments :
  
• Things I’ve Seen :
  

With regard to Google Mapmaker I’ve done a before and after shot of the area around Reykjavïk. On the left is the shot of google maps as it stood a few minutes ago. Blank.

On the right is mapmaker - the data here, once it is more consistent and complete should find its way over to google maps proper.

Google has opened up its mapping software for certain areas. It can be a little clunky at times (the list of edits I’ve made isn’t exhaustive, if something is awaiting moderation it cannot be tweaked easily and so on). It’s not always clear what the road classifications are supposed to be - but I’m working on the basis that if I put in a best guess, it can always be tweaked if not quite right.

Nevertheless, it can be fun, as well as useful (I’ve been mapping Iceland, I’ve done a lake, Klerfarvatn, a glacier, and lots of roads concentrating around the Blue Lagoon and Grindav&iaciute;k in the south west). Some of my changes have been accepted immediately, some depend on other changes, and so are pending, and some are in moderation awaiting checking.

Maps are currently editable in a few areas, probably selected for the lack of existing map features, so if the mapping experiment fails, google can delete the mapping info and be back to where they started.

The areas editable right now are: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cyprus, Grenada, Iceland, Jamaica, Netherlands Antilles, Pakistan, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Vietnam.

Even changes which are approved take a little while to be rendered and appear on the maps - this is especially true for some large features.