Tech wrap: Google bypassed Safari privacy settings
Google landed in hot water over revelations that the search giant and ad companies had bypassed the privacy settings of millions of people using Apple’s Safari Web browser, using special computer code that tracked their movements online. Stanford researcher Jonathan Mayer discovered the code. Subsequently, a technical adviser to the Wall Street Journal found that ads on 22 of the top 100 websites installed the Google tracking code on a test computer, and ads on 23 sites installed it on an iPhone browser. Google disabled the code after being contacted by the Journal, the newspaper said, and Google issued a statement, saying: “The Journal mischaracterizes what happened and why. We used known Safari functionality to provide features that signed-in Google users had enabled. It’s important to stress that these advertising cookies do not collect personal information.”
Apple’s share of China’s booming smartphone market slipped for a second straight quarter in October-December, as it lost ground to cheaper local brands and as some shoppers held off until after the iPhone 4S launch last month. While Apple regained its top spot as the world’s largest smartphone vendor in the fourth quarter and for last year as a whole, it slipped to 5th place in China. In the last quarter, Samsung knocked Nokia off the top slot, taking 24.3 percent of the market, more than three times Apple’s share, data from research firm Gartner showed.
A British student, who hacked into Facebook’s internal network risking “disastrous” consequences for the website, was jailed for eight months in what prosecutors described as the most serious case of its kind they had seen. Glenn Mangham, 26, a software development student, admitted infiltrating Facebook from his bedroom at his parents’ house in York in northern England last year, sparking fears at the company that it was dealing with major industrial espionage.
Foxconn, the top maker of Apple’s iPhones and iPads whose factories are under scrutiny over labor practices, has raised wages of its Chinese workers by 16-25 percent from this month, the third rise since 2010. In a statement, Taiwan-based Foxconn said the pay of a junior level worker in Shenzhen, southern China, had risen to 1,800 yuan ($290) per month and could be further raised above 2,200 yuan if the worker passed a technical examination.
Google makes a TV ad
Google built its business on the advertising shift from traditional media, like TV and newspapers, to the Internet.
But as Google strives to jump-start its fledgling Chrome Web browser, the company apparently still sees value in good old-fashioned mediums like broadcast television.
Google said it would begin advertising Chrome on various TV networks beginning this weekend.
The TV spot will raise awareness of its browser, Google explained in a posting on its blog on Friday, “and also help us better understand how television can supplement our other online media campaigns.”
The Chrome browser, which Google released last year, is a distant No.4 among Web browsers with a scant 1.4 percent market share in April, according to Net Applications. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer rules the roost with a 66.1 percent share, followed by the Firefox browser and Apple’s Safari browser, respectively.
The Chrome TV ad, which Google said was made by a team of its employees in Japan, is a whimsical stop-motion-like animation in which the Chrome logo bounces around a box of woodblocks.
The 30-second ad, which has music but no spoken words, finishes with the simple message “Install Google Chrome.”
I didn’t get it. Stick to an ad on http://www.google.com. That I got and installed it.
Google’s Chrome out of beta, but only Windows-friendly
Google has decided its Chrome Web browser is all grown up-or. Or at least it has outgrown its beta label.
Google launched its fifteenth release of Chrome on Thursday morning, marking the browser’s first step outside the test phase. After absorbing 101 days of user feedback, Google says the latest version is equipped with improved audio and video performance, bookmark features and privacy controls.
Google tests show Chrome runs 1.5 times faster than when the browser first launched in September, according to a Google spokesperson.
Chrome is Google’s head-on challenge to Apple’s Safari, Mozilla’s Firefox and, of course, Microsoft’s juggernaut Internet Explorer, which has over 70 percent of the browser market. Chrome has 10 million active users world wide, according to Google.
If you’re a Mac user, you’ll still have to wait to use Chrome (or snag one of your friends’ Windows-supported laptops in the meantime), which makes it curious that Google took Chrome out of its beta phase so soon. The Internet giant is working hard to release a Mac and Linux version of Chrome as soon as possible, according to the Google spokesperson.
It’s still unclear if Chrome has the heft to overcome its rivals, but the browser is off to a good start as it took 1 percent of the global browser market within a day of its launch, according to Web traffic analysis company StatCounter. Chrome is likely to get a boost in traffic once its Mac version is released.
Now that Chrome is out of its beta phase, do you think it will threaten Microsoft’s dominance in the browser market? And, most importantly, will you switch from your current browser to Chrome?
Chrome is a nice concept. I’m using it every day for work without problems. Much faster than FF.
