By David Wang
May 21, 2010

By Erik Larkin
February 1, 2009

By Ian Paul
November 19, 2009

Google will finally take the wrapper off its highly-anticipated Chrome operating system during a presentation at Google HQ on Thursday. The event will include a complete overview of the product featuring a Chrome OS demonstration and Q&A session. Sundar Pichai, Google’s vice president of product management and Matthew Papakipos, Google engineering director for Google Chrome OS, will speak at the event, according to TechCrunch.

Thursday’s presentation will provide at least some answers to the many questions gone unanswered since Google announced the project in July. I have no doubt Google’s event will inspire more questions than it answers, but at least it’s a start. Here’s what we’re likely to find out:

How Long Until Liftoff?
Part of Google’s presentation on Thursday should include more information about when the OS will be available to consumers. It’s possible Google will remain silent, and stick to its “second half of 2010″ statement that we got earlier this year. But I’m hoping the company will be able to narrow it down to a particular month or at least a season.

What the Heck is Google Chrome OS?
Despite hyperbolic statements that Google dropped a nuclear bomb on Microsoft with its Chrome OS announcement, the fact is no one really knows what this system can do. Questions about Google Chrome OS’s capabilities should disappear on Thursday. We should also find out whether Chrome OS is just another Linux distribution or something entirely new.

Where Do Developers Fit in?
Part of Google’s promise when it announced Chrome OS is that it would make the operating system’s code open source by the end of the year. If Google makes good on its promise tomorrow, where will developers fit into Google’s ecosystem?

Google is making strides to involve developers in creating Google Chrome extensions and Google Wave applications. But an operating system that will supposedly change everything should present new opportunities for developers. What will those be? Is Google hoping its developer community will simply help the company improve the OS, or does Google have a more interesting plan in the works?

What’s Up With the Hardware?
When Google starts the Chrome OS demo on Thursday, everyone will want to know what kind of computer is running the OS, and when we can expect to see consumer products on store shelves.

We already know that some of Google’s Chrome OS partners include Acer, ASUS, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, and Toshiba, but when will we see some merchandise and what will it be? Google said Chrome OS will be available on netbooks to start, but what about the specs? For instance, does Google believe a Web-centric netbook should come with a lot of storage space? Does it even need a hard drive? What about RAM or optical disc drives?

Wave and Microsoft
I’m also interested to see if Google highlights Chrome OS’s integration with Google Wave. As anybody who’s on Wave can tell you, Google Wave is the coolest spot on the Web, but there’s not much to do right now. How important is this revamped e-mail project to Google, and how will Chrome OS complement it?

We should also get a sense of how Chrome OS might fare against Windows. Who knows — Microsoft may even issue a statement about it. Let’s be honest; it’s laughable to think the most dominant operating system since the human brain is going to be upended by a fancy Web browser. But hey, you never know.

Chrome OS Doubts
Although a lot of excitement surrounds Chrome OS, I can’t help thinking the importance of this product is already overblown. I mean, if you wanted a lightweight operating system that just gets to the Web faster, why not pick up a copy of Linux, and just run Firefox on it? If you want one-click shortcuts to get to specific Web apps you can use Mozilla’s Prism for that. You’ll also have access to a huge library of Firefox add-ons to enhance your browsing experience.

Will Chrome OS be any different than what I’ve described above? Maybe a little, but I’m not getting my hopes up for Thursday’s announcement. What about you?

By JR Raphael
November 3, 2009

Watch out, Vista: Windows 7 may soon put your sales to shame.

Microsoft’s new operating system is showing strong early growth compared to past releases, some new data suggests. About 3.6% of Net-connected computers were sporting Windows 7 over the weekend — less than two weeks after its launch — according to the analysts at Net Applications.

Windows 7 Market Share
For only 10 days into Windows 7′s life, 3.6% isn’t too shabby of a number. Compare for yourself: More than a month after its debut, Vista claimed only 2.04% of the operating system market, gauging by Net Applications’ measurements at the time. It didn’t hit 3.74% until May of 2007, four months into its release. And that’s following a launch absolutely jam-packed with “wow.”

Granted, the new Win 7 data is based only on computers that accessed the Web over Saturday and Sunday, and that number may rise or fall as the week moves forward. Still, it’s the first time the software has cracked the 3% mark, so it’s a milestone well worth noting.

Personally, I suspect all those wild Windows 7 launch parties had something to do with it. Plus, you’ve gotta imagine plenty of people dressed up as “unspecified errors” for Halloween — that’s free marketing right there.
All joking aside, though, let’s hope the “Save Vista” campaigns don’t kick in anytime soon.

By Rick Broida
October 29, 2009

Although I’ve been playing with Windows 7 for a couple months now, I’m not quite ready to dive in. I want to make gradual move, keeping my Vista-based PC up and running while I transition to the new OS. Why? I have my reasons. For one thing, I don’t want any driver- or software-related surprises–or worse. Early upgraders are already reporting issues; read “Windows 7 Upgrade Woes Mount: Endless Reboots and Product Key Problems” for a look at what’s been going on.

What’s more, I don’t have a full afternoon to devote to the tedious process of offloading my data, installing Windows 7, reinstalling all my apps, restoring the data, and so on and so on.

So I’ve come up with a plan. Instead of wiping my system for a fresh install or doing an in-place upgrade from Vista to 7, I’m getting the best of both worlds. First, I partitioned my hard drive–which, thankfully, has more than enough room to accommodate both Vista and Windows 7. Then I loaded Windows 7 onto the new partition, which gave me a fresh install (always the best approach, in my humble opinion).

After that, I need to make sure Windows 7 works well with all my hardware. Assuming it does, I’ll start installing the apps I use daily and copying over my data from the Vista partition. Eventually, after a few weeks (or even months), I’ll remove the Vista partition. I’ll need to figure out how to make 7 the primary partition so I don’t run into boot issues, but that’s a problem for a much later day. This week I’ll tell you how I set up a new hard-drive partition and installed Windows 7.

Partitioning Your Drive
So my first step was partitioning the hard drive. Vista has a built-in partitioning tool; Windows XP users will need Easeus Partition Manager, a free utility, or another third-party tool.

Keep in mind that this approach requires a reasonably large drive, preferably one with at least 50GB of free space–more if you have a lot of video files and other data you’ll be copying over from the old partition. On my system, which has a 750GB drive, I created a 300GB partition for Windows 7. Here’s how to do that:

1. To create a new partition in Vista, click the Start button, type diskmgmt.msc, and press Enter to open the Disk Management utility.
2. In the Volume column, find your C: drive, right-click it, and choose Shrink Volume.
3. Vista will calculate how much “shrinkage” is allowed. And here’s where you may run into trouble. My 750GB drive had close to 400GB free, but Disk Management was willing to shrink the partition by only about 80GB. I turned to PerfectDisk, a drive-defragmenting utility that can perform the all-important function of moving system files to the beginning of the partition, thus freeing up much more of the available space.
4. With that step done (or not, if you’re okay with Vista’s default findings), enter a size for your new volume (I entered 300000 for 300GB, for example) and click OK. After a few minutes, Disk Management will show you a new space on your drive, labeled “Unallocated.”
5. Right-click Unallocated, choose New Simple Volume, and then follow the steps indicated by the utility.

When you’re done, you’ll have a brand spankin’ new partition that’s ready to receive Windows 7.

Installing Windows 7 on the Partition
Now it’s time to install Windows 7. This part was easy: All I did was reboot my PC with my Windows 7 disc in the drive, then follow the boot-screen option, “Press any key to boot from CD.”

If you don’t see a similar option upon booting, you may need to venture into the BIOS to change the boot order, with your CD/DVD drive ahead of the hard drive. Consult your system manual if you don’t know how to do that.

Once the Windows 7 installer starts running, just follow the prompts–making sure to choose the Custom option when asked which type of installation you want. Next, you’ll have to choose where to install Windows 7. Select New Simple Volume, which is the partition you created previously.

Now go get a cup of coffee. My install went pretty quickly–about 20 minutes in all–but yours could take twice as long depending on the speed of your system.

When it’s all done and you restart your PC, you’ll see a menu with two boot options: Windows 7 and your previous version of Windows. Choose the former to start working with the new OS, the latter when you need to get back to your stuff.

In the coming weeks I’ll talk about reinstalling software, migrating data, and more.

By Chris Brandrick
October 3, 2009

Google has come a long way in its eleven-year history, from its humble beginning as a Stanford University research project in 1998, to the global, multi-billion dollar online presence Google enjoys today.

Earlier this week, the company celebrated its 11th birthday and choose to mark the occasion with an all new Google Doodle, a fun take on their colorful identity. The unique logo illustrated Google’s eleven years in operation by adding an extra L to the company’s name to form a number eleven.

Google’s actual founding date is subject to debate. There are those who think that Google should bring out the cake on the September 4, the day in 1998 that Google filed its incorporation papers and officially became Google, Inc. Still others think that Google should recognize September 15, 1997 as its founding date, as that is when Google registered the google.com domain. But despite the debate, Google has celebrated its anniversary on September 27 for the past few years now, making the date somewhat official.

Any birthday offers the perfect opportunity to reflect on the past, so just what has Google been up to in the last eleven years?

Early Days: 1998
With 1997 behind them, founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin dropped the original BackRub moniker in favor of Google, a play on the mathematical term “googol.” With the Google.com domain registered and a healthy $100,000 investment from Sun co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim, the two Stanford students rented out a $1,700 a month garage space in California’s Menlo Park.

With a makeshift office in place, Google made it official and filed for incorporation as “Google Technology Inc” on September 4, 1998. As the rest of year played out, Google began to receive positive support in the press, and the company also hired their first employee, Craig Silverstein.

Money And Moving: 1999
Thanks to its growing workforce, the fledgling company moved twice in 1999. Google outgrew its modest garage and relocated briefly to a more suitable location in Palo Alto. In June, the company released its very first press release, detailing how the firm had secured $25 million of funding.

During the second half of the year, as the company reached forty employees, Google moved once again to offices in Mountain View, with an in-house chef included. This year also saw Google drop the exclamation mark from their logo and settling with its now world-famous branding.

Growth & Expansion: 2000
2000 was a year of growth, as along with the search engine reaching a milestone of one billion pages indexed, the website also expanded to support over fifteen languages including Chinese, French, German, Japanese and more.

How things change. This year (2000) also saw Yahoo! reveal that they will be using Google as their default search provider. At the time this was a big deal, as Yahoo! was once one of the darlings of search, which Google had originally set their eyes on to compete with; mission accomplished? Of course today paints a very different picture as now both Yahoo! and Microsoft are collectively attempting to compete with the search giant that Google has become.

Before the year was out Google also found time to launch the immensely successful AdWords program, and their Toolbar browser plug-in. With the year drawing to a close it was pretty clear that the search engine was on a meteoric rise, as Google was now handling nearly 100 million search queries a day.

Going Global: 2001
With the search engine now available in over twenty-five languages, it only seemed right that the company would expand on a global level with the opening of its first international office in Tokyo. 2001 also saw Google hire ex-Novell chief executive Eric Schmidt, who started at Google as the Chairman of the Board, before quickly moving on to become the CEO.

With the Google search index approaching three billion webpages, it seemed the perfect time to tackle a new type of search: Images. Google launched its Image Search service in July, and initially had an index of over 250 million images.

Getting Geeky: 2002
The year 2002 saw Google launch a range of new products, including the shopping tool Froogle, the experimental Google Labs, and the popular Google News service, a product of the company’s so-called “twenty percent time“. Geeky Google also decided to offer a Klingon translation of the site for all those Star Trek fans out there, bringing the total number of supports languages to over seventy. Spiderman, Warcraft 3 and pop star Shakira were amongst the most common search terms of the year.

The Written Word: 2003
2003 was one verbose year for the search-engine giant. It began in February when Google acquired Pyra Labs, creators of the Blogger service, which allowed the masses to publish their thoughts online with ease. Soon after the acquisition, Google’s company name was announced as a recognized verb, to “google it” had become synonymous with search, however Google strived to steer clear of dictonaries and protect their strong brand.

In December the controversial Google Print was launched: Now known as Google Book Search, the service allows users to view excerpts from thousands of books in digital form. Classic books and their film adaptations, such as Lord Of The Rings and Harry Potter, were some of the most searched for terms on Google in 2003.

Email, Google Style: 2004
Without a doubt 2004 biggest Google news was the introduction of Gmail. The beta launched on April Fools Day, but Google made sure that Gmails was no joke, offering a then-unheard-of 1GB of storage along with a speedy user experience and the beauty of Google’s search technology built right in to your inbox. The service launched as a strictly invite-only affair, which resulted in an online gold rush of those hoping to land an invitation. After five years, Gmail finally disposed of its beta status early in June of 2009.

2004 also saw Google move to its Mountain View, California “Googleplex” headquarters, where the company still resides today. In addition, Google opened a research and development center in Tokyo and a European headquarters in Dublin, Ireland. With over three thousand employees, a range or products under its belt and over eight billion items in its search index Google’s growth continued to amaze.

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By Chris Brandrick
October 3, 2009

Mapping The World: 2005
In 2005, Google’s ongoing effort to organize the world’s information continued as they released Google Maps. Since then, Google has continually improved the mapping service, adding new features such as satellite views and directions, as well as increasing the number of new searchable locations. Google Earth, a 3D satellite photography-based mapping application, soon followed, further complimenting Google’s range of location services.

2005 also saw the release of the iGoogle customizable home page, Google Reader RSS feed manager and Google Analytics. Optimized mobile versions of Gmail, Blogger, and Search were also released.

Oh, and could you imagine naming your newborn baby “Google”? It happened.

A Message From Chad & Steve: 2006

Ending months of speculation, in late 2006 Google finally revealed that they had bought online video site YouTube in a massive $1.65 billion stock transaction.

The Growth Continues: 2007
The year started with Google expanding into new territories once again, with Google Maps making its way to Australia and the Google Docs suite of tools being made available in several additional languages. Gmail was also made available to all, no longer requiring an invitation.

The biggest innovation from Google in 2007 was the addition of street level photography to Google Maps. Dubbed Street View, the service lets you view and explore a number of US locations at street level. Naturally, Street View’s introduction caused some controversy as it raised quite a few privacy concerns.

Popular search terms in 2007 included the iPhone, Facebook and Second Life. Since Google acquired YouTube in 2006, the popular video site has grown into an outright juggernaut: Even the Queen of England has her own YouTube channel.

Going Full Circle: 2008
Last year Google celebrated their tenth year in operation, and showed no signs of slowing down. The company released its first iPhone application, expanded Street View’s coverage to include a number of additional countries, revealed a new version of its Picasa photo management app, and launched Knol, a Wikipedia-type service.

In its biggest move of the year, Google announced that it would enter the browser wars with its own take on the humble Web browser. The open source Google Chrome appeared in September of last year, and featured a minimalist interface and home page with shortcuts to frequently visited pages–features that have made their way into other browsers since then.

Later in the year, Google’s foray into software continued as the first ever cell phone to use Android, Google’s open-source mobile OS, hit the scene.

Google At Present: 2009

2009 has been a busy year so far for Google, and it isn’t over yet. So far Google has added offline access to Gmail, introduced its Latitude location service, taken you to Mars with a new version of Google Earth, and re-launched the GrandCentral phone service as Google Voice in the US, to name but a few things.

Google also unveiled its Wave service in May of this year. Wave combines a range of communication and social networking activities into a single web application and is expected to be available to the masses later this year.

The biggest news from Google this year came when the firm announced that it plans to release an operating system. Google Chrome OS is expected to land next year, and will initially be aimed at low end devices such as netbooks. Several hints at what the OS could look like have leaked online, but Google have yet to comment on any supposed screenshots.

A rumored screenshot of Google’s Chrome operating system.

What Does The Future Hold?
With eleven years behind them, Google is still innovating and tweaking. What we can expect next from the search giant is anyone’s guess, but in the immediate future we can look forward to taking Chrome OS for a spin, trying out new versions of Android, and watching countless videos on YouTube.

Just be sure to remember this, Google: Don’t be evil. Please.