W3Galaxy Network

Google announces new operating system based on Google Chrome. the new operating system, aptly named Google Chrome OS, will be an open-source operating system initially geared toward netbooks, Google announced in a blog posting late Tuesday evening.

Google claims the new operating system, which should ship on netbooks starting in the second half of next year, will be “lightweight” and heavily Web-centric.

With Chrome OS, Google plans to follow the same formula it used with its browser: “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,” Google stated in its announcement. “The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web.”

Google will also make security a high priority with Chrome. The company notes it will be “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.” As you might assume, that is a pretty ambitious goal, considering every current operating system sees its fair share of security flaws and patches.  Chrome OS will run on x86-based PCs, as well as machines built around the ARM processor

Microsoft’s Bing search engine aims to rival Google

Microsoft stepped up its efforts to cut into the search dominance of Google, launching a public preview version of its widely praised Bing search site on Monday.

The site offers several features that are not automatically available on Google such as instant excerpts that allow users to see the contents of a page without actually clicking on it and a sidebar detailing related searches.

The Bing home page is also fancier than Google’s famously spare design and shows a picture of hot air balloons flying over a craggy desert landscape in Cappadocia, Turkey. Like Google, the page offers links to specific search categories like news, video, shopping, maps and travel, and also includes a link to Microsoft’s cash-back search rewards programme.

Microsoft currently trails far behind Google in the search market, which is the most lucrative advertising format on the internet. Google has 64 per cent of the US market, compared to 21 per cent for Yahoo and just eight per cent for Microsoft, according to recent figures from web tracking firm Comscore.

The Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, first unveiled Bing last Thursday at a California technology conference and the early reactions have been very positive.

Google’s experimental Gmail Labs has many free features users can add to the e-mail service. But that doesn’t mean all of them are cutting-edge.

A Google software engineer wrote in a blog post announcing latest Labs feature: the ability to insert images directly in the body of an e-mail.

Most e-mail services have offered this capability for years, but Google Gmail users had to settle for sending images as attachments.

Now, however, once Labs users have activated the “Inserting images” feature, they can insert images in two ways, either uploading image files from their computers or pasting in an image URL.

Users can activate Labs features by enabling them within Gmail’s Settings.

US software giant Google said it had removed several images from its Street View software, which allows web surfers to view parts of 25 British cities, after users raised privacy concerns.

Street View displays 360-degree ground-level images captured by roaming cars using digital photography equipment.

The cars began taking images last summer, and continue to capture images across the country, allowing the service to expand after its launch here on Thursday.

Just 24 hours after its release in Britain, however, Google said it had removed several pictures, including ones that users found embarrassing, such as one of a man leaving a sex shop in central London’s Soho neighbourhood, or another one of a man vomiting outside a pub in the east of the British capital.

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