Here is a video I did while I was attending and liveblogging the Google launch of and press conference for its new “not-a-Windows-killer” Chrome browser, held at its Mountain View, Calif., HQ yesterday morning.
Google released its own software to navigate the Internet yesterday, setting itself up for yet another bruising competition with Microsoft.
See Googlers, snacks and more…
BoomTown is back from a seasick cruise vacation in the wilds of Alaska–official sightings: lots of icebergs, 16 glaciers, a passel of jellyfish and starfish, four lumberjacks, three orcas, two seals, one otter, no moose or bears and, yep, one Republican Vice Presidential candidate’s lovely house in Juneau–just in time for school.
Or, more precisely, a little schooling for some of the tech companies that I cover in a mildly obsessive-compulsive manner.
All of them, I predict, are in for a news-filled fall.
Thus, here is a rundown of what to expect and also what some of those companies need to focus on over the next several months.
Later this morning, the media circus has been summoned to the Googleplex in Mountain View for a look-see at Google’s new Chrome browser and a chitchat with Google about the meaning of it all.
(Also, a 100 percent chance of both free comics and tasty organic snacks too!)
And Chrome, the shiny code name of the project, which stuck as the brand name, will also be going out to the world at large right after that.
BoomTown will be doing a video report, of course. But, until then, I have decided to forgo writing the expected long, long, long, long what-the-new-Google-browser-represents-for-geekkind thumbsucker for a much shorter version.
As was reported earlier today by BoomTown, Google confirmed on its blog that it will launch its new Chrome browser tomorrow.
Google said it would be launching Chrome in 100 countries, but but will only be available in beta in Windows (Google said Mac and Linux versions were coming soon).
The move by the search giant, although the blog does not say so, is clearly a direct shot over the bow of Microsoft, which dominates the browser market with 74 percent share.
Here is the full blog post by Sundar Pichai, VP Product Management at Google, and Linus Upson, Engineering Director.
BoomTown was all busy trying to think of execs to replace Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, as pressure mounts on him to right the troubled Internet company.
But now, Yang’s position feels safer than ever and it’s his nemesis–Microsoft–that needs a new leader for its long-stumbling online services business.
Microsoft is already been cracking, according to sources, with a wish list of internal and external candidates that CEO Steve Ballmer is now considering.
BoomTown is flatly fascinated by the rather incredible memo Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer penned to his troops yesterday, with news of the reorganization of its massive Platforms and Services Division and the departure of its president, Kevin Johnson.
In it, in a very rare public airing of its less-clean laundry, Ballmer actually named Microsoft’s two major rivals, Apple and Google, in a somewhat positive light, while still vowing to best them.
Here is the full memo Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer sent out to the troops about the big changes in its organization, including the departure of Platform and Services Division President Kevin Johnson, in which he addresses Apple, Yahoo, Google and more.
Kevin Johnson, the point person for Microsoft’s failed bid to buy Yahoo, is leaving the company to run Juniper Networks.
As the president of its Platform and Services Division, the smooth Johnson has been trying, without much success, to beef up the software giant’s efforts in the Web space, especially in the online advertising arena.
Sitting at the Senate hearings about the Yahoo-Google ad search deal this morning in Washington, D.C., let it first be said that BoomTown is deeply dubious of whether that it is a good thing for consumers and advertisers, as both Internet companies have asserted.
But this was my most certain conclusion:
The worst case scenario is actually for politicians to meddle in the Internet space with their largely Web-ignorant mitts.
But that’s just me!
Just prior to Microsoft’s annual advertising conference advance08, Kevin Johnson, President of the company’s Platforms & Services Division, sent the following strategy update to PSD employees.
Lots of people were bellyaching about the lackluster nature of Bill Gates’s final performance at CES last night–long on deals and stats and short on the futuristic predictions Gates often makes.
Digital Daily’s John Paczkowski was unimpressed, as were Duncan Riley of TechCrunch and ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley, for example.
But, to my mind, giving the Microsoft [...]
Here is the entire interview Steve Jobs did with Walt Mossberg on May 30 at D5 in Carlsbad, Calif. For those who have not seen the Apple CEO in action, this is a good opportunity.
Among the wide range of topics: the iPhone, of course, and Jobs talked a lot about it; Apple growth since the [...]
We’re as busy as can be as our setup for the D: All Things Digital conference moves into overdrive. Aside from building the stage and the risers for the seating, we are also sorting through all the complicated audio-visual elements of the show.
But we also have to focus a lot on a major new element [...]
Kara Swisher started covering digital issues for The Wall Street Journal's San Francisco bureau in 1997 and also wrote the BoomTown column about the sector. With Walt Mossberg, she co-produces and co-hosts D: All Things Digital, a major high-tech and media conference. Read more »
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
D is unlike any other executive conference. Since its debut in 2003, D has brought to life the energy and excitement of the digital revolution in an unscripted, upfront and unparalleled way. Read more »
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