Chrome surges past Firefox to become world's no. 2 Internet browser

Google's Chrome has surpassed Mozilla's Firefox to become the world's number two Internet browser, behind Microsoft's Internet Explorer, reveals the latest stats released by StatCounter. According to the Ireland-based research firm, Chrome grabbed 25.69 per cent of the total market share in November, while Firefox managed a share of 25.3 per cent. It's notable it is the first time when Chrome has edged Firefox in the browser popularity wars. Both the browsers trail Microsoft's Internet Explorer, which has a 40.63 per cent of the market share worldwide.

"We can look forward to a fascinating battle between Microsoft and Google as the pace of growth of Chrome suggests that it will become a real rival to Internet Explorer globally," says Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter in a blog post. "Our stats measure actual browser usage, not downloads, so while Chrome has been highly effective in ensuring downloads our stats show that people are actually using it to access the web also."

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Going by the StatCounter's stats, this is a massive accomplishment for the Google Chrome, which was launched just three years ago. It's notable that other browser, Opera, has been making efforts for a long time to join the top league but still has managed less than 2 per cent of the market share worldwide.

Net Applications' stats, however, suggest that Chrome needs to do a bit of work before grabbing the number two spot. According its stats, Firefox took home 22.14 per cent of the global share, while Chrome managed 18.18 per cent.

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Google Chrome had hit 25% global market share milestone in September this year. The StatCounter stats revealed then Chrome had 25.02 per cent of market share, trailing Firefox's 30 per cent and Internet Explorer's 45 per cent. It was then speculated that Chrome would easily surpass Firefox in a month or so.

Microsoft Internet Explorer is at the top spot for now. In a blog post, Microsoft claims that the IE9 usage share on Windows 7 worldwide is higher than all the versions of Chrome and all versions of Firefox, trailing only to IE9.

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Top 10 Most Followed Google Plus Brand Pages !!

Google plus brand pages has been launched on 7th Nov this year and is received well by various organisations and websites and the reason is that Pages for Google Plus also boast some advantages when it comes to search-engine optimization.

Here we have a list of top 10 most followed Google plus pages according to Social Statistics.

Although Android is the Most followed page on Google Plus and have 130241 followers whereas Facebook Most liked page is Facebook itself and have 56,131,564 likes till the post was written.

Still, A long way to go for Google Plus.

Google+ Brand Pages: Multi-Admin Capability Coming Soon, Before 2012 !!

Google+ will allow multiple admins to manage a brand page “before 2012,” Kristoffer Sorensen, said on in a live Q&A on Wednesday. Kristoffer Sorensen is a Google marketing strategist.

Currently, brand pages can have only one admin. This is something really annoying if a page is managed by more than one person.

Google+ post 

Multi-admin feature is surely gonna help Google+ brand page as this facility is something that Facebook pages already have and till now Google plus don't.

Another missing feature in Google plus Pages is that they can't be merged but two Facebook pages can be merged. Let's hope for this feature in future.

What else you are hoping from Google plus ?

Facebook Status Characters Limit Increased from 5k to 60k !!

Facebook announced that that the limit of Status updates has now been increased to more than 60,000 characters in a Post on Facebook News page.

You can now update your status in not more than 63,206 characters.

• Until March 2009, the limit was "Twitter’s limit + 20 more characters" ie 160 characters. 
• 420 characters after March 2009
• 500 characters after July 2011
• 5000 characters after September 2011
• 63206 characters after Nov 2011

That is how a status update with 60,000 characters looks like.

Most Shared Articles on Facebook in 2011 !!

Facebook recently looked at the most shared articles in the US on Facebook over the past year and released a list of 40 most shared articles in the year 2011 on Facebook + Media page.

Have a look at 40 Best ways to surf the net.

1. Satellite Photos of Japan, Before and After the Quake and Tsunami
(New York Times) 
2. What teachers really want to tell parents (CNN) 
3. No, your zodiac sign hasn't changed (CNN) 
4. Parents, don't dress your girls like tramps (CNN) 
5. (video) - Father Daughter Dance Medley (Yahoo)
6. At funeral, dog mourns the death of Navy SEAL killed in Afghanistan (Yahoo)
7. You'll freak when you see the new Facebook (CNN) 
8. Dog in Japan stays by the side of ailing friend in the rubble (Yahoo) 
9. Giant crocodile captured alive in Philippines (Yahoo)
10. New Zodiac Sign Dates: Ophiuchus The 13th Sign? (The Huffington Post) 
11. Parents keep child’s gender under wraps (Yahoo)
12. How to Talk to Little Girls (The Huffington Post) 
13. Stop Coddling the Super-Rich (New York Times) 
14. Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior (Wall Street Journal) 
15. (video) - Twin Baby Boys Have A Conversation! (Yahoo) 
16. Man robs bank to get medical care in jail (Yahoo) 
17. Why You're Not Married (The Huffington Post) 
18. A Sister’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs (New York Times)
19. Ryan Dunn Dead: 'Jackass' Star Dies In Car Crash (The Huffington Post) 
20. Scientists warn California could be struck by winter ‘superstorm’ (Yahoo) 
21. Notes From a Dragon Mom (New York Times) 
22. A Message to Women From a Man: You Are Not "Crazy" (The Huffington Post) 
23. Obama’s and Bush’s effects on the deficit in one graph (Washington Post)
24. Penn State, my final loss of faith (Washington Post) 
25. Golden-Voiced Homeless Man Captivates Internet (Yahoo) 
26. The most typical face on the planet (Yahoo) 
27. Widespread destruction from Japan earthquake, tsunamis (CNN) 
28. Permissive parents: Curb your brats (CNN) 
29. A father's day wish: Dads, wake the hell up! (CNN)
30. (video) - Laughing Baby Loves Ripping Paper! (Yahoo) 
31. Epic Cover Letter: How To Get Hired For Your Dream Job (PICTURE) (The Huffington Post) 
32. New Zodiac sign dates: Don't switch horoscopes yet (Washington Post) 
33. Things Babies Born in 2011 Will Never Know (Yahoo)
34. The Psychology of Revenge: Why We Should Stop Celebrating Osama Bin Laden's Death(The Huffington Post) 
35. (photo gallery) - ‘Where Children Sleep’ (New York Times) 
36. Quake moved Japan coast 8 feet, shifted Earth's axis (CNN)
37. Steve Jobs, Apple founder, dies (CNN)
38. China's latest craze: dyeing pets to look like other wild animals (CNN)
39. Grant Hill’s Response to Jalen Rose (New York Times) 
40. Steve Jobs’s Patents (New York Times) 

via Facebook + Media

Two iPhones go up in flames in Brazil and Australia

Apple’s iPhone could be a possible fire hazard. In the last weeks there have been two incidents, one in Australia and another in Brazil where the iPhone 4 combusted.Mashable reported the incident in Brazil where a device plugged in for overnight charging allegedly began emitting smoke and sparks less than a foot from its sleeping owner’s face. The earlier incident was reported from Australia where the device began spontaneously began smoking last week in flight and then “self combusted’.

Regional Australian airline Regional Express described the “mobile phone self combustion” in a statement, saying an iPhone belonging to a passenger started glowing red and expelling a “significant amount of dense smoke” after a flight from Lismore, Australia, landed in Sydney on Friday.

Apple's iPhone could be a possible fire hazard. Getty Images

A photo accompanying the statement showed the shattered, warped back of a recent-model black iPhone.

The airline says a flight attendant extinguished the glow and nobody on the plane was hurt. Regional Express reported the incident to authorities in Australia. Apple says it will cooperate with any investigation.

With inputs from AP

A Brief History Behind Google Doodles !!

Over the years, Google doodles have made searching on Google more fun and enjoyable. When doodles were first created, nobody had anticipated how popular and integral they would become to the Google search experience. Nowadays, many users excitedly anticipate the release of each new doodle.

Mark Twain’s 176th Birthday

How did the idea for doodles originate?
In 1998, the concept of the doodle was born when Google founders Larry and Sergey played with the corporate logo to indicate their attendance at the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert. A stick figure drawing was placed behind the 2nd "o" in the word, Google and the revised logo was intended as a comical message to Google users that the founders were “out of office.” 

While the first doodle was relatively simple, but the idea of decorating the company logo was well received by users.

Over time, the demand for doodles quickly rose Worldwide. Creating doodles is now the responsibility of a team of talented designers.

If you love Google and have designed your own doodle than you can submit it to proposals@google.com.

Smartphone OS Comparison

Every OS in the market has its own share of strengths and weaknesses. I believe in the "whatever floats your boat" school of thought when it comes to choosing a smartphone. Still, evaluating the popular platforms looked like a good idea to me. I have given points to each platform based on the following factors:

Features - The rating in this section is based on the support offered to technologies such as NFC, USB-OTG (On The Go), FM transmitter, and stereoscopic display.

User Interface - Here, the contenders get points for user friendliness. Lesser the magajmaari, better the score.

Aesthetics - It's all about eye-candy these days. An uncluttered and seamless look helps in getting a better score. Originality wins brownie points as well.

Optimisation - If the OS is optimised, it runs smoothly even on a CPU under 800 MHz and with 256 MB of RAM. If not, it requires dual cores and a gigabyte of RAM.

Battery Life - Do I really have to explain this one?

Apps - This is about the number of apps available for each platform.

Freedom - Includes aspects such as file sharing, customisation, file management, and the availability of mass storage mode.

Here's the scorecard. Note that all scores are on a scale of 1 to 5. The top scorer in each category has been circled in red.

As you can see, there's no clear winner. However, BlackBerry has lost the contest by a big margin because of its average performance across the board. Android is good, but suffers badly from dismal battery performance and due to its resource-hungry nature. Surprisingly, the black sheep of the OS family, Symbian, turns out to be the most mature OS by virtue of getting the basics right - all thanks to the Belle update. Its fans need not celebrate though, as it has no future.

Source:Techtree