StatCounter reports suggest, Google’s Chrome web browser now has a 20.7% share of the web browser pie, An increase of seven times over just two years. This also means that highest competition Internet Explorer’s Share is now only 50% of the total pie and Firefox has a 28% share which has come down from 30%.
StatCounter gathers its data from more than 3 million websites with more than 15 billion page views.
Do you wish that you were a part of Google’s new Social Network Google+? Well your not alone. A lot of people all over the world have the desire to test Google’s new offering and some of those people have seen an opportunity to make some money. Google+ is currently in the testing phase so Google has restricted access to the service.
While joining Google+ will be free, people who are already on the service have started selling invites on E-Bay. A quick search on E-Bay gives a number of results ranging from $0.99 an invite all the way to $99.99 for one.
The downside to a purchase is that you still won’t be able to join the Google+ service. Google announced that the interest in Google+ was so great that the company had decided to stop accepting new users. A Google spoksperson said that they will be accepting new users in periodically as the company readies for its big public debut.
Google has decided to update its offerings with a new look with the launch of its Google+ service. You would have already noticed the black bar above the Google search page. Adding multiple features over the years has made their Gmail interface more cluttered and complicated to use. They are attempting to clear it up as well as add some more features, however, they have scheduled to do it in phases, so not all features will work at this time. You can check out the new interface by logging into your gmail account and changing your theme. The new interface not only changes the colour scheme of the interface, but also introduces many UI enhancements such as changes in buttons and overall layout. Changes to the Google Calender are also coming soon. Read the Press Release for more info.
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We get a lot of great feedback about how Gmail helps you be more efficient, keep in touch with family and friends, and get work done. We’ve saved you from forgetting attachments and made sure that you got the right Bob. Over the years, adding countless features to Gmail has made it an increasingly powerful communication hub, but along the way the interface has also become more cluttered and complex.
That’s one of the reasons we’re embarking on a series of interface updates to help strip out unnecessary clutter and make Gmail as beautiful as it is powerful. This is part of a Google-wide effort to bring you an experience that’s more focused, elastic, and effortless across all of our products. The changes are not going to happen all at once. We know that you love and care about Gmail as much as we do, and we’ll be working on these upgrades gradually over the next few months to allow plenty of time to understand and incorporate your feedback into the evolving design.
We’re kicking things off with two new themes for you to try out as a sort of sneak peek at what we’re up to. Starting today, you’ll see the “Preview” and “Preview (Dense)” themes in the Themes tab in Gmail Settings. Why two themes? Our new interface will eventually expand dynamically to accommodate different screen sizes and user preferences, but until then you can pick the information density that you prefer.
Here’s what one of the new themes currently looks like:
And in conversation view:
If you poke around you’ll hopefully find a lot to like and a much cleaner, modern look but also few rough edges. In particular, some Labs features may look a little strange in the new themes. We plan to fix these issues as we roll out changes in the coming months. You can also expect some updated themes that embody the same design principles but are better suited to working in a dark environment, use a different color palette, or include the illustrations that we know many of you love to see around your inbox.
Look out for these and other new features over the next few months. In the meantime, try out the new themes as a preview of the future of Gmail and let us know what you think.
P.S. Like Gmail, Google Calendar is also getting a new look. You’ll see it automatically within the next few days so there’s no need to turn it on, and we’ll also continue to make improvements there in the coming months. Details about the current changes to Calendar can be found in the Calendar help center.
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