The Google- Apple War Continues

Google Adds Flash to Chrome

• Google announced on Tuesday their plans to incorporate Adobe’s Flash play with downloads on their Chrome browser. Although Google’s Chrome currently only accounts for 5% of Internet browser user-ship ^[1], their decision to package Flash with Chrome is an obvious poke at Apple and a competitive gesture for a stake in the mobile market. While Apple’s iPhone still dominates the smartphone industry, Google’s Chrome has become increasingly popular among mobile searchers, adding Adobe to its capabilities is likely to boost Chrome’s popularity. However, as Michael Cote, an analyst at the RedMonk research firm, stated, “Integrating Flash into Chrome is more of a signaling and partnership thing than anything else. After all, anyone who wants to get Flash can otherwise download it.” ^[2] To read more about how Google’s decision could affect its relationship with Apple and the internet climate at large, be sure to check out Priya Ganapati’s article ^[2] on Wired.com.

April Fools!

Google and Topeka

• What does Kansas have to offer, besides Obama’s mama ^[3]?   Well as of this week, Topeka, Kansas can proudly say that it was the punch line of an international April Fool’s joke. The notorious corporate April fool’s enthusiast, Google, kept their reputation alive this week by renaming itself Topeka, in honor of Kansas’ capital.

If Apple Had a Sense of Humor…

• The Register reported on Thursday ^[4], Apple’s intentions to remove HTML support from their most popular devices, the iPhone, iPod and long sought after iPad. The traditional programming codex will be replaced by Apple’s very own iHTML. Analysts speculate that Apple will charge a license fee of ten cents per page for sites seeking to convert to iHTML. With an estimated one trillion pages floating out there in cyberspace, Apple can anticipate profits exceeding 100 billion dollars. That being said, Apple has implemented a metatag identification string detection platform that signals whether the page is “Approved by Apple.” [Note: This is a joke.]

iPad Apps Have Arrived

Apple has started adding iPad apps to their iTunes store ^[5]. Although the iPad hasn’t yet hit the market, Apple fanatics can pre-purchase applications, which will be stored on their computer until the iPad is connected.

YouTube Updates

Redesign

• YouTube launched its redesign on Wednesday with new features intended keep users engaged on the site longer. While the user experience on YouTube is on average three minutes long, Shiva Rajaraman, a senior product manager at YouTube, told the New York Times their goal in the redesign was to create opportunities for users to watch longer periods of content. Rajarman said, “We want users to leave because they run out of time, not because they run out of things to watch.” ^[6]

YouTube to Shut down Text-Advertising

• AdAge reported this week ^[7] that YouTube will shut down its text-advertising network on April 30, 2010 and surrender its market share to Google to focus on premium display advertisement.