Chrome gets it's own 'app store'

Today at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco, Google showed off a preview of a major new product: the Chrome Web Store. Yes, this is an app store for the web.

Read more: http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/19/chrome-web-store/#ixzz0oUM6ZiVw

  Google Chrome, gets an app store? Suddenly, Chrome is taking the leap into being more than a Browser. They'll be offering games, and essential apps in this new store, though apparently some will be at a price. I am eager to see how this plays out, though I do not appreciate them imitating Apple. As long as they don't make the same mistakes as Apple, though, things should go well.

“Developers care about monetization. But they need more than just advertising,” Google VP Product Sundar Pichai said on stage. With the Chrome Web Store, Google has simplified the process of buying apps on the web. Once you sign in to your Google account, apps are just one click away (presumably using Google Checkout). From there you can say, buy Plants & Zombies, the very popular game in Apple’s App Store. But this runs all on the web in Chrome, thanks to Flash. You can run the game full-screen as well.

Another game is Lego Star Wars. This game is run through Chrome’s use of native client (so developers can use native code to develop for the web). This is a full 3D game, built using rich HTML5 APIs.

There will also be apps in this store based around content. This means that magazines and periodicals will be coming to the store — and they’ll be able to charge for them. Sports Illustrated showed off its web app on stage.

I'm excited to see that HTML5 is being implemented and used in this, especially for video games, being a gamer myself. While the app store looks nice, I do fear that price tag. Will it be on games? Will it spread to things nobody should have to pay for such as themes, or extensions? I hope price is not used on most things, because I don't know about my peers but I'm sick of paying for things there should be an open source / free version of, but just so happens there isn't.

Sure, video game makers need money. But the inevitable maker of "ChromeCalculator" surely does not. This is my main worry concerning this "app store". Hopefully Google will realize that since Google Chrome is not proprietary it does not have the same monopoly the original "App Store" does. Trying to charge for every little app would hopefully result in an open source backlash. Otherwise, some of us would be denied the ability to experience the store.

More on the Facebook scene

It's been a rough few weeks for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg ever since he unveiled his company's plan to personalize the Web. After a string of Facebook security breaches and outcry from US Senators over Facebook's new privacy policies, the New York Times revealed the complexities of Facebook's new privacy policy (now longer than the Constitution). Now, it seems users are stepping back and taking a hard look at their relationship to America's most popular social network--some dissatisfied users even planning a "mass exodus" from the site.

Aaaah... Facebook users. You know somehow I saw this coming a mile away. It's as if it was completely obvious to me that Facebook was NOT a place to have a private life. It was as if I was immediately tipped off that they wanted the truth and nothing but the truth and would go to any means to get the truth to the questions they asked so that they could have your info. I must have a sixth sense that allows me to see these magical things.

Satire aside, Facebook is carving it's own little niche in the world as the 'real life' social network. The problem with it is that Facebook itself is not a part of 'real life'. In short, the two should not mix so dangerously. Those of us who are experienced with the internet know exactly what happens when offline and online worlds clash. Bad things happen, generally to individuals.

On the note of the article at hand, not being directly about Facebook's screwups, but rather about Facebook's CEO being depicted as a sex maniac. I find this giant gaping flaw that makes the article seem mis-leading to me.

Hot on the heels of this controversy comes news out of Hollywood that probably won't help Zuckerberg's image. A leaked version of the script for The Social Network (aka the "Facebook Movie"), which dramatizes the fledgling company's rise, paints the young entrepreneur as a "ruthless and untrustworthy sex maniac," writes the Times of London.
The film, slated for an October release, is set to star Jesse Eisenberg and Justin Timberlake. Written by Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network is based on Ben Mezrich's book The Accidental Billionaires. The film unfolds during flashbacks that occur while Zuckerberg (Eisenberg) faces former business associates in court in 2008.

 Reading the above quote, one should come across the answer to the fill in the blank that someone forgot to add to the title of the article. "The Social Network Depicts Facebook CEO As 'Sex Maniac' IN A MOVIE.

 My immediate response after seeing that part of the article was "Wait hold on my care meter just about twenty yards.". I mean, really?! It's a big deal that a guy starring in a movie is portrayed as a pervert? I don't know about my readers but I definitely don't think of the actor when I see a character in a movie.