From Youtube...To the olympics

Slam-dunk phenom being courted for high jump

Justin Darlington – a.k.a. "Jus Fly" – is used to making great leaps on the basketball court.

The question is whether the 20-year-old slam-dunking wizard from Ajax, Ontario can make an even greater leap – becoming Canada's superstar high jumper.

Daniel St-Hilaire, an extremely passionate, if not a quirky, veteran coach from Montreal, is convinced he can.

St-Hilaire's scouting methods aren't exactly conventional. It started on the Internet when he punched "slam dunk basketball" into Google. Among other things, he came across hundreds of videos of the 6-foot-4 Darlington in action.



"He was like a lost jewel," said St-Hilaire, who once coached Canadian sprint star Bruny Surin.

What he saw left him awestruck: A kid who could do a cartwheel on the court and dunk in one fluid motion. But, even more impressive, Darlington could get his head above the rim when he took flight.



"My mouth opened for five minutes and my eyes went big and I just froze," said St-Hilaire. "I kept playing the video and going in slow motion and freezing it where his head went above the rim. I thought `I never saw a guy jump that high.'

"And I said to myself `Wow, I wonder if this guy can do high jump.' I became a headhunter. I was like `Where could I meet that guy?'"

It turned out St-Hilaire didn't have to go all that far. He located Darlington on Facebook and found out he was from Ajax. They met for two hours at Pearson International Airport when St-Hilaire was flying home from a track meet in Saskatoon in February.



It turns out that a man cannot live off dunking alone. Darlington has travelled throughout Europe and is currently traveling in Shanghai with Team Flight Brothers, a sort of Harlem Globetrotters of the dunking world, but there isn't a huge amount of money to be made.

"He had no incentive, no target," said St-Hilaire. "I said `Here's your target – 2012 (London Olympics). Jump for Canada, make it big and your life will change. Because now you're recognized as one of the best dunkers, but who cares, nobody knows you.'"

At the end of their airport meeting, St-Hilaire said Darlington had only one question for him: "When do we start, coach?"

The education of Darlington as a high jumper has begun, partly under St-Hilaire in Montreal and also here in Toronto under Gary Lubin, who developed Brampton's Mark Boswell, a two-time world championship medallist. They plan to share the coaching duties.

This has all been a whirlwind for Darlington.

"I wasn't even thinking about the Olympics a year ago," he told The Gazette in Montreal recently. "I was hoping that maybe they would make dunking an Olympic sport."

Darlington is planning to enrol at McGill University for September – his mom, Ann-Marie, wants him to put emphasis on his studies – and train in Montreal under St-Hilaire. His regimen will include two dunking workouts per week so he can maintain that skill.

It's a talent he discovered only two years ago. He never really stood out playing basketball at J. Clark Richardson Collegiate in Ajax, but entered a dunk contest in his last year and wowed everyone with his high-flying skills. Things have taken off since then.



"It sort of snuck up on us," said Ann-Marie Darlington, who was a high jumper in high school. "He was trying to match what the others could do in the gym and he realized he was above most of the guys. It was amazing."

Adds St-Hilaire: "He's a born leaper. The legs are like a mutation."

Darlington has a wide array of videos on You Tube under his nickname "Jus Fly," including some with more than 200,000 views and comments like "That last dunk was absolutely sick!"

Former world hurdles champion Perdita Felicien agrees it will be a neat story if Darlington can pull it off, but adds it won't be easy in such a technical event.

"You can have the raw goods, but to have the discipline to study the event and the sport and to be great that way – that's kind of different," Felicien said. "That's probably the hardest part of it."

St-Hilaire said the key will be teaching Darlington the right technique so that he can develop into a true high jumper and not just a leaper.

St-Hilaire notes Darlington has already jumped 2.01 metres after six technical workouts – equal to the height achieved by the sixth-place finisher at last year's Olympic trials in Windsor (the world record is 2.45 metres.) The coach believes he can get up to 2.10 or 2.20 metres this summer.

St-Hilaire already has a golden glint in his eyes as he thinks toward the 2012 London Olympics. He points to Donald Thomas of the Bahamas, who won at the 2007 world championships, less than two years after switching to track from basketball.

"I feel Justin has more potential," said St-Hilaire.

Goodbye to Google video ads

Google has decided to remove it’s ‘Video Units’ from AdSense. According to an official blog posting, the decision was taken after it was found to have lesser impact than had been expected.

What this means is that video units, which used to show YouTube content, underperformed with AdSense and the result is retirement!

So, as of the end of April 2009, this feature will be completely removed from the Google AdSense program and after that any remaining video units on AdSense publisher’s web pages will either direct users to YouTube.com or start showing top YouTube videos. From those videos you are not going earn a cent though.

That’s why Google recommends removing those video unit codes from your web pages as soon as possible. What about your past earnings? Don’t worry your pending earnings will be credited to your AdSense account.


Personally I don’t like video ads too much, though it was a big hit for some people. What was really disappointing, was you couldn't select specific videos to show on your page to earn your cash, The video units used to display two types of ads: companion ads, which appear in the player above the video content, or text overlay ads, which appears in the bottom 20% of the video content when it is played. The idea was a good one, on paper anyways, Make some money while entertaining your viewer. But, some people finds those ads annoying while viewing a video. They simply passes away, which ultimately may harm your income.

In my view, retiring video units was a good decision. Now you will get some extra ad space on your web pages, which you can optimize to display other ad units and make money online. Go and remove those video unit codes from your website or blog and find a suitable replacement for it. Initially you can try using other AdSense for Content ad formats.

Newspaper future in advertising: Google CEO

Google Inc.'s chief executive Eric Schmidt told newspaper publishers Tuesday that they should continue to rely on advertising but seek new ways to reach readers.

Without providing any specific recipes, Eric Schmidt laid out a few possibilities, including a site for medicine similar to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, which lets users collectively contribute and edit entries. He urged publishers to focus on mobile technology and the development of new platforms for delivering news.

Schmidt said there's still room for subscription and pay-by-the-piece journalism but he emphasized advertising, the source of 98 per cent of Google's revenue, thanks to its success matching ads with a user's search terms and other keywords.

"The important thing here is that advertising that is useful is going to work," he said.

Schmidt commended newspapers for staking claim on the Internet in the 1990s but said there wasn't a second act. He says news websites take too long to read, even slower than flipping through a newspaper or magazine, a shortcoming that can be addressed by improving technology.

"At Google we're working hard to address the technological questions," he said at the Newspaper Association of America's annual convention. "We don't have any answers here."

He said technology for reading news on devices like mobile phone must ultimately be as pleasant as reading a magazine.

"From my perspective, the online experience can be thought of as terrible compared to what I view as this wonderful experience with magazines and newspapers."

Schmidt's wide-ranging remarks for about 45 minutes came before an audience whose businesses have plummeted as the recession compounds a decline in print advertising that began with the shift of some advertising to free or low-cost alternatives online.

Schmidt told reporters he was deeply concerned about the decline in quality journalism but had no easy answers for the industry's woes.

His appearance came one day after The Associated Press announced a news industry initiative to track down copyright violators on the Internet and try to divert traffic from Web sites that don't properly license news content. The AP didn't name any potential targets, but some news reports focused on Internet search engines like Google.

Schmidt said Google has a multimillion-dollar licensing deal for AP content.

"I was a little confused by all the excitement in the news in the last 24 hours," he said.

The AP wants to outlaw search engine linking? What?

The AP is launching an all out assault on any use of its content that is not licensed (read that as purchased) for use by Internet publishers and search engines.

The AP is not JUST focusing on the blatant violators such as spam type blogs or sites that quote paragraphs without attribution or link backs. On the contrary, the AP is specifically going after bigger mainstream blogs, Internet publications and, believe it or not, search engines such as Google and Yahoo.

The AP believes that desperate times call for desperate measures and that means demanding royalties from any company profiting from any aspect of their content. When Google links to an AP story in a search result with an Adwords ad on the page the AP expects to be paid. Include a rewritten headline link to an AP story, Matt Drudge and you will be sued for payment by the AP. Add a paragraph snippet of content from an AP article in your PaidContent.org blog post and be ready for a call from an AP lawyer demanding their cut of your ad revenue.

From the AP's perspective, the concept of fair use is primitive and counter to their desperate desire to prevent their demise in an ad supported Internet content economy. The Associated Press Board of Directors, which is made up mostly of newspaper executives, has issued a member call to arms against anyone and everyone who misappropriates AP content.

The release quotes AP Chairman Dean Singleton who spoke at the AP annual meeting in San Diego, "The news cooperative would work with portals and other partners who properly license content – and would pursue legal and legislative actions against those who don't." Mr. Singleton added, "We can no longer stand by and watch others walk off with our work under misguided legal theories."

Thoughts? Do you agree or disagree with the AP on this one? will it have the desired effect for them, or do you feel this is something that will backfire?

Students today lack maturity, feel entitled : Professor

First-year university students are less prepared and have poorer research skills than students from three years ago, according to a new Ontario-wide survey of faculty and librarians.

Survey respondents reported students had lower writing and numeric skills, lower maturity, and a belief that good grades are an entitlement and a right.

Respondents also said students relied too much on Internet tools, such as Google and Wikipedia, as external research sources.

The survey asked: "Thinking about your own experience over the last three years, do you believe that first-year students are:"

- Better prepared -- 2.27 per cent
- About the same -- 26.85 per cent
- Less prepared -- 55.21 per cent
- No opinion -- 15.67 per cent

The survey, which received 2,000 responses from 22 Ontario universities, was conducted by the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations.

"It is very troubling that a majority of respondents are witnessing a decline in student preparedness," professor Brian E. Brown, OCUFA's president, said in a press release.

"Study after study shows that success in university is linked to the preparedness of students for the rigours of the university curriculum."

Many respondents reported that universities were establishing remedial courses for students struggling with the demands of higher education.

Brown said the Ontario government has been applauding itself for increasing high school graduation rates but students are still not receiving the requisite skills they need for university.

"Our secondary schools are poorly resourced and require new investments to enhance the classroom experience if our kids are going to thrive," Brown said.

The survey was conducted between Feb. 16 and March 13, 2009.

What are your thoughts? Do you agree or disagree with the study?

Google starts tracking browsers to target ads

Google is getting to know you a little better in order to send you ads you'll more likely like.

The Mountain-View, Calif.-based internet company is starting to gather information about the websites people visit using an individual web browser in order to target ads to their interests, Google has announced on its blog.

"By making ads more relevant, and improving the connection between advertisers and our users, we can create more value for everyone," the company said. "Users get more useful ads, and these more relevant ads generate higher returns for advertisers and publishers."

"Interest-based" advertising was launched Wednesday as a beta test on third-party sites that carry Google ads, as well as the YouTube video site that Google owns.
Demand from partners

The blog entry called advertising "the lifeblood of the digital economy" and said Google's advertising and publishing partners have been asking it for a long time to offer interest-based advertising, which is already used by some other companies.

Google's system will be able to infer users' interests based on the sites they visit, which will be associated with their browsers using a tracking file called a "cookie."

For example, each time a user visits an adventure travel site that carries Google advertising, a cookie will be placed in the browser. If the user visits many such sites, he or she will be flagged as someone with a strong interest in adventure travel and more ads for activities like hiking trips to Patagonia or African safaris will show up in the browser even when:

- The user is on a Google partner site that doesn't involve adventure travel.
- When someone else is using the browser.

"This kind of tailored advertising does raise questions about user choice and privacy — questions the whole online ad industry has a responsibility to answer," Google acknowledged, adding that other companies that provide interest-based advertising deal with this in different ways.
Won't add 'sensitive' interest categories

However, the company promised that:

- It will not collect the user's name or any other personal information.
- It will not use sensitive interest categories such as those based on race, religion, sexual orientation, health or "sensitive financial categories."
-Users will be able to view, delete and add interest categories associated with their browser.
- Users can opt not to accept advertising cookies from Google partners.

In addition, users will be able to clear the cookies used by Google's targeted advertising the way they usually clear cookies from their browser.

Until now, Google's ads have been targeted based only on the site that the user is currently viewing. For example, the user would receive adventure travel ads only while on an adventure travel site or reading an email about adventure travel.

However, other companies have been offering personalized advertising for some time. For example, social networking sites MySpace and Facebook have targeted ads to individual users based on their profiles since 2007.

YouTube blocks music videos in Britain

YouTube is blocking thousands of music videos to British users after failing to reach a new licensing agreement with the Performing Rights Society (PRS), which collects royalties for songwriters.

The move on Monday has angered the PRS, which says YouTube — bought by Google in 2006 — is "punishing British consumers and the songwriters whose interests we protect and represent."

Steve Porter, head of the PRS, said he is "outraged" and "shocked" by the move.

His group released a statement condemning YouTube's tactics:

"Google has told us they are taking this step because they wish to pay significantly less than at present to the writers of the music on which their service relies, despite the massive increase in YouTube viewing. This action has been taken without any consultation with PRS … and in the middle of negotiations between the two parties."

Patrick Walker, the director of video partnerships at YouTube, said the action was "regrettable" but added the PRS is seeking much higher fees, which were "prohibitive."

YouTube pays a licence to the PRS, which allows the site to stream music videos from three major music labels and several independent ones.

"We feel so far apart that we have to remove content while we negotiate with the PRS," Walker said on BBC News.

He said the rates that the PRS was seeking would result in YouTube losing "significant amounts of money on every stream of video."

YouTube is the world's most popular video sharing website.

The dispute between YouTube and the Performing Rights Society for Music that prompted the website to remove music videos could spread to MySpace UK and other music sites, industry sources said.

MySpace UK and other sites are struggling to renegotiate their own licences with PRS, which pays royalties to artists.

One source close to the negotiations said that the launch of MySpace UK's comprehensive music service later this year could be thrown into jeopardy unless it secured an economically viable licence with PRS.

"A lot of service providers are negotiating and renewing licences with PRS right now, but the rates are widely known to be uneconomical," said the source. "Nobody could run an online business on those terms."

The streaming service Pandora was forced to cut off its service for UK users on 15 January after it failed to renegotiate its licence with PRS. Imeem, which reportedly received $15m in funding from Warner Music last year, and RealNetworks are also understood to be renegotiating.

Meanwhile, YouTube and PRS are due to meet in London this afternoon and both say they are determined to resolve the deadlock.

PRS is understood to be basing its royalty claims on the results of the 2007 UK Copyright Tribunal, but the source said the rates PRS were demanding were so high that a free-to-view, advertising-based service would not be able to charge advertisers enough to cover the royalty payment on each video.

YouTube, which started to remove videos last night, repeated its claim that the rates are not sustainable except for sites that charge subscription access.

"However, we want to share the revenue generated from music videos on YouTube with the music industry," said a spokesman. "But at the rate set by the Copyright Tribunal - which is the rate PRS is seeking - YouTube would be losing money with each stream.

"It's simply unsustainable for our business."

A PRS spokeswoman said the ultimate aim of the talks were to come to an agreement, while YouTube said withdrawing videos from UK users was "not a breakdown in talks, but something that had to happen for talks to continue".

Google to cut 100 jobs, close engineering offices

Layoffs precipitated by state of economy: VP

Google Inc. is closing three engineering offices and cutting 100 recruiters from its workforce as the recession dampens hiring at the internet search company.

"Given the state of the economy, we recognized that we needed fewer people focused on hiring," Laszlo Bock, a Google vice-president, wrote in a blog posting late Wednesday announcing the layoffs.

The cuts are a rare move for Google. It made its first ever significant round of layoffs last April, when it cut some 300 jobs from the American operations of DoubleClick, which Google acquired in March 2008.
The newest cuts account for around a quarter of Google's recruiting staff, but are modest relative to the company's full-time workforce, which numbers roughly 20,000.

The moves follow news last week of a government filing from Google showing a significant cutback in temporary employees aimed at trimming costs. The company acknowledged in November that it would be looking to reduce contract workers while retaining full-time employees.

In a separate posting Wednesday, Google said it would close its engineering offices in Austin, Texas, Trondheim, Norway, and Lulea, Sweden, a step the company said would affect 70 workers.

"Our strong desire is to keep as many of these 70 engineering employees at Google as possible," wrote Google's vice-president for engineering and research, Alan Eustace.

"Our long-term goal is not to trim the number of people we have working on engineering projects or reduce our global presence, but create a smaller number of more effective engineering sites, which will ensure that innovation and speed remain at our core," he wrote.

Google's revenue from online ads, the company's core business, is still growing, but the economic downturn has put a crimp in the pace as consumers shop less online and advertising budgets shrink.

The company has given no sign that it will cut back on research and development or acquisitions, but has taken steps recently to reduce discretionary spending, closing its free cafeteria for employees and offering workers more modest holiday gifts.

People who left great jobs to fly solo

They left the comfortable corporate cocoon to blossom

Working at a big company. A Big salary. Get a BIG sendoff.

That's the formula millions of American workers used for years to map their career trajectory. Conventional wisdom advised workers to land a job with a big company and retire with generous benefits.
But there's a new breed of worker who is making that formula seem as quaint as a VHS tape.

They are the ultimate risk-takers -- they leave large, successful companies, with the high paying salaries and securities the jobs offer, to pursue their own dreams even though the economy is reeling.

They are people like....

Jason Shellen, who resigned as Google's manager of new business development in 2007 to launch Plinky.com, a startup that's designed to inspire bloggers and users of social media sites. Shellen says he was getting complacent working at Google, despite the company's domination of the Web.

He says he decided to leave Google despite a shaky economy because he wanted to force himself to change.

"Being an entrepreneur is all about risk and innovation, not timing the market," Shellen says. "A good idea doesn't wait for the perfect time to emerge. The ability to build something new outweighed the need for stability."

Why leave a sure thing?

Stability, though, seems to be a rare quality in the workplace. Those who contemplate leaving the corporate cocoon can't help but pay attention to the constant news about corporate layoffs.

Their challenge: Why leave a comfortable position in corporate America when there seem to be so few out there?

Michael Rhim had to face that question. He says he was a regional vice-president at TIAA-CREF, a company that provides retirement plans for nonprofit groups.. He says the company had 5,000 employees, $400 billion in assets and 17,000 clients at its peak.

But Rhim says he started contemplating a change because TIAA-CREF's corporate culture was changing. He started talking with a friend who ran a consulting firm, and he started paying attention to his emotions.

"It was getting more difficult to get up in the morning," he says. "I wasn't enjoying my old job as much as I used to. The more I talked about the job with my new partner, the more excited I got."

Rhim left TIAA-CREF in March of 2008.

He is now an executive at a new company, PRM Consulting, which has 25 employees. Now he does much of his own typing. He can't take clients to fancy restaurants. He even uses recycled paper for scrap paper to save costs.

Though Rhim misses the perks of a large company, he says he received a lot more in return.

"There's much quick decision making," he says. "I work in a culture where we are not afraid to try new things."

Shellen, who resigned from Google to start Plinky, says the large resources of a company can actually slow down the creative process. A person might want to invent a product, but small things like the name of the product end up being discussed in a committee.

"You don't find that in a small company," he says. "At my new company, Plinky, we sometimes dream things up in the morning and by the afternoon have it live on the Web. That never happens at a big company."

Greater freedom is also what inspired Vanessa Fox to resign from her position at Google, where she helped build Webmaster Central, one of the company's most successful projects.

Today, Fox is the founder of "Jane and Robot," which helps web site developers ensure their sites can be found by potential customers, and "Nine By Blue," which helps businesses use online data to better understand their customers.

Fox says the challenge of creating something in an evolving space like the Internet was too great to pass up.

"As hokey as it sounds, there's more to life than money," she says. "As much as I loved working at Google, I am really enjoying the flexibility I have now, as well as the ability to really make a difference in the direction I choose to go in."

Planning your exit

Those who leave the security of corporate life should not do it without research and a plan, some say.

The notion of suddenly bolting a cushy corporate dream to follow one's bliss may seem romantic. But some who've done it say those thinking about making a change should make a frank appraisal of their talents and latch onto something unique that they have to offer.

Rhim, the retirement planning consultant, says he knew the IRS would soon change the retirement plans for nonprofit groups. He knew his expertise would be in demand.

"I sat down and put together a three-month planning process," he says. "I knew there was going to be a market out there where firms needed additional guidance."

All the careful planning, though, didn't remove his fear, Rhim says. But he discovered something remarkable. Once he committed to leaving, doors suddenly opened for him: People materialized to help him and amazing coincidences led to business opportunities.

Rhim, a devout Christian, says it seemed like his leap of faith was being rewarded.

"No question, it was a scary proposition," Rhim says. "But my pastor preached about when you do the right things, the Lord will bless you as he sees fit."

Yet Rhim says he knew he couldn't just lean on faith.

"If you realize that you have some skill sets that are valuable, you can market yourself accordingly," Rhim says. "If not, you're sitting there, waiting to see if you're going to be downsized."

Rhim says he's happy with his move. He sometimes misses having the muscle of a big company behind him, but he no longer feels he's being controlled by larger forces.

He may have to do his own typing now, but at least he is writing his own script, he says.

"If you allow yourself to have other people continue to dictate your future," Rhim says, "you're at their mercy."

China targets Google in crackdown on pornography

China has launched a major crackdown on Internet pornography, targeting popular online portals and major search engines such as Google.

Seven government agencies will work together on the campaign to "purify the Internet's cultural environment and protect the healthy development of minors," according to an announcement on the government's official Chinese-language website, china.com.cn.

Pornography is banned in China, though the government's Internet police struggle to block Web sites based abroad.

The government announcement said Google and Baidu, China's two most heavily used search engines, had failed to take "efficient" measures after receiving notices from the country's Internet watchdog that they were providing links to pornographic material.

The statement also named popular Web portals Sina and Sohu, as well as a number of video sharing sites and online bulletin boards, that it said contain problematic photos, blogs and postings.

It said violators will be severely punished, but did not give details or say how long the campaign will last.

A Google spokeswoman in China, Cui Jin, defended the site's operations, saying it does not contain any pornographic content.

"If we find any violation, we will take action. So far, I haven't seen any examples of violations," Cui said.

Baidu did not immediately return an e-mail seeking comment, and phones at Sina and Sohu rang unanswered.

China has the world's largest population of Internet users with more than 250 million. The central government has blocked access to many websites it considers subversive or too political, including The New York Times' website on Dec. 19. It was unblocked a couple days later and remained open Monday.

Beijing loosened some media and Internet controls during the 2008 Summer Olympics -- gestures that were meant to show the international community that the games had brought greater freedom to the Chinese people. During the August games, China allowed access to long-barred Web sites such as those of the British Broadcasting Corp. and Human Rights Watch. Those Web sites remained open Monday.

In the past the Foreign Ministry has defended China's right to censor Web sites that have material deemed illegal by the government, saying that other countries regulate Internet usage, too.

Getting your website on Googles 1st page

It's a dream come true for a webmasters site to appear at the top of Google's search results, especially if the website is actually selling a product or service. In a competitive industry this would mean that the orders would start rolling in with such a force that the business would grow incredibly quickly.

Is it all just a dream? NO! Hundreds of businesses do it with regularity, and you can do it for yourself too.

The first and foremost task when trying to get your site to the top of Google is to start link building, not just any old link building but having your keywords included in your "anchor". Anchor links are when the links are actually clickable, if for example you were selling green buttons the link would not be a www link. It would actually say "green buttons".

The next step is choosing the correct keyword phrases for your site. Now most people want to be on the first page of Google for a one word phrase like "Buttons". However, if you only sold buttons made of silver, it would be bringing you the wrong type of customer. It would be best to choose keyword phrases like "Silver Buttons" or "Buttons made of Silver". This would bring you the right type of customer and it your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) efforts would show results a lot quicker.

Integrate the keyword phrases throughout your site with your best ones on your homepage. Without the keywords on your site, your site will not perform at all.

The next step is to actually go out and get some back links to your site, be smart about whom you get links from, as websites that are relevant to your industry will have far more weight when it comes to giving you good results. Getting a few powerful links with a page rank of 6 or 7 will give you almost immediate results (It's even possible to see your results within just a couple of days!)

cool Google Chrome tips 'n' tricks

My guess is most people aren't using Google's new Chrome Web browser as their primary browser just yet. Google still has a long way to go with the browser adding features and fixing problems. Nevertheless, I've collected what I think are some of the most useful tips and the most interesting tweaks for the Chrome browser.

Bookmark this page or print them out if you like for future reference (because, as we all know, we can never find what we're looking for when we actually want them!!)

ONE: Surprisingly Handy Keyboard Shortcuts

Google Chrome offers some unique shortcuts that go beyond the typical CTRL + T for opening new browser tabs. Here is a list to all of Google Chrome keyboard shortcuts.

Ctrl+N	Open a new window
Ctrl+T	Open a new tab
Ctrl+Shift+N	Open a new window in incognito mode
Ctrl+O, then select file	Open a file from your computer in Google Chrome
Press Ctrl, and click a link	Open link in a new tab
Press Shift, and click a link	Open link in a new window
Alt+F4	Close current window
Ctrl+Shift+T	Reopen the last tab you've closed. Google Chrome remembers the last 10 tabs you've closed.
Drag link to tab	Open link in specified tab
Drag link to space between tabs	Open link in a new tab in the specified position on the tab strip
Ctrl+1 through Ctrl+8	Switch to the tab at the specified position number. The number you press represents the position of the tab on the tab strip.
Ctrl+9	Switch to the last tab
Ctrl+Tab or Ctrl+PgDown	Switch to the next tab
Ctrl+Shift+Tab or Ctrl+PgUp	Switch to the previous tab
Ctrl+W or Ctrl+F4	Close current tab or pop-up
Alt+Home	Open your homepage

Address bar shortcuts

Do one of the following actions in the address bar:

Type a search term	Perform a search using your default search engine
Type the part of the web address that's between 'www.' and '.com', then press Ctrl+Enter	Add www.and .com to your input in the address bar and open the web address
Type a search engine keyword or URL, press Tab, then type a search term	Perform a search using the search engine associated with the keyword or the URL. Google Chrome prompts you to press Tab if it recognizes the search engine you're trying to use.
F6 or Ctrl+L or Alt+D	Highlight content in the web address area
Type a web address, then press Alt+Enter	Open your web address in a new tab

Shortcuts to open Google Chrome features

Ctrl+B	Toggle bookmarks bar on and off
Ctrl+H	View the History page
Ctrl+J	View the Downloads page
Shift+Escape	View the Task manager
Shift+Alt+T	Set focus on the toolbar. Use right and left arrows on the keyboard to navigate to different buttons on the toolbar.

Webpage shortcuts

Ctrl+P	Print your current page
Ctrl+S	Save your current page
F5	Reload current page
Esc	Stop page loading
Ctrl+F5 or Shift+F5	Reload current page, ignoring cached content
Press Alt, and click a link	Download link
Ctrl+F	Open find-in-page box
Ctrl+G or F3	Find next match for your input in the find-in-page box
Ctrl+Shift+G or Shift+F3	Find previous match for your input in the find-in-page box
Ctrl+U	View source
Drag link to bookmarks bar	Bookmark the link
Ctrl+D	Bookmark your current webpage
Ctrl++	Make text larger
Ctrl+-	Make text smaller
Ctrl+0	Return to normal text size

Text shortcuts

Highlight content, then press Ctrl+C	Copy content to the clipboard
Place your cursor in a text field, then press Ctrl+V or Shift+Insert	Paste current content from the clipboard
Place your cursor in a text field, then press Ctrl+Shift+V	Paste current content from the clipboard without formatting
Highlight content in a text field, then press Ctrl+X or Shift+Delete	Delete the content and copy it to the clipboard

Backspace, or press Alt and the left arrow together	Go to the previous page in your browsing history for the tab
Shift+Backspace, or press Alt and the right arrow together	Go to the next page in your browsing history for the tab
Ctrl+K or Ctrl+E	Places a '?' in the address bar. Type a search term after the '?' to perform a search using your default search engine.
Place your cursor in the address bar, then press Ctrl and the left arrow together	Jump to the previous word in the address bar
Place your cursor in the address bar, then press Ctrl and the right arrow together	Jump to the next word in the address bar
Place your cursor in the address bar, then press Ctrl+Backspace	Delete the previous word in the address bar
Space bar	Scroll down the web page
Home	Go to the top of the page
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Here three that I find unique, when compared to those offered by Firefox and IE.

CTRL + SHIFT + N automatically opens up a Chrome 'incognito' window which allows you to surf on a PC without leaving behind any digital footprints.

SHIFT + Escape allows for fast access to Chrome?s Task Manager utility that allows you to nix browser processes that have gone awry.

CTRL + SHIFT + T will open recently closed browser tabs.


TWO: Custom Searches

When you want to run a search directly from Google's address bar (a.k.a. Omnibox) just type a question mark (?) followed by a keyword. The default search engine is Google. To change the default search engine to anything you want go right-click inside the address bar and select "Edit search engines." You can choose from a predefined list, or create your own.

Here is how to create your own shortcut to search the site of your choice directly from Google Chrome's Omnibox.


1) Right-click inside address bar and select "Edit search engines."
2) With that dialogue box remaining open, now go to a website you would like to create a custom search for. For the sake of example try ask.com
3) Once you visit the site now look at your "Search Engines" configuration window and you'll notice under the "Other search engines" field ask.com has been added.
4) Next you'll want to change the "Keyword" to something short and easy to remember such as DIC.

Now when you want to look up a word at ask.com all you have to do is type in Chrome's Omnibox "ASK" proceeded by the word you want to look up.



THREE: Enable Firefox to Run More Like Chrome

This tip and tweak isn't absolutely Chrome-centric, rather Chrome related. For those who like the innovative new features Chrome offers, but aren't happy with some of the bugs, security, and privacy issues you can have your cake and eat it too.

LifeHacker offers a list of ways to configure Firefox to embody some of Chromes coolest new features. For example LifeHacker offers ways to surf with Firefox incognito-style, highlight domains in your address bar, and convert Websites into applications.


FOUR: Larger Comment Boxes

Comment boxes on Web sites soliciting feedback can sometimes be way too small. With Chrome you simply click on the corner of any Web-based comment field and stretch it out as large as you like.


FIVE: Help me Home, Please

Google Chrome's minimalist approach to design that leaves the interface clutter-free can be appreciated. But without a Home button Chrome feels a bit like a house with no front door. To regain the Home button on your browser simply go to the little wrench icon, select the Google Chrome Options, click on the Basics tab, and check the "Show Home button on the Toolbar" box.


SIX: Fun With Tabs

Browser tabs are an incredibly useful feature in browsers today. Google has spent some time and made them even more useful by allowing more tab flexibility than is currently possible with IE or Firefox. Chrome allows you to peel browser tabs off a browser so they can become their own browser window. Chrome also allows you to take two separate Chrome browsers and drag them together creating one window with two tabs.



SEVEN: A Little More Privacy Please

As privacy issues continue to swirl around Google new concerns have been raised regarding Google's Chrome browser. According to reports, Google's auto-suggest (featured in the Chrome browser Omnibar) allows Google to know everything you type into it ? even if you don't hit enter. Ina Fried from CNET suggests you disable the feature.

To disable the auto-suggest feature right-click inside the Omnibar and un-check the "Use a suggestion service to help complete searches."


EIGHT: Go Incognito on the Fly

Not sure what awaits you when you contemplate clicking on that link? If you want to make sure your Web tracks are covered just right-click the link and select "Open link in incognito window."


NINE: No Google Toolbar for Google Chrome, No Problemo

Former PC World Editor in Chief, Harry McCracken, has been bemoaning the ironic fact Google Chrome doesn't support the handy Google Toolbar on his Technologizer Web site. The Google Toolbar, available for IE and Firefox, bring much versatility to the browser including a shortcut to Gmail, access to online Google Bookmarks, a spell checker, and the ability to send URL links via e-mail in just a few clicks.

Mr. McCracken explains he has found a way to create an approximation to the Google Toolbar by tweaking Google Chrome with a technique he calls "Project Fakebar." For those with idle time, head on over to the Technologizer site and find out how to put a Fakebar on your Chrome Browser.


TEN: Everyone Loves an Easter Egg

Type "about:internets" (without the quotes of-course) into the address bar and you'll see a tribute to United States Senator Ted Stevens' take on the Internet. (This apparently only works in Windows XP)


MORE About: page Easter eggs

You may already know about Google Chrome's humorous about:internets Easter egg, but here is a list of Chrome's several special "about: pages" that reveal all sorts of interesting information about what's going on behind the scenes. Here's the full list:

* about:memory
* about:stats
* about:network
* about:internets
* about:histograms
* about:dns
* about:cache
* about:crash
* about:plugins
* about:version

you can also go to two special pages on a per-site basis. view-cache:[URL] shows you some under-the-hood cache details, and view-source:[URL] shows you the page's markup. (Though you can view source by just right-clicking on a page and choosing, well... "View page source.")

I hope you found these tips,tweaks and tricks useful... leave me your feedback, as always, by using the link below, you can be paid for them (brings meaning to the term "penny for your thoughts" right?)

Until next time........

The browser wars are back!

At the turn of the century, Microsoft brutally vanquished Netscape in the browser wars. For a while, that victory appeared to be permanent. The battle had been a pretty ugly one: A federal court found that Microsoft illegally used its Windows monopoly to expand Internet Explorer's market share; Netscape never recovered from its loss. For most computer users, though, the browser wars were sublime: The Web browser was "invented" in 1992, and within five years, with hundreds of developers at both Microsoft and Netscape pumping out code, browsers became fast, stable, and capable of some very neat tricks.

These days, Web designers boast about all they can do with AJAX, the set of technologies that allow Web sites to emulate desktop-app behavior like drag-and-drop (ie Google Maps). AJAX runs on code that was created by Microsoft and Netscape as competitive weapons during the browser wars. Yes, today's glorious Web was made possible by yesterday's bruising business confrontation. All of us should rejoice, then, at the dawn of Browser War II.

Google has released a Web browser called Chrome. This new piece of software enters a crowded field of browsers looking for your love. Microsoft with its final revision of Internet Explorer 8,.(Both Chrome and IE 8 run only on Windows, though Google says it's creating versions for other platforms.) In June, Mozilla put out Version 3 of its popular open-source, cross-platform Firefox browser, in Version 3.1. The Norwegian software company Opera also released its latest eponymous, innovative, cult-hit browser. And Apple is now working on the next version of Safari for Mac and Windows.

All this competition is great news, because the world desperately needs a better Web browser. For at least the past four or five years, Firefox has been the gold standard among techies; I've been using it as my primary browser for at least that long. I loved it, I appreciated its smart, clean user interface, its tabs (although all browsers use tabs now, at the time when I moved to Firefox, this was the only browser to do so) and keyboard shortcuts, and most of all—Firefox's killer feature—its ability to run a wide range of useful third-party add-ons. But Firefox is hobbled by a couple of major flaws. It hogs system resources: Use it for a while, and it eats up huge chunks of your computer's memory, eventually slowing browsing to a near snail pace. Firefox is also prone to crashing: Load up an errant Web page, and you risk bringing the program to a halt. (This problem makes session-recovery add-ons like Tab Mix Plus essential.)

Admittedly, I'm not an ordinary Web user—I use my browser as a research tool, mail app, calendar, media player, and a tabbed to-do list. I live and breath the internet, I can't be without it... At any point during the day, I've got three or four browser windows open, each with 10 to 15 Web pages running in tabs (at least). I understand that this bespeaks a kind of insanity, but with Web sites growing ever more useful and Web users growing ever more addicted, it's the sort of insanity that afflicts an increasing number people.

The wonderful thing about Google's new browser, is that it's been built with the singular purpose of handling a hefty workload. While I'm not yet ready to switch to Chrome as my permanent browser—it's got some odd user interface quirks, lacks a few useful features, and doesn't have Firefox's hordes of plug-ins—I've found it to be impressively fast and stable. So far, it's run everything that I've thrown it's way without bringing my computer to a halt. For that alone, I really think that Google's on to something.

Just as Windows runs Photoshop and iTunes at the same time without letting each bother the other, or getting in each others way, Chrome lets its processes do different tasks in parallel. If one Chrome tab is busy loading Google Reader, another Chrome tab won't be crimped while refreshing the CNNSI.com website. Best of all, if one process crashes, your full browser session remains intact. I've inadvertently learned many different ways to make Firefox crash; none of these tricks worked on Chrome. The best I could do was crash a single process—this brought down an individual tab, but Chrome as a whole, kept running.

There are several more under-the-hood improvements. Google claims that Chrome beats other browsers at "garbage collection"— the computer-science term for how a program gets rid of memory it no longer needs. Better garbage collection significantly reduces how much of your computer's resources an application consumes. Google also wrote its own JavaScript virtual machine—the engine that runs all the fancy AJAX code that powers complex new Web apps—that it claims is faster and more stable than other browsers' scripting engines. Though I found Chrome speedy and less demanding on my system's resources than Firefox 3.0, its advantage isn't unsurpassable—Lifehacker's tests give the memory and speed edge to Firefox 3.1.

You aren't likely to notice Chrome's tech improvements when you load it up for the first time. What you'll see is a clean, minimalistic app, one missing several features that you're used to in other browsers. For example, Chrome presents no good way to manage bookmarks. Still, there are some innovative features. Instead of an address bar and a search box, Chrome uses only one input bar in which you're free to type either something like "ebay.com" or "policies of Barrack Obama" Chrome is smart enough to figure out when to take you to a Web page and when to perform a Web search. It also lists other recently visited sites containing ebay, obama, or other like terms.

I found some of Google's other user-interface tweaks a little more annoying than useful. Chrome places its row of tabs in the title bar, an area that in most apps isn't used for anything other than displaying the name of the program. This saves space on your screen, but it also eradicates one of the main ways people have grown accustomed to using tabs in browsers—you can't double-click the tab bar to open a new tab, like you can on every other multi-tab browser. (Double-clicking the bar in Chrome resizes the window.)

This is a petty nitpick, obviously. Chrome is very much a work in progress, a beta program that I expect will improve dramatically in the months to come. It shares two advantages with Firefox: Chrome is open-source, meaning outside developers are free to extend and improve it. And Chrome includes a plug-in infrastructure that lets people create add-ons. Because it's new, neither of these features is very important just yet. But if Chrome catches on, developers will likely build these and other great programs for it; theoretically, people could even take the best bits of Firefox and Chrome and build another single awesome browser.

For Google, Microsoft, and Apple, the browser fight is a means to other ends. Microsoft, which holds more than three-quarters of the browser market, looks at the Web as an extension of its operating system. As more of our programs move online, Microsoft fears that we might have little reason to stick to Windows; it sees control of the browser as a way to control the future of software development. Google seems to want to be in the browser business to fight Microsoft. The company's revenue comes entirely from the Web, so it's got to be wary that most of its customers come through software created by its main rival. (Google substantially underwrites both Firefox and Opera, which both feature Google's search engine as the default.) Apple, meanwhile, needs a browser to beef up its own platform—not only on the Mac but also on its phones and iPods.

Sure, these aims aren't entirely noble. But who cares? As the giants duke it out to come up with the best product, they'll copy and improve upon each other's innovations, bringing new features to all browsers. Chrome's immunity to crashing, for instance, is sure to push both Mozilla and Microsoft to improve their browsers' stability. Perhaps soon you'll be able to load up any browser you like and watch two dozen YouTube videos at once without fearing a crash—just like the Web was always meant to be used.

The gloves appear to be off!

Until next time........