On Tuesday Google introduced Google Chrome Frame that is an open source plug-in that bring HTML5, and other open web technologies to Internet Explorer.

With Google Chrome Frame, developers can now take advantage of the latest open web technologies, even in Internet Explorer. From a faster Javascript engine, to support for current web technologies like HTML5’s offline capabilities and <canvas>, to modern CSS/Layout handling, Google Chrome Frame enables these features within IE with no additional coding or testing for different browser versions.

To start using Google Chrome Frame, all developers need to do is to add a single tag:

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="chrome=1">

When Google Chrome Frame detects this tag it switches automatically to using Google Chrome’s speedy WebKit-based rendering engine. It’s that easy. For users, installing Google Chrome Frame will allow them to seamlessly enjoy modern web apps at blazing speeds, through the familiar interface of the version of IE that they are currently using.

For Wordpress users there is a plug-in that helps with Google Chrome Frame integration, which really isn’t necessary since it’s easy to simply add the tag above.

Herein lies the problem. Web site visitors are redirected from the web site homepage to a plug-in download page. Most people won’t have a clue what Google Chrome Frame is, so they’ll be unlikely to download and install something they know nothing about.

Even though the Google Chrome web browser is faster than Internet Explorer, most people continue to use the slower Internet Explorer because they are familiar with it. For most people easier is better.

If Google really wants to get people to adopt new technologies to improve the Internet, they’ll need to convince companies like Microsoft to move ahead at the speed of technology. Since Microsoft is so reluctant to do anything "open source" Google is having a tough time, so they are appealing to developers (documentation here), and Internet surfers to pressure Microsoft, or work around Microsoft by trying to get a grass roots ground swell of support from developers and Internet surfers.

Microsoft is also introducing their own header tags for developers to add to their websites to be able to continue to have Internet Explorer 8 render their web sites in Internet Explorer 7 mode.

We want to see push technology that makes web site development easier for developers, so their web sites will render properly in any web browser using web hooks in their web site.

It seems unlikely that a web site owner will risk alienating their readers by redirecting them to a plug-in install page that they must install to view the web site. While we think Google Chrome Frame is a great idea, how it is integrated into an Internet surfer’s life will decide if this project succeeds or fails.

Google has just launched their DoubleClick Ad Exchange which brings together all types of display ad buyers and sellers, as well as AdWords, and delivers those ads to AdSense publisher web sites.

Through the new DoubleClick Ad Exchange big-time and small-time advertisers can now buy targeted display ads on thousands of DoubleClick ad-serving websites, which could boost Google’s revenue, and hurt Yahoo in the display adverting market.

Traditionally, publishers and advertisers using Google’s AdSense and AdWords products would have to manually plan their display ad campaigns. Now, publishers can tap into Google’s ecosystem for ads where prices are set in a real-time auction and advertisers can access a large pool of inventory within one platform.

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Back in 2004 Google submitted a single illustration of their Google.com homepage, of which the main component is a search box with two submit buttons below it, and a few text links.

On September 1, 2009 Google received their search page patent from the United States Patent Office. Technically Google has patented their homepage as a web "graphical user interface," for which they now have a patent to exclusively use that design. Google also submitted an application for the design of their search results in 2004, and that patent was issued in 2006. It would seem Google intended to license out the use of their patent to other search engines, namely Yahoo, but just ahead of the patent license approval some search engines have change their design to steer clear of the infringing on Google’s patent.

There is a long history behind the story of Google’s design patent filings. It all begins with Overture.

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Google Lively is dead. Let me refresh your memories. Google Lively was the browser-based virtual world, sort of like Second Life, that Google launched back in July. It turns out that Google will be pulling the plug after December 31, 2008.

There was huge amounts of hype during the month of July as speculation that this might be the future of the internet. The platform was supposed to allow people to visit other websites through a virtual world, a sort of Sims meets the internet, but it ended up being a huge flop. It didn’t even work with Google’s own Chrome browser.

It looks like the company is downsizing and prioritizing like the rest of the world because of the economy and also simply because Lively was DOA. According to the company:

"… we want to ensure that we prioritize our resources and focus more on our core search, ads and apps business."

Google has once again impressed Gmail fans by rolling out themes allowing users to "pimp their email." This isn’t anything drastically new, users have been able to accomplish this "unofficially" through the use of Greasemonkey scripts, but it wasn’t until recently that Gmail allowed for this customization natively.

Gmail users will be able to customize and give their inboxes a little facelift by going to Settings -> Themes. Google launched 30 themes including a retro notepad theme, a nature theme that changes scenery over time and a weather theme that changes according to your local weather.

Google, as usual, will be rolling out the update in ’phases,’ so if you don’t have the ’Themes’ tab yet, you definitely will by the end of the day. Until then, enjoy the screenshot!