Alex thinks Gowalla could be a lot of fun.

To all my iPhone toting Facebook friends: Please join Gowalla!

Gowalla is a new location-based social game.

The basic premise of Gowalla is that you launch the program on your iPhone and check in anytime you are somewhere interesting. Coffee Shops, Restaurants, Parks, Landmarks. Anywhere interesting. Gowalla gives you a list of nearby locations where other users have previously checked in, or if you've found a new place, you can add it. Gowalla only lets you check in if your GPS is within a certain distance of a known location. Every location has a beautiful icon which is "stamped" on your Gowalla passport. The more great places you go, the more beautiful stamps you get to show off on your Passport. It showcases popular "featured" locations including some near my house that I didn't know existed, like a Graffiti Wall in SODO that anyone can go paint on. It also features "Trips" people have put together to send you off on a little tour around the city if you're bored.

How is is social?

Gowalla is integrated with Facebook, so every time you check in, it can update your status (if you want) to show where you've checked in including your pretty new passport stamp. The iPhone app also features a list of your friends (mine is short, thus the blog post) including where they most recently checked in. If you choose, you can be notified when friends check in and maybe even go meet up with them.

How is it a game?

Well, it's not fully baked yet, but in addition to getting credit for visiting cool places and having attractive stamps on your passport to show for it, you get these weird little things called "Items". Like Stamps, they're extremely attractive digital bling for your profile. You pick up and drop off items along the way (you can only carry 10 at a time) and each item tells a story of all of the people who have held it and places it has been. It's a little odd, but actually quite fun.

Please join me!

I think location information adds a great new twist to status updates, and while I've been waiting for Facebook to add this functionality for ages, I fear that when they finally do implement it, it won't be as fun and engaging as Gowalla's. So, please join, connect to Facebook and let's support this great startup.

Search for Gowalla in the iPhone App Store (or visit online).

Alex thanks Apple for his wireless home.

Yesterday I put the finishing touches on our wireless home by installing outdoor speakers under the eves on the back of our house. What makes them "wireless" is that once the wires go into the attic through the wall, they are plugged into an Airport Express in the attic. That wireless router is just one of five wirelessly networked devices in our house that keep us humming without wires. The coolest thing is that a sixth device, my iPhone, can control most of the system from anywhere in our house.

Here's how it works:

Airport Extreme is the base for ZeekNet, our wirelesss network (named in honor of our cat Zeek). It's hooked up to our cable modem which uses the same Comcast cable that also goes to our TV (as shown by the fatter wires in the diagram).

Sharing Music through iTunes

We have two computers on our wireless network, an iMac in the Office and a Mac Mini connected to the TV in the Living Room. The iMac is our main computer and is home to all of our music files, some of which also get synced to my iPhone and Ryan's Nano. Thanks to the Shared Music feature in iTunes, which lets you browse and play music from other computers running iTunes on your network, we can play all of our music from the Office in the Living Room on the Mac Mini. We use this method to play music through the TV and its attached speakers whenever we have guests. Using Shared Music, we can play all of our music from the Mac Mini in the Living Room or the iMac in the Office even though the files only exist in one location.

Wireless Speakers via Airport Express

The newest additions to the network are two sets of networked speakers--in the Basement, and as of yesterday, the Back Yard. These wireless speakers work simply by setting up an Airport Express and plugging speakers in. After configuring the airports to connect to the same network and giving each of them a name ("Basement" and "Back Yard") they automatically are recognized by iTunes through a feature called Air Tunes. This adds a drop down menu to the bottom corner if iTunes. The list includes checkboxes for "Computer" as in the one you're looking at iTunes on, and any configured AirPort Expresses ("Basement" and "Back Yard"). Check off where you want music and Voila! -- Music pumps throughout the house -- to the Basement and out into the Back Yard to add instant entertainment for those back yard bbqs.

Wireless Control via iPhone Remote

Even more amazing and magical is Apple's Remote application for iPhone (available from the App Store). When you're connected to your home wireless network and launch the Remote application, it figures out that iTunes is playing on one of your computers and instantly shows you the album cover and controls to adjust the volume, skip to the next song or even change to a different song or playlist. This feels magical because it's making all of this happen on your computer--from wherever you are in or around your house. Let's say you're playing bocce in the back yard and someone starts talking about the latest Killers song. Whip out the remote, tap a couple menus and instantly you've changed what's playing to that new Killers song. Oohs and Aaahs abound. Remote even lets you pick which wireless speakers the computer is playing music through. Move from Bocce in the Back Yard to Ping Pong in the basement? Turn off the music outside and turn it on downstairs without going anywhere near the computer. I love it.

Alex is a new fan of ChaCha.

ChaCha is a cool service that allows you to search via text message. Yes, we've been able to search Google by texting GOOGL (46645) for years, but ChaCha is different. Send a question--any question--to CHACHA (242242) and an actual human figures out the answer and sends the response back to you! It's amazing.

How it works behind the scenes

ChaCha pays "Guides" to manage and respond to queries supplied by users. Guides have specific jobs such answering a broad range of general questions (by having killer internet research skills) or answering questions for one deep subject area, translating phoned-in questions (1-800-2ChaCha) or routing questions to other guides for answering. Guides work as much or as little as they like and are paid based on role, time and volume of questions answered and typically make $3-$9 per hour.

And it even has a business model

Before receiving a response, ChaCha sends users a text ad. Nothing intrustive--Blu-Ray deals at Walmart, contests, something about a letter to Santa. Their website, ChaCha.com seems more geared to proving to advertisers that it's a viable marketing channel than to finding new customers (I guess that's what the blogs are for).

Here are some of the questions I tried in my first 24 hours and the answers I received.

Q: How many people were laid off at WaMu today?
A: WaMu spokeswoman Darcy Donahoe-Wilmott says JPMorgan Chase is laying off 3,400 WaMu employees in Seattle. ChaCha on! *What's new? Txt NEWMENU

Q: What's the number for yellow cab?
A: Yellow Cab 74 S Hudson St Seattle, WA 98134-2421 Phone: (206) 622-4000

Q: What's the price of oil?
A: Light Crude (NYM) closed today, December 2nd, 2008 at $46.96, down $2.32 from the previous close. Thanks for asking ChaCha! *Enter 2 win. Reply MYCENTRO

ChaCha lets you set a default location (text "Set Loc ZIP###") so it knows where to base some questions from. It can provide some automated responses including:

Q: Weather Seattle, WA
A: Seattle, WA Current: 51F A Few Clouds Tuesday: HI/52 LOW/45 Slight Chance of Showers Wednesday: HI/50 LOW/41 Patchy Fog. *Taxi? Call #TAXI (#8294)

Q: OLJ (short for One Liner Joke)
A: A friend of mine sent me a post card with a picture of Earth. On the back it said, "Wish you were here." MOJ for more.

Check out ChaCha. Text 242242. It's free and magical.

Alex is done with Restoration Hardware.

"Status: Solved"

That's where my problems are according to Restoration Hardware, a company I LOVE. I actually sent the message I blogged about on September 3rd to Restoration Hardware on the same date. Today, September 17th, I received a response:

Dear Mr. Porter,

Thank you for contacting Restoration Hardware. Please accept our apologies for the delay in responding to your email.

I have forwarded your letter on to the appropriate department for consideration.

We apologize for any inconvenience we may have caused you.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Bogan
Restoration Hardware Email Associate

Question Reference #080903-000560
---------------------------------------------------------------
Date Created: 09/03/2008 11:44 PM
Last Updated: 09/17/2008 05:14 PM
Status: Solved

Now, in truth, I didn't ask for anything in my lovely letter to Restoration Hardware. I'm sure they have dozens (hundreds? thousands?) of complaints to deal with and that they're happy to forward them on to the "appropriate department for consideration" and call them Solved when the customer doesn't actually ask for anything. It's good to know that if I had actually asked for something, they would have responded to my email in 14 days.

Here's something they don't know though: in those 14 days, my actual issues weren't solved. Here's what has transpired during the days subsequent to my first post:

Day 15 - Monday, September 8th
As promised by UPS, a company that keeps its promises, I received my original order on Thursday September 8th, just 15 days after I placed it at a Restoration Hardware store and 5 days after the 7-10 days of promised delivery.



As expected, the shipment included a bathroom light fixture, a front porch light fixture, and a house number. As expected, that house number was a one rather than the necessary zero. It was a lovely one, but I only needed one one. I planned to return this one as soon as my zero arrived a couple days.

Here's the thought process I went through as I opened the front porch light fixture. (You can safely skip this next paragraph.)

"Wow, this is bigger than I expected! How deceiving a picture with nothing to scale it against in a catalog is. Ooh, and it's pretty bronze looking...a lot shinier than the black-looking one in the photo. Hmm...it's still nice looking though so let's go for it. Ooh...now that I pulled this support cardboard out, all of the glass panes are lose. Hmm...the glue holding them in is all cracked and falling apart and the metal clasps holding them in aren't bent properly to hold the glass. Hmm...I guess I can deal with that if I just bend these...ok, there. Oh, interesting, there's a sticker on here that says 5/16/2007. I guess this was manufactured a long time ago...how vintage. Oh no! It's missing an ornamental screw cap, one that will hold the main part of the lamp to the part attached to the ceiling but when unscrewed allow me to pull off the lamp and replace the bulb...I don't think it will stay up without that part. Well, let's see how installation goes...maybe I'll find that missing screw cap. Hmm...this is tricky to install...oops, let's drill a couple more holes in the ceiling, ok, there goes, that's lined up...ok, looking good, wires attached....hmm...why isn't this thing flush with the ceiling. It's called the Madera Flushmount, but it's not mounting flush with the ceiling...grrr!...these screws are too long, what a piece of crap! And I checked everywhere and didn't find that damn screw cap. Well, I still like the look of the thing, and with a few extra parts I can make it work, so I'm off to Lowe's. Ok, got a bunch of washers and a nut, let's see, ok, there goes, now it's flush. Screw in the bulb, flip the switch...Yes! Light! On the front porch! For the first time in a month! Ok, now for this cover...the part that actually looks nice. It definitely needs two screw caps, good thing this nut I bought is screwing on where there is a missing cap. Yes! Success...its up! Not too bad. I can overlook a mismatching silver nut in place of a matching ornamental cap, right? This thing was only $170 including shipping, right? It looks good and no one will notice that silver nut (except maybe me every time I look at it). It looks really good from the street!"



After finishing the porch light install, I opened up the bathroom fixture to check it out. Unfortunately, it didn't look as good or as matchy when held up in the bathroom above the mirror as it did in my head when I glanced at the diagram of it in the store and impulsively ordered it (they had a single light sample and a diagram that showed the double light I wanted.) In practice it was too square cornered and clean lined for the 20s bathroom we have. I decided it will have to go back to the store with my extra house number once that zero comes.

Day 17 - Wednesday, September 10th
I expected to receive my zero this day, but didn't. Distracted by other things, I didn't think much of it.

Day 22 - Monday, September 15th
Over the weekend I realized that I haven't even received a shipping confirmation for that zero I re-ordered on day 3, confirmed on day 4. Needing to resolve the missing zero and request a replacement screw cap, I took the dreadful step of contacting Restoration Hardware customer service.

Call 1 - Asked for help with my second order, the one for the house number, the one I had to place because they messed up my first order. Where is my order? I haven't received a shipping conversation. Placed on hold 5 minutes for research. Hold music ends. We're sorry, your call cannot be completed as dialed.

Call 2 - Described how I was being helped when I was disconnected. No apology. Gave my order number and problem. Placed on hold for 5 minutes for research.
RH: "I'm sorry to tell you this, but that 0 is no longer in stock for the color you ordered."
AP: "You're kidding me."
RH: "No, unfortunately, we can't send you one."
AP: "So what, my order is canceled? I placed this order weeks ago. I have heard nothing, why wasn't I notified? Why did the person I talked to place the order and why was it confirmed??"
RH: Silence
AP: "I'm not happy."
AP: "Well if there's nothing you can do, I have another question for you. It's with another order number. See the third item? It's missing a part. Part E. It's a screw cap that holds the light up."
RH: "Ok, please hold for a minute while I see what we can do."
10 minutes
RH: "Sorry for the wait, I'm on hold waiting for someone else."
AP: "Ok, thanks for the update."
10 minutes
RH: "I'm still on hold, but once I get them they should be able to send you the part."
5 minutes
RH: "Unfortunately, that item is no longer in stock, so we can't send a replacement or the part."
AP: "You've got to be kidding me. It's still for sale on your website."
RH: "I know, but if you type in the item number from your order nothing comes up."
AP: "So there's seriously nothing you can do. I'm really not happy."
RH: "If there's another item with the same part you could order that."
AP: "Do you know of such an item? What am I saying, I'm sure you don't know all the items and what screws they use. Well thanks a lot."

After stewing for a while, I started to think I should have asked for something for my troubles. I also played with the website and was able to add my same exact light to the shopping cart and begin the checkout process. I decided to try one more time.

Call 3
AP: "Something I ordered was missing a part and I just talked with someone who told me there was no way to get the part because the item is out of stock, but I can see the item on your website and begin to check out an order with the item. I could order the whole thing again, but I don't want to pay shipping and deal with returns. Can you help me get this replacement part?"
RH: "Let me look into this."
RH: "I'm sorry you were told that is out of stock, it's definately not."
RH: "Just a minute while I work on this."
5 minutes
RH: "Ok, I just processed a request--someone should be calling you later today."
AP: "Really?"
RH: "Yeah, they'll call to confirm that they're shipping the part."
AP: "What number are they going to call."
RH: "555-5554"
AP: "That's not my number...my number is 555-5556."
RH: "Ok, I updated it."
AP: "Thanks, is there some kind of reference number for this?"
RH: "No, just the order number. Do you have that?"
AP: "Oh, I have it....thanks a lot."

Later that day, I received no call. I don't know that I expect that I ever will receive that call or a replacement part. Once I return the four numbers that don't make up my house number, the bathroom fixture that's not quite right, and come to grips with my imperfectly expensive front porch light fixture, I think I'll be ready to accept that fact and move on. I'm looking forward to it.

Day 24 - Wednesday, September 17th
I received the response I showed you above. Status: Solved. So glad everything's ok.

Here's another thing they don't know: Alex is done with Restoration Hardware. For good.

Alex is always excited on Apple launch days.

Today Apple is announcing something new. It happens at least twice a year and I am always really excited. I've had an iPod since version 2 (the first one with the touch wheel--but with physical buttons around the outside of the wheel) which I got in 2002. I love their innovation, craftsmanship and showmanship, and now have many more of their products including an Airport Extreme, an Airport Express (for wirelessly networked speakers), a Mac Mini (connected to my TV), an iMac (in my office) and an iPhone.

Today's event is called "Let's Rock" and begins at 10AM PST. As always, there are laundry lists of rumors and conjectures, and as is recently the case, a lot of leaked information (we can almost count on a new Nano). I think it's bigger than updating the iPod line though. Not new laptops or a new OS, but I am crossing my fingers for some updates to make my house more wirelessly media-enabled. I think Fortune has a good guess--an updated Apple TV. It would be awesome to see an Apple DVR, but I expect that would erode their TV purchasing business. Who knows, Apple is usually not afraid to shake things up.

Alex is quivering with anticipation.

Alex is writing a letter to Restoration Hardware.

Dear Restoration Hardware:

I have enjoyed browsing your store for years and now that I am a homeowner of a historic 1925 craftsman home, I was delighted to purchase some of your lovely, high end, accessories for my home. Despite my positive impression of your company going into this transaction, I have ended up a rather dissatisfied customer. Each step of the process has been a disappointment. It's still in progress, but here's how my order is going:

Day 0 - Sunday, August 24
I went into your downtown Seattle store on Sunday, August 24 and found everything I was looking for. Unfortunately, only three of the six items I wanted (five of which were physically on display) were in stock. The items in stock were three of the four numbers that will make up my house number--zero was out of stock. The other two items were a $129 "Keegan Double Sconce" light for the bathroom and a $149 "Madera Flushmount" lamp for the front of the house, were not in stock. I placed an order with the employees in the store for items I could not take away with me at the time. The order included a $21 shipping fee for the lamp that goes on the front of the house since it isn't sold in your stores. I received a carbon copy of the handwritten order and was told I would have my items in 7 to 10 days. I walked out with three of my four house numbers, a little disappointed that I wouldn't be able to put the finish touches on the front of our house (which we've been painting for some time and is now looking really nice).

Day 2 - Tuesday, August 26
I received an Order Confirmation via email, but it had an error. Rather than a zero for a house number, I was being shipped a one. Bummer. The carbon copy order form from the store clearly says the order was for the number zero.

Day 3 - Wednesday, August 27
I called the toll free number below to correct my order. After waiting on hold for ten minutes on the "help with existing orders" option, I was automatically transferred to a "the number cannot be completed as dialed". This happened twice and then I tried other options until I finally found a human who was willing to help me with my order. I was told there was no way to correct my order even though I had only just received the order confirmation. After thirty minutes including being placed on hold twice to check for supervisor permission, and being asked if I knew the item number (right, I have all of your item numbers memorized), I had placed and paid $7 for a new order for the number zero. I had to negotiate not having to pay shipping for this correction even though there was no shipping on my original order because it was supposed to be in stock in the store. Again, I was told I'll receive the order in 7 to 10 days. I'll have to return the mis-shipped item from my first order to your Seattle store.

Day 4 - Thursday, August 28
I received my second Order Confirmation email. This one correctly indicated my order for the number zero.

Day 10 - Wednesday, September 3
I expected to receive my original order today, since it's day ten of your 7 to 10 day shipping. Instead, all I received today was a shipping confirmation. SHIPPING CONFIRMATION! My items were supposed to be here today, not be shipped today. All I have to show for the $350 I've paid you is three of my four house numbers. What were you doing for the last 10 days?? And I thought the mistake your store employee made couldn't be corrected when I called 7 daysearlier to correct it! According to UPS, I'll receive the package on September 8th, just 15 days after ordering it. If it takes the same number of days from "Order Confirmation" (not even order placed) to "Item Received", I will receive the correction order on Day 17.

It looks like I may finally have everything I want from you just 17 days after walking into your lovely store. I know that in the big scheme of things, this is no big deal, but I'm excited to get my stuff and finish the projects I need them for. What if I had ordered something like a facet for my bathroom? I'd have no water in the bathroom for more than two weeks. Once I get everything, I'm certain it will all look great, but I won't be too excited to order anything else from you after this experience. Especially with the pricey $21 for shipping on the one small item you don't sell in stores.

Here's some advice to make this work better for customers like myself:

• Keep your stores in stock--it's reasonable that big pieces of furniture might not be in stock, but I just wanted some tiny things that were on display in your store
• Don't promise 7-10 day shipping if you can't deliver
• Get your items out of the warehouse faster---there is no reason it should take ten days to ship something (even if you subtract the two days it took you to get the order in your system, 8 days is too long to sit on an order)
• You're selling a high end product--give your customers a high end experience. If they call for help, don't send them through dead end phone trees. Give the person that answers the phone the power to fix a problem rather than adding more hurdles

Thanks,
Alex Porter

Alex is liking Google Chrome.

Today, Google released a brand new web browser into the market to compete with the likes of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Opera. It's called Google Chrome. I'm somewhat familiar with the term Chrome from Firefox, which refers to the user interface as its 'chrome'. I like the name--it's more creative than the clear-but-boring 'Internet Explorer', yet not as far out there as 'Orkut' (which I know is a guy's name, but what does it have to do with the actual service?).

I currently rely on two browsers on a day to day basis. I primarily use Flock, a little known browser based on Firefox. It comes with a bunch of handy built in features that integrate it with online services like Facebook and Delicious. I also use Internet Explorer (currently IE8 beta) due to the fact that many of the Business web apps I have to use at work are designed solely to be supported by Internet Explorer (including the web application we built for my last client).

Last night, I discovered and read all 36 pages of a clever comic book describing the thought process that Google went through in developing their new browser. This morning, I eagerly awaited the 11am launch, refreshing the web page www.google.com/chrome every few minutes hoping that maybe it was launched (yep, I'm a big nerd...). When it finally became available for download close to 12pm, I quickly installed it (boy that was fast and easy) and have been using it all day. I really like it. Here's why:

• I love the UI. It's clean and isn't bloated with toolbars. And I don't feel like it's missing anything, which is nice. Every single interaction has been thoughtfully and inovatively designed. Here are some touches I enjoy:


• Tabs are top and center. At first glance, there isn't much more to this browser than tabs with web pages. The tabs are very zippy and I love how you can drag them wherever you want, even out into their old window and back in. (Note: While moving tabs, I discovered the only bug I've encountered thus far. I was dragging a tab and it dissippeared. Now there's a blank space in the row of tabs, like the browser has a missing tooth.) Different from any other browser, all buttons and the URL box live below the tabs. Each tab has its own address, so why not it's own URL box? This also means you don't have to move your mouse as far to get to the back and forward buttons. I like how Google always rethinks design and isn't afraid to make a big change if they think it will make things more usable.


• New tabs are actually useful. In Firefox, I use an add-on called Speed Dial (actually a feature ripped off from Opera) to create a homepage that has screenshot thumbnails that link to my top 6 websites (Gmail, Facebook, Google Calendar, Yahoo! Mail, iGoogle, and Google Reader), which I set manually. Chrome actually uses my browser history to determine what my top sites are and uses that information to automatically create a Speed Dial-like screen of thumbnails for my most used pages, making new tabs useful with zero configuration.
  
  
• Try searching for something on the page. CTRL+F. As you type the letters of what you're finding, the scrollbar on the right lights up with highlighting to indicate where on the page you can find the letters you're searching for. Nice touch. (I like Firefox's find implementation because you can set it up to start finding when you start typing without CTRL+F, but otherwise, Chrome does an excellend job, much better than IE, which still insists on popping up a separate window for my search term and only searching after I click a button).


• Status Bar. I have always thought that browsers need a status bar at the bottom so that I can see what URL the link I'm about to click is going to take me to. Both Firefox and Internet Explorer include a status bar by default, though you can get rid of it if you want to add more screen real estate. Safari opts to hide the status bar in favor of having web pages run all the way to the very last pixel of the browser. But in Safari, I find myself feeling blind as I click a link not knowing where it will take me. Chrome has the best of both worlds. There's no status bar, but when I mouseover a link, I see a little plesant blue bar at the bottom that pops up to tell me where the link will take me.

• It's fast. Pages seem to load very quckly, and Javascript-based apps, like Gmail, do appear to work faster (JavaScript improvements--key to apps like Gmail--are touted as one of Chrome's key features).
  


• Better use of the Operating System. Google architected the way this browser works with the computer's Operating System completely differently than every other. Each tab uses its own OS process, where as other browsers use just one OS process regardless of how many things are running in the browser or how many tabs are open. You can even access a little Chrome "task manager" which will presumably tell me which tab is causing trouble if I ever run into performance issues (which I haven't yet!).


• Crashing. Because each tab has it's own OS process, if one of the tabs is crashing for whatever reason, it doesn't bring down the whole browser--just the one bad tab. My experince with Chrome has been very stable, so I haven't had the pleasure of seeing how it handles a crashing tab. I've been setting up this blog and composing this entry in Google Docs, running Chrome for hours with about a dozen or so tabs open.


• Web applications feel even more like desktop applications. Web "Applications" like Google Docs run in the cloud which has long been referred to and speculated about as the operating system of the future. With applications running in Google Chrome tabs, they feel even more like desktop applications. With the integration of Google Gears (which allows interactive web applications to run offline and then later sync with the web as if they were always online) and the ability to run an application in its own Google Chrome window via a shortcut, this browser really does cement the idea of the Web Operating System. I look forward to the day powerful browsers with the same standards-based infrastructure run on all operating systems, allowing developers to write code once and run it on any OS. Some day, maybe the Browser will be the only desktop application we need. It's been speculated by some, and I agree that it seems to be coming to fruition.

With all the good, there are, of course, some things that could use some work:

• It's missing Extensibility. One of the most compelling features of Firefox (and Flock), though probably not the most mainstream one, is the ability to extend the browser. There are hundreds of add-ons you can install to tweak how the browser works and looks. For instance, Flock uses an extension to display all of my Facebook contacts in a column on the left side of the browser along with their most recent status. Extensions are not an option yet with Chrome. Ideally, Google would find a way to support the same extensions already built for Firefox so developers wouldn't have to develop multiple versions of the same extensions (a pipe dream, I'm certain).


• It's missing Web Integration. Google Chrome has History. Google has online Web History. Google Chrome has Bookmarks. Google has online Bookmarks. I frequently use two different computers (my work laptop, a Lenovo runing Vista and my home desktop, an Apple iMac) and would like to have the same history and bookmarks and settings automatically on any computer I use Google Chrome on. They have the infrastructure in place to store all that in the cloud--ideally I'd like to 'sign in' to chrome and have it access all my settings (history, bookmarks, saved/encrypted passwords) from the cloud so I could have a consistent browser experience regardless of what computer I'm on. Mozilla is close to achieving this with their (somewhat buggy though improving) Weave as is Opera with Link. Google recently stopped supporting their own Firefox browser extension called Google Browser Sync, so maybe that was because they wanted to focus the resources on implementing the same for Chrome. My fingers are croseed that over time the browser itself will become more integrated with the web (and for anti-trust purposes, let me use whatever web bookmarking service I want as the back end!).
  


• It's not perfect. I encountered a few compatibilty issues where web apps didn't behave as expected (I can't comment on someone's Facebook status, for example), but I'd say that's to be expected for an otherwise fairly flawless brand new beta product on its first day out the door. The issues are most likely due to the need for updates to the web site themselves rather than to the browser, similar to how developers need to update sites to make them 'Standards Compliant' so that they'll display properly in IE8's newly default 'standards' mode. Comparing these two beta 'Standards Compliant' browsers, Chrome definately seems to display more sites correctly.


• Mac Support. It's coming, apparently. Can't wait...meanwhile, I'll install it via Parallels on my iMac.

Overall, I'm very impressed by Google Chrome. I think it will be a difficult climb for the browser to gain share, but know that Google has lots of money and clout in the industry, so anything is possible. Even if it doesn't gain significant market share, it's likely to increase competition which will only help make all browsers better. It's also 100% open source, so maybe if IE steals pieces of the code, the mass IE audience can benefit.

I'm excited by Google's move and excited to see what happens next. Alex is staying tuned.