Have you heard about Google’s new beta browser with built-in search engine, Google Chrome? I’ve just installed it.  I find it faster than Firefox or Internet Explorer, and I like how small the browser “frame” is around the Web content.  I must be getting old, because I also like how the URL is displayed in a nice big font, with the domain name (e.g., schoollibrarymedia.com) in black type and the rest of the URL grayed out.  Oh, think of what that simple step does for helping students SEE the domain and use it for an initial evaluation of a Web site.I haven’t taken all of the features for a spin yet (for example, I haven’t discovered yet if I can get my Delicious bookmark buttons installed on it), but it feels refreshing.  I like that the majority of my screen space is now filled with content and not toolbars, for example.  I haven’t used it enough to see how Google Chrome’s home page will, as shown above, create what is essentially a customized page with links and screenshots of my most-visited sites.  Chrome’s visually streamlined aesthetic reflects what we’ve come to expect from Google, but the real star of Chrome is what’s going on behind the scenes.  I’m not a programming whiz, so I’ll leave the explanation to the experts. Suffice it to say, Chrome was designed to take up less visual space, crash less frequently, and get you where you’re going more quickly.  T.H.E. Journal had a great article about Chrome, and Google walks you through their thinking and design process in a cool online graphic novel that features the voices of the Google Chrome team.It’s such a savvy idea — to let Google employees tell users why they put in the features they did and to explain the technology hiding beneath the skin of Chrome.  When is the last time a company showed you their process? Or, as we edufolk like to call it, their metacognition? And, to keep it fun to read, put it into a nontraditional format? What a great model for us to think about.  The Chrome project also reminds me of what I read about in The Google Story - that Google employees get to spend 20% of their work week (that’s a WHOLE DAY if you work a five-day work week) pursuing a project that is personally rewarding to them.  No wonder they have such loyalty.  Imagine how education would be turned on its head if we had 20% of our time for experimenting and networking and thinking about the Big Questions of student learning?  How could American education explode with creativity and depth? Oh, this reverie is making me positively dizzy.  How is Chrome working for you? Image: Google Chrome 

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This entry was posted on Sunday, September 7th, 2008 at 10:01 am and is filed under Searching, Web sites. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.