Google has prevented download of its applications like GTalk, Gmail Notifier and Google Chrome in countries like Iran, North Korea, Syria, Cuba and Sudan. The reason being United States has export control and economic sanctions for these Middle Eastern and North African countries.

Though Syrians and Iranians have been blocked from using these applications, Google still seems to be serving them advertisements and make money from such countries. This is strange as the same laws and restrictions should apply to publishing also. Google cannot prevent a user from accessing some free applications and also make some revenue out of the same user.

The two possible causes for the blocking of Google Chrome, GTalk and Gmail notifier are said to be:

1. The Export Administration Regulations
2. 2003 OFAC Ruling

The export administration regulations restrict the dissemination of any software that could help build a weapon. Similarly, the OFAC states that any U.S. software if it originated in U.S or not in U.S. cannot be directly or indirectly exported to Iran by any U.S citizen.

These restrictions will help Google Chrome competitors like Firefox become more popular and reduce Google’s popularity or the good samaritan image it had with Syrians or Iranians.

With the launch of the much hyped Google Chrome, there is yet another competitor in the tough browser market. Google though it repeatedly states it would not hurt Firefox is on the other hand actually marketing the browser in full throttle swallowing most of Firefox users.

Google Chrome is light, fast, easy, simple and powerful. The appearance is impressive and provides no unnecessary options that cover your window view. It is also smaller in size and simple to install. From a technical perspective, it is one of the best open source browsers. The rendering engine WebKit was well chosen as it was an already proven success with features like “speed”.  

But then, Internet Explorer which holds monopoly among browsers does not seem to be threatened due to Google Chrome. Google Chrome is yet to overtake Firefox. Well, I might be expecting too much as its not even a month Chrome was released. Will Google Chrome ever be able to overtake Internet Explorer in popularity and usage?

Many internet users do not even know that there are other browsers existing in this planet apart from Internet Explorer. Some feel, till the day Windows operating systems rule, Internet Explorer will also rule.

Let me know your views through this poll and comments.  

The new Google Chrome is light and fast and does not have all unnecessary options that the other browsers provide giving a larger view area.

However, Yahoo ads on Google Chrome seem to have an underline in all the ads which are not pleasing and can even turn out giving low click through rates[CTR].

Though Google Chrome is still in its beta version, it would be an area of concern if the stable version of Google Chrome would be delayed or if it would take more time to get released.

As seen above, the Yahoo Publisher Network [YPN] ads are displayed with underlines on all texts. However, it is interesting to see that Google Ads are being displayed properly.

Google Chrome is an open source development and Google itself has informed that most of the components were taken from Mozilla Firefox and other open source browsers.

The same issue persists also in Safari as both the browsers uses the same WebKit engine for its browser.

Hope the issue gets resolved in Google’s stable Chrome release or Yahoo tries to take care of this issue from its end.

The new Google Chrome logo is cool. The logo representing the globe has blue in its center with green, red and yellow surrounding it. This logo carrying typical Google colors has a glossy finish.

Lets wait and watch how its user interface would be! Too much expectations huh!