PaulSpoerry.com

Google isn’t known for using advertising to gain market share. But it looks like that wont be the case for their shiny new browser: Google Chrome.

Chrome ads have been showing up all over the Web on Google-owned sites like YouTube as well as third-party websites like LinkedIn. Now, the company is set to launch TV ads to promote the Web browser and they’ll be starting as early as this weekend.

The commercial itself was developed by Google Japan and is…. abstract. There is no voice over and no people. The video has the simple message “Install Google Chrome” at the end. It’s all very Apple-ish.  I almost expect the “there’s an app for that” voice to show up at the end.

What is now clear is that Google is committed to growing Chrome’s marketshare moreso than any other product in recent memory. This is to be expected, now that they’ve officially entered the browser game each Chrome install equals another user that gets Google as their default search engine. That said, Chrome is still lacking two key things: a Mac version (for those who run Mac’s) and an extension platform. Rumor has it that some announcements relating to those items may come at Google’s developer conference later this month…. until then I’ll hold onto FireFox.

Microsoft will issue an emergency security patch Wednesday for all versions of Internet Explorer. The patch is considered a critical fix for the security flaw currently plaguing the IE browser. So far, more than 2 million computers are believed to have been infected.

The flaw can be used to let attackers steal personal data such as passwords if a user visits a compromised Web site, of which at least 10,000 are thought to already exist. Thus far, the vulnerability has been used primarily for grabbing gaming passwords for black market sales. The hole could, however, potentially also be used to steal more sensitive information such as banking passwords and other private information. YIKES!

Microsoft’s emergency security patch will become available Wednesday at 1 p.m. EST at the Microsoft Update site as well as at the Microsoft Download Center. All users of IE5, 6, and 7 are advised to install it. A separate patch is expected to be made available for users of IE8 Beta 2. Expect to see far more detail by midday Wednesday when Microsoft officially issues its security bulletin.

Course… you could always just run FireFox or Chrome.   ;O)

The gang at Google just continues to impress. As if GMail didn’t rock you like a hurricane already it now supports viewing PDF’s in your Web browser. Anybody who knows me knows that I HATE HATE HATE PDF’s. The documents are rediculously heavy and require an application to load. GMail’s “in-browser” PDF viewer is uber fast, includes a search feature, lets you download or print the PDF, zoom in and out, as well as quick paging via next/previous arrows.

Cyber Nations is a free persistent browser-based nation simulation game. Create a nation anywhere in the world and decide how you will rule your people by choosing a government type, a national religion, ethnicity, tax rate, currency type, and more in this new geo-political, nation, and government simulator. Build your empire by purchasing infrastructure to support your citizens, land to expand your borders, technology to increase your nation’s effectiveness, military to defend your interests, and develop national improvements and wonders to build your nation according to your choosing.

Declare war on others and purchase from a wide variety of military options including soldiers and tanks used to defend against and attack your enemies, cruise missiles to bomb their cities, and nuclear weapons to bring wrath upon those who dare cross you. View your nation on real world maps and watch as your borders expand (or recede) over time. Communicate with other nations through private internal messages or discuss and debate issues in the Cyber Nations Forums. Send foreign aid packages and trade with other nations to grow your nation and improve your status in the Cyber Nations world.

Cyber Nations is an Internet web based game about simulating nation building and management and will require you to exercise your management skills on a day to day basis. You can play Cyber Nations with most modern web browsers that have JavaScript enabled. Cyber Nations runs 24/7 so even while you are not online your nation will still be active allowing other players to interact with you through trade offers, foreign aid offers, war declarations, private messages, and much more.

Visit the Cyber Nation Forums where there is a very active community ready to help and answer your questions or the Cyber Nations Wiki for lots more information as well.

Cyber Nations, A nation simulation game

There’s a little known feature in GMail that can help ensure you account is not being hacked called Account Activity.

Recent activity includes any times that your mail was accessed, using a regular web browser, through a POP client, from a mobile device, etc. You’ll see a list of the IP address from which the access was made, as well as the time and date.

Here’s a screenshot from my GMail account:

(FYI… the reason my GMail is in grey is because I’m using the Better GMail 2 FireFox Extension, which adds all kinds of cool functionality (including some cool themes to GMail)

Clicking the Details link next to the Last account activity line at the bottom of any Gmail page shows information about recent activity in your mail.

The sweetness is that if at some point while you’re logged in someone else logs into your account the bottom line will change to something like:

This account is open in 1 other location at this IP (xx.xx.xxx.xx)

Again, clicking the detals link will provide a much more granualar level of detail about when, where, and how your account has been accessed.

Here are 3 things you should pay attention to:

1. IP Address – If you usually signin to Gmail using a single computer then your IP address should be the same. Or at least have identical first two sets of numbers (ex. 212.10.xx.xx).

2. Access Type – This column displays the way your account was accessed. For instance if you read your email ONLY from browser (Firefox, IE, Safari etc.) but one of the entries showing POP or IMAP access, there is a good chance your account is compromised.

3. Concurrent Sessions – If your mail is currently being accessed from another location, you’ll see it here.

In the example above you can see that I have Browser, Atom, and IMAP. The IMAP access is Outlook connecting to GMail, Browser is…well FireFox access it. Atom may look strange but that’s my GMail Counter Vista Sidebar gadget.

If you’re concerned about any concurrent access, you can sign out all sessions other than your current session by clicking Sign out all other sessions.