Google takes the wraps off its Chrome OS

	|	November 21, 2009

	Google's Chrome OS gets unveiled Google this week invited much of the technology press to an event at its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters to demonstrate Chrome OS, which it is developing for Netbooks as a new type of operating system. It was the first time the company has displayed the OS to the public. The good news? It's a lot like the Chrome browser as we know it. The bad news? Unless you speak code, you're going to have to wait awhile to use it. Read more Read the live blog Google has its own plan for Netbooks Mozilla not interested in building a Firefox OS Tom Krazit CNET.com New on Webware.com Yahoo adds photos, tweets to news search Posted by Tom Krazit Yahoo this week added more context to news searches, bringing photos, videos, and even tweets into its search results page. Users have long been able to find links to news stories about a given search query through the shortcut, but you can now find other ways of telling the story with the new tabs. Read more Six Apart releases tiny blog tool, TypePad Micro Posted by Rafe Needleman Blog platform company Six Apart is adding a free, miniaturized blogging service to its paid blog-hosting service TypePad. The new TypePad Micro service is essentially a simplified template, called Chroma, for unpaid users on the TypePad service. It will likely be compared with Posterous and Tumblr. Read more Adobe releases new Flash, AIR betas Posted by Stephen Shankland Adobe Labs this week released test versions of two closely related foundations for Net-based applications, Flash Player 10.1 and AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) 2. Flash is widely used to bring streaming video, interactive graphics, and games to browsers; AIR, with Flash built in, is a foundation for other desktop applications. Read more Woot launches site for Web deals Posted by Josh Lowensohn Popular online shopping site Woot is set to expand its network of sites into new territory: deal hunting. Unlike some of the site's other properties, which offer a new item for purchase either on a daily or weekly basis (be it gadgets, wine, T-shirts, or kids toys), the new Deals.Woot service gets a steady stream of things to buy throughout the day. It's also run almost entirely by Woot's community. There are sponsored deals that have been hand-picked by Woot's editors, but users do the rest. Read more Browser security features compared Posted by Dennis O'Reilly Internet Explorer 8, Firefox 3, Google Chrome 4, Apple's Safari 4, and Opera 10 include features that block sites known to host malware and malicious downloads. All but Opera also let you browse without leaving any tracks. But just as important as these protections is ensuring that whichever browser you use is thoroughly patched. Read more Webware tools Firefox-syncing Weave updates to beta Posted by Seth Rosenblatt Mozilla's homegrown tool for synchronizing Firefox across computers and devices graduates to beta and introduces incremental syncing and a more streamlined, less obtrusive experience. Mozilla Weave 1.0 beta 1 looks and feels far more polished than its predecessors. Read more With IE 9, Microsoft fights back in browser wars Posted by Stephen Shankland With this week's unveiling of Internet Explorer 9, Microsoft showed it's trying to retake the browser initiative. IE remains the Net's dominant browser. But perversely, it became something of a technology underdog after Microsoft vanquished Netscape in the browser wars of the 1990s and scaled back its browser effort. Read more