The Ocean Agency

We at The Ocean Agency were very excited to hear about Chrome OS yesterday. Now that I’ve had a chance to read quite a few articles about Chrome OS, I’m ready to offer some insight:

1) Chrome OS is a direct attack on Microsoft for releasing Bing.

Google is definitely getting a little revenge. Chrome OS screams: “You step on our search turf, we’ll step on your operating system turf”. Not to liken the Google and Microsoft feud to gang violence, but it seems pretty clear that these two camps don’t get along. While this is fun to write about, it is also a little worrisome. I can’t think of too many business innovations that stem from hatred or revenge. Hopefully Chrome OS will be legitimate innovation, not just a cheap plot to take some of Microsofts’ OS market share.

2) Is a Web Based OS the Future of Computing?

While this is an extremely enticing idea, I’m not sold on it just yet. While Google applications have come a long way since they were first introduced, it seems a little premature to deem desktop applications irrelevant. Do you think Google OS will be able to run Photoshop or Final Cut Pro?

While desktop applications are slowly becoming overshadowed as web applications become more powerful (think about services like mint.com to replace Quicken or  playlist services like Blip.fm, Last.fm, or Pandora to replace Itunes), desktop applications are by no means irrelevant.

While web applications offer certain advantages, such as infinite backup and cloud computing, the sheer power of desktop applications has not been matched. In other words, Chrome OS cannot succeed unless it is powerful enough to run the most powerful of desktop applications.

3) What does Chrome OS mean for the future of online interactive marketing?

The development of Chrome OS reflects that people will want their desktop applications integrated with web services and applications. As people begin to store more and more data online, online and interactive marketing will become even more important. As marketers, we will have more data than ever before, and ads will become even more well targeted.

The fact that the Google OS is even a possibility reflects just how far the internet has come and that it will be even further integrated in to the fabric of our daily lives. This is great news for online marketers, and bad news for techno-fobes. At Ocean, we’re excited. Are you?

Some great further reading:

Mashable

Buzz Machine

Happy Friday all!

It has been a busy week here at the Ocean Agency. Here are some interesting creative web design links that our web design firm will be thinking about this (hopefully) sunny weekend.

It was widely speculated that Microsoft would unveil their new search engine, Bing today. Alas, they have been completely overshadowed by Google who unveiled the first looks at their “Wave” platform today.

Wave will combine email, instant messaging, live editing of documents and online photo and video sharing all on one platform. This has the potential to really shake up the internet world. This is a developing story that is definitely worth following. TechCrunch has a full analysis and interviews from the Google developer conference. A preview of wave can be viewed here.

Beyond this huge news in the internet world, here are some interesting links that deal with creative web design:

1) Darren Rowse, who runs problogger.com, writes on SitePoint about sneeze pages for you blogs. Most blog posts go unnoticed once they leave the front page or recent stories tab. A sneeze page is a great way to show off your archives.

2) From PSD/Tuts (Photoshop tutorials),  has 45 step by step photoshop tutorials to create interesting websites. While you should always leave web design to the expert design firms, these tutorials are great for creating simple individual web pages, or to give you or your business ideas of how you want you web page to look.

3) For those developers out there, here is a great article on SixRevisions.com about how to speed up web page response times. Really helpful tips.

4) From Designer-Daily, 11 ways to increase your RSS feed subscribers. Great suggestions to increase your visibility as a blogger, writer or designer.

5) Lastly, for those who enjoy Hulu, but want a more television like experience, TechCrunch reports that Hulu is launching a desktop application. This means that you can now browse hulu with you computer remote. I recommend hooking up your laptop to your TV with an HDMI cable and enjoying hulu on the big screen. A new labs section also launched on Hulu today, so be sure to check out the new features as they go live.

Enjoy your weekend!