You remember Facebook Disconnect, the browser extension that allowed you to remove Facebook Connect functionality from websites? After 50K active users in two weeks and hitting the top 10 Google Chrome extensions, creator Brian Kennish has left his job at Google to focus on building Disconnect, a browser extension for Chrome and Rockmelt that disables multiple third party data tracking while browsing. In the same vein as Facebook Disconnect, Disconnect prevents major third parties like Digg, Facebook, Google, Twitter and Yahoo from gathering information (cookies) about the pages you go to and the searches you do.

Says Kennish:

“I called it quits at Google three weeks ago so I could help web users better understand the data they're unintentionally sharing and develop tools that make it simple for them to control this data (I've been referring to this effort as Web 2.1, a privacy patch for the web).”

As people get more and more paranoid about the usage of their search and browsing data, we will begin to see more and more “Web 2.1″ offerings like Disconnect. Disconnect is easier to use than conventional ad blockers and does not impair web functionality, i.e. you can still access services like Gmail while your searches remain anonymous. Disconnect also conveniently allows you to see blocked requests as well easily unblock services from your browser toolbar.

Kennish has a Disconnect for Firefox and Safari in the works. In the meantime you can take the Chrome and Rockmelt versions for a spin here.

Hello, Internet. Industry group MobileFuture took about 2 minutes and 51 seconds to explain that 2010 was “the year mobile connected the world”.

Fortunately, they are sharing all this information freely by means of a video.

Much of what gets mentioned might be obvious to many of our readers, but it’s certainly nice to have the findings lined up like this. The most apparent trend for 2010: the fast-growing popularity of downloadable mobile applications (from 300 million in 2009 to 5 billion in 2010), and location-based, social networking and video services in particular.

It was also the year of an explosion of data traffic, spurred by the increasing amount of content available for consumption through mobile phones, more capable smartphones and an ever-increasing number of high-end phone buyers. MobileFuture says one, unnamed carrier's data traffic has ballooned 3,000 percent since 2008.

Oh, and texting is still disturbingly popular an activity, particularly stateside – 3,339 is the average number of texts sent per month by US teens alone.

That and more in the fast-paced Mobile Year In Review 2010 round-up video:

Bing has just made a small improvement to travel search, adding the ability to add natural language queries to flight search. So instead of selecting your airport, destination, dates or other options to conduct a flight search, you can type in your parameters in the search box to retrieve results.

For example, you could enter a search for “Flights from Chicago to SFO in January.” In the results, Bing will include a pre-set Flight search section with possible dates, fare predictions, cheapest fares and more.

For example, you could enter a search for “Flights from Chicago to SFO in January.” In the results, Bing will include a pre-set Flight search section with possible dates, fare predictions, cheapest fares and more. ” class=”shot2″>Bing has just made an improvement to travel search, adding the ability to add natural language queries to flight search. So instead of selecting your airport, destination, dates or other options to conduct a flight search, you can type in your parameters in the search box to retrieve results.

For example, you could enter a search for “Flights from Chicago to SFO in January.” In the results, Bing will include a pre-set Flight search section with possible dates, fare predictions, cheapest fares and more. “>video showcasing the feature.

While the feature isn’t monumental, it does represent Microsoft’s improvement of flight search ahead of Google’s possible improvements to its own flight search technologies via the acquisition of ITA Software. The Justice Department is currently investigating the deal for possible anti-competitive practices. Many online travel search companies including Expedia, Kayak, Travelocity, and TripAdvisor are also lobbying the government entity to block the deal on antitrust grounds. Of course, unsurprisingly Microsoft also opposes the deal.

While Google has said that it would use ITA’s software to add new flight search features, Bing (which received some of its flight and fare data from ITA) has long offered a more comprehensive search experience for travel. For example, Bing offers comparison prices for the same flight from different travel engines, as well as predictive charts and graphs from Farecast (which was acquired by Microsoft for $115 million in 2008).

Santa and his little elves at Digital Storm are busy assembling a spectacular gaming monster for one lucky CrunchGear reader’s Christmas morning. We hear it’s going to include an Intel Core i7 950, a bunch of RAM, and a Nvidia GeForce GTX 570 graphics card — a computer that would normally cost over $2,200. It’s going to be epic and it could all yours for just the price of a comment on this post.

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Happy holidays, dear readers! ‘Tis the season to gather round family and friends in the spirit of giving; that’s just what we’re doing here. Over the next 12 days we’re going to give away 12 fantastic gifts just because that’s the least we can do for our loyal readers. There’s no gimmick, no silly requirement, nothing special that you need to do to win any of the fantastic prizes. Just leave a comment in each of the posts and we’ll pick a winner at random. We hope that these items will brighten your or perhaps someone else’s holiday just a bit more.

We’ve got a bunch of items to give away starting with a great ereader later today, but you know how the holidays work. There has to be something big from Santa. Well, kind and gentle readers, we’ve teamed up with the PC builder Digital Storm to giveaway a truly spectacular gaming PC with the winner being contacted and announced Christmas morning. This $2,284 Black Ops Assassin gaming rig packs a an Intel Core i7 950, 6GB DDR3 1600MHz Corsair memory, Blu-ray drive and a Nvidia GeForece GTX 570 1.2GB graphics card — yeah, it’s pretty great. This contest opens today with the winner will be contacted and announced Christmas morning.

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It looks like you’ll soon be able to shop for cars on flash sales sites. Gilt Groupe has just announced a first-ever auto flash sale of a Volkswagen Jetta on the site.

Beginning on Wednesday of this week, Gilt will sell 3 brand new 2011 Jettas to members at $5,995, which is down from a starting list price of $15,995. The company says the flash sale will take place over three days, signifying the first car sale on a flash sales site.

One interesting twist to the sale is that on Wednesday it will only be available on Gilt’s mobile apps, which include offerings for the iPhone, iPad, and Android devices. On Thursday and Friday of this week, Gilt will extend the sale to its website.

Part of the proceeds from the Jettas sold will be donated to the charity Dress for Success and members who attempt to buy the car will also be given some sort of deal/coupon that can be used at Volkswagen dealerships.

The idea of selling cars through a flash sales model is definitely compelling; though I’m curious how much money Gilt and the auto maker pockets from the sales. This could also be a good way for eBay to apply a flash sales model to its popular car sale site eBay Motors.

You remember Bad Piggy Bank, the in-game payment model for Rovio's Angry Birds on Android which lets users either remove the ad on the free version of the game or buy the pending Mighty Eagle update. Yes, the one that circumvents Android's own app store payment system in favour of carrier billing. Well, it's actually powered by European mobile payments provider Fortumo, which today has announced that it's cracking open the Piggy Bank some more by adding support for offline payments (via SMS text messaging) to its Android library. That's the same in-app payments library as used by Angry Birds, which any Android developer can now have free access to.

When Bill Wilson was in charge of content at AOL, he launched dozens of niche sites under their own sub-brands—everything from Daily Finance to country-music site The Boot. Last February, Wilson left AOL and landed at Townsquare Media, a radio company which owns 171 local stations. As the chief digital officer at Townsquare, he is bringing some of the niche media strategy he developed at AOL, along with hiring a crew of former colleagues, and applying it to Townsquare’s local radio websites.

Today, Townsquare relaunched 30 of its local radio websites in markets like Buffalo and Peoria, along with a new overarching country music site, Taste of Country. The rest of Townsquare’s radio sites will be revamped over the next few months as well. Radio is already a local media. (It was local before local was hot). Now these websites will try to become a resource for local news, entertainment, and other information—little niche media sites in their own right.

If this looks like Wilson’s strategy from his AOL days applied to radio, well, it is. And it’s not a bad strategy, either. To help him, Wilson hired ten former AOLers from AOL Media, AOL Radio, and AOL City Guides. The old crew is back together again. Can they turn radio into local web stars?

iYogi, an independent remote consumer tech support company based in India and New York, this morning announced that is has secured $30 million in a fresh round of financing, led by Sequoia Capital India, with existing investors Canaan, SVB Capital Partners, SAP Ventures and Draper Fisher Jurvetson participating.

The round comes less than a year after investors injected $15 million into the company – iYogo has raised a total of $57.6 million to date.

iYogi says it plans to use the proceeds to expand its on-demand remote tech support services outside the existing consumer market and the Windows OS platform, and to address the growing need for supporting mobile consumer devices.

iYogi’s planned roll-out to new geographies include launching its tech support services in Europe, the Middle East and India, in addition to its existing services in North America, Canada, the UK and Australia.

The company says it has solved more than 2 million tech problems for consumers since its inception – it claims 300 percent growth for its premium annual subscription service in the past 12 months alone. To support its growth, iYogi this year increased its force of “Global Tech Experts” from 1,200 to more than 5,000, across eight new centers in multiple geographies.

Next up, an IPO in the United States?

When DailyBooth finally released an iPhone app back in July, it made a lot of sense. After all, the iPhone 4 had just been released and it featured a front-facing camera for the first time — the perfect tool for a service which asks you to take pictures of yourself. Unfortunately, while the idea was right, DailyBooth’s first iPhone app just wasn’t very good. So the completely redid it. And I’m happy to report that version 2 is finally one worthy of your gaze.

While the first app was a basic way to scan DailyBooth and upload simple pictures of yourself, version 2 includes many more of the service’s core features. This includes a live feed, profile views, activity views, messages, following/follower views, friend finding, and “ghosting”.

The first and the last features are really cool. The live feed automatically refreshes as new DailyBooth pictures come in. Not too many iPhone apps utilize this live view, but it works for DailyBooth as pictures are quick scan items — and they come in slightly slower than text-based messages.

The other excellent feature is “ghosting”. A big part of DailyBooth is looking at someone’s picture then mimicking it in the replies. The ghosting feature allows you to easily do this as it shows you a slightly transparent version of the picture your trying to mimic, so you can line yourself up with it.

While DailyBooth could technically be lumped into the latest craze of picture taking apps, CEO Brian Pokorny likes to distinguish it as a “front of the phone” app versus the others which are “back of the phone” apps. Obviously, he’s talking about the camera there.

It is interesting just how DailyBooth users utilize pictures to communicate through images of themselves, rather than of other things. And now they finally have a solid app to do it with. You can find the new app here in the App Store.

Fabulis, the social network for gay men, is now Fab.com, a far more memorable (domain) name. The young company behind the site, which is designed to help gay men discover people, places and activities all over the globe, has also raised $1.75 million in Series A funding from investors such as First Round Capital, The Washington Post Company, Baroda Ventures and Zelkova Ventures.

The financing comes on top of an earlier $1.25 million in angel financing, bringing the startup’s total of capital raised to nearly $3 million.

Fab.com has also gotten a number of enhancements, coinciding with the revamp.

Now over 110,000 members strong, the company has just launched a global directory of “gay-friendly places” with accompanying rankings, reviews, tips and photo uploads, complementing the site's interactive profiles and database of gay-relevant events.

Fab.com also offers an iPhone app, which includes the ability to check in, identify your current location, rate places, name the people you're with, upload images and more.

The startup says 40% of its members log in at least 10 times per month, while 25% visit more than 50 times per month. The site welcomes more than 5,000 new users on a weekly basis.

Dell has officially announced that it aims to pick up Compellent, a provider of storage solutions with automated data management features for enterprise and cloud environments, for $27.75 per share in cash for each share of Compellent (a total equity value of approximately $960 million). The aggregate purchase price is about $820 million, net of Compellent's cash. This is slightly more than what Dell initially named as the terms of the merger agreement last week.

Twitter has just released their list of top trends on Twitter for 2010. Surprisingly, Justin Bieber did not dominate the list. Instead, the Gulf oil spill did. The service says that 25 billion tweets were sent in total in 2010.

Below, find the list of the top overall trends, followed by the top trends for different categories:

1. Gulf Oil Spill
2. FIFA World Cup
3. Inception
4. Haiti Earthquake
5. Vuvuzela
6. Apple iPad
7. Google Android
8. Justin Bieber
9. Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows
10. Pulpo Paul

News Events:
1. Gulf Oil Spill
2. Haiti Earthquake
3. Pakistan Floods
4. Koreas Conflict
5. Chilean Miners Rescue

People:
1. Justin Bieber
2. Dilma Rouseff
3. Lady Gaga
4. Julian Assange
5. Mel Gibson

Movies:
1. Inception
2. Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows
3. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
4. Despicable Me
5. Karate Kid

Television:
1. MTV Music Video Awards
2. Pretty Little Liars
3. True Blood
4. Walking Dead
5. Grammy Awards

Technology:
1. Apple iPad
2. Google Android
3. Apple iOS
4. Apple iPhone
5. Call of Duty Black Ops

World Cup:
1. FIFA World Cup
2. Vuvuzela
3. Pulpo Paul
4. Dunga
5. Diego Maradona

Sports:
1. Lebron James
2. Wimbledon
3. Manchester United
4. Brock Lesnar
5. Celtics

Hashtags:
1. #rememberwhen
2. #slapyourself
3. #confessiontime (Hashtag started by Usher)
4. #thingsimiss
5. #ohjustlikeme

Today TechCrunch Europe is coming to Moscow, Russia, for our first ever TechCrunch Moscow event (to be held in English).

The Live video stream is here.

TechCrunch Moscow is at the first Russian private tech incubator, the Digital October Center, located in a historical manufacturing building Krasny Oktyabr (or “Red October” / Красный Октябрь in Russian). The event is sold out but there’ll be full day packed with speeches by the leaders of the industry and a chance to preview promising Russian tech startups.

Co-organised by TechCrunch Europe together with Kite Ventures and Telemarker, our partners have also put together a dedicated event web site and a dedicated Twitter feed. We’ll be using the Twitter hashtag #TCMoscow.

Every piece of technology has both good and bad attributes. Nothing is perfect. Not even the iPhone. (Well, at least not until that AT&T exclusivity ends.) But until three days ago, I had never used a product with attributes that are both insanely awesome and shockingly awful at the same time. Welcome into the world, Cr-48.

Now, Google has made it very clear that they don’t intend to release this product as it stands. As such, they’ve more or less asked those they’ve sent it to not to review it as a completed product. But it’s pretty much impossible to avoid talking about the hardware here because for most of us, it is the first and only gateway we’ve had into Chrome OS. Plus, there’s a lot of interest in this particular device among our readers, so I’m going to talk about it.

Simply put: the hardware is pretty bad. Actually, maybe not so much bad, as annoying as all hell. But the only reason it’s so annoying is because Chrome OS, even in its very early, fairly rough stage, is that good. Well, potentially that good.

While Jason wrote up his initial thoughts after a day with the device, I’ve been using it as my primary machine for just about three days now. Also, I likely have a different perspective as I’m currently traveling — something which a Chrome notebook should be perfect for.

The Design

Initially, when I took it out of the box, I sort of wanted to laugh at the Cr-48. Jason compared its look to that of one of the old 12-inch PowerBook G4s. But actually, I think it’s closer to a combination of an old 12-inch iBook and one of the previous generation MacBooks — the one that came in black. In fact, when you open it up and start typing on it, it feels very similar to that MacBook.

Of course, that MacBook is also a few years old already. And when compared to the new MacBook Air, this thing looks like a bloated dog. One covered in some kind of rubber blanket. The fact that it has a VGA port, an ugly side grill for the fan, and yet only one USB port, doesn’t help.

But again, this is a prototype device. So we have to cut Google some slack here. As far as I know, they haven’t said which of their manufacturing partners made this thing, but let’s hope it was the cheapest device possible for them to produce and that’s why it exists as it does.

I really do hope that’s the case.

The Setup

Okay, so I took it out of the box and laughed. But then I opened the lid. Immediately, the thing booted up. No need to press the power button. 15 seconds later, it was walking me through a very easy-to-understand tutorial on how to use Chrome OS. After a few minutes reading it, I was asked to take a picture of myself (for my profile picture) with the built-in camera (above the screen), then I was all ready to go. That’s it.

I signed in with my Google account, and the browser launched. My bookmarks, extensions, and web apps were all automatically synced. I was ready to go pretty much instantly.

Now I was impressed. Very impressed. This is absolutely the future of computer set-ups.

The Trackpad

But the love affair quickly turned sour when I started using the Cr-48 trackpad. Jason called it a “turd”, but I think that’s being too kind. It’s maybe the worst excuse for a piece of technology that anyone has created in the past five years. It’s so much worse than any other trackpad I’ve ever used in recent memory, it’s almost unbelievable. Those bug reports from a few weeks ago make sense now.

And it also makes sense why Google isn’t selling the Cr-48 at all, despite the high demand. If they sold this product with this trackpad, Google may not be allowed to ever attempt to make another branded product ever again. If you think I’m exaggerating, use one.

Every time I point at something and click down, the cursor moves below or above where I had originally pointed. I’ve now taught myself to aim slightly higher or lower than where I want to click. But I have to guess which it will be. It’s a crapshoot.

Trying to double click with two fingers is even worse. If you’re used to casually doing it with ease on a MacBook, this will be your hell. To get it to work, you essentially have to lift two fingers about a foot in the air, then bring them down in a perfectly straight line at a rapid speed while making sure that they both hit the pad at the exact same time. Okay, I may be exaggerating a bit there, but it’s really bad.

Two finger scrolling? It’s perfect if you like randomly jumping to various parts of webpages for no reason.

Okay, I’ve made my point. This trackpad is a disgrace. It’s an abomination. I don’t know if it’s hardware or software or both (likely), but it’s just terrible. I’m tempted to do the unthinkable: buy a mouse.

The Keyboard

Moving on. So, the trackpad quickly soured my Chrome OS experience. But after I figured out little tricks to better maneuver (mainly using the excellent keyboard and its shortcuts), I was back on track. After a day, I was frustrated. But after two days, I was really, really liking Chrome OS. And even certain things about the Cr-48 specifically.

For example, every computer should absolutely have a search button in place of caps lock. I can’t remember the last time I’ve used caps lock. And yet, there it is, right there in a vital place on the keyboard. On the Cr-48, I think the search button rivals the spacebar for my most-often-hit key. You click it and it launches a new tab reach to search away in the omnibox. It’s fantastic.

Also awesome are the window-switching and full screen mode buttons on the Cr-48. OS X, with Spaces, essentially allows you to do this type of window-switching, but I’d argue that it’s better on Chrome OS because everything is simplified. If you want to open a new window (as opposed to a new tab), it will reside on another screen. That said, it is a little tricky to navigate if you have more than two windows open — hitting the button will cycle through them in order.

Full screen mode has existed on Chrome for some time, but the keyboard shortcut makes it more accessible than ever before. And on smaller screens (like the 12-inch on on the Cr-48), it’s very nice.

The Speed

Speed is the other major weakness of the Cr-48. It’s running an Intel Atom chip which is apparently clocked at 1.66 GHz. That may seem like it would be fast enough to run a web browser, but it’s not. Well, not if you’re doing anything with Flash turned on.

When we initially reported on the Flash issues that Cr-48 users were having, many of our favorite commenters (who may or may not make a living developing for Flash) were quick with the typical “bias!” nonsense. Of course, a few hours later, none other than Adobe themselves admitted the performance of Flash on the Cr-48 was unacceptable, and said they were working on it.

Good, because beyond watching a small YouTube clip with no other tabs open, Flash is basically unusable on the Cr-48. And that’s annoying because Google has decided to bake Flash into not only Chrome, but Chrome OS as well. So extensions like Flash Block are your friend here — or go to about:plugins and disable Flash directly until Adobe gets the mess sorted out.

But even beyond Flash, the Cr-48 just feels very slow when compared to any other modern computer. Typing, for example, often lags on sites such as WordPress (which I’m using right now). And opening new tabs and windows takes a few seconds longer than it would on a normal machine.

All of this is would seem to be because Google included only 2 GB of RAM in the Cr-48. But I have a MacBook Air with only 2 GB of RAM and it flies. Google really needs to work with their OEM partners to get this lag sorted out before these Chrome notebooks start shipping. And I have to believe they will.

Beyond Prototype

In fact, in many ways, the Cr-48 reminds me a lot of the G1, the first Android phone Google shipped (with HTC) a couple years ago. They both were clearly step one of a platform that would quickly evolve. And the Cr-48 even sort of feels like the G1 to the touch.

I still have a G1. Looking at it now compared to the newer Android phones is pretty humorous. The platform has clearly come a long way. And that gives me a lot of hope for Chrome notebooks as well.

As it stands now, two things about this the Cr-48 currently standout: the boot-up time and the battery life. Both are excellent.

The Cr-48 goes from being off to the log-in screen in 15 seconds. That’s slightly above Google’s stated 10 second mark, but it’s still very, very good. When you log-in, it takes another 15 seconds or so to load all your profile information and Chrome preferences from the web. So you’re looking at a total time from zero to working in 30 seconds.

For comparison, the new MacBook Air, with its new solid state drives, goes from zero to working in about 18 seconds. But that’s without booting up Chrome (or your web browser of choice on OS X) and waiting for it to load a page. That adds another 5 seconds or so. So they’re very close in terms of startup speed between the two systems. And again, that’s on Google’s prototype machine.

But as I indicated above, the Air runs circles around the Cr-48 in just about everything else when it comes to performance.

The one area where the Cr-48 does seem to have the MacBook Air beat is battery life. Google claims 8 hours, but I think it actually may be more. Because I’m in Europe, I turned off the cellular antenna (since Verizon connectivity obviously won’t work here) and I’m seeing closer to 10 hours of battery life on a full charge when connected to WiFi. The MacBook Air has fantastic battery life as well, but Cr-48 is definitely better.

And again, just imagine what that will mean when someone actually creates a Chrome notebook that they intend to sell. The Cr-48 is a little bit bulky, but if they trim it down to around Air size, I bet they could still get at least a solid 7 or more hours out of the system. This seems to be one huge benefit of only running a browser.

Chrome OS

And let’s finally talk about that browser. Quite a few people were shocked when Chrome OS was revealed to be little more than Chrome — and that’s it. But that simplicity is the OS’s strength. It removes several layers of junk that most people these days never use on a computer.

I know that personally, roughly 95 percent of what I do on a computer these days is in the web browser. Of the other 5 percent, 4 percent of it could probably be done in the browser too (light image editing, taking notes, etc). The other one percent is more difficult but those are mainly things (iTunes media management, Photoshop) that I only need to do some of the time and can use a desktop machine for.

That’s the thing: Chrome OS isn’t going to fully replace anyone’s desktop anytime soon. But it could become a very viable on-the-go computing solution.

Even in its current beta state, Chrome OS has definitely been a perfectly adequate travel companion these past three days (Cr-48 trackpad aside). And it’s only going to get better. And if Chrome’s (the browser) evolution is any indication, it’s going to get better very quickly.

Panels

As Jason hit on quite a bit in his post, one of the most interesting things about Chrome OS will be how developers support it. Right now, most Chrome Web Store apps are little more than mildly glorified extensions, or just links to web apps already in existence. Meanwhile, one of the coolest features of Chrome OS, panels, are barely used. Developers can and should change this quickly.

Prettification

Another thing that bugs me about the OS currently is that Google seems determined to maintain some of Windows awful aesthetics. More directly: fonts look like shit.

Chrome on Mac easily looks much better than Chrome OS does for this very reason. Hopefully Google will add some polish here as Chrome OS pushes forward.

Also, the look and feel of the top toolbar (the area to the right of the tabs) is pretty poor. Google could and should do a much better job here.

And while we’re on the subject, Chrome’s already dicey themes all look even worse with Chrome OS. Google should just stick to some simple color options and leave out all the BS. No, I don’t want my Chrome OS to look like an ice cream cake any more than I wanted Windows to look like a hot dog stand. But that, of course, is just my opinion.

Connectivity

The biggest factor holding up Chrome OS is mostly out of Google’s control: WiFi infrastructure. While WiFi is fairly widespread, it’s far from everywhere. And Chrome OS is worthless without connectivity. I mean, it’s completely and utterly useless.

That’s exactly why Google teamed up with Verizon to offer back-up 3G connectivity. But beyond the paltry 100 MB they give you for free each month, that type of connection can get expensive quickly just to be able to simply use your computer.

Further, many deals will have to be worked out in various different countries for that level of connectivity. That’s why my Cr-48 isn’t fully travel-ready here in Europe, for example (there is no Verizon here).

So what happens when you boot up your Chrome notebook without a connection? Well, you get an error — a very confusing one. This has happened to me a few times in the past few days. I boot up the computer, enter my password, and it says there’s a problem with my password. Only that’s not true. It’s just that I’m not connected to the network, so it can’t verify my password (Google really needs to change the wording there).

The problem here is that if you’re on a network with a password, you have to log-in to Chrome OS as a guest, connect to the network and entire the password, then log out and log back in to your Google account. A pain. And something that a lot of users are going to experience again and again.

The Connected Computer

So while Google CEO Eric Schmidt says the world is now ready for Chrome OS, I think we’re still at least a year — and maybe a few years — away from this type of system being viable for most average consumers. But I think it’s fantastic that Google is willing to go out on a limb now to help the transition along.

Of course, the payoff for them looks be huge if they lead this new era of computing. And the risk is fairly minimal. Even if Chrome OS takes a while to take off, Google has more than enough capital to keep the project going for a long time — just like they did with Android at first.

In many ways, smartphones have and will continue to help us with this transition. The assumption of always having a connection to the web is now built into most of our daily lives. What good is a smartphone when you’re not connected? Maybe just for playing some games. Computers will eventually be the same way. Until games are fully online as well — something which the Chrome Web Store is trying to make happen.

I don’t think anyone disagrees that computers that are always connected to the Internet are the future, it’s just that Google is taking it to the extreme right now with these machines. It’s Internet or nothing. It’s bold.

Price

While Google hasn’t yet stated how much they (and their OEM partners) intend to sell Chrome notebooks for, that price is going to be crucial. It obviously needs to be low. Very low.

If Google wants these to compete with Windows machines, sub-$500 should do the trick. And if they can bring them in with better hardware than the Cr-48 for something like $300, I think they’re going to sell a ton of them next by next holiday season.

And Google keeps reiterating that they intend Chrome OS to work on other platforms as well. You can imagine desktop machines running Chrome OS might be perfect for schools and libraries. And Google could of course bundle Google Apps with them. Hell, I could even see them subsidizing Chrome notebook costs to get them available to all students in certain school districts that commit to Google Apps.

Actually, a big competitor for the Chrome notebooks may end up being the new MacBook Airs. Both are now trying to redefine just what exactly portable computing is. There’s no denying that the Air is a much, much sexier device both in look and feel than the Cr-48. But it’s also likely to be several hundred dollars — and maybe even a thousand dollars more expensive in some cases.

Again, that’s why Google needs to nail the price points and nail the execution with their OEM partners on these. I have some doubts as to whether that will happen or not initially, but even a mediocre Chrome notebook should put quite a bit of pressure on low-end Windows machines, at the very least. As I wrote a year ago, it would be the Microsoft squeeze.

Back Offline

To finish up this post, I actually moved back from the Cr-48 to my MacBook Air. One reason is that the typing lag was driving me insane. The other is that image insertion — and image management, is still pretty tricky with Chrome OS. So I’m back to a machine with more than just a browser.

This is actually the first time I’ve extensively used this machine in three days. It’s a little weird seeing the browser shrunk into a window. And I actually like it taking up the full screen more (that’s easy enough to do on a Mac or PC with Chrome, the browser). In a slightly weird twist, I actually don’t like seeing all the, yes, chrome. What’s the point?

Of course, I do cherish the speed of this Air versus the Cr-48. Oh and the trackpad. My god the trackpad. It actually works! It’s a thing of beauty that I will never take for granted again.

So there you go, I’m pretty divided right now on Google’s first take at the Chrome notebook. It’s both brilliant and bewildering. It’s both the future and a nightmare. But it’s definitely not boring, which is more than you can say for a lot of “new” technology these days. Watching it mature will be fun. But first the hardware needs to grow up.

If I could buy the Cr-48 right now, would I? No. But I’d download Chrome OS and install it on some cheap netbook. Or maybe even this Macbook Air…

Living in Silicon Valley, one gets used to meeting people who are optimistic and who talk about changing the world. But as I lamented in this piece about the Valley's obsession with Facebook and Twitter apps, most of its entrepreneurs either think too small or are focused on the wrong things. So, even though I am enthusiastic about its ability to take risks and innovate, I've been skeptical about whether Silicon Valley can really think big enough to solve global problems.

That was until I visited Singularity University, located on NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, this week.

To say that I was blown away with what I learned and saw in just a few hours would be an understatement. I left Singularity's campus with the same excitement that I used to feel as a child about how engineering and science will, one day, save the world. The experience recalled childhood fantasies of technologies that connect the human brain to a central computer to share knowledge; bionic organs that give people superhuman strength; and nano-organisms that monitor and repair the body and cure disease.  And I was reminded of my childhood fears of cyborgs becoming smarter than humans and taking over the world. All the great stuff from sci-fi movies.

Singularity University was founded by futurist Ray Kurzweil and X Prize founder Peter Diamandis, in 2009. It has a who's who of the scientific community on its board and notable backers like Google.

The name of the university comes from a Ray Kurzweil book, The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. In 2005, Kurzweil postulated that technology is hurtling humanity toward the next great evolutionary leap. By 2029, according to Kurzweil, computers will achieve human intelligence, and by 2045 we'll be able to upload our consciousness into what, today, is called the cloud.  So even if our bodies don't live forever, our minds will.

No, the school doesn't teach science fiction.  It aims to solve the grand challenges that humanity faces—such as poverty, famine, disease, global warming, and dwindling energy supplies—by teaching select groups of business executives, technologists, and government leaders the advances that are occurring in "exponential technologies".  It challenges its students to think about radical new innovations that will affect the lives of a billion people within 10 years. "Exponential technologies" are those technologies that don't grow gradually, but at light speeds—in fields like robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), computational neuroscience, and nanotech.

The university runs a 10-week graduate studies program and shorter executive programs. Classes are taught by the foremost experts in each field—like Dan Barry, three-time NASA astronaut; Vint Cerf, internet pioneer and Google executive; Daniel M. Kammen, UC Berkerley energy resources professor and Nobel Peace Prize winner; and Daniel Kraft, Stanford professor of stem-cell biology.  Students learn about disruptive innovations and their implications and brainstorm on the sequences in which the next technology revolutions will happen.

During my visit to Singularity University, I attended Dan Barry's class on robotics and AI, Daniel Kraft's lecture on advances in stem-cell biology and genome testing, and a demonstration of a new device being developed by Berkeley Bionics.

I don't know why, but I had long believed that AI was a legacy of the 70s and was a failed technology. I was surprised to learn that AI techniques are actually becoming commonplace today: in cyber-warfare, in Google's new car, and even in new generations of toys. And a genome test—which would have cost over a billion dollars two decades ago—will soon cost less than $100. Advances in genome testing, it is postulated, may make it possible to create personalized drug formulations. In other words, rather than standard medicines that are formulated for everyone, it may be possible to create personal prescriptions based on a person's DNA. Medicines that can't be brought to market because they cause an adverse reaction in a tiny proportion of the population can be prescribed to those who benefit. I was also delighted to learn how Berkeley Bionics will soon make it possible for people who are paralyzed and confined to wheelchairs to start walking again. I saw one person who already is.

The university is hardly two years old, and I didn't expect it to have enjoyed any successes. But its executive director, Salim Ismail, says that the school has already inspired many. It had four team projects start companies last summer, and 15 this summer.  These startups include Acasa, which constructs houses through 3D printing; www.getaround.com, which provides peer-to-peer car sharing; and one that is looking to use beamed power to launch spacecraft. Ray Kurzweil even persuaded Israel to change its energy policy to focus more on solar rather than nuclear sources (and as a result, solar-energy use is going exponential).

So there is lots of hope for Silicon Valley and the world. But we need to get our top technologists, academics, and political leaders to spend a few days at Singularity University so that they start thinking big again. We also need to get American children excited again about studying engineering and science. And we need to reignite the passion in graduates of engineering programs at schools like Duke, Berkeley, and Stanford.  Too often, they choose to become management consultants and investment bankers.

Editor's note: Guest writer Vivek Wadhwa is an entrepreneur turned academic. He is a Visiting Scholar at UC-Berkeley, Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School and Director of Research at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization at Duke University. You can follow him on Twitter at @vwadhwa and find his research at www.wadhwa.com.



It's been almost a year and a half since I started writing for TechCrunch, and a lot has changed since then. I've quit drinking, I've written another book, Greece and Ireland have both gone broke, the Chilean miners have become international heroes, and Julian Assange has been locked up. Oh, and TechCrunch has been sold to AOL.

And yet, plus Assange, plus c’est la meme chose. Long time readers might recall that in my first column I proposed a few basic guidelines for commenting on TechCrunch.

“Rule One: The next time one of you asks the rhetorical question "why is this news?" I swear to God I will come round to your basement, gather up all of your Wil Wheaton action figures and melt them down into a giant plastic phallus. If you've ever seen the Miriam Karlin scene in A Clockwork Orange, you know what happens next. Save us both a trip and next time you find yourself asking "why is this news?", instead ask yourself "why do I still live with my parents?". It's news because people better than you said so.”

…that kind of thing. The initial result was encouraging – for a brief period of maybe 30 or 40 seconds the quality of comments on TechCrunch rose noticeably, including a 20% drop in misspelled name-calling and 35% fewer ungrammatical demands for any given writer to be fired. Since then, though, things have tailed off again – to the point where several of the writers no longer even look at comments, lest they be so disheartened with the state of humanity that they’re prompted to go on a killing spree.

I admit, having in the past few days alone been called a “cock”, an “idiot”, “scum”, a “wanker” (bless) and – worst of all – a “Republican” by commenters, I too am close to installing the TC comment blocker Chrome extension.

But before I take that final drastic step, and because I’m a uniter not a divider, I want to try one last time to restore dignity to TechCrunch comments. I admit, my first instinct was simply to write a post restating my earlier commenting rules, perhaps underlining a few of them that are more important than ever. (“I would rather encourage my only child to trick-or-treat his way down the sex offenders register than to spend one moment in the company of someone who would leave an anonymous comment on a blog. Man up or fuck off.”)

Two factors, though, gave me pause: first – I did a lazy cut and paste column last week and I probably can’t get away with that trick again for at least a month, and second – I remembered another thing that has changed at TechCrunch: we now have a community manager – the delightful Elin – who is working hard to bridge the gap between writers and readers. As such, she might not take kindly to me deliberately antagonizing you freaks guys. In any case, maybe aggressive rules are not the best approach: maybe like the basement-dwelling, mid-pubescent children so many of you clearly are you don't respond well to authority. Perhaps engagement is the secret?

It's worth a shot.

So, in that new spirit of engagement, I’ve just spent an "enjoyable" hour looking through some of the recent (and totally genuine) comments posted below my columns in an attempt to figure out what lies at the heart of your rage. What I discovered fascinated me: a large number of the negative comments on TechCrunch take the form of questions. It also gave me an idea: perhaps if I could answer those questions in a helpful and friendly way, the people asking them – week in, week out – might stop being so angry. Order will be restored! Just in time for Christmas!

As I say, it’s worth a shot. Here, then, is a handy – and very friendly – FAQ for TechCrunch commenters. I hope you find it useful.

Q) Why is this story on TechCrunch?
A) Great question! In fact, this is by far the most common question asked in response to my columns. It's fantastic that so many of you are interested in the editorial process here at TechCrunch! To answer: generally speaking, a story will appear on TechCrunch because one of the professional writers employed here decided it was something that might be of interest to his or her readers. Also, if you read carefully (or at all), there's a very good chance you’ll notice that the story involves technology in some way. (That said, other possible reasons include: because the author wanted to take revenge on a hotel company, because the author is having a bad day or because the author is keen to have sex with a particular PR person. That's how journalism works, kids.)

Q) Do you actually get paid to write crap like this?
A) Another common question – but non the poorer for it! The answer is yes. Which makes one of us. Now, pray, what brings you here?

Q) You're a typical “libtard” aren't you?
A) Why yes! That's why I used to write for the Guardian.

Q) You're a typical Republican aren't you?
A) Why yes! That's why I used to write for the Telegraph.

Q) How can you say [opinion X] in this post when TechCrunch previously said [opinion Y]?
A) Because there are multiple writers at TechCrunch, you fucking imbecile curious reader. Also, to further confuse matters, I suffer from multiple personality disorder. As do I.

Q) Seriously – more link bait crap?
A) I admit, cherished and loyal correspondent, that this question is somewhat irritating as it operates on the assumption that we are directly rewarded based on the amount of traffic our posts get. Fortunately for me (and unfortunately for Jack McKenna) that is not the case. In fact our compensation is inversely proportional to the average IQ of the commenters we attract. This is why I've taken to writing about Sarah Palin with such frequency.

Q) Are you on drugs?
A) This one has cropped up on my posts with alarming regularity of late, which makes me worry that maybe I am on drugs. Alternatively it might just be a handy fall-back question for commenters who disagree with a point I'm making but lack the rhetorical skills – or basic intellect – to explain the basis of their objection. In that regard it's the commenter equivalent of a girl shunning your romantic approaches, and you calling her a lesbian.

Q) No, but seriously, are you on drugs?
A) Yes, I am on a cocktail of very strong drugs.

Q) Is this what happens when you get acquired by AOL?
A) A relatively new entry to the comment hall of fame, this one takes a variety of forms – often appearing as a statement: cf. "Clearly this is what happens when you get acquired by AOL". Either way, no matter what the editorial position – that Sarah Palin is a bad parent, that Wikileaks is a net negative to the world, that content farms are evil, or that AOL is the killer of all things good – you can be sure to see a comment from someone suggesting that our new corporate owners somehow had a hand in it. Moving to Discus? AOL. Favourable coverage of Yahoo? AOL. Jason Kincaid writing about Android? AOL. MG buying a Macbook Air? AOL. 9/11? AOL. For the avoidance of doubt there is actually only one question relating to TechCrunch to which the correct answer is "because TechCrunch has been acquired by AOL." and that’s "Why the hell does TechCrunch have all these bottles of shitty AOL branded wine around the office?"

Q) Is this TechCrunch or Huffington Post?
A) TechCrunch.

Q) Is this TechCrunch or Politicrunch?
A) TechCrunch. (Also, there is no such site as Politicrunch).

Q) Is this TechCrunch or Mashable?
A) TechCrunch.

Q) Is this TechCrunch or Valleywag?
A) TechCrunch.

Q) Is this TechCrunch or Fox News?
A) TechCrunch.

Q) Is this TechCrunch or Faux News?
A) Kill yourself.

Q) Why is this article Not Safe For Work?
A) Because it contains a comment in which I call you a fucking dick.

Q) Serious Arrington, will you please fire this guy?
A) Probably.