It is the first day after a long weekend and the news wire was dominated by Google as well as some other social media news.  Here are some of the topics that made it into the UniversalWit research library today.

Google Takes Aim at IE and FireFox

Google took the long awaited wraps off of ‘Chrome’ today at its headquarters.  Chrome is the Internet juggernaut’s entry into web browsers.  The company already dominates search and online advertising.  The company is behind in social networks, but one must wonder for how long.

Chrome is built on a foundation of Apple Company’s webkit, which also powers the IPhone.  Great synergy there for mobile applications, which Google has also been rolling out.  Chrome will be open for other outside developers to build on, another smart move as that has spurned on rapid development in Web 2.0 apps for others.

Chrome is built to work well with new chips on the market from Intel and others.  A nice improvement over its competitors, Chrome will continue to work even when one of its windows crashes.  For someone like me that always has multiple windows open at one time, that feature might cause a little less headache.

The browser also is designed with rich media in mind.

Speaking of Apple…

The buzz in the blogs (Other than for Palin politics) is that the company will announce enhancements to its IPod line at next week’s “Let’s Rock” event.  Rumor has it that price cuts are on the way as well.  Just in time for the holiday shopping season.

More from Google…

This one is of interest to me as well as some of my clients.  It is dubbed YouTube for Business.  Google is adding video sharing capabilities to its business suite apps.

Google Video for business is being incorporated into Google Apps Premier Edition, which costs $50 per year for a package of business software, e-mail, scheduling and Web site design capabilities.

This brings video conferencing without clunky extra software and should integrate well with other applications.  Business videos are not handcuffed by YouTube’s 10 minute rule and can be an hour in length.  Storage is pretty good at 3 gig.

Not to Be Out Done, MySpace Jumps a Bandwagon…

MySpace has launched a contest to tie in with Disney’s High School Musical 3.  The game actually is a good idea and looks to be fun.  High schoolers are pitted against their colleagues inundisclosed tasks including uploading pictures and other tasks.

It also incorporates texting and is played online over weeks.  Smells like a good advergaming concept to me.

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One last thought.  Have you tried the new group features on LinkedIn.  Thumbs up or down?  Let us know.