Google also claims its new version offers a 42 percent JavaScript performance improvement, based on Mozilla's Dromaeo DOM Core Tests benchmarks.

"With today's new stable release, all Google Chrome users on PCs can access over 1,500 new features through our new extension system." The extension tool lets users choose the applications they want to install, and helps manage how they are used. This may be particularly useful when it comes to navigating through the 1,500 new features.

Google has added several HTML5 and JavaScript APIs, including the Web SQL database API and the local storage portion of the Web Storage API, which let sites store data on the user's local PC; the Web Sockets API, for sending data over a persistent bi-directional channel; and the notifications API, for serving up alerts onto the browser's status bar.

Both companies seem to be interested to instantly search the flood of tweets as they are posted. The technology is known as real time search, and it is gaining popularity as an important way to search the Internet for up-to-the-minute information on the latest news and events as they unfold.

The AllThingsDigital blog speculates that Twitter could receive a payment of several million dollars if talks unfold as planned with either Microsoft or Google, and various types of revenue-sharing are possible. This could allow the micro blogging site to benefit from advertising revenue that Microsoft and Google generate from search results.

Twitter just received $100 million in new funding from investors including T. Rowe Price and Insight Venture Partners (ip-192.com story is here). The latest round of funding prompted reports that Twitter should be valued at $1 billion. As reported here, Twitter is also working on a geo-location API, which has been rolled out for limited testing.  This will enable developers to add latitude and longitude to tweets. Location based data integration could bring users tweets from anyone within a certain geographic area instead of just the people Twitter users follow.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple's acquisition actually took place this past July, and a founder of a partner company that was using Placebase maps tweeted about it. However, nobody noticed the news until Computerworld dug up Placebase CEO Jaron Waldman's LinkedIn profile just to learn that he is now part of the "Geo Team" at Apple.

Why is this important? The timeline of the acquisition coincides with the time Google’s Eric Schmidt stepped down from Apple’s board of directors. The location-based service Apple inherited with the purchase of Placebase could eventually allow the company to move away from its dependency on Google Maps. If you add Apple’s rejection of the Google Voice and Google Latitude apps, one could see a roadmap behind Apple’s decisions. Consider that Google did help Apple to build the entire Maps application, and you can imagine why Eric Schmidt stepped down from Apple’s board.

Google describes Wave as an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration. The program allows people to review and discuss documents in real time, using richly formatted text, photos, videos, and maps. Teams working on a project can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content and add participants at any point in the process. A playback function lets anyone rewind the wave to see who said what and when.

Extensions allow making conference calls (Ribbit), share real time video (6 rounds), create an itinerary (lonely planet), check weather conditions around the world (AccuWeather), and check or pinpoint locations on a map (Google map). If discussions get to tight, teams can solve Sudoku puzzles to relax.

For Google, Wave is work in progress. The company hopes that developers will come up with a ton of APIs to extend the functionality of the program.  There is no specific timeframe for a public release, but several developers report on blogs that the application has become much more stable over the last couple of months.

Location based services become more important as users move to smart-phones to Tweet. Google, Yahoo and others already provide services to help users find friends, local restaurants, and shopping deals. Google Latitude uses the ability to triangulate cell phones to help users to find friends.

However, some users tend to be wary about such services because they don't like the idea of a Web service (or anybody else) tracking them. Stone said Twitters new location feature will be off by default, so users must activate it. Location data will not be stored for an extended period of time.

Twitter also plans to offer API for business use, helping users find local restaurants and retail stores. The company is in the process of rolling out commercial accounts for businesses that want to use Twitter as a marketing tool.