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Is Facebook Going to Launch its Own Web Browser?

This week, Yahoo launched Axis, its own web browser. Considering Yahoo's eroding reputation, and the fact that many sleek and popular web browsers like Chrome and Firefox are already well established, it will be a steep uphill climb for Axis.

But Axis may not be alone in attempting to enter this fragmented, oversaturated space: Facebook is now rumoured to be in talks with Opera over a potential acquisition that would see the social network repolish the web browser into its own - not unlike how it bought Instagram, then launched a mobile app called Facebook Camera.

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Google Becoming Irrelevant: Social Search to Own 70% of Searching by 2013

Google’s search marketing services may be becoming irrelevant due to the rise of social search. That’s in addition to a failure to recognize that Google+ cannot be the sole solution to social search with an always increasing number of web properties.

Info-Tech Research Group expects that Google, which held 90% of the search market in 2010, will only hold 30% in 2013, due to the rising impact of social search. Most major research companies have struggled to recognize this as they measure search market share by search engine rather than the whole search paradigm.

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Tech Companies Still Dominate World's Top Brands

Technology companies still dominate BrandZ's list of the world's top brands, market research agency Millward Brown has revealed. But that's not very shocking—there are technology's glory days. The big news this year is that software titan Google has been knocked off its second-place pedestal.

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Google Chrome Coming to Apple iPhone and iPad

Even among Apple fans, there are many Google Chrome lovers.

Fortunately for them, Safari may be on the verge of losing its relative monopoly on Apple's iOS platform: Google is expected to release a Chrome app for the iPhone and iPad this year.

Macquarie Equities Research anticipates Apple will approve Chrome for iOS "later this quarter."

However, don't get too excited—numerous limitations will prevent Chrome from being a true alternative to Safari on your smartphone or tablet.

For example, Safari will remain the only browser set to "default," which means that emails, text message,s third party app links, etc., will still open in Apple's browser.

Toronto's Engagio Evolves into 'Social Conversations Network,' Adds Chrome Extension to Make Gmail Social

Toronto startup Engagio is becoming what it calls a "Social Conversations Network," which combines "the convenience of the social inbox utility with the power of the network via a new Engagement Discovery Dashboard." The dashboard reveals friends' conversations across whichever social networks and commenting communities they participate in.

“Users will be drawn to the Engagio dashboard because it reveals the conversations that their friends are engaging in from across the spectrum of the social web," says William Mougayar, the CEO and founder of Engagio. "It’s an engagement stream that is quite addictive.”

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Don't Sell Your Android Device

Don't sell your Android device.

Seriously, don't. Getting a new one? That's fine. Tuck your old one in your closet. Better yet, drill a hole through its hardrive or take a sledgehammer to the thing.

Just. Don't. Sell. It.

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Toronto's Uberflip Dominates Google Chrome Store

Toronto-born Uberflip, a cloud-based PDF enhancement tool with embeddable social widgets like YouTube videos, finished 4th at the Road to Banff Canada 3.0 competition. It has since held a high ranking in recent weeks in the Google Chrome Store’s Marketing & Analytics section.

Yesterday, Facebook launched the App Center. Facebook’s App Center will allow all platforms to be listed whether they be iOS, Android, Blackberry, Mango, or Web. Uberflip’s COO Randy Frisch says they are working on that now. As mobile app stores have been incredibly popular, we're now beginning to see web stores beyond e-commerce.

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Help BroadbandTV Raise Money for Charity by Creating or Simply Watching a YouTube Video

Last week, BroadbandTV, the largest online video aggregator in Canada, announced the launch of their first social video fundraiser. Now the three year old startup is seeking global support for a local cause. VISO, BroadbandTV’s consumer-facing YouTube channel, has reached out to its network of 5,000 video content creators from around the world to help tell the story of Mission Possible, a local charity that helps residents in one of Canada’s poorest postal codes find jobs.

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