Google has just released a new version of its Chrome Browser beta build - this time with some nice new features that makes the Chrome experience even better.  If you're using this Beta build of the Google Chrome browser, your installation will be automatically updated to the new version. Those of us who are using the official, more stable version of Google Chrome will have to wait awhile before these new features are added.

Google Ventures, an independent entity from Google the search company,  is rumored to have invested with top iPhone game developer ngmoco .  Citing multiple reliable sources, TechCrunch reports that Google Ventures may have invested more than $100 million with the game developer. So what does this mean? Despite the fact that Google Ventures'  supposed investment may not be directly Google-related,

It looks like Google is really serious to get into the social gaming arena. It was previously reported that Google has started churning out investment to Zynga, one of the most popular developer of social games such as Farmville. Now, TechCrunch has learned that Google has agreed to buy  Slide.com, which is actually a popular online solution for slide shows which can be embedded on social networks such as MySpace and Facebook.

Remember Google Wave? I know you all do. It's one of Google's biggest and most ambitious project which was launched to the public back in 2009.  Let me refresh you're memory - Google Wave is an online, real-time collaboration tool. It was a promising product which many failed to appreciate, especially the non-tech savvy online users. Why? Because it's too complex for a real-time messaging tool. So, finally Google will stop supporting or developing Google Wave .

If you're a verified Google Places business owner,  and the Place Page for your business has received public reviews, you can now r espond to these reviews starting today. Google has enabled this feature to make Google Places more engaging for both you and Google Maps users who've chanced upon your business. Hence, Google Places is now a more useful and better way of knowing your customers and finding out more about them to improve your products or services.

If you're a Flickr user, you'd be glad to know that Yahoo has finally open up the new Flickr photo page to the public. The new photo page has been in preview mode for a few weeks now and it seems that the Flickr folks have finally decided that new photo page is now free of bugs and needed fixes so, it's time to roll it out to everybody. In case you've missed the announcement before, the new Flickr photo page has three new major features - bigger photo view,

Google is starting to allow multiple sign-in to some users as noticed by Alex Chitu of the Google Operating System blog .  To check whether this is already enabled on your Google account, visit your Google Accounts Page and check if the multiple sign-in option is already appearing under the Personal Settings tab. I don't see it yet on my account but some users reported that they have seen the option already. Google has also not officially announced this yet. Anyway,

Google has finally rolled a nifty Gmail feature, something which I assume all of us Gmail users have been waiting for so long - the ability to download Gmail attachments just by drag-and-drop method . It's a pretty simple feature and yet could be useful for many of us.

Google has just rolled the new search history feature for US Google users. Nothing big here, just a small enhancement but could be pretty useful as it will allow you to quickly get back to sites you've been to as well as see items you have starred from your Android phone, iPhone or desktop searches on Google.com. To view your search history, just tap the history link located at the bottom of Google.com. You must also have enabled search history in your Google account.

In a surprising development, Yahoo Japan just announced that it would be switching to Google as its search technology and paid search provider . Now, before we all think and ask  how could this be possible especially since Yahoo and Microsoft have been starting to work on their search ad integration deal recently. The answer lies in the fact that Yahoo Japan is not entirely own by Yahoo. Hence it has no full control of the Japanese site.

Microsoft has just launched a newly updated Bing Webmaster Tools which according to the Bing Community Blog is a huge improvement to the old Microsoft Webmaster Tools.  The update was being carried out after Bing has reached out to the webmaster and SEO communities who are in unison in wanting to have more transparency on how Bing crawls and indexes websites,

Google is set to revamp the overall interface of its Image Search vertical. According a post on the Official Google blog, the new Google Image Search will soon feature more images on the search results page. In fact, if you take a look at the sample screenshot of the new image search results page, you won't see any text anymore aside from the navigation panel on the left side of the page.

This has long been overdue, but Yahoo is nonetheless starting to integrate both organic and paid search listings from Microsoft for up to 25 percent of Yahoo Search traffic in the U.S. This means that these search listings is now coming from Microsoft Ad networks. Some U.S. users would have started seeing this integrated Microsoft search ads on Yahoo Search if  they were selected by Yahoo.

Comscore's latest search engine rankings report covering the month of June is showing that Google lost around 1.1% market share.  This is almost equal to the combined search market share earnings of Yahoo and Microsoft Bing. But no cause of alarm for Google though, since comScore was quick to point out that the increase in Bing and Yahoo's market share was due to the continued utilization of contextual search approaches that tie content and related search results together.

Google is rolling out several updates to its News homepage to make it easier to navigate through relevant news, highlight interesting stories that would otherwise get buried into the streams of news influx that gets into the homepage as well as an easier news sharing feature. The updated Google News homepage, which will be rolled initially to U.S. users now include a major section in the homepage called "News for you.

Google has just released Maps 4.3 for Android phone and based on the new features given out by the Google Mobile Blog, it seems like the app is being geared towards becoming more like FourSquare and other location-aware social media apps. According to Google, the new features of Google Maps 4.3 would help you quickly choose the right place to grab dinner, catch the next train and find friends to add on your Google Latitude account.

Just in time for the roll out of iPhone iOS4, Microsoft has updated its Bing iPhone app to include two new useful features - enhanced social integration with Twitter and Facebook and Visual Scanning. The enhanced social feature of Bing iPhone app now lets you connect your Facebook and Twitter accounts and see combined updates from your friends right inside the Bing app. That means your phone will no longer open up a new Safari Window to see these updates. In addition,

Experian Hitwise just released its May 2010 Search Market Share report. And nothing much is new from the report. Google still leads the major search engine and is even the only one which gained market share in May 2010. According to the report, Google's search market share in May 2010 was $72.12 of all U.S. searches.  This is a 1% increase from the previous month's tally. Yahoo and Bing on the other managed to grab 14.43% and 9.23% of all searches in the U.S. respectively.

Just in time for summer when most students are probably going to shop for hot summer items and to help retail sites prepare their stores for the summer shopping season, Google has just launched Google Commerce Search 2.0 . Available now for U.S. and UK retailers, Commerce Search 2.0 provides a better experience online for shoppers while greater control and better ROI for online retailers. Launched six months ago, Google Custom Search 2.

Google has just added a  new option to Google Maps UK which could be useful if you're property hunting in the UK. This new option called "Properties", gives you a little red dot on Google Maps which display every house or flat for sale or rent. The new feature also lets you refine your property search by sale or rent, bedrooms, bathrooms and most importantly price.