Here's the bug in question, filed about 2 weeks ago:
http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=43107
Seems like someone looked at it, prioritized and classified it (eg pri-2, internals-cookies).
What's the big deal? It's just a bug that needs to get fixed, not a huge conspiracy by Google.

It's only for Chrome 3.0. The link I posted covers all versions.

http://www.netmarketshare.com/report.aspx?qprid=1&qpcustom=Chrome

This is not a flattening curve.

This completely contradicts two other reports from the last few days, which has Bing losing market share in December.

http://searchengineland.com/nielsen-yahoo-bing-down-google-up-in-december-33464

http://www.hitwise.com/us/press-center/press-releases/search-enginedec2009/

Google has the ability to get exclusive deals done too. They could for example approach some of News Corps biggest competitors, e.g. Financial Times and CNN. I'm sure Rupert Murdoch realizes this too and will ultimately stay away from the Microsoft deal.

1) It's not only for IE6. Not everyone using IE are forced to use it. Many are simply content with IE or just can't be bothered installing something else. 2) They don't have to know about the plugin beforehand. When they try to access a page requesting Chrome Frame they will be prompted if they want to install it.

It's just a fraction of all IE users who's not allowed to install / use a different browser. Most of them can, but simply can't be bothered to do it. It's much easier to convince someone to click a button and install a plugin than it is to get them to install a whole different browser.

I really wish this was true, but StatCounter's numbers seem a bit dodgy, with big swings in market share for no apparent reason. Example: http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-na-daily-20090307-20090506 NetApplications number are more stable; yesterdays market share for all IE versions was 63.47%, which is still a drop, but less dramatic.

They've promised a mac beta for fall 2009. That's about it.

Probably. And you're likely to be more open to the idea of installing a new browser if you're using IE8 (since you just did so) compared to IE6 & 7.

I doubt most people find it socially unacceptable for Google to take pictures for street view.