OverLinked

FRANCISCO — In a direct challenge to Microsoft, Google announced late Tuesday that it is developing an operating system for PCs that is tied to its Chrome Web browser.

Google has never looked quite so large as it does now. A company with the ability to launch an operating system to challenge Microsoft in any real way is one to be reckoned with, although some may say that their OS is limited to the “netbooks” or the line of ultra-small laptops that are more mobile devices than PC’s – this raw technology will inevitably find a home with Google enthusiasts. Unfortunately for those in the Linux OS world, this probably gives them some stomach pains, as they would have much rather Google taken up one of their flags (of the many Linux variants) and improved an already good platform. But this may work out in the end. More competition from a company focused on the mobile space will probably encourage even the Linux world to consider their own feature roadmap and modify it to keep up with Google’s times.

If you’re in web analytics or business intelligence, this is a fun presentation by Roman Stanek of Good data. You best speed through it because it’s a photo heavy deck.

This emarkter article had some great statistics on open and click rates per industry (or audience).

Initially what stood out are the large absolute percentages in the Retail and Travel industries. Retail having around 8% click throughs contrasted with the 2-3% overall, but makes sense that if a customer has opted in to a brand’s email newsletter, they are “die-hard” fans of the brand and want to interact with the brand and/or to take advantage of emailed specials. Similar reasoning with the travel industry, there are likely audience members (like me) who are on travelzoo’s email list to find bargains on vacations and the like. The prospect of traveling is also inherently more exciting than, say, an email message sent by a wholesale-distribution company.

One surprise in the Computer/internet industry was that smaller lists did better overall than larger ones on clicks (7.2% on a

Great perspective, for those who think the economy is shattered.