Native Flash in Chrome, the future of search and optimizing for the iPad – Monday April 5th Roundup

A combination of Easter holidays and April Fools day has left us at a loss for good news this week. But we’ve still got native Flash support for chrome, the furture of search, and optimizing for the iPad.

• We start the week with Social Media Today’s 5 Steps to Evaluating Social Media ROI.
• Out of my Gord has an article on how he thinks that the use of search is going to change in the coming years. He says that he see’s search as a utility instead of a destination. I don’t know, isn’t that what everyone said about search originally?

• The Chrome blog has announced that Chrome is getting native support for Flash. This has got to be some kind of response to Apple’s recent dig at Flash.

• With the iPad out in two days Omniture is using analytics to figure out if Mobile-optimized Experiences Improve Engagement on “Super” Phones and Tablets like the iPad.

• A List Apart has a wonderful post on whether FAQ’s are a functional means of improving usability. The title is great too: Infrequently Asked Questions of FAQs.
• HumanFactors talks about a pretty cool technology feature available to android phones: “smart” keyboards that expand keys based on what it thinks the next letter is going to be. Potentially very cool, but also potentially frustrating.

• Apparently lawmakers are now urging the FTC to investigate Google Buzz over privacy concerns. Isn’t this kinda beating a dead horse at this point?
• New Zealand has rejected software patents, declaring “a computer program is not a patentable invention”.