Daily Dose of social media: Chrome can’t be pwned, nor owned

Google Chrome, Mobile Browsers Survive Security Challenge — After one day at the Pwn2Own challenge, Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari all fell victim to malicious exploits. For those who don’t know, Pwn2Own is a yearly hacking contest to test the security of Web browsers. Google’s Chrome was the only one of the four to survive the challenge:

The lone survivor in this year’s contest is the newcomer: Google Chrome.

Chrome was affected by one of the flaws that brought down the rest of browsers, but thanks to the tightly-sandboxed way that Chrome runs, no one was able to actually exploit the flaw, which is good news for users facing every more sophisticated attacks.

With most browsers offering roughly the same range of features and comparable speeds (you knew browsers where running out of ways to stand out when they start advertising JavaScript benchmarks), security is fast becoming an important benchmark for many users. But it’s also a very touch one to measure.

Journalists are increasingly working on the Web, and many of you work almost exclusively on the Web. Proper security from malicious Web attacks can prevent you from losing your work or having your data comprised. Chrome has two things that should really appeal to people relying on a Web browser for work: security and stability.

It’s all worth noting, despite a higher prize for compromising a mobile browser at Pwn2Own, no one was able to successful run an exploit on one. That phone in your pocket might be your safest browsing experience.

iPhone Makes Up 50 Percent of Smartphone Web Traffic In U.S., Android Already 5 Percent — Despite being out less than two years, the iPhone has the majority of smartphone Web traffic in the U.S. iPhone users use the Web all the time and download lots of apps. News organizations need to start developing products that work well on mobile, especially the iPhone and other smartphones with rich Web experiences. Before the iPhone came around, mobile browsing wasn’t fun, but now it’s a big part of many people’s lives:

The gains shown by the iPhone and Android show what is possible when phones are built with fully capable browsers and support a rich array of Web apps.

Google’s Android platform is already up to five percent of smartphone Web traffic in the U.S. Android has a rich Web experience like the iPhone, and as more people gets phones like these, more will be utilizing their Web capabilities. With Palm’s Pre due out later this year, this is destined to be the year of the consumer smartphone.

Blackberries largely appeal to business users who use their phones for e-mail and for calendars. But consumer-oriented smartphones are beginning to take over and news orgs have to get on this platform early. So, if your news org gives out Blackberries for business purposes, don’t let that cloud your judgment of what is possible.

It won’t be too long before having a smartphone with a rich Web experience is the norm, not the exception.

And yes, people are getting rich selling apps on the iPhone App Store.

Happy Birthday Twitter! — Yes, Twitter recently turned 3 years old. For the first few years, Twtter was very niche, but now it’s exploding. Try it out.