Hmmm…looks like this is an answer to Google Answers. Looks good but lets see if it is really worth it or not. Read more on the link below.Source
Tag Archive for 'Technology…'
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Today I got invited to Windows Live Mail Beta..
Below is preview image.
I found many positives as well as negatives.
Positives:
1) Compared to Hotmail, it is miles ahead. A clean, fast interface resembling Outlook including autopreview of messages.(Though it lacks many features but as its in beta that can be ignored)
2) When I click on any of my mail, I have a contextual menu. I loved this feature ( Hope Gmail incorporates it too)
3) 2 GB of space compared to meagre 2 MB of hotmail (*250 MB is only for US)
Negatives:
1) As with all MS Sites, it works properly only on IE 6.0. On firefox it behaves like any normal webmail interface.
2) Ads: A huge ad on right side ( you can spot it in the snapshot) which lessens up viewing space. A promotional footer gets attached to my outgoing mails.
3) Except the contextual menu, GMail is still one up in every field. AJAX is faster and yeah a bit faster than GMail but still doesn’t make a noticeable difference.
4) Few of my mails were shown in HTML Coding( A bug i guess )
Still I would say, its definitely worth a try 
“According to various sources around the net, Google won’t disclose who is providing the Antivirus technology for it’s web based email service, Gmail.
Since it was just begging to be answered, I decided to find out for myself. Antivirus signatures between vendors are as unique as a fingerprint, so I figured it’s possible to fingerprint the antivirus vendor.
Using various malware picked up from “Google Hack” Honeypots, as well as secret sources around the net, I cross referenced the Gmail virus alerts with the VirusTotal.com database. Using these pieces of malware, I was able to determine through process of elimination that the antivirus provider for Gmail is Sophos, an industry leader. This is my determination based on the data returned to me from Virustotal.com. More testing would verify my claim, perhaps someone would like to compare results?”
From BillyGoatCurse.Com. Go through Ryan’s Test results. He has done a teriffic job.
Close on the heels of “Google Base”, Microsoft is set to foray into online classifieds with “Fremont” – a service which will focus on classified announcements of products and services for sale, by individuals or commercial entities without a Web presence.
“Fremont” has reportedly been available in test form to Microsoft employees since last week, and is expected to launch in a couple of weeks from now.
Microsoft’s “Fremont”, which derives its name from a Seattle neighborhood hosting a busy Sunday market, has been tested by MSN – the company’s online services arm.
“Fremont” will allow users to enter details of personal items in a specially designed database. The database information will either be made search-able by Microsoft’s internet search engine, or will be restricted to a limited group of personal contacts.
In many ways, “Fremont” echoes “Google Base”, which is also a structured database inviting users to enter information in a prescribed format.
However unlike Google, which has apparently not given any thought as to how users will control the data that they feed into Google Base, “Fremont” promises to give users the ability to restrict access to information to particular groups of people. “Fremont” will be integrated with other MSN services, such as the Messenger instant messaging service.
Announcing that attackers have let loose malicious software to take advantage of an unpatched bug in Internet Explorer; Microsoft has urged users to run a complete system scan on its new Windows Live Safety Center, for the purpose of detecting and deleting this malicious code.
Microsoft has said that both proof-of-concept and an exploit code are in circulation, and that the exploit code can compromise PCs running IE on Windows 98, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 2000, and Windows XP operating systems.
A hacker can gain complete control of vulnerable systems, by hosting malicious code on a Web site. In the event an IE user visits such a site, the malicious program will run sans any user interaction.
The security bug in IE was originally reported to Microsoft in May, however it was initially thought to allow only a denial-of-service (DOS) attack, rendering IE to close.
Recent research by security vendor, Computer Terrorism, says that the flaw can be used to hijack a machine simply by luring users to a malicious Web site. Security vendor Secunia, has given the problem an “extremely critical” rating.
Microsoft has not as yet produced a patch for the vulnerability; but has advised customers to visit its free-of-charge Windows Live Safety Center and use the Complete Scan option therein to check-for and remove the malicious software.
In its security advisory, Microsoft has said that it will either provide a security update through its monthly release, or will provide an out-of-cycle security update, depending on customer needs.
However Microsoft’s advisory does include several work-arounds to deflect possible attacks including clicking on the Custom Level button, disabling Active scripting in Internet Explorer by choosing Tools/Internet Options, scrolling to the Scripting section, clicking the Security tab, and selecting the Disable radio button next to Active scripting.
Introducing Google Analytics.
Sophisticated. Easy. Free.
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visitors found you and how they interact with your site. You’ll be able to focus
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Sophisticated, yet easy
to use.
We believe that web analytics should be simple and sophisticated at
the same time. We’ve designed Google Analytics to have enterprise level
capabilities and yet still be accessible to anyone who wants to improve their
marketing and site design. Google Analytics delivers all the features you’d
expect from a high-end web analytics offering, and provides timesaving AdWords
integration features.
Integrated with AdWords.
If you have an
AdWords account, you can use Google Analytics directly from the AdWords
interface. Google Analytics is the only product that can automatically provide
AdWords ROI metrics, without you having to import cost data or add tracking
information to keywords. Of course, Google Analytics tracks all of your
non-AdWords initiatives as well.
Free.
Google Analytics gives us an
opportunity to invest in our advertisers and everyone else who wants to create
quality content on the web. Instead of spending money on web analytics, you can
focus on creating targeted, ROI-driven marketing campaigns, and on improving
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http://www.google.com/analytics/
Check also Google Base i forgot to post abt it earlier
Microsoft Research has developed a prototype of a microkernel operating system, code-named ‘Singularity.’ Its most surprising feature: It has nothing to do with Windows.
Contrary to popular opinion, Windows isn’t the only operating system in which Microsoft is investing.
The Microsoft Research team has built from scratch a 300,000-line, microkernel-based operating system (OS) that has no roots in Windows.
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That OS, code-named “Singularity,” is slowly but steadily gaining visibility. The Microsoft Research team behind the project recently posted to the Web a 44-page technical research report about Singularity. Company officials discussed the project publicly at the June USENIX conference. And earlier this week, Microsoft’s Singularity effort got some attention on Slashdot.
“What would a software platform look like if it was designed from scratch with the primary goal of dependability?” reads the opening of the Microsoft research report.
That was the question the Singularity team set out to answer two years ago.
“Singularity is not Windows. Every line of code was written from scratch,” said Galen Hunt, a senior researcher with Microsoft Research who is helping to spearhead the Singularity project.
Hunt said Singularity is the largest cross-group project inside of Microsoft Research, involving about 35 researchers across the systems and networking, compiler, testing and other research teams.
Like all Microsoft Research projects, Singularity has no definitive commercialization trajectory. Microsoft could opt to commercialize it as is, embed elements of it in other products or simply rely on the learnings from the project to inform other efforts at the company.
Already, however, the Singularity work is generating ideas for the architectural team inside Microsoft’s Core Operating System Division (COSD), and the Microsoft security team, Hunt said. COSD has been doing work to reduce dependencies among the different subsystems that comprise Windows. The security team has been wrestling with federated identity and distributed system challenges.
“We have an idea of how to minimize dependencies when writing an OS from scratch,” Hunt said. “That’s a technology transfer idea.”
Singularity also could, hypothetically, act as the host operating system for something like Microsoft BigTop. BigTop is the code-name for a still-unannounced internal Microsoft distributed-systems infrastructure project.
Ultimately, all or parts of Singularity would most likely find a place in the embedded OS space, the server OS market, or both, Hunt said.
Singularity also is a proof of concept regarding the viability of managed code. Singularity is not the first OS written entirely in managed code, Hunt acknowledged. He bestowed that title on “Cedar,” developed by Xerox PARC.
But the OS is currently written entirely in a combination of Microsoft’s C# programming language, as well as a derivative of C#, which the team is calling “Sing#.” (Sing# is a derivative of Spec#, which is a derivative of C#.) The ultimate goal is to write the OS entirely in Sing#, Hunt said.
While Singularity does rely on Microsoft’s C#, it is not making use of Microsoft’s Common Language Runtime (CLR) or the Java virtual machine. Instead, the team is relying on “Bartok,” a Microsoft-Research-developed compiler and run-time environment.
“We have developed a working kernel, as originally conceived,” said Hunt. “Now we can build a lot of components on top of it.”
Source
Google commissioned a research on the amount of dead time spent by passengers at airports, which was conducted by market research firm, Tickbox.net, sampling 1,826 UK consumers. What came up were some very interesting findings…
An average airline passenger spends over 9 hours a year waiting for flights; in effect losing over a day of annual holiday allowance per year, which means almost 3 weeks of average work-life gone… just like that!
Nearly a half of the British passengers surveyed, said that they could do no better than eat, drink and shop at the airport. However, 71 per cent of the respondents said that they would prefer to utilize airport time to find out more about their destination.
From the things people wanted to know regarding their destination; maps, weather forecasts, avoidable tourist traps, guides to famous sites and landmarks, and information on traveling to the city centre figured among the top five. A quarter of the sample subjects said, that they would love to send-off last minute emails, while a further 20 percent said, that they would want to pay-off their household bills online.
On the basis of the survey, Google launched “Google Space” at London’s Heathrow Terminal One yesterday.
“Google Space” is a laboratory with Google pods, which travelers can access free-of-cost, log onto the Internet, check their mail, and find out more about their destination using Google tools.
“Google Space” is scheduled to run at Heathrow’s Terminal One till 17 December. Google staff will be available at “Google Space” for advice and assistance to passengers.
One year after the debut of
Firefox 1.0, and more than 100 million downloads later, Mozilla has released
Firefox 1.5, the latest version of its acclaimed open source Web browser,
available
target=_blank>here as a free download.
Firefox 1.5 builds upon the
success of its predecessor to deliver an improved browser with significant
performance and usability upgrades, security and privacy enhancements,
‘best-in-class’ support for Web standards, and better customization options.
“With dozens of enhancements, Firefox 1.5 will
draw many new users to the improved Web experience it affords,” said Mitchell
Baker, CEO of Mozilla Corporation. “Firefox is proof of our passion for
promoting choice and innovation on the Web and making the Internet accessible
and productive. Firefox 1.5 is the easiest browser to install, use, customize,
and keep up-to-date and secure.”
Firefox 1.5 has been enhanced in
several key areas and includes new “drag and drop” feature for tabbed browsing
to help better organize page viewing, improved “pop-up blocker” that screens
users from more unwanted pop-up ads, new “reference search engine” Answers.com
included in the integrated Search box, improved “live bookmarks” feature to
enable easier discovery of and subscribe to RSS feeds and improved “options”
interface to make it easier to adjust browser settings.
Security and
Privacy features include “New Automatic Update” system that alerts users and
prompts them to act when security and functionality updates become available,
allowing users to have the most up-to-date browser at any time. With “Automatic
Updates”, Mozilla maintains that Firefox 1.5 is ready for even the newest Web
surfer or computer user, because it essentially makes Firefox an “install once
and forget it” application. Firefox takes care of security updates for the user.
On the Performance and Accessibility front features include “improved
performance” with a next-generation rendering and layout engine that speeds
navigation between previously viewed Web pages through intelligent caching and
displays complex Web pages more accurately. Capabilities contributed by IBM make
it easier for the aged or mobility and sight-impaired to navigate the Web.
The browser can now be used with technology that reads Web content
aloud; allowing users to navigate with keystrokes rather than mouseclicks; and
reducing the tabbing required to navigate documents such as spreadsheets.
Mozilla maintains that the browser remains easy to use, in part by not
loading it down with a “jack of all trades, master of none” approach to features
and functionality. Instead, Firefox integrates the most used technologies into
the browser itself, while allowing users to add specific functionality through
third-party extensions to the browser.
Developers have already created
more than 700 extensions for Firefox, with many more expected in the weeks
following today’s release.
With Firefox 1.5, Mozilla continues its
search partnership with Google in the Americas and in Europe and begins a new
search relationship with Yahoo! in China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan.
Download Firefox 1.5 for Windows here.
Download Firefox 1.5 for Mac OS X here.
Download Firefox 1.5 for Linux here.
Source : Techtree
The latest challenger to Explorer and Firefox aims to beat the big guys by emphasizing blogging, networking, and online communities
Web browsers don’t look much different than they did a decade ago, when Netscape Communications’s initial stock offering catapulted software for navigating the Web into the public eye. You click on a site, look around, watch or listen to something, click somewhere else — all by your lonesome self. Now, an upstart called Flock aims to change all that.
On Oct. 5, the Palo Alto-based startup takes the wraps off what it’s calling a “social browser.” Unlike plain-vanilla browsers such as Microsoft’s (MSFT ) Internet Explorer, Flock’s browser is built specifically for a new, emerging generation of Web users, one that isn’t satisfied passively browsing media online.
Flock hopes to turn the browser into a dashboard for collaborating, blogging, sharing photos, reveling in a raft of other group activities that have recently caught fire online (see BW, 9/26/05, “It’s a Whole New Web”).
“INCUMBENTS ARE VULNERABLE.” “The Web is not just a library of documents, but a stream of events and people,” says Flock co-founder and Chief Executive Bart Decrem. “And people are spending a lot more time sharing on the Web.”
Flock is also the latest and most ambitious example of a surprising renaissance in browser innovation. Less than a year after its first ready-for-prime-time release, the Mozilla Firefox browser — which Decrem and some of his engineers helped create and popularize before starting Flock last spring — has stolen nearly 10% of the market from leader Microsoft.
Another browser, Opera, has also gained, especially in Europe. “The incumbents are vulnerable,” says David Cowan, general partner with Bessemer Venture Partners, Flock’s lead investor. “Today, those are the juiciest targets.”
They’re also the most powerful competitors. In response to competition from Firefox, Microsoft has turned up the firepower in its own browser, adding improved security in recent releases and planning more features in a new browser in coming months.
BLOGGERS’ BOON. Decrem concedes Flock has its work cut out for it — especially since he’s hardly aiming low. He hopes to have 100 million users within five years. “There’s not too many people crazy enough to do a browser,” he notes with a grin.
The Flock browser, which is expected to be released to the public in test form in about two weeks, does everything a regular browser does, but with several important additions.
For one, it makes blogging a snap by eliminating the need to do arcane coding in order to post, change fonts or add photos. Right click the mouse on a Web page, and a blogging wizard comes up that automatically creates links, citations, and quotes that are ready to insert into a blog. A horizontal bar on the browser also can load photos from the photo-sharing site Flickr, so they can be simply dragged and dropped into the blog post.
HANDY HISTORY. Moreover, Flock makes it easy to create online bookmarks for Web sites. Visit a Web site and click a ” ” button on one of the browser’s toolbars, and that site is saved to a personalized list on the social bookmarks Web site http://del.icio.us./.
Those bookmarks can be tagged with useful descriptions and shared with others. Flock also lets people create watchlists of people whose bookmarks they like and form groups with people who link to particular tags. Flock also keeps a history of every Web page a user visits, so they can be found easily later.
Even in raw test mode, Flock and its blogging tools in particular are drawing rave reviews from tech-savvy users. “Pure magic,” says J. Michael Arrington, general partner at Archimedes Ventures, who co-writes the blog TechCrunch. “It’s a beautiful application, and they’re a bunch of smart guys.” Even Robert Scoble, Microsoft’s most famous blogger, has called the Flock browser “awesome.”
PERSONAL TOUCH. The most innovative thing about Flock is that it’s trying to do away with the notion of “browsing.” Co-founder and Marketing Vice-President Geoffrey Arone says the term is an increasingly irrelevant description of what people do online. Essentially, Flock’s software is intended to serve less as a window into static Web content than as a customizable conduit for participatory Web services, from Flickr to del.icio.us to the collaborative online encyclopedia Wikipedia.
It’s not an entirely new idea. Tech-savvy folks can customize their Web experience with a number of new tools. Firefox, and now Internet Explorer, for instance, allow people to add “extensions” to their browser. They can, say, add a new search-engine box to their browsers, even alter the appearance and features of individual Web sites. Possible additions include blocking ads or filling in personal account information.
But Cowan notes that not everyone wants to trick out their Web browser. “Most people just want to drive their car off the lot,” he says. So Flock’s aim is to create software that makes it dead-easy for regular Web users to customize an experience with just a few clicks. The Flock software will be offered free, both to the general public and to other Web developers in open-source form, so they can add and contribute their own tweaks.
REDMOND’S RESPONSE. So how will it generate sales? Decrem expects to make money from running Google ads, as well as getting so-called affiliate fees for referring users to commercial sites such as Amazon.com (AMZN ). Moreover, he envisions getting money from other Web services, such as blogging or photo-sharing services, that might pay Flock for sign-ups sent their way from the Flock software.
At least for a while, that may be enough to sustain 12 guys and and a dog or two in a converted garage in Palo Alto, Calif. But getting traction among millions of Web users will be the tough part, even if the software ultimately works as well as it demos. After all, Microsoft’s browser still commands 90% of browser use, and it’s not standing still.
A test version of a new Internet Explorer, scheduled to be released to the general public soon, includes streamlined ways to find and read so-called RSS feeds and integrate them into calendar and e-mail programs. “We think these features will take the browser to the next level,” says Gary Schare, Microsoft’s director of product management for Internet Explorer.
“THE COMMON GOOD.” What’s more, the folks at Mozilla, the newly for-profit producer of Firefox, are still cranking away at making their software the browser of choice. Indeed, while Mozilla President Mitchell Baker welcomes browser innovation on top of Firefox, she questions whether an entirely new browser is the right way to go. Better, she contends, to create simple, targeted extensions that individual browser users can choose to add to Firefox. “It keeps the energy focused on the common good,” adds Mike Shaver, Mozilla’s technology strategist.
Flock is making a heady gamble — one that conjures up ghosts of Internet bubble past. Flock’s ancestor, Netscape, gave away free browsers, too. Despite being acquired by America Online for $4 billion, it was widely viewed as having gotten crushed by Microsoft. But if Flock can use its early buzz to shepherd the online masses toward its software, it may not be long before we click goodbye to the old Web browser.
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