According to Apple, the marketplace is launching with over 1,000 paid and free apps in categories ranging from games to productivity. As with the company’s mobile store available on the iPad and iPhone, users can search for apps, find out “what’s hot,” check out staff favorites, and see the most-downloaded programs in different categories.
Apple itself is selling iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand for $14.99 each. Its Pages, Keynote, and Numbers apps are available for $19.99 in the store. It’s also selling Aperture 3, its photo-editing software, for $79.99.
“With more than 1,000 apps, the Mac App Store is off to a great start,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in a statement. “We think users are going to love this innovative new way to discover and buy their favorite apps.”
But it’s important to note that the Mac App Store won’t be offered to every Mac owner. The store is available only to Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard users through the free 10.6.6 software update. It will also be made available in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion when it launches later this year.
On the development side, Apple is keeping the same revenue-sharing policy it has in place for its mobile app store. Developers selling paid apps will keep 70 percent of the revenue generated from sales, while Apple will take the remaining 30 percent. Developers offering free apps won’t be charged anything to make their programs available in the Mac marketplace.
Help 2010 Hockey World Cup
Posted on: February 3, 2010
- In: SEMGURU
- 4 Comments
The 2010 Hockey World Cup will be the twelfth instalment of the Men’s Hockey World Cup. On November 14, 2007, the International Hockey Federation (FIH) announced that the championship would be held in India, taking place over two weeks from Feb 28 to March 13, 2010 at New Delhi’s Dhyan Chand National Stadium.
Many of us have even forgotten about “Hockey”, our national game which had brought laurels for our country, a record of six Olympic gold medals, from 1928-56 which has been till today an unbreakable record. But hockey and its players are not getting their due respect, recognition and money in our country. So Indian hockey players boycotting training sessions for world cup should not sound shocking.
Lets collect together funds to support our team and cheer up our players for world cup.
Its time to give our National Game its due respect, so all Indians- CHAK DE!
Mozilla has released its first release candidate, RC1, for Firefox 3.6 for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
The new version includes Personas, which lets people customize the browser’s appearance; blocks third-party software from encroaching on its file system turf to increase stability; and perhaps most significantly given the competitive threat from Google Chrome, shortens start-up time and improves responsiveness and JavaScript performance.
Firefox 3.6 RC1 is also available from Mozilla’s download site.
People can notice skins and better performance, but there also are changes deeper under the hood that developers should know about. One is support for the File interface, which can help with tasks like uploading multiple photos and is part of the draft HTML5 standard effort. Another deeper change is running scripts asynchronously, which can help load a Web page faster by putting off some work until the high-priority chores are complete.
Mozilla had hoped to release the updated browser in 2009 as part of a higher-frequency release schedule, but gave itself a bit more time for Firefox 3.6 and 4.0.
The web has been abuzz the past few weeks with chatter about Microsoft’s announcement today at its Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans about the new version of Microsoft Office 2010
. There’s even a mini-movie about its debut. Facing potential challenges from Google’s browser-based Apps products and its new Chrome OS, Microsoft has been touting its three screens strategy, which is the ability for products to synchronize across the phone, browser, and desktop, for some time now.
With the release of Office 2010, SharePoint Server 2010 and Visio 2010, we finally see the implementation of Microsoft Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie’s mantra. We had the opportunity to see an in-depth demo of the new suite of products from Microsoft’s Group Product Manager for Office 2010, Chris Bryant. Here’s a complete breakdown of all the functionality that has been added, including screenshots:
The Move To The Browser
Most certainly a direct response to Google Apps, Microsoft is rolling out lightweight, FREE, Web browser versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote. All based in the cloud, the web-based versions of these products have fewer features than their desktop cousins but still give users basic tools to edit and change documents.
PowerPoint 2010
PowerPoint has been upgraded not only with a new browser version, but also a slew of bells and whistles have been added to the desktop version. Users now have the capability of editing video and images within PowerPoint with a basic video editing tool (not so different from the capabilities of iMovie) and an image editing tool, which is like a basic, simple version of Adobe Photoshop. Microsoft has also added the ability for users to launch a WebEx-like live sharing feature with other users. So if you create a slideshow in PowerPoint, you can share it with other people in real-time (which can be run on top of Sharepoint).
Here’s what the video editing tools look like in PowerPoint:
To share a deck with other users, you send an email to individuals with a link. Once they click the link, they will see the slideshow within the browser. This feature can also be used on a mobile phone’s browser. You can also create a slideshow in the desktop version and then publish it to the web version to access it via the browser. The browser version of PowerPoint doesn’t include the video editing features, but most of the functionality of 2008 is included in the browser version.
Excel 2010
Excel spreadsheets can now run in the browser, and similar to PowerPoint, spreadsheets can be published to the browser via the desktop version. The browser version of Excel has limited features, but offers more in-depth functionality than Google Spreadsheets. Microsoft has added a particularly innovative feature called Sparklines, which gives a visual snapshot image of a data trend over time within a cell. You can also share Excel via the browser with other users and set special permissions on who can access the document.
Here’s what the web version of Excel looks like:
Word 2010
Bryant says that the number one piece of feedback from users producing documents on Microsoft Word is that they want to preserve the look and feel of a document created in the desktop version in the browser. Microsoft calls this “document fidelity” and created the browser version of MS Word accordingly. In the browser, documents retain the same look and feel as in the desktop. The browser version still has the “ribbon user interface,” where you can change fonts, size, formatting, styles etc.
An image of the web version of Word:
Microsoft has also updated the desktop version to have collaborative features so that multiple users can be editing a document at once. This collaboration is not available in the web version, unfortunately. Microsoft says that users don’t want this feature but this might be a move to protect the Office revenue model.
When two people are editing the same document (in the desktop version) at the same time, Word will notify each user when there are changes that need to be synced with their document. The copy/paste function of the desktop version has also received an upgrade, where you can see see a live preview for the paste function. The paste function also has an advanced option to create and insert screenshots. To make moving around a long document easier, Word now has a visual navigation pane and section header breakdown which makes it easy to jump around different sections of a document.
Outlook 2010
Outlook 2010 now has a ribbon user interface, like Word, PowerPoint and Excel. The UI of email conversations has been upgraded to look almost like a message tree, allowing users a more visual view of sent and incoming emails. Search functionality has been improved as well, making it much easier to find content. Also, you can preview calendars in emails and choose to ignore selective email conversations.
Sharepoint 2010
Like Outlook, Sharepoint now gets a ribbon UI, making the document-hosting product more similar to Microsoft’s flagship products, like Word. You can tag authors of documents now and can share documents and files more easily.
Microsoft says that its browser versions have been tested on all major browsers aside from internet Explorer, including Firefox and Safari. Office 2010 is still being tested and reworked to function on Chrome. Microsoft also announced that it is streamlining the number of Office editions from eight to five. Office Web applications will be available in three ways: through Windows Live, where consumers will have access to Office Web applications at no cost; via on-premises versions; and via Microsoft Online Services, where customers will be able to purchase a subscription of MS Office. Microsoft says Office 2010 will be available in the first half of next year.
The key part of all of this news is the free, browser-based versions of Microsoft’s most popular Office products. Bryant says that Microsoft expects the browser products to be especially popular amongst student, but I think that the web-based applications will be hugely popular in the enterprise space as well, as long as there are security precautions taken to put documents in a secure part of the cloud.
But as more and more businesses are becoming comfortable with trusting cloud environments, Microsoft’s move to the browser could pay off in a big way, especially because it’s so easy to use both the desktop and browser versions of products interchangeably. The more successful Microsoft is in its browser strategy, the more they validate Google’s approach in the space, which will eventually put price pressure on Office.
Google Chrome Extension
Posted on: November 17, 2009
To run these samples you need a recent trunk build or the Chrome dev channel release.
Google Mail Checker
Displays a toolbar button that shows how many messages are in your Google Mail inbox.
Subscribe in Feed Reader
Adds a button to the URL bar when a page has a feed that can be subscribed to. Clicking the button takes you to subscribe to a feed.
BuildBot Monitor
Shows the current status of the Chromium Build Bot.
Google’s Matt Cutts hinted this past week that Google is considering using a site’s speed as part of the algorithm that ranks the order of pages in its search results. Fast sites might rank higher, while slower-loading sites might suffer. It’s a proposal that’s proving controversial.
To quote from Cutts’ video interview on WebProNews:
“We’re starting to think more and more about should speed be a factor in Google’s
rankings?
…A lot of people within Google think that the web should be fast, it should be a good experience; and so it’s sort of fair to say if you’re a fast site, maybe you should get a little bit of a bonus. Or maybe if you have a really awfully slow site, users don’t want that as much.”
Reasons for Ranking Fast Sites Higher
I can think of plenty of good reasons why Google might pursue this strategy: a fast web is better for users, site owners, and Google itself. For instance:
1. Google searches are more productive: Giving fast-loading sites a boost in the rankings improves the user experience for those coming from Google.com. You’ll know that if a site is near the top of the results, you won’t be waiting an eternity after clicking.
2. User experience improvements on wider web: with site owners incentivized to improve speed to appease Google, the whole web might speed up. That’s better for users.
3. More revenue for everyone: Google ads are everywhere on the web, so giving site owners an incentive to address speed issues increases pageviews, clicks and revenue for both the publishers and Google itself.
Reasons Against Ranking Fast Sites Higher
Some are none too pleased with the proposal, however. In particular, blogger Douglas Karr is up in arms about the idea that Google would prioritize fast sites and penalize slow ones.
His main argument against the move: penalizing slow sites would mean that the “little guy”, running a successful site on his GoDaddy hosting account, would be knocked out of the Google rankings by big companies that could afford “loadsharing, caching, web acceleration or cloud technologies”. There are other strong reasons against too:
1. Favors big / powerful sites: As Karr notes, big companies are best able to plow resources into technical prowess. This could disrupt Google’s egalitarian basis, and the whole idea of the web as a meritocracy.
2. Greatest benefits go to Google: Who benefits most from Google.com results loading fast for the user? Who gets the most benefit when millions of sites running AdSense suddenly have a lot more inventory (users click more on faster sites)? Who saves masses of money on crawling the web if web site owners optimize their pages for speed? Which company is able to grow its stock price faster the more people get online and have a good web experience? Google, Google, Google. Publishers get an individual benefit, of course, but in aggregate the value is really greatest for Google itself.
3. The fastest site isn’t always the best result: If I’m searching for a local business, I probably want to find its website. But local businesses rarely have sites optimized for speed; the big business listings sites would almost certainly score higher on the speed metric. The same rule applies across numerous industries: speed and relevance are not related.
Google Music OneBox 2.0
Posted on: November 16, 2009
Google updated the music search OneBox, which used to include song titles, album names and some other information licensed from AllMusic. The new music search OneBox is only focused on finding music, previewing songs and easily buying them.
Search for an artist, an album name or even some lyrics and Google returns a list of songs that can be played with one click. Full music previews are provided by iLike andLala, but Google also links to other music sites: Pandora, Rhapsody and imeem. When you click on a music result, Google opens a player in a pop-up window, which isn’t very user-friendly.
“With Lala, you can hear one full length preview per song. Each subsequent play will be a 0:30 clip,” explains Lala. This limitation is very easy to bypass: just clear the cookies for lala.com.
The OneBox is limited to the US, probably because the music sites that partnered with Google can provide full previews only in the US. I didn’t manage to trigger the OneBox, not even using a US proxy. The sample searches provided by Google include some additional parameters that need to be added to a Google URL:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Bob+Dylan&esrch=MusicOneboxDemoOptin::LaunchDemoOptIn
Google says it will be “rolling this feature out gradually to users across the U.S. over the next day”.
Not wanting to feel left out, Yahoo reminds users that it launched a similar feature last year. “Since launching a partnership with Rhapsody in September 2008 and launching the FoxyPlayer last year, music has been an integral part of the Yahoo! Search experience as well. We have found that nearly 6 percent of all Yahoo! searches are music-related.”
Since its inception in 1990, Microsoft Office has quickly been the dominant force in office applications and document building. Need to build a presentation? There’s PowerPoint. Looking to create complex spreadsheets? Excel is still the gold standard. And with the power of Windows to help push the desktop software, its presence only grew.
Over the last few years though, the web has begun to change this dynamic. Collaboration has become more important in business. At the same time, web applications have become more and more able to match the power and features of their desktop counterparts. In the document space, Google Docs
has carried the banner for web-based document building.
Now Google claims that Docs will be a viable alternative to Office by next year. At the same time, Office 2010 boasts web-based versions of its popular software. With the two giants locked in battle, we wanted to get your take on things. We asked you to vote on which doc-building tool you prefer…
…and while it may not come as a surprise, Microsoft Office came out on top. But surprisingly the match was a close fight all the way to the end. Microsoft Office only secured a slim majority of the vote, 51% or 1365 votes. Google Docs registered 37% of the tally with its 994 votes. Finally, 12% of you (315 votes) said it was a tie and both were good tools.
We expected Office to win this one, but from the votes and the reader comments, it seems that the winds of change have begun to blow. Whether Office 2010’s web integration will be enough to fend off Google’s attempts to challenge Microsoft, we’ll just have to wait and see.
Be sure to tune in next week for the next edition of our Web Faceoff series! Below are the full results of the last eight weeks:
Google’s Chrome OS project, first announced in July, will become available for download within a week, we’ve heard from a reliable source. Google previously said to expect an early version of the OS in the fall.
What can we expect? Driver support will likely be a weak point. We’ve heard at various times that Google has a legion of engineers working on the not so glamorous task of building hardware drivers. And we’ve also heard conflicting rumors that Google is mostly relying on hardware manufacturers to create those drivers. Whatever the truth, and it’s likely in between, having a robust set of functioning drivers is extremely important to Chrome OS’s success. People will want to download this to whatever computer they use and have it just work.
We expect Google will be careful with messaging around the launch, and endorse a small set of devices for installation. EEE PC netbooks, for example, may be one set of devices that Google will say are ready to use Chrome OS. There will likely be others as well, but don’t expect to be able to install it on whatever laptop or desktop machine you have from day one. Google has previously said they are working with Acer, Adobe, ASUS, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, and Toshiba on the project.
We’ve seen convincing and not so convincing screenshots of Chrome OS over the last several months. The good news is the speculation is about to end, and you can try it out yourself. If you have one of the supported devices, that is.
Microsoft Website Spark – A program that offers visibility, support and software for professional Web Developers and Designers
Posted on: September 24, 2009
Visibility, support and software for professional Web Developers and Designers
What is WebsiteSpark?
WebsiteSpark is a new global program, designed by Microsoft to help small professional Web development and design service companies succeed, by providing new business opportunities through connections with global partners and customers, support and training, and software tools – at no upfront cost. WebsiteSpark provides professional Web development and design companies with an innovative vehicle to get access to:
* Business Opportunities: Opportunities to expand their customer base and drive new business, by showcasing their capabilities and connecting with partners via the WebsiteSpark Marketplace and other Microsoft marketing and business networking vehicles.
* Support and training: Professional support from Microsoft and connections with WebsiteSpark Network Partners, Hosting Partners, and other Web developers and designers with complementary technologies or business models—an entire ecosystem that can provide a wide range of technical and business resources for every Web professional need.
* Software and solutions: Fast, easy, and immediate access to current full-featured Microsoft development tools and Web server production licenses at no upfront cost, to build, design and bring to market differentiated, innovative, and rich Internet sites.
For more details visit – http://www.microsoft.com/web/websitespark/
HP DreamScreen
Posted on: September 24, 2009
The sleek, stylish HP DreamScreen adds a fun new dimension to your digital content. Easily view photos of your last vacation, watch family videos, listen to Pandora Internet radio, get Facebook status updates, check the weather and more—all with this elegant wireless web-connected screen.
The HP DreamScreen’s sleek design and intuitive features give you and the whole family a fun way to enjoy digital content. Plus, functional features like an alarm clock and weather outlook1 allow you to get the information you need to start your day all in one place.
- Wireless—Connect to your wireless home network to access weather info, Snapfish and Facebook with built-in Wi-Fi.2
- Touch-enabled controls—Get fast, easy access to information and entertainment with simple touch controls embedded in the display that disappear when not in use, or use the included remote control for added convenience.
- Day at a glance—Wake up to music and get a 5-day forecast1 with one glance thanks to built-in alarm clock and weather functions.
- Social media hub—Keep up with your friends’ photos, status updates and upcoming events by accessing Facebook.1
- Music—Turn your HP DreamScreen into your entertainment center by listening to Internet radio from Pandora or HP SmartRadio.1
- Photos—Play a slideshow of your photos copied to the HP DreamScreen or directly on popular memory cards formats.
- Videos—Watch home movies and video clips in full screen – Its simple!
- Connect with your PC—Stream Photos and Music from your PC or wirelessly copy photos, music or video from your PC to the HP DreamScreen.
Watch ICC Champions Trophy 2009 Live Scores And Online Video Streaming
Posted on: September 24, 2009
The eight nation cricketing combat kicks off live tonight. Yes, we’re talking about the much awaited ICC Champions Trophy which was scheduled in 2008 but due to security concerns in the former hosting nation Pakistan, the big event got postponed. It’s time for the African Safari to witness the mesmerizing game of cricket, where the hunt to reign the supreme ranking is on!
Online cricket fanatics will certainly witness a wide array of sites streaming the videos live from South Africa. Some of the websites will showcase high quality streaming links for all ICC Champions Trophy 2009 matches. Other than this, there is an option to see highlights and go backward to watch old matches. All they’re asking you to do is, spend some dough for their services!
Private video streaming sources can be accessed on web browserS using TVU and SopCast player http://www.sopcast.com/. TVU networks http://www.tvunetworks.com/ TVU web TV addon for Firefox will be able to play any relevant cricket stream on Firefox browser. You will need to install SopCast player to access web videos on sopcast network. You may choose to view the live ICC Champions Trophy 2009 cricket action via Willow TV – http://www.willow.tv/EventMgmt/Default.asp UStream – http://www.ustream.tv/ Action8Cricket – http://www.action8cricket.com/ OoxTV – http://www.markosweb.com/www/ooxtv.com/ WebCric – http://webcric.com/
Many advertisers use spreadsheets when managing their AdWords campaigns to streamline tasks such as changing bids, creating keyword lists, and adjusting destination URLs. As a result, we decided to work on a way for you to use spreadsheets directly in your account, and today this feature is available in the new AdWords interface.
Google AdWords lets you specify a unique cost-per-click (CPC) amount or destination URL for each keyword in a keyword-targeted Ad Group. You also can specify a unique cost-per-impression (CPM) amount or destination URL for each site in a placement-targeted campaign.
You can edit these settings individually or update batches of keywords and sites all at once. Batch updating is a convenient shortcut for advertisers with multiple Ad Groups, campaigns, or lengthy keyword lists.
Editing existing CPCs and URLs in a keyword-targeted campaign
To edit your keyword CPC or destination URL values individually:
- Log in to your AdWords account.
- Click the campaign containing the Ad Group keywords you want to change.
- Click the appropriate Ad Group.
- Select the checkbox(es) next to the keyword(s) you’d like to edit within the Ad Group table.
- Click ‘Edit CPCs/URLs’ at the top of the Ad Group table.
- To change the default CPC that will apply to all keywords, enter a new value in the Default Ad Group CPC field. To assign a unique CPC to a keyword, enter the amount in the Max CPC column beside the appropriate keyword(s). This maximum CPC will override the default Ad Group CPC.
- If you want to track a specific keyword separately, enter a URL in the Destination URL column beside that keyword.
- Click ‘Save Changes’ at the top or bottom of the page.
Please note that you can leave any field blank if you’re satisfied with it. The system will default to the maximum CPC or destination URL you set when you first created the Ad Group.
Firefox Memory Optimization
Posted on: June 29, 2009
If you want to reduce the amount of memory used by Firefox in Windows here’s a little trick:
Firefox Memory Optimization
- Open Firefox browser, go to address bar, type about:config and hit enter
- You’ll see a page full with text under 4 columns: Preference Name, Status, Type, Value
- Right-click anywhere on that page and select New -> Boolean
- You’ll get prompted to enter a Preference Name – enter this:config.trim_on_minimize and hit enter
- You’ll be prompted for a value – select True and hit enter
- That’s it – close Firefox and open it again!
Now, whenever you minimize your Firefox, the amount of memory used will be reduced to approximately 20%.
If you want to test it yourself, follow these steps:
- Open Task Manager (CTRL+ALT+DEL)
- Load several pages into Firefox and watch the memory usage (going up)
- Minimize Firefox and see what happens!
Enjoy!
Weather
To see the weather for many Indian and worldwide cities, type “weather” followed by the city and state, or country.
Example: Search weather bangalore
Local Businesses
If you’re looking for a store, restaurant, or other local business you can search for the category of business and the location and well return results right on the page, along with a map, reviews, and contact information.
Example: Search chinese restaurants mumbai
Unit Conversion
You can use Google to convert between many different units of measurement of height, weight, and volume among many others. Just enter your desired conversion into the search box and well do the rest.
Example: Search 5 feet 8 inches in cm
Movie Times
To find reviews and showtimes for movies playing near you, search for “movies”. If you’ve already saved your location on a previous search, the top search result will display showtimes for nearby theaters.
Example: Search movies gurgaon
Cricket Scores
To get the latest cricket scores during any season, just type ‘cricket’ in your search box.
Example: Search cricket india
Dictionary
To see a definition for a word or phrase, simply type the word “define” followed by the word(s) you want defined.
Example: Search define transpicuous
Time
To see the time in many cities around the world, type in “time” and the name of the city.
Example: Search time dubai
Calculator
To use Google’s built-in calculator function, simply enter the calculation you’d like done into the search box
Example: Search square root 1521
Currency Conversion
To use our built-in currency converter, simply enter the conversion youd like done into the Google search box and well provide your answer directly on the results page.
Example: Search 100 INR in Dirham
Package Tracking
You can track packages by typing the tracking number for your UPS or Fedex package directly into the search box. Well return results that include quick links to easily track the status of your shipment.
Example: Search 1Z9999W99999999999
Trillian beta goes public
Posted on: June 11, 2009
Trillian Astra, which has been in development for nearly three years, is now available to users as a public beta. You won’t need to register for a private key to download it, although if you’ve been using it since we reported on the Astra beta in April, it might be time for an upgrade.
In announcing on the Trillian blog Tuesday that the beta is now public, Cerulean Studios also said the latest build of the multi-protocol chat client fixes bugs related to server-based problems. The company clearly has confidence in the beta, though, since they’ve made it the featured product on their download page. Users can still grab Trillian 3.1, the latest stable build, but only from a link off to the side.
On the Trillian download page, you can also see that Cerulean Studios has plans for Mac, iPhone, and Web-based clients. So far, none of those versions is available for public testing.
Web analytics firm Compete has released its data for the month of May, and as Justin Smith over at InsideFacebook has already pointed out, US traffic to Facebook.com has increased by nearly 8% to 82.9 million unique visitors last month, with Facebook Connect sites generating an additional 65 million uniques. That means that, according to Compete, a total of 113 million people in the U.S. interacted with the Facebook service. The data also shows MySpace is (still) steadily decreasing compared to the beginning of the year, while Twitter growth seems to have flattened all of the sudden.
While it is interesting to see how the hot social networks stack up in terms of traffic, I thought I’d also take a look at how well Facebook is doing compared to other Web giants like Google.com, Yahoo.com and MSN.com. To my surprise, Facebook appears to have become a real challenger to these Internet juggernauts, who are relatively old compared to the social network that started out in 2004 as a university student-only service and only really opened up to the public in September 2006.
Evidently. this is only one way to look at things. First, Compete does not always provide spot-on traffic estimates (data from comScore suggested Facebook had yet to surpass MySpace in US traffic back in March) and second it’s hardly fair to compare these websites as they all serve different purposes and audiences. But the picture painted here is that Facebook has unmistakingly grown up to become one of the most popular Internet destinations on the planet, both in terms of registered users (well beyond 200 million at this point) and in terms of received traffic. And we’re still talking about a privately-held (albeit massively funded) company that has come this far. No wonder its valuation is surging.
Then there’s our model of the true value of social networks, which gave Facebook a clear lead as well.
For comparison, Compete pegs Google to have received a total of 145.5 million unique visitors in May, ahead of Yahoo (135.5 million) and MSN.com (97.5 million), which means Facebook has already overtaken the MSN website and is nearing the former two. It’s important to note that all four sites show a significant increase in U.S. traffic since the beginning of this year, but Facebook is definitely on the steepest growth curve here. In January 2009, total traffic to Facebook was somewhere around 68.5 million uniques, which means the May number of 113 million represents a 61% jump, mostly thanks to the successful spread of the Facebook Connect service.
If these trends persist, expect Facebook to come out on top of the Compete charts well before the year ends.
Bing – Microsoft New Search Engine
Posted on: June 1, 2009
It doesn’t have quite the same ring to it as go Google yourself, but now you can go Bingyourself. (Then again, Google took a few years ti become a verb.). Bing, Microsoft’s latest effort to compete in search, is now live on a “preview” site. The key thing to pay attention to is the guided search assistance on the left and the different experiences for the travel, images, video, maps, news, and shopping tabs.
A few things to try:
An ambiguous Web search: “turkey” (do you want images, recipes, facts, or a map of the country? The topic guides in the left explore pane will help you narrow your search).
A travel search: “SFO to JFK”
Video search: “Simpsons” (hover over the thumbnail to play the video)
Image search: “Rollercoasters” (notice the infinite scroll).
A health search: “Sore throat”
Shopping: “Digital SLR” (sort by price or brand, get average ratings and CashBack).
Maps: “BBQ” (automatically knows what city you are in and offers up geo-appropriate results).
News Search: “Bing” (what else?)
Check it out. Try a few searches and then tell us in comments if you will ever go back.
OMCAR 2009, the Online Marketing Summit, is a non-profit initiative, which focuses on ‘empowering businesses to grow by leveraging the power of Online Marketing’, is being held on May 23rd, 2009, from 8:30 AM – 6:00 PM, Amity Innovation Incubator, Noida. OMCAR 2009 will bring together online marketing professionals, sales & marketing people, advertisers & brand managers, entrepreneurs, CXOs of SMBs, web developers & designers and students under one roof to provide opportunities for networking, sharing of views and interacting with the experts from the Online Marketing industry.
The key speakers at OMCAR 2009 include Mahesh Murthy (CEO, Pinstorm), Vivek Bhargava (CEO, Communicate2), Pradeep Chopra (Co-founder, OMLogic) & Alok Mittal (General Partner, Canaan Partners). The major topics on which various thought leaders will provide insights and share their own practical experiences include ‘Reaching out to your customers cost effectively’, ‘Entrepreneurial opportunities in the Online World’, ‘Digital Media Integration – SEO, PPC, SMM & Mobile’ and ‘The Future of Internet Marketing’.
In addition, the summit will showcase 3 successful online marketing case studies on businesses that’ve effectively leveraged online marketing to growth them. To add to the excitement, OMCAR 2009 will be blogged live by OMShare (the 1st from India, Online Events Promotion Platform).
“After the astounding success of OMCAR 2008, we are very proud to present OMCAR 2009. We are sure this event will be an enriching experience for anybody who is interested in or is already associated with online media and want to learn about, discuss and imbibe the latest online marketing techniques and strategies.” said Mr. Pradeep Chopra, Co founder & President, OM Careers.
Register now if you want to be part of this highly awaited online marketing event for 2009.
About TiE Delhi
The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) is a global not-for-profit organization focused on promoting entrepreneurship. TiE helps budding entrepreneurs through advice, guidance and assistance from successful & experienced entrepreneurs and professionals.
TiE’s greatest strength is its network through 53 cities in 12 countries that consists of many participants in the entrepreneurial ecosystem – successful & experienced as well as budding entrepreneurs, venture capital firms, angel investors, service providers, etc. The membership structure of TiE includes Charter Members and Associate members and is open to anyone who pays nominal dues and can thus access the various activities and services that help them become better informed and better connected entrepreneurs. Charter members are invited based on their accomplishments and willingness to help the next generation of entrepreneurs. Associate Members benefit from the education, knowledge, inspiration, guidance, mentoring and, most importantly, the global connectivity that the TiE platform can provide.
OM Careers is world’s first online marketing careers community. A non-profit organization based out of New Delhi, India, OM Careers aims to empower current and budding online marketing professionals in their careers by providing them a platform for networking and learning.
Its ultimate motive is to contribute to the growth of the online marketing industry by providing a platform to create & connect right skills to the right opportunities.
Founded & managed by online marketing industry experts including CEO’s & Founders of India’s leading online marketing companies, OM Careers is committed to address the challenge of lack of skilled & experienced professionals in the online marketing industry.
Firefox 3.5 Beta Version Launch
Posted on: April 29, 2009
Firefox 3.5 Beta 4 is based on the Gecko 1.9.1 rendering platform, which has been under development for the past 10 months. Firefox 3.5 offers many changes over the previous version, supporting new web technologies, improving performance and ease of use, and adding new features for users:
* This beta is now available in 70 languages – get your local version.
* Improved tools for controlling your private data, including a Private Browsing Mode.
* Better performance and stability with the new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine.
* The ability to provide Location Aware Browsing using web standards for geolocation.
* Support for native JSON, and web worker threads.
* Improvements to the Gecko layout engine, including speculative parsing for faster content rendering.
* Support for new web technologies such as: HTML5 <video> and <audio> elements, downloadable fonts and other new CSS properties, JavaScript query selectors, HTML5 offline data storage for applications, and SVG transforms.
For whatever reason this week’s launch of the beta version of AMD’s Fusion Media Explorer, the company’s first forray in the social media hub / browser space, isn’t being met with a mountain of buzz. For a 40-year old giant of a tech company that’s mostly known for its micro-processors and related technologies, that’s quite surprising, especially because the product actually appears to be quite cool, if not very innovative these days.
I say appears, because the installation failed on my computer for lack of an AMD processor (I should have known), and I should probably note the application has only been tested for use on Windows and Linux machines. From what I can gather, it most certainly makes me want to test it asap though.
Google Toolbar 6 Beta Launch
Posted on: April 3, 2009
IS YOUR Google Toolbar not running on Microsoft Internet Explorer? Google launched its own Chrome browser well after it had shipped toolbars for IE and Firefox. A beta version of an update is now available.
Google launched its Google Toolbar 6 Beta for the Internet Explorer. It has many exciting features. The toolbar team of Google described the same as a major upgrade. Interestingly, the Google Toolbar 6 Beta is available in 40 languages also.
t features the Quick Search Box, in which the users can click on an icon in the Windows task bar to open a small dialog box from which the users can search and even launch applications.
The updated IE toolbar also features the Firefox version. It can restore bookmarks and recently viewed sites. Google is also upgrading its “enhanced search suggestions”. The programming team of Google is eager for the users to try it out and provide some comments and suggestions.
With more and more social sites popping up on the Web, your preferred username is becoming directly entangled with your social identify. The reality is that it’s becoming a priority to claim your username everywhere.
So how do you know if your username is available on most social sites? You could try each site individually, or you could check 76 of them all at the same site with namechk.
Woopra v/s Google Analytics
Posted on: April 2, 2009
- In: SEMGURU
- 2 Comments
What is Woopra
Woopra is a robust web-tracking & analysis tool that works perfectly on any website. It is mainly targeted for small to medium websites ranging from few hundreds up to tens of thousands of daily page views.
Essentially, it is targeted for blogs interested in the most minuscule details of every single action. In addition, Woopra provides a precise real-time streaming of every single activity on the website.
Woopra also features a clean interface, including many graphical visualization components, such as charts, maps, panels… Along with many other clean and advanced options that make Woopra an ideal solution for webmasters who desire to discern all the aspects of their website.
After reading the introduction of woopra I felt like why some one will creates one more Analytics tool to compete to Google Analytics. Google Analytics is already providing some of those features which woopra is going to provide so what’s use. But then I felt “people are not fool to compete with Google giving same functionally like Google Analytics”. it has to be some thing more then that. So I decided to give a look at woopra features
Here is list of Woopra Analytics Features
- Live Tracking
- Rich Interface
- Visitor Tagging
- Instance Messaging
- Real Time Analytics
- Custom Notification
- Developer Tool
Now if we compare this with Google Analytics then we will find none of this features are provided by Google Analytics
Let me discuss some of issue/Disadvantages/Cons of Woopra over Google Analytics.
- I have registered for woopra but after you add site for analytics it requires approval. it takes up to 7 business days to receive Approval/Response of added site. Which is not a case for Google analytics
- Real Time Analytics is one of features of Woopra, if its going to be real time then think about you site bandwidth and website loading time. I am sure it’s going to be increased by marginal percentag
- Goal Conversion one of most powerful features of Google analytics for every webmaster is missing in Woopra
Firefox 3.1 Beta Version Lauch
Posted on: April 1, 2009
Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 is the fifth development milestone and third beta release of Firefox 3.1, the next version of the Firefox web browser. While this release is considered to be stable, it is intended for developers and members of our testing community to use for early evaluation and feedback. Users of the latest released version of Firefox should not expect all of their add-ons to work properly with this beta.
Check out what’s new, the known issues and frequently asked questions about the latest version of Firefox. As always, you’re encouraged to tell us what you think, either using this feedback form or by filing a bug in Bugzilla.
Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 is based on the Gecko 1.9.1 rendering platform, which has been under development for the past 9 months. Firefox 3.1 is an incremental release on the previous version with significant changes to improve web compatibility, performance, and ease of use
- This beta is now available in 64 languages – get your local version.
- Improved the new Private Browsing Mode.
- Improvements to web worker thread support.
- Improved performance and stability with the new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine.
- New native JSON support.
- Improvements to the Gecko layout engine, including speculative parsing for faster content rendering.
- Support for new web technologies such as the <video> and <audio> elements, the W3C Geolocation API, JavaScript query selectors, CSS 2.1 and 3 properties, SVG transforms and offline applications.
Google Ventures Opens For Business
Posted on: March 31, 2009
The long awaited Google venture capital fund, Google Ventures, is now open for business. The Fund is led by managing partners Bill Maris and Rich Miner.
The fund’s FAQ says they’ll invest in just about any type of startup (”consumer Internet, software, hardware, clean-tech, bio-tech, health care and others”) and they’re willing to invest just about any amount you might need (”from seed funding to tens of millions of dollars, depending on the stage of the opportunity and the company’s need for capital”). It’s not exactly what you’d call a tight investment focus, but hey, it’s not like they need to worry about keeping limited partners happy so they can raise the next fund.
Google Ventures seeks to discover and grow great companies, your are also be one of them.
Office Locations
Google Ventures, Mountain View:
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
United States
+1 650 253 0000
Google Ventures, Cambridge:
5 Cambridge Center, 4th Floor
Cambridge, MA 02142
United States
+1 617 575 1300
Google Talk Lab Edition
Posted on: March 27, 2009
Features
- Features of the Google Talk Gadget on your desktop (emoticons, group chat, and more!)
- New! Desktop notifications from the following services
Gmail 
Calendar (with a new snooze option!) 
Test a New AdWords Beta Interface
Posted on: March 27, 2009
Here are a few of the exciting features
* Performance graphs: Spot trends over time with custom graphs on every campaign management page.
* Insight across ad groups: Focus on the high-impact areas of your account with new roll-up tabs on every page. You can see and edit keywords, placements or ads from all ad groups on a single tab.
* In-line editing: Want to change a keyword or bid? Click on it and make changes in-line instead of loading a separate page.
* Easier content network management: Improve content network performance through a new Networks tab. Look at statistics for the placements where your ads have appeared, and then take action by setting unique bids or excluding placements directly from the report.
Keyboard shortcuts
* g then o: Go to All Online Campaigns
* g then c: Go to Campaigns tab
* g then r: Go to Ad groups tab
* g then k: Go to Keywords tab
* g then n: Go to Networks tab
* g then a: Go to Ads tab
* g then s: Go to Settings tab
Learn More About the New AdWords Interface
Sony Reader v/s Amazon Kindle
Posted on: March 21, 2009
The e-book market is still up for grabs. And in a sign that Sony is far from ready to let Amazon get a lock on the market, yesterday it announced a deal with Google to include in its eBook Store over 500,000 public domain books scanned by the search company.
That means that while the Amazon Kindle allows readers to select for purchase from among 245,000-plus books (in addition to assorted newspapers, magazines, and blog content), the Sony Reader will now offer more than 600,000 book titles.
The big difference, however, is that many of the Sony Reader titles will be those books in the public domain and not more recent releases. In that area the Kindle will still have the edge
If anything, this news is a sign that Book Search is one product that GoogleGoogle reviewsGoogle reviews remains committed to in light of the discontinuation of other, non-core products. Other recent improvements to the tool include options for embedding books on your own site, an API, and deals with publishers to bring more content into the tool.
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