News"Kumo" As the New Name for Live Search Looks Even More Likely
Posted 12/01/08 at 03:28:30 PM by Mark Edward Soper
Adding fuel to the rumor we reported recently that Microsoft is ready to dump the name Live Search for its search engine and redub it "Kumo," ZDNet's Mary-Jo Foley reports today that Microsoft has:
- Redirected some search servers to the Kumo.com domain
- Registered variations including Kumosearch.com, Kumopics.com, and others
As Foley also points out, the bad news for Live Search just keeps on coming, with the latest being a glitch that fouled up promised huge cashback savings on Black Friday. So, what do you think? Is it time for Microsoft to turn Live Search out to pasture - or is more than a name change in order? Join us after the jump with your prescription for what ails Microsoft's search strategy.
NewsCustomize Your Google Searches with SearchWiki
Posted 11/28/08 at 11:00:50 AM by Mark Edward Soper
If you've been resisting getting a Google account, you might not be able to resist this one: set up a Google account and you can use Google's new SearchWiki to customize your search results.
When you use Google after signing in, the normal Google search results include three new icons next to each listing that customize your personalized search results:
- Click the Up-arrow (Promote) button to move the search result to the top of your results
- Click the X (Remove) button to delete the result
- Click the Comment bubble to attach a note for the result
At the bottom of each search page, you have these additional options:
- Add a result: type in the URL for a site you want to add to your search result
- See all my SearchWiki notes: displays all the comments you've added
- See all notes for this SearchWiki: displays all comments added to the search results by all users
- Learn more: opens the SearchWiki answer page
SearchWiki is intended to give you the ability to fine-tune your search results and eliminate irrelevant or obsolete results. However, some critics are worried about how SearchWiki works. To find out what they're concerned about, join us after the jump.
NewsFirefox 3.1 Beta 1 Released, Brings 3D Tab Switching and Geolocation
Posted 10/15/08 at 07:14:05 AM by Pulkit Chandna
The first beta of Firefox 3.1 has arrived after being delayed by about a month. This beta release introduces the ability to switch between tabs using the Ctrl-Tab combination (3d tab switching). The tab-switching feature has been available in form of an extension till now.
Users can also drag and drop tabs between different Firefox windows. The beta release also has geolocation capability – currently available as an add-on - built into it. Geolocation allows users to interact with the web based on their geographic location.
The inbuilt geolocation feature in Firefox 3.1 and Geode – the geolocation extension - are slightly dissimilar. The difference lies in the fact that the former offers users a choice between GPS-based tracking and WiFi-based tracking, whereas Geode only counts on WiFi for tracking the location of a user.
NewsRedmond Makes It Easier to Arrive with Better Live Search Maps Features
Posted 10/01/08 at 10:45:05 PM by Mark Edward Soper
This week, Microsoft rolled out major enhancements to yet another member of its Live family: Live Search Maps.
Now, Live Search Maps places the directions in the left pane and the map in the right pane, making it easier to follow your route. Click the number next to each checkpoint to display a detailed map. And, you can switch quickly between 2D, 3D, aerial, and traffic views and, in a feature borrowed from its rivals, add stops as desired.
In a significant nod to those of us who navigate by landmarks, landmarks in six categories (gas stations, major national hotel chains, restaurants, convenience stores, grocery stores, and car dealerships) are now incorporated into the directions ("pass TACO BELL on the left in 1.1 miles"), and Live Search Maps even warns you if you've passed your last turn ("the last intersection is Main St If you reach Oak St, you've gone too far"). So, whether you're on a cross-country jaunt or just need to fill the inner geek with a quick meal, Live Search Maps has you covered.
Read on!NewsFake Popup Study Confirms Most Web Browsers are Dolts
Posted 09/24/08 at 12:40:17 PM by Paul Lilly
As if college students didn't already have enough studying to do, it appears they made need to brush up on the fundamentals of PC security. For example, when presented with a popup, do you:
- A: Click it, because what company would lie about promising to remove all your adware?
- B: Click it, because in your hungover state you can't read what it says anyway
- C: Click it, because that's how you assert your independence
- D: Close it out
The answer's obvious for Maximum PC readers, but not so for those who reside on a college campus. The Psychology Department of North Carolina State University concocted a series of four fake popup dialogs, with one warning: "The instruction at '0x77f41d24 referenced memory at '0x595c2a4c.' The memory could not be 'read.' Click OK to terminate program." Only one of the warnings blended in with XP, and the others were designed to be easy to spot as adware.
Surprisingly (or maybe not so surprisingly), 25 students out of a panel of 42 clicked the button for two of the fake alerts, and 23 hit OK on the third. Only 9 of them closed the window.
So why'd they do it? Nearly half of the students said that their main concern was getting rid of the dialogs and the distraction they presented. Time to add Computers for Dummies for next semester's textbook shopping list.
NewsEarly Chrome Adopters Reverting Back to IE, FF
Posted 09/24/08 at 09:10:13 AM by Pulkit Chandna
Leading internet research firm Net Applications has revealed that many early Chrome adopters are now reverting back to Internet Explorer and Firefox. User comfort is finally overcoming the curiosity that the browser initially educed.
Net Applications’ latest weekly browser usage figures are out. Chrome accounted for only 0.77% of all internet traffic in its third week - down from .85% in the preceding week.
The data also has brought to light another peculiar trend: usage of Google’s browser shoots considerably in the evening and wanes during working hours.
NewsBrowsers Under the Hood: IE8 Versus Chrome - Process Error Handling
Posted 09/15/08 at 02:38:14 PM by Mark Edward Soper
With Microsoft's IE8 browser now in its second beta, and Google's Chrome shaking up the browser market with its initial public beta release, many analysts are now taking a closer look at how these browsers are similar - and different.
Scott Hanselman, a Microsoft Senior Program Manager posting at Hanselman.com, gives us a useful look in a recent posting about one similarity between IE8 and Google Chrome: "both browsers isolate tabs in different processes."
So, what does this mean to us users? Both browsers are capable of running many tabs at the same time, and, as Hanselman demonstrates, can restore a crashed browsing session with a single mouse click.
One difference between current releases of IE8 and Chrome: if a page crashes in IE8, the browser will try to reload it automatically before it gives up and asks you if you want to reload the page or browsing session.
Have you been loading up either of these browsers (or other current favorites) with lots of tabs? Which of the current browsers has error handling you like? Which ones still have problems? Hit the jump for your chance to sound off.
NewsIs It Time for a New "Browser War" - or Is It Already On?
Posted 09/11/08 at 08:07:07 PM by Mark Edward Soper
Yahoo's Douglas Crockford, the man who created JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), says it's high time for a new browser war, eWeek reports. In his keynote address to the Rich Web Experience conference earlier this month, Crockford claimed that the last time core building blocks of the Internet such as HTML and and ECMAScript were revised (1999) was the result of the Internet Explorer versus Netscape Navigator browser war.
While Crockford says we need a new war, I'd argue that we've already got a dandy one going on right now: IE is being challenged by Mozilla Firefox, while Google Chrome has just entered the ring to go head-to-head with Opera and Apple Safari to fight for third place.
To find out why I think Browser War II is already on, and why it might turn out a lot better than the first war of the browsers, join us after the jump.
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