Blog

New York Times

Erasing the Boundaries New York Times During an idle moment on the office it’s possible you’ll use Google for your Microsoft Windows PC to search for the newest celebrity implosion. Maybe you may post an update on Facebook. After dinner, you may watch a DVD from Netflix or sink right into a new … Google plans entertainment deviceSydney Morning Herald Google promises cash for web tracking Google ScreenwiseStuff Middle East all 22 news articles »

ArjanWrites.com

Report from The GRAMMYs: More #Doing With Bing During GRAMMY Week ArjanWrites.com Bing recently launched a brand new advertising campaign that emphasizes that the search engine assist you to with more and higher “doing.” It's not about just digging for info; it's about finding relevant and accurate bits fast that may assist you to with … and more »

Yahoo Chief Product Officer, Blake Irving, spoke about “the subsequent web” (not the technology blog) on the Adobe Digital Marketing Summit last week. Yahoo has posted a “concise version” of his opening remarks from he event, within which he talks in regards to the way forward for the internet, so one can be driven largely by Yahoo, if Irving has anything to claim about it.

“I see a future where deeply personal digital experiences are easy to find, delightful to consume, and effortless to share,” he says. “If done right, it’s going to transform the way in which people use the net. After I say ‘deep personalization,’ I don’t just mean some preference controls; I mean content that’s so timely, relevant and private that it actually adds desiring to your life.”

While he doesn’t actually discuss it inside the post, Yahoo recently revealed a brand new personalization engine for delivering its content to users, called Content Optimization and Relevance Engine or C.O.R.E.

“Every hour C.O.R.E. processes 1.2 terrabytes of information for you to learn the way a user’s behaviors and interests influence the possibility of clicking on a selected article,” the Yahoo spokesperson told us last month. “And, everyday, C.O.R.E. personalizes 2.2 billion pieces of content for Yahoo! users.”

“Since optimizing with C.O.R.E., Yahoo!’s Homepage click-through rate has increased 300%,” she said on the time. “Yahoo!’s personalization approach is a clever mixture of scientific algorithms and human judgment, as editors have control to override C.O.R.E. at any time, to make sure certain stories are seen. Initially developed within Yahoo! Labs, C.O.R.E. has become an important tool used through the day by editors around the company to bring our users personalized news, first.”

We can’t ensure that if that is the most driver of what Yahoo is thinking about “the following web,” but my guess is that it’s a key element. Without a doubt , it’s not as though personalization of content can be a new thing, not to mention the subsequent thing. In truth, Irving have been singing an analogous tune for quite a while. Here’s a video from 2010 where he’s talking about making the net personal:

Still, personalization of content can still get well, and that looks to be a main focus for Yahoo.

“In future, I see an online that acts on my behalf, one who finds content and connections for me and presents it to me in context—aware of my location, my activity, my social situation, my economics and my most timely considerations,” says Irving. “I see an internet where trust and transparency are the cost of entry for publishers and technology providers, and where relationships are understood and cherished—on all sides of the relationship.”

“If the technology economic model is completed right, the right content will just come to me, and it’ll be as diverse and nuanced as I am—and as you’re,” he says. “It’s not about vague categories of interest—cars, sports, technology, advertising, whatever. It’s about just the content I’d exit to locate if I had the time and resources do it manually. It’s down there within the tail of the net. And, much more so, it’s down within the torso of the Web—where there are economics at play, albeit a model that’s mostly broken.”

He says that there’s “absolute confidence” that the net turns into deeply personal, and that it’s only a matter of who makes it happen. He seems to think Yahoo has a shot at being the only, or at the very least an important contributor. And that would surely be the case. As I write this (at about 12:15 EST), Yahoo has already had nearly 60 million homepage views for the day.

There are loads of other companies contributing to the personalization of content consumption. Yahoo could possibly be the gateway to lots of it, however the social efforts of businesses like Google, Facebook and others are already driving this to an incredible extent.

Yahoo is undergoing an immense transformation. Will it work- Who knows-

Yahoo is 17 years old. Where will it’s in another 17 years- What do you believe- Tell us within the comments.

ITProPortal

Over 11 Billion Web Searches in US during January made through Google: comScore ITProPortal According to the market research outfit comScore's latest study, designed to accomplish an in-depth analysis of the performance of the five biggest search engines within the US, Google increased its market share to 66.2 per cent in January from December's … Santorum's 'Google problem' isn't Google's problemFortune Bing Overtakes Yahoo! Search ShareAccuraCast Bing shuffles agonisingly slowly towards Google's dust trailTechEye all 55 news articles »

Today, social sharing buttons are, essentially, a core component of most web content. Users “like” content for Facebook, retweet it for Twitter, +1 it for Google+, or even pin it for Pinterest.

Since these actions are becoming a particularly popular way of selling content around the Internet, a Swedish based company that has put a completely unique spin on social sharing hopes to become the following big sharing mechanism. The service is known as Flattr and is designed to aid people share not just content, but additionally money.

Is there room for an additional social sharing button- Tell us.

Flattr is the area’s first micro-payment service and allows users to make monetary donations to their favorite bloggers and publishers. As Flattr’s CEO and Co-founder Linus Olsson explained to WebProNews, users set an amount for the way much money they need to donate, and, on the end of the month, Flattr divides it evenly between the entire content they’ve “flattr’d.”

Although it is usually generally known as an “Internet tip jar,” Olsson told us that users don’t make any purchases. Instead, they just make a donation in the event that they just like the content.

“We call it social donations, social micro-donations, or social micro-payments since you actually pay for content,” he said. “You may have the content already, but you must pay for it.”

The content includes anything from music to software to articles whatever users think deserve a donation. Olsson said Flattr is “agnostic” to content so long as no laws are broken. Incidentally, Flattr was said for use as a technique of donating money to WikiLeaks after PayPal, Visa, and Mastercard bring to an end submissions to the positioning.

PayPal and other payment systems were a conventional as much as this point, but Flattr believes its service is a higher alternative for micro-donations. Olsson explained that, while PayPal is a superb platform, its system is “too tedious” for small payments because it relies on purchases.

“A micro-payment service has to be instantaneous and one-click and a no-brainer to take advantage of,” he said. “That isn’t PayPal.”

On the social side, Flattr is integrated into both Facebook and Twitter. Last week, the corporate also announced an Explore feature that permits users to follow content producers and fellow donators. Olsson told us that this selection was step one toward a more social and personalized experience through Flattr.

“Donations and financial payments toward content on the internet have to be as social because the content itself,” he mentioned.

According to Olsson, Flattr is taking social sharing to a completely different level. Due to the, he thinks that Flattr will soon be listed with your complete other social sharing buttons.

Would you be willing to “flattr” your favorite content- Could this alteration the best way businesses are funded- Please share.

With Facebook’s nearly 900 million users and over 425 million mobile users, it sort of feels pretty clear that it’d be the leader in social mobile development, right- Wrong. a brand new study from Appcelerator and the International Data Corporation (IDC) found that developers are more enthusiastic about Google than Facebook.

Do you favor apps developed for Google platforms or for Facebook- Tell us within the comments.

Also read: Does Google Need to be Labeled Evil-

According to the report, 39 percent of the greater than 2,000 mobile developers surveyed plan to focus more on Google initiatives than Facebook’s social graph this year. The rationale this number is so significant is because of the indisputable fact that Facebook dominates the marketplace in most metrics.

It’s important to think about that developers have an exceedingly strong sway over the usage of any platform. They’re, of course, those creating the apps that you simply use. Consider how much Zynga has helped Facebook, by providing users with games like Farmville, Cityville and Mafia Wars. These findings are very significant, and feature major implications for Google’s social endeavors. In fact, the Google ecosystem is far larger than simply Google+. Google’s Vic Gundotra recently said how Google counts users who sign into Google+, and use another Google product within a month, as users. Presumably, this includes Gmail, YouTube, a signed in Google search (complete with Search Plus Your World), Google Reader, etc. In keeping with Gundotra, Google+ has 100 million “30-day active” users.

Google installed a robust showing on the recent Game Developers Conference (granted, so did Facebook).

Michael King, the principal mobile strategist at Appcelerator, told us that because these findings were “so different than what we expected,” they conducted a follow up study to be sure the consequences were accurate.

“For us, it was extremely surprising. Once we prepare the survey, we really thought Facebook would just crush Google relating to social engagement, and quite frankly, we saw Google make an enormous showing, given the indisputable fact that their social initiatives are pretty well dwarfed by Facebook in every measurable manner,” he said.

They learned that developers are pursuing Google over Facebook for its position in social and mobile. They think Google is best when it comes to its network assets corresponding to YouTube, search, maps, and Android. Additionally they felt Google engages with them better and provides more guidance into how they need to approach social applications.

On the opposite hand, the developers feel that Facebook gives them a protracted list of what may also be done with its API, but then doesn’t offer any direction for the way to do it.

“They [Facebook] actually need to step up their engagement a bit of so that it will get the developers taken with the platforms and to get the developers brooding about alternative ways to make use of social of their mobile apps,” said King.

While this information is excellent news for Google, the study did find some less encouraging news for the hunt and advertising giant when it comes to Android development. The study found that the interest in Android development has dipped greater than 10 percent during the past 3 quarters. Incidentally, Mika Mobile announced that it was dropping support for Android earlier this month.

The iOS platform has remained the steady leader, but inside the 2nd quarter of last year, Android was within 2 percentage points of it, said King. In accordance with him, Android is dropping as a consequence of continued fragmentation of the platform.

“It is a very tough line for them to stroll because, in case you curtail fragmentation, then there’s no way that a developer can effectively write once and work across multiple Android devices,” King noted.

He told us that Google could help to unravel this issue by establishing itself as a “centralized authority.” King believes this may help both the distribution and discovery of apps.

Other significant findings within the study pertained to HTML5 and cloud development. For starters, both areas are growing. Around 79 percent of developers said they planned to integrate HTML5 into the apps they build this year. But, only 6 percent of developers will write their entire apps in HTML5. Most developers plan to construct hybrid apps using both HTML5 and standard code.

King told us these results were understandable since HTML5 isn’t always always appropriate for the job.

“HTML5 is just one tool within the bag,” he said. “Or, in case you a golf fan, [it’s] one club inside the bag that can assist you get to the PGA tour.”

Additionally, developers expressed an increased interest in cloud development, especially within the areas of location and notification. However, King said developers still struggle with understanding the way to utilize the cloud.

So, what does all this research mean- Overall, King told us that the mobile/social wars have just begun. He believes that if companies would like to reach this space, they must engage with developers.

Furthermore, he suggested that the deeper implications of the information could mean a shift toward Google+ over Facebook. In truth, when asked if Google+ could catch as much as Facebook, nearly 70 percent of respondents said it would.

“If Facebook decides to go to sleep on the wheel here and doesn’t start to engage those developers, then absolutely Google+ and Google mobile may become the more de facto standard,” said King.

He went directly to say that he hopes both companies will reply to this report by building on their strengths and improving their weaknesses.

An interesting thing about Google mobile, however, is that Google continues to tie a lot of its products and platforms together in additional ways, making the bigger ecosystem more unified. Think Android, YouTube, Google Play, and Google TV. If what co-founder Sergey Brin said holds up, Chrome and Android will likely merge someday, in addition.

If this trend is going on with developers, will it soon transition to consumers too- Let us know what you think that.

WebProNews Senior Writer Chris Crum contributed to this report.

As we reported this morning, Microsoft has made the shopper preview of Windows 8 available as a free download today. The recent OS aims to revolutionize Windows, unifying user experience across multiple platforms laptop/desktop computers, phones and tablets, and the Xbox gaming console.

The big new feature of Windows 8 is the Metro user interface. Windows Phone users have had the Metro interface since 2010, and Xbox Live users have had it because the newest update late last year. The paned interface replaces the beginning menu on desktops and laptops. It arranges your Windows apps in a tiled format. Clicking a tile opens the associated app. Apps could also display information of their pane. A weather app can display climate information in its pane, after which increase additional info if you click the pane to open the app. Metro displays apps in page format, besides. Users can rearrange their Metro apps and pages into whatever order they need, similar to on a smartphone or tablet.

In a move with the intention to be jarring to a couple long-time Windows users, Windows 8 does away with the beginning button completely. Variety of. The button itself is gone, that’s true, and the Metro interface replaces the beginning menu. Don’t panic just yet, though: how one can access Start screen is pretty familiar: you get there by clicking within the lower left corner of the screen.

The interface isn’t all about Metro, though. Windows 8 keeps the standard desktop interface and the great old start bar, but gives it a big makeover. Moving your mouse across the screen offers you access to a gaggle of slick new the way to interact along with your computer. As previously mentioned, the lower left corner takes you to the beginning screen. Move the mouse to the higher left corner and spot your most recently-used app. Move down from there, and also you get an inventory of newer apps. Moving down from the end right or up from the underside right shows the “charms.” These are a number of basic system functions including search, share options, access to the beginning screen, a tool list, and your settings.

Another key feature of Windows 8 is the Windows Store. That’s right, Windows is finally getting an app store. Apps are purchased from the shop with a Microsoft account. Installing an app from the shop puts it to your Start Screen. Purchasing an app will give you a license to lay that app on as much as 5 machines total.

SkyDrive is Windows 8’s new cloud storage and connection system. Users sign into SkyDrive on all in their Windows machines, and SkyDrive syncs their apps, personalized settings, and files across all devices they’re signed into. SkyDrive also connects with various web services includeing Facebook and Flickr to maintain users’ photos and files synced.

The Windows 8 consumer preview is accessible now at no cost and might be downloaded here. For more on Windows 8’s features, try out here. To work out all our Windows 8 coverage, including Twitter reactions and reviews, go here.

It bears repeating that the Windows 8 Consumer Preview is barely that: a preview. It’s not the ultimate version of the OS, and as such is sure to have some bugs that also need squashing. Microsoft has not yet announced a release date for Windows 8, but a late third or early fourth quarter release seems fairly likely.

Have you downloaded the Windows 8 Consumer Preview- Do you propose to- Let us know what you suspect of it inside the comments.

Google announced today that the Google Voice app for Android now has greater integration with the most recent version of the operation system, Ice Cream Sandwich. Specifically, voicemails will now occur within the dialer’s call log.

Yong-Hoon Choi, writing over on the Google Mobile Blog, reveals that voicemails will appear within the list of outgoing, incoming and missed calls. “I don’t would like to jump between my call log and the Google Voice app to work out who has called me and what message they left,” wrote Choi.

You would be ready to play, pause, and skip back during voicemails how you normally would within the Google Voice app. Also, the functionality to extend or decrease playback speed have been integrated.

To switch on this option, ensure you have the newest version of Google Voice downloaded for your phone from Google Play. Then, within the Google Voice settings, hit the check box next to “Voicemail display.” Understand that this selection is purely available for Android 4.0 and bigger, meaning anyone who doesn’t yet have Ice Cream Sandwich should keep that Google Voice app icon on their home screen some time longer.

While it only really saves a number of seconds, I’m of the opinion that these small quality-of-life improvements are what add as much as whether a smartphone “feels” good after you use it. Agree- Think it’s pointless- Still looking forward to an Ice Cream Sandwich update to your phone- Leave some comments below and let me know.

The news just keeps getting worse for Apple concerning the new iPad. Apart from its issues with the wi-fi reception and temperature problems, a brand new DisplayMate Technologies study claims that the new iPad displays a full battery charge long before it is fully charged.

This information, provided by Dr. Raymond Soneira, president of DisplayMate Technologies Corp, means you might not be getting the most out of your new tablet. DisplayMate is a company that creates calibration and diagnostic products for businesses, manufacturers, and consumers.

Over at ZDNet, Stephen J. Vaughan-Nichols quotes Soneira as saying:

“At 2:00 hours after reporting 100% charge the hot iPad hardware started to reduce the charging power. At 2:10 the recharging cycle fully terminated with a sharp decrease in power.”

What this means is that it actually takes a little over two hours beyond when the iPad shows a whole charge to actually be fully charged.

In that same interview Soneira speculated that the cause of this discrepancy is likely due to the mathematical model the iPad uses to estimate its current battery charge. Also, this is not a problem unique to the hot iPad: poor estimates of battery life are common for all sorts of mobile devices.

An algorithmic or basic math error seems prone to me, as i’m able to’t imagine Apple not wanting users to experience the iPad’s optimal battery life (that’s as good because the iPad 2′s incidentally). How long has the battery for your new iPad been lasting- Let me know within the comments section below.

Yesterday, Google announced 40 changes within the ranking algorithm. The foremost changes were another Panda update and changes within the way Google evaluates links. How do these changes affect the rankings of your web sites-