MS Strikes a Deal with HP

Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard, already in partnership, are expanding their businesses together. Microsoft, after tasting failure in Yahoo! acquisition and after the talks between Yahoo! and Google on a search advertisement partnership, is under strong pressure to get higher search market share. And this caused their striking up a deal with HP to install Live Search engine in HP PCs.

HP is the largest distributor of consumer PCs in the US and Canada, and shipped almost 4 million PCs in the first quarter of 2008 alone. So, having Windows Live Search in all HP PCs is a huge advantage for MS. It will well equip Microsoft to fight Google better. In 2006, Google had struck up a similar deal with Dell to install Google search in the Dell machines as default search toolbar. Microsoft’s move can be seen as an afterthought of that.

Though many advanced users may change the default search back to Google or Yahoo!, this may enable Microsoft to get a good share in the search realm. Currently, Google holds 62 % of the search market and Live Search is at a deplorable 9 %.

Now, Live Search is the default search engine for Windows Vista, but the new deal will make Live Search have more visitors. Also, HP can boost their business through this partnership. HP, at a small fee, can point users to their specific technology websites and get some more sales.

Genuinely, what these tactics bring back to Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard is something to wait and see.

Copyright © Gayatri Jayashankar 2008

Eagerly in wait for Firefox 3.0?

After a three-year development, Mozilla releases Firefox 3.0 next month. IE 8 is expected to be released by the end of the year, and altogether, these browsers, which share more than 90 % of the browser market, would be in for a great competition, since IE 8 is also expected to boast some cool new features (which we will look at a later post).

Firefox 3 is based on the new Gecko 1.9 web rendering engine, which was in development for more than the past two years, incorporating two millions lines of code edits and fix for more than 11,000 issues. This all-new Gecko engine will make Firefox a lot more robust and reliable. Firefox 2.0.0.14 is based on Gecko 1.8.1.

Here is a video I found about Firefox 3.0. I haven't watched it fully due to my connection problems. But I hope it will be rich with some good information. If not, please let me know by comments.

Firefox boasts these features in particular:

One click site information: You will find a favicon on the address bar of the web browser when the site is loaded, and on clicking this icon, you can get details of the site’s ownership.

Malware protection: In this, the users are warned against the site whenever they arrive at a site known to install malwares in the user machines.

Web forgery protection page: The contents of pages, which are suspicious of fraudulence such as phishing, are not at all shown when you visit them.

New SSL error page: Clearer and stricter error pages are shown when Firefox finds an invalid SSL certificate.

Add-ons and plug-in versions: Firefox will automatically check for add-ons and plug-in versions and update them, and all add-on updates will be completely secure.

Antivirus integration: As one of the greatest features of antivirus integration, Firefox alerts the antivirus in the system of the executable downloads, so that the antivirus can scan whatever is being downloaded.

Cool user friendly features

New download manager with resumable download: Here, at last a browser incorporates a resumable download manager. Never in the past was there a browser with a complete download manager. IE’s greatest weakness was a good download manager, which could resume downloads. Here, Mozilla Firefox comes up with a resumable download manager, in which locating files downloaded is also pretty easy.

Full page zoom: You can now zoom the entire page with images, layout and of course text. In the past, it was text only that got zoomed.

Tab scrolling and tab quick menu: With the new feature known as tab quick menu, a simple menu is added to make finding the tabs easy. It’s similar to IE7. Also, the tabs now are better organized to open pages. When you open something on a tab, another tab is appended rather than the current tab is overwritten.

Text selection made easy: Double-click and drag, and you will select entire words. Triple-click and you will select entire paragraph, and use ctrl button, you can select multiple words and paragraphs.

Vista integration: New Firefox will show Vista-visual menus.

Star bookmark: There will be a star button for the bookmarking in the location bar itself. The bookmarks may be added very quickly. Also, a second click will file and tag the bookmark.

Improved display: New text handling and display code within Gecko will smooth the text display (an improvement present in IE7) and will display the text and graphics in a better, smoother, eye-candy way.

Color management: You can now change the color profiles of images displayed in Firefox.

You don’t want to know anything about the system requirements. All systems in existence can support the software, and the memory improvement done has fixed about 300 memory errors. This will drastically boost the performance. The testing has shown an estimated double performance gain in Firefox 3 for applications like Gmail, Zoho Office, etc. Also the software’s beta version was released in 45 languages, while the original Firefox 3 may support even more. The browser, with the total market share of 17 % will soon be a grave competitor to IE, with over 75 % of the market.

Everything else, when the new browser itself gets released for us.

[Apologies to readers for no blog post tomorrow. I was at work another post on another blog of mine about the scam known as Associated Content, please read it.]

Copyright © Gayatri Jayashankar 2008

A DigitalPoint Scam Unveiled: Don’t Lose Your Money!

I have made myself an active member of DP forums recently. This is a meeting place of those Internet entrepreneurs, who discuss on various topics ranging from SEO, link building, legal issues, content development, freelance opportunities, etc. It’s a wonderful place, where people with some knowledge come to the aid of newbies.

Also, being a place, where you can sign up for a membership and post your views freely, anyone can have a membership there. Anyone can present their views remaining completely anonymous. And being an amateurs’ marketplace, anyone can sell anything, if they have some reputation in the board posting some useful information and getting some user gratitude.

So, recently, a guy named Ranveer, supposedly an Indian, scammed DP members of almost 20,000 USD and got away. Please read this post, one of the other famous DP members has made about this scam. As a news blog, I felt it right to alert my readers of such scams.

About the scam: It’s a double-your-money program. That means if you invest 20 dollars with this guy, you will get it back in 40. And if you invest 100, you will get 200. That’s it.

But actually this scammer does absolutely nothing with your money.

He advertises in DP that he has a scheme of doubling your money over some work he does, and if you send him a minimal investment, within a few hours, he would send you back the amount in double, from his pocket of course. And to gain trust, he would take disposable amounts of money from other members, in 20, 30 or even 100 dollars. And he would send back through PayPal, the double of the sum.

Within some time, when word on his scheme is spread, and he is backed by comments from some profited members that the scheme is genuine, more people will pour in, some would be willing to send in 100 or 200 dollars. And when the guy has enough of money to cover all his needs, he would erase his Internet identity altogether and get away, only to come back after a month’s retreat in a fresh identity and fresh DP account to scam allover again.

To fight such scams, try to get in touch with the financial program he uses to send or receive money, like PayPal. Contact PayPal directly and alert them of the crime happening. You may also assemble comments from other scammed members.

So, people, be wary of any such scheme, and never, ever do business with online entities not backed by a trusted party. Always use an escrow service for doing business. And my personal request to DP forum owners is that they start some kind of escrow service especially for the transactions happening through their forums.

Copyright © Gayatri Jayashankar 2008

Google Health is Live for Users

Google’s Google Health, the online bureau for all your medical records was opened to Google users this Monday. Using this service, you can track your health information from a number of pharmacies and healthcare institutions, which maintain online database of your medical history.

Using this service, you can

1. Organize your health information all in one place
2. Gather your medical records from doctors, hospitals, and pharmacies
3. Keep your doctors up to date about your health
4. Be more informed about important health issues

With Google Health, you can create and save your medical conditions, including your allergies, any symptoms you have, and medications you have undergone. And Google Health, once it gets hold of this information, can crosscheck your health data with the references and prescribe (like a doc) the best course of action to undergo. Also, you can add information on your spouse, your children, etc., and create separate profiles for them.

For your convenience, Google allows you to import your online medical records to Google Health. Google’s partnership with many medical institutions and pharmacies will help you get your medical profiles imported fast, easily, and securely to your Google Health profile. You can identify with the partner sites, with the respective username and password and confirm transfer of data to Google Health, that’s it!

The most attractive section on Google Health is the reference guide with all information on all diseases known to man, complete with symptoms, diagnostics, and treatment. It is a complete doctor’s reference for you. You can well be a health consultant if you go through this reference.

The data you submit to Google Health, your allergies, medications, and the treatments, all are checked within Google Health for potential complications and troubles, and it will alert you of your current state of health.

Google’s innovative search algorithm and their map application, which is the pioneer of online maps, are integrated to Google Health, and as a wonderful database, it has information on all major doctors across the US whom you can consult for your particular health problem. Using the search on the top, you can get to the best doctor around for your particular medical condition.

Google Health is still in beta and according to the user preferences and feedback, Google Health will see more innovations and additions in the coming days. They will, however, face tough competition from the other parties in the field, Microsoft HealthVault and Revolution Health from AOL. For now, all you need to do is get yourself to google.com/health and sign in with your already existing Google account.

Copyright © Gayatri Jayashankar

Microsoft’s Cooperation with Yahoo! Takes a New Phase

Some days ago, we witnessed the story of Microsoft going into potential big-game partnership with Yahoo! Inc, and later by May 8, they backed off from that. But the latest in the news raises an entirely different development. It seems now that Microsoft will end up acquiring Yahoo!.

Though Microsoft earlier said that they would only consider a merger after some deeper brooding, they are likely to change their mind in this regard. But a new development happened as one of the topmost investors of Yahoo!, Carl Icahn of California, sent a letter to Yahoo! denouncing the board’s action of not accepting the Microsoft’s offer of merger.

According to him, the merger with Microsoft would prove to be better for Yahoo! as a company, and as one company, they can be better equipped against the competitors.

Being major investor in Yahoo!, Icahn’s message would have deep effects. In his letter, he also specified the opinion of other investors with the company, who collectively talked with him favoring a merger.

Microsoft had made an initial bid of $31 per share for Yahoo! but later increased it to $33. Still, Yahoo!’s steadfastness (that it would not go below $37) is under suffered denouncements from the shareholders. And to retaliate, Microsoft bought up ten nominees to oppose Yahoo! board, which gets re-elected every year.

But since, Icahn’s proxy battle would hit Yahoo! badly, Microsoft proposed a better alternative for them. Though Microsoft equivocated the alternative deal, the sources are in belief that it would finally result in an acquisition.

In pressure from Microsoft and Yahoo! shareholders, Yahoo!, which closed at about $20 per share on 18, would find it difficult to let down Microsoft’s deal of $33, which may take a fresh effect soon. Let’s wait the latest developments.

Copyright © Gayatri Jayashankar 2008