TheJunction.net

Last week, a Google employee launched the WhatBrowser.org Web site to inform users about what a browser is, the different types of Web browsers available to them is, along with tips on how to manage them.

For the Microsoft worshipers & Google critics – as the entertaining TV Chef Emeril Lagasse would say ‘BAM, lets’s turn it up a notch’, here comes Google’s Caffeine new search engine! The new search tool (codename Caffeine) will improve the speed, accuracy, size, and comprehensiveness of a Google search.

4 cups hot tap water
1 Fels-Naptha soap bar (can be purchased online at amazon.com and a number of online soapmaking suppliers)
1 cup washing soda
1/2 cup Borax
essential oil if desired for fragrance

Well, if it’s true that “ANYBODY” can and will free the obnoxious treadmill most PC users have been on trying to use the Microsoft(MS) operating system (OS)  XP, Vista & now Windows 7 – BRING IT ON NOW!!!

It has been this author’s (see below), belief that Microsoft has become a NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT to the world due to it’s archaic business model adopted by CEO Steve Ballmer. He should have never been CEO, but Bill Gates loyalty to friends got in the way. I say this because I know just the bandwidth consumed by Microsoft in it’s “security patches auto updates” is more than most 3rd world developing nation’s use in total. With that said – the world’s IT infrastructure is still vulnerable to cyber collapse at the hands of malicious hackers.

This is the unfortunate stark reality, no matter how the conservative business publications and blogs spin nauseatingly how great Microsoft is – they need desperately the Microsoft advertising revenue, as whores need the next John. No need to be ashamed, or even admit it to the many who already know the truth behind the headlines – just don’t dare continue the charade of hocus pocus free-market value over logic and common sense. Microsoft has lost it’s relevance – PERIOD !

When you think you’ve see it all and are sick of it up to your eyebrows… here comes more internet hell. This time the malware utilizes click fraud by hijacking the results displayed when users search for something online. So prepare to make changes to your Internet habits yet again to avoid a terrible fate…

Google just launched a new search feature that makes it easy to find and compare public data.

Back in 2005 when Google invested $1 billion (5% stake), in AOL,the value of AOL was $20 billion. In January 2009 Google wrote down their AOL investment by $726 million – which placed their perceived value of AOL at just $5.5 billion and Google wants out of the deal. They want what’s left of their investment back.

Google tests a new homepage that replaces the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button with two new options that let you search using Yahoo and Live Search. “I’m Feeling Lucky” was rarely used and some people wondered if there’s a connection between Google and The Pirate Bay, the popular search engine for torrents.

Next time when you can’t access Gmail, Google Calendar is down or Google Docs loads very slowly, visit the Google Apps Status Dashboard. Despite its the name, the page shows the latest status data not just for the Google services that are included in Google Apps, but for the corresponding consumer services as well. Read how you can get real-time status of all of Google’s apps (not just gmail).

Google co-founded the Climate Savers Computing Initiative and is offering right NOW – The Power Down for the Planet video contest so pick up a camera and make a video telling your own Climate Savers Computing story. How will the environment benefit from advances in computer power management? How do poor computing practices waste energy? What does a sustainable computing future look like to you? Let your imagination go wild!

Hitwise reported that Google’s market share in the US was 72.11% in February. “Yahoo Search, MSN Search and Ask.com received 17.04%, 5.56% and 3.74%, respectively, and are down year-over-year at -17%, -20%, and -10% respectively.” comScore has different numbers and they show that Google’s market share in the US is much lower: 63.3%. See all the countries …

Google has just started to release a preview of Google Voice, an application that helps you better manage your voice communications. Google Voice will be available initially “ONLY” to existing users of GrandCentral, a service Google acquired in July of 2007.

Throw out that WAP browser on your cell phone. We are quickly approaching a point where a full browser experience is available on our mobile devices. And it is not just the iPhone. A startup called Skyfire is in some respect even further along than Apple in bringing the entire Web to your phone. Its mobile browser lets you slide Web pages around and zoom in like with the mobile version of Safari. But it also supports Flash and Ajax sites. (It does this by offloading most of the heavy lifting to its servers rather than the mobile client). That means you can watch Youtube videos and go to Google Maps right in the mobile browser instead of having to download separate apps. In contrast, the iPhone’s Safari browser still does not support Flash and so to watch a a video you have to launch the separate Youtube app.

As it becomes possible to do more and more inside the mobile browser itself, it raises the question of whether that indeed is the killer app for mobile Web phones. For the most part, you still get a richer experience by downloading a separate single-purpose app to your phone. But efforts like Skyfire’s point to a future where that may no longer be necessary for all but the most sophisticated apps and games.

A senior program manager at Microsoft claims that Google took some open-source code from Microsoft and used it in their Chrome browser. And it’s perfectly legal.

More eye candy for iGoogle
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/MKuf/~3/388648743/more-eye-candy-for-igoogle.html
In case you’re looking for some more personality to add to your iGoogle page, we’ve just launched a fresh collection of iGoogle artist themes — an ongoing project we launched in April for which we invited world-class artists to design dynamic themes for your iGoogle homepage.

The new collection features designs from 28 leading artists from the worlds of fashion and music. This group is amazing, spanning a wide range of styles and genres: Radiohead and Gnarls Barkley used radiant colors; Gucci, Burberry, and Vera Wang illustrated beautiful patterns; and Bob Dylan and Celine Dion created an iconic look (of course). So depending on what you’re interested in, there’s lots of great art to choose from to suit your personality, taste or mood.

Last week’s launch of Google Chrome generated some discussion over the legal language in our new browser’s terms of service (TOS). As we noted in a subsequent post on Google Chrome’s terms of service:

"… Under copyright law, Google needs what’s called a "license" to display or transmit content. So to show a blog, we ask the user to give us a license to the blog’s content. (The same goes for any other service where users can create content.) But in all these cases, the license is limited to providing the service."

We’ve also seen some discussion on a few blogs about how our universal terms of service apply to other products, with some users worried that Google is trying to claim ownership of the content they generate. To be clear: our terms do not claim ownership of your content — what you create is yours and remains yours. But in lawyer-speak, we need to ask for a ‘license’ (which basically means your permission) to display this content to the wider world when that’s what you intend. This issue is not unique to Google; it applies to lots of other Internet companies that display and transmit user content. You can see some other terms of service here from Amazon, eBay, and Facebook.