World Wild Web

Microsoft Word enters Grahasta Ashram

2009-06-30T09:52:00.003+05:30

I got this interesting email from Microsoft today

-----------------------------------------------

Hi there,

I am Microsoft Word. And I turn 25 this year.

I belong to a hallowed family otherwise called the Microsoft Office Suite. And I am, interestingly, THE OLDEST MEMBER! All of us in the family have constantly reinvented ourselves, and today we are fondly called (thanks to the folks at the tony Redmond offices) Microsoft Office 2007. Naturally pretty much everyone knows me, and I am quite iconic (even if I have to say so myself, because I know there are others trying to copy my style)

So on this momentous occasion (that Microsoft folks call my ‘Silver Jubilee’ – tsk tsk) I’d like to talk to you a bit about myself

I was born, rather awkwardly, in October 1983. My parents were I hear, Charles Simonnyi and Paul Allen. Who were these guys? Charles was the father of Xerox Bravo too - the world’s first word processor – and I understand that Charles wanted to ‘cast me in Bravo’s mould’. So anyway, when he met Paul Allen at Microsoft in 1981, sparks and ideas flew around and they decided to start a family of database, spreadsheet, and word processor applications. They called the family Microsoft Xenix, but gave me a weird name “Multi-tool Word”. Thankfully I was soon rechristened Microsoft Word. [Microsoft Word for Xenix was released for MS-DOS in October 1983] By 1985, my folks gifted me different font types, sizes, and weights. I was elated, I mean you know how it is when you are young – always wanting to accessorize and stay chic. Oh and Talking about folks’ grandiosity, my 6^th birthday was an exciting event of my life; imagine walking around with a full mouse-driven interface, drop-down menus, which I hear were my most admired features. I was truly owner’s pride

Then came another year, another birthday…but this one was special – I was re-named. What do we call it in India? Nam-Karan. I was no longer named after the number of avatars but instead got the year associated with me, much to my chagrin! Who wants to show his age? But as long as my fans can remember me better. J Then came an interesting companion in life. Remember Clippit? The talking, dancing paperclip with slanted eyes, who spied on your progress and insisted on telling you what you were doing? Well I enjoyed his company; he was kind of funny but won’t deny he did get a bit irritating sometimes! And as I hear, users loathed him. Well, even though he was a well-intentioned lovable bloke, I had to bid him adieu (by popular demand) – but I used some of his ideas, and, so from 2002 onwards I have ‘task panes’ to help users.

Circa 2005: I am a firm believer in aging gracefully and so were the folks at Redmond. So imagine our combined horror when we realized I was getting bloated with features and too heavy to handle. So in 2006, some major diet and fitness programs later – voila – there emerged a new improved me - friendlier, lighter, and very very agile! I began to sport a new ribbon on my forehead to help folks get through their tasks more easily. I like it, and I know all of you do too. Cool huh? J

At 25, I’ve had an eventful life so far. And I simply love helping people go about their daily jobs. I mean, people now take me for granted most times, and I don’t mind it. I just like to be around – like a familiar, comfortable friend you can depend on.

I’ve gone on too long, but thank you for going through my story. Happy to make your acquaintance all over again

Cheers,

Word 2007

Microsoft

(Oh and I can insert my digital signature here as well)

Innovating on a Shoestring Budget

2009-06-22T09:48:00.002+05:30

No fuzz in "Vine"

2009-06-18T11:03:00.004+05:30

Though it started off with little trouble with signing in running smooth now.

The most funny part is that "BING" doesn't recognizes whats 'VINE' (check here) but Google does (here) . May be "Because Its Not Google" . LOL.

Will explore more and update later:

Acrobat.com Unleashed

2009-06-15T10:08:00.003+05:30

Adobe has released their new set tools for building documents collaboratively online. It will try to eat a pie from Microsoft and Google, who already have big plans in this segment.

I wasn't able to try them as of now, because it doesn't have a support for Firefox 3.5 or Crome.

Bing-o

2009-06-09T09:44:00.002+05:30

Something Wrong !

2009-05-14T12:45:00.002+05:30

Something really wrong with Facebook today, getting this message every now and then.

Wolfram Alpha: The Next Big Thing !

2009-05-12T10:41:00.007+05:30

Wolfram Alpha is almost ready to rock the world. Being the next big thing in the search arena, comparison to Google was inevitable, but as of now it is not being considered as "Google Killer". This all new "Answers Engine" is one of the most awaited launches scheduled in May.

Here is a snippet of an interesting article published on Twine by Nova Spivack which answers the 5W and H of Wolfram Alpha.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Stephen Wolfram is building something new — and it is really impressive and significant. In fact it may be as important for the Web (and the world) as Google, but for a different purpose.

A Computational Knowledge Engine for the Web
In a nutshell, Wolfram and his team have built what he calls a “computational knowledge engine” for the Web. OK, so what does that really mean? Basically it means that you can ask it factual questions and it computes answers for you.

It doesn’t simply return documents that (might) contain the answers, like Google does, and it isn’t just a giant database of knowledge, like the Wikipedia. It doesn’t simply parse natural language and then use that to retrieve documents, like Powerset, for example. Instead, Wolfram Alpha actually computes the answers to a wide range of questions — like questions that have factual answers such as “What country is Timbuktu in?” or “How many protons are in a hydrogen atom?” or “What is the average rainfall in Seattle?”

How Does it Work?
Wolfram Alpha is a system for computing the answers to questions. To accomplish this it uses built-in models of fields of knowledge, complete with data and algorithms, that represent real-world knowledge. For example, it contains formal models of much of what we know about science — massive amounts of data about various physical laws and properties, as well as data about the physical world.

Building Blocks for Knowledge Computing
Wolfram Alpha is almost more of an engineering accomplishment than a scientific one — Wolfram has broken down the set of factual questions we might ask, and the computational models and data necessary for answering them, into basic building blocks — a kind of basic language for knowledge computing if you will. Then, with these building blocks in hand his system is able to compute with them — to break down questions into the basic building blocks and computations necessary to answer them, and then to actually build up computations and compute the answers on the fly.

Wolfram’s team manually entered, and in some cases automatically pulled in, masses of raw factual data about various fields of knowledge, plus models and algorithms for doing computations with the data. By building all of this in a modular fashion on top of the Mathematica engine, they have built a system that is able to actually do computations over vast data sets representing real-world knowledge. More importantly, it enables anyone to easily construct their own computations — simply by asking questions.

How Smart is it and Will it Take Over the World?
Wolfram Alpha is like plugging into a vast electronic brain. It provides extremely impressive and thorough answers to a wide range of questions asked in many different ways, and it computes answers, it doesn’t merely look them up in a big database.

In this respect it is vastly smarter than (and different from) Google. Google simply retrieves documents based on keyword searches. Google doesn’t understand the question or the answer, and doesn’t compute answers based on models of various fields of human knowledge.

But as intelligent as it seems, Wolfram Alpha is not HAL 9000, and it wasn’t intended to be. It doesn’t have a sense of self or opinions or feelings. It’s not artificial intelligence in the sense of being a simulation of a human mind. Instead, it is a system that has been engineered to provide really rich knowledge about human knowledge — it’s a very powerful calculator that doesn’t just work for math problems — it works for many other kinds of questions that have unambiguous (computable) answers.

There is no risk of Wolfram Alpha becoming too smart, or taking over the world. It’s good at answering factual questions; it’s a computing machine, a tool — not a mind.

Relationship to the Semantic Web
There is no reason that one MUST use the Semantic Web stack to build something like Wolfram Alpha. In fact, in my opinion it would be far too difficult to try to explicitly represent everything Wolfram Alpha knows and can compute using OWL ontologies. It is too wide a range of human knowledge and giant OWL ontologies are just too difficult to build and curate.

It would of course at some point be beneficial to integrate with the Semantic Web so that the knowledge in Wolfram Alpha could be accessed, linked with, and reasoned with, by other semantic applications on the Web, and perhaps to make it easier to pull knowledge in from outside as well. In this area, the standards of the Semantic Web could be quite useful to the project.

However for the internal knowledge representation and reasoning that takes places in the system, it appears Wolfram has found a pragmatic and efficient representation of his own, and I don’t think he needs the Semantic Web at that level. It seems to be doing just fine without it.

Competition
Wolfram Alpha, at its heart is quite different from a brute force statistical search engine like Google. And it is not going to replace Google — it is not a general search engine: You would probably not use Wolfram Alpha to shop for a new car, find blog posts about a topic, or to choose a resort for your honeymoon. It is not a system that will understand the nuances of what you consider to be the perfect romantic getaway, for example — there is still no substitute for manual human-guided search for that. Where it appears to excel is when you want facts about something, or when you need to compute a factual answer to some set of questions about factual data.

Future Steps
Maybe Wolfram Alpha could even do a better job of retrieving documents than Google, for certain kinds of questions — by first understanding what you really want, then computing the answer, and then giving you links to documents that related to the answer. But even if it is never applied to document retrieval, I think it has the potential to play a leading role in all our daily lives — it could function like a kind of expert assistant, with all the facts and computational power in the world at our fingertips.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Exploring Shiretoko

2009-05-08T11:00:00.005+05:30

After three initial beta releases under the Firefox 3.1, Mozilla developers decided to change the numbering of this release to version 3.5, to reflect a significantly greater scope of changes than was originally planned.

Firefox 3.5 Beta 4, codenamed Shiretoko, is the sixth development milestone and fourth beta release of Firefox 3.5. 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.

New Features:

- This beta is now available in 70 languages
- Improved tools for controlling 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

Known bugs:

All Systems
- Occasionally Google Mail will fail to respond when creating a new filter, showing advanced search options, or clearing the spam folder. Reloading Google Mail fixes the issue
- Some users with older computers or slower Internet connections may experience choppy OGG video/audio playback
- Users who run this beta, then downgrade to a previous Firefox 3.5 Alpha or Beta, will be unable to use stored passwords
- If you have set your preferences to clear your browsing history every time Firefox shuts down, it will also clear history when you restart after installing an add-on or theme. This is unintentional and will be fixed
- The default settings for clearing your recent history every time Firefox shuts down now include removing your cookies
- The "switch text direction" menu item has been removed from the context menu in locales that use left-to-right reading order languages.

Microsoft Windows
- Pressing enter in the Location Bar will not do anything if you are running AVG SafeSearch v8.0 or lower. Upgrading AVG SafeSearch fixes the problem

Firefox 3.5 Beta 4 can be downloaded from here.

Web Innovation Conference 2009

2009-04-30T13:03:00.004+05:30

Yesterday I attended the Web Innovation Conference 2009 (Gurgaon) organized by TFCI. One of the major attraction of the event was the diverse and monolithic agenda, covering almost all the buzz words of the World Wide Web. With terabytes of information to be shared, speakers tried their best to convey the message within a short stipulated time period.

Projects as “The maiden Web Innovation event to connect the architects and builders of the web with the brightest minds, hottest concepts, and nextgen killer tools and applications”, I guess it did fairly well to achieve its objective.

Still have doubts, check out the agenda below

Theme Address:
Mohit Hira , President eLearning (Retail) – NIIT

Digital Advertising Concepts & Best Practices
Parminder Singh, Business Head - Google India

True Cloud: Build your IT Infrastructure on the Cloud
Jayabalan S, CTO - Netmagic Solutions

WEB 2.0 - Fundamentals for creating online products, services & business models
Jayabalan S, CTO - Netmagic Solutions
Sanjay Aggarwal, GM Operations - Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation

Investment Themes On The Internet
Alok Mittal, Managing Director - Canaan Partners
Ritesh Banglani, Vice President - IDG Ventures India

Emerging landscape of Web 2.0. and Sneak Peek into Web 3.0
Sanjay Trehan, COO - NDTV Convergence

Top 10 Best Practices of Successful Digital Advertising
Anil Tirunagiri - Google india

Save Capex - Reduce Opex - the Cloud Computing way
Nitin Mishra - Head, Product Management - Netmagic Solutions

SEO: Marketing or Technology?
Pradeep Chopra, Co-Founder & CMO - Omlogic

Enterprise RIA
Ramesh Srinivasaraghavan, Sr. Computer Scientist & Evangelist - Adobe India

E-Commerce in Web 2.0 Era
Sanjay Aggarwal, GM Operations - Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation

Consumer 2.0: How Web 2.0 is Changing Moods, Metrics, & Monetization
Harish Bahl, CEO - Studio Smile

Web 2.0 means Business
Nikhil Sarup, Sr. Vice President - Digital Marketing - Solutions Digitas

How brands can influence consumer behavior in a 2.0 World
Sandeep Bansal, Director - BD - eBusiness Interactive

Successful Social Media Strategies for Corporates
Kiruba Shankar, CEO - Business Blogging

Establishing Trust Online
Rakesh Antala, Co-Founder & CEO, Crederity Inc.

User Driven Product Strategy
Satyajeet Singh, Product Manager, Naukri.com

Since I reached a little late (thanks to peak hour traffic) I was not able to attend the Mohit's presentation. But some of the important takeaways that I could note down from the discussions were:

Sometimes "the media becomes the message”
To reduce online fraud, track some fraudsters and take stringent action against them to set an example
Cloud computing can be very useful for startups
Promising areas in the Internet are : Ecommerce, Education, Financial Services, Entertainment
Strength of an Internet company is determined by its "Product Strategy” and “Cost of acquiring & retaining traffic”
Pure advertising based model may not work in India for some more time
Local language market will grow slow
Semantic web will be mainstream by 2012
Social Media can be a boon and bane for Companies, so it’s important to have a presence in Social Media.
To improve traffic, first identify the major source of traffic
Online marking should be handled by Marketing team not technology
60% of people research online but buy offline
1% of the user contribute in building content, 9% get involved in community service and remaining 90% just download it.
Interaction of a B2B site should be like we do in person. Since we do not start forced selling in the first meeting, same should be done on site.
Most of the major internet companies (including social networking giants) are evaluating ways for authenticating credentials of users.
My presentation can be accessed from slide share

Overall, good experience :)

User Driven Product Strategy

2009-04-29T21:08:00.002+05:30

User Driven Product Strategy

View more presentations from satyajeet_02.

Survey

2009-04-09T15:28:00.000+05:30

Hey,

I am working on a small research project. It would be great if you can take this survey and share your opinion.

http://bit.ly/Lhpe

Thanks for your help.

IndiBlogger Meet

2009-04-06T18:42:00.006+05:30

Another weekend, another unconference. This time it was a Blogger Meet organized by IndiBlogger. The event was hosted and sponsored by Microsoft (Gurgaon).

I have noticed that all the conferences these days begin with a hash code, and this one had: # indincr. Also a funny thing about this blogger meet was that there were more Tweeters than Bloggers here.

We started the conference with a little intro from IndiBlogger team and attendees, and I realized that most of the entrepreneurs were byproduct of a bad boss. No wonder why I am still working for someone else (boss I hope you are reading this :)

But the main reason, for me being there was a presentation by Microsoft “Internet Explorer 8: First Look”. Though it wasn’t a first look for me because I have been using IE 8 for more than a year now . But I wanted to see how a person from Microsoft tackles so many Firefox fans sitting there (some were even wearing Firefox T-Shirts).

The presentation was given by Abishek Kant and I must admit he did an excellent work in handling questions like “What is the USP of IE 8”, “What is original in IE8” etc. And he was candid enough to express that the main objective of his presentation was to spread awareness about IE8 and not to compare it with any other browser.

Some of the points that he covered during his presentation:

Accelerators:
These are a form of selection-based search which allow a user to invoke an online service from any other page using only the mouse.

Web Slices:
These are snippets of the entire page that a user can subscribe to. Web Slices will be kept updated by the browser automatically, and can be viewed directly from the Favorites bar, complete with graphics and visuals.

Smart Screen Filter:
It is mainly an extension of Internet Explorer 7's phishing filter. If a user visits a site which has been labeled as an impostor or harmful, then Internet Explorer 8 will show a screen prompting that the site is reported harmful and shouldn't be visited.

Automatic crash recovery
A crash recovery mechanism has been incorporated; if the browser crashes, web pages being viewed may be recovered, at the user's discretion, when the browser is restarted.

Performance and stability
IE8 improves rendering of content authored to various web standards. It has complete support for the W3C CSS 2.1.

Version Targeting
Since it has stricter adherence to W3C described web standards than Internet Explorer 7. As a result, as in every IE version before it, some percentage of web pages coded to the behavior of the older versions would break in IE8. To avoid this situation, Microsoft proposed Version Targeting whereby a page could be authored to a specific version of a browser using the X-UA-Compatible declaration either as a meta element or in the HTTP headers. A browser with a newer version than what the page has been coded for would emulate the behavior of the older version so that the assumptions the page made about the browser's behavior holds true.

Nothing from the points mentioned above will make me switch to IE from Firefox but if you are using IE7 then IE8 makes more sense for you.

We also had Priyanka (better known as Twilight Fairy) giving a very interactive presentation on social media and copyrights. The theme was that every blogger has to be protective of their content and they are responsible for the comments posted on their blog. Some important points mentioned were “If it is on web, it doesn’t mean it’s free to use”, “Linking to illegal content is also illegal” etc.

Over all meet was good (any meet is good if it ends with Pizza ). But unlike Mozcamp Delhi, there were no free IE t-shirts here, another reason to like Firefox :)

Yahoo monitoring Twitter by "SideLine"

2009-04-03T10:19:00.010+05:30

“Watch, search and monitor the twitter public timeline in real time” is the baseline of Yahoo’s new app for searching and monitoring Twitter. Based on Adobe AIR this desktop application is built using the Yahoo! User Interface Library (YUI) and allows users to create and group custom queries by topics of interest.

Sideline is an open source application released under the BSD license and the first beta is available for download here.

Some of the prominent features (as per Yahoo) include:

Advanced search query builder
Custom search groups
Automatic refreshing of defined search queries
Monitor trending topics
20% more awesomeness

Being a Kung Fu Panda fan, I like the last one the most. Also because the other top four are very basic functionalities any search app should have.

Fennac: The Smaller Fox

2009-03-31T10:00:00.008+05:30

Was trying out desktop version of Fennac, the upcoming mobile browser from the makers of Firefox. The name 'Fennac' is based on a small nocturnal Fennac Fox found in the Sahara desert.

The first look seems promising and with options of adding popular Firefox addons, this can be a huge hit (especially for Firefox fans like me).

The desktop version for windows PC can be downloaded from here.

Tips and tricks

To use the full screen for browsing, click the button on the left hand side on top of the device (to the left of the -/+ buttons)
Swipe left to expose back/forward/bookmark buttons and the URL bar; swipe right to dismiss them
Swipe right to expose tabs; swipe left to dismiss them

Known issues

Allow panning/scrolling in iframes - Websites that display large amounts of content in IFrames, including Google Mail and Reader, will be very hard, if not impossible, to use.
Plugins may not work in some of the desktop builds.

Source : Mozilla.org

Crome joins the party !!

2009-03-24T22:25:00.001+05:30

Bebo in India

2009-03-23T10:04:00.005+05:30

You must me thinking that whats the news in this, Bebo has always been in India. But this is not about our size '0' Karina, its about Europe's leading social networking site which has been officially launched in India.

As per Alootechie, Mr. Nicole Vanderbilt, VP, International, Bebo, is very confident about the success of Bebo in India and consider their "Open Media Platform" as a great differentiator .

Though I have not explored it in detail but something that caught my eye was its registration form. It seems they are targeting a very wide age group. Their dropdown for specifying age starts from 1903 and end at 2009. So it doesn't matter if you are 106 yrs old or yet to arrive in this world, Bebo is for everyone.

Will try to explore more this weekend :)

Noticed another strange thing. They are running ads of Bebo.com on Bebo.com. See the "Advertisement" heading on the right most image. Clicking on it will take you to the registration form. So are they paying for getting registration from their own site. LOLz

Interesting Product Review

2009-02-14T09:49:00.001+05:30

Warning: Contains profanity

The Real "Man" of the Match

2009-01-13T07:55:00.004+05:30

On 15 Dec, 2008 India clinched a remarkable test match against England and the "Man of the Match", oh I am sorry, "Player of the Match" award was given to our very own “Maa da Laadla” Virender Sehwag. There were a few who were happy with the decision and some others who thought Sachin was the man behind the historic win.

But in all these controversies we did not notice the real man behind this victory. Who is none other than "Mr. Jammy", Rahul Dravid. No, no, not because of his quick-fire 4 (of 44 balls) in the first innings or the "dependable" fielding efforts, but because of the fact that he got out early (yet again) in the second inning and gave Sachin a minuscule chance to score at an achievable run rate.

Imagine if he would have stayed on the crease for another 20 overs, scoring at a lighting strike-rate of 21 runs every 100 balls faced, even 2 Sachins (at both ends) couldn’t have won it from there.

We need more player like him who first & foremost play for their country, then for their team and then, if possible, for personal milestones (This quote is sponsored by Red Chillies Entertainment ). What a sacrifice, even at this stage of his career.

Long Live "The Wall".

Crash !

2008-07-08T15:13:00.007+05:30

Rare !

Thrice a day !

.

Ten principles that contribute to a Google user experience

2008-05-24T12:24:00.004+05:30

I got this article through an email from one of my colleague (Sameer) and I found it really interesting.

---------------------

1. Focus on people – their lives, their work, their dreams

The Google User Experience team works to discover people's actual needs, including needs they can't always articulate. Armed with that information, Google can create products that solve real-world problems and spark the creativity of all kinds of people. Improving people's lives, not just easing step-by-step tasks, is our goal.

Above all, a well-designed Google product is useful in daily life. It doesn't try to impress users with its whizbang technology or visual style – though it might have both. It doesn't strong-arm people to use features they don't want – but it does provide a natural growth path for those who are interested. It doesn't intrude on people's lives – but it does open doors for users who want to explore the world's information, work more quickly and creatively, and share ideas with their friends or the world.

2. Every millisecond counts

Nothing is more valuable than people's time. Google pages load quickly, thanks to slim code and carefully selected image files. The most essential features and text are placed in the easiest-to-find locations. Unnecessary clicks, typing, steps, and other actions are eliminated. Google products ask for information only once and include smart defaults. Tasks are streamlined.

Speed is a boon to users. It is also a competitive advantage that Google doesn't sacrifice without good reason.

3. Simplicity is powerful

Simplicity fuels many elements of good design, including ease of use, speed, visual appeal, and accessibility. But simplicity starts with the design of a product's fundamental functions. Google doesn't set out to create feature-rich products; our best designs include only the features that people need to accomplish their goals. Ideally, even products that require large feature sets and complex visual designs appear to be simple as well as powerful.

Google teams think twice before sacrificing simplicity in pursuit of a less important feature. Our hope is to evolve products in new directions instead of just adding more features.

4. Engage beginners and attract experts

Designing for many people doesn't mean designing for the lowest common denominator. The best Google designs appear quite simple on the surface but include powerful features that are easily accessible to those users who want them. Our intent is to invite beginners with a great initial experience while also attracting power users whose excitement and expertise will draw others to the product.

A well-designed Google product lets new users jump in, offers help when necessary, and ensures that users can make simple and intuitive use of the product's most valuable features. Progressive disclosure of advanced features encourages people to expand their usage of the product. Whenever appropriate, Google offers smart features that entice people with complex online lives – for instance, people who share data across several devices and computers, work online and off, and crave storage space.

5. Dare to innovate

Design consistency builds a trusted foundation for Google products, makes users comfortable, and speeds their work. But it is the element of imagination that transforms designs from ho-hum to delightful.

Google encourages innovative, risk-taking designs whenever they serve the needs of users. Our teams encourage new ideas to come out and play. Instead of just matching the features of existing products, Google wants to change the game.

6. Design for the world

The World Wide Web has opened all the resources of the Internet to people everywhere. For example, many users are exploring Google products while strolling with a mobile device, not sitting at a desk with a personal computer. Our goal is to design products that are contextually relevant and available through the medium and methods that make sense to users. Google supports slower connections and older browsers when possible, and Google allows people to choose how they view information (screen size, font size) and how they enter information (smart query parsing). The User Experience team researches the fundamental differences in user experiences throughout the world and works to design the right products for each audience, device, and culture. Simple translation, or "graceful degradation" of a feature set, isn't sufficient to meet people's needs.

Google is also committed to improving the accessibility of its products. Our desire for simple and inclusive products, and Google's mission to make the world's information universally accessible, demand products that support assistive technologies and provide a useful and enjoyable experience for everyone, including those with physical and cognitive limitations.

7. Plan for today's and tomorrow's business

Those Google products that make money strive to do so in a way that is helpful to users. To reach that lofty goal, designers work with product teams to ensure that business considerations integrate seamlessly with the goals of users. Teams work to make sure ads are relevant, useful, and clearly identifiable as ads. Google also takes care to protect the interests of advertisers and others who depend on Google for their livelihood.

Google never tries to increase revenue from a product if it would mean reducing the number of Google users in the future. If a profitable design doesn't please users, it's time to go back to the drawing board. Not every product has to make money, and none should be bad for business.

8. Delight the eye without distracting the mind

If people looked at a Google product and said "Wow, that's beautiful!" the User Experience team would cheer. A positive first impression makes users comfortable, assures them that the product is reliable and professional, and encourages people to make the product their own.

A minimalist aesthetic makes sense for most Google products because a clean, clutter-free design loads quickly and doesn't distract users from their goals. Visually appealing images, color, and fonts are balanced against the needs for speed, scannable text, and easy navigation. Still, "simple elegance" is not the best fit for every product. Audience and cultural context matter. A Google product's visual design should please its users and improve usability for them.

9. Be worthy of people's trust

Good design can go a long way to earn the trust of the people who use Google products. Establishing Google's reliability starts with the basics – for example, making sure the interface is efficient and professional, actions are easily reversed, ads are clearly identified, terminology is consistent, and users are never unhappily surprised. In addition, Google products open themselves to the world by including links to competitors and encouraging user contributions such as community maps or iGoogle gadgets.

A greater challenge is to make sure that Google demonstrates respect for users' right to own and control their own data. Google is transparent about how it uses information and never shares data outside Google without a user's explicit consent. Our products warn users about such dangers as insecure connections, different privacy policies on other websites, actions that may make users vulnerable to spam, or the possibility that data shared outside Google may be stored elsewhere. Google is reassuring but truthful about data sharing so that users can make informed choices. The larger Google becomes, the more essential it is to live up to our "Don't be evil" motto.

10. Add a human touch

Google includes a wide range of personalities, and our designs have personality, too. Text and design elements are friendly, quirky, and smart – and not boring, close-minded, or arrogant. Google text talks directly to people and offers the same practical, informal assistance that anyone would offer to a neighbor who asked a question. And Google doesn't let fun or personality interfere with other elements of a design, especially when people's livelihood, or their ability to find vital information, is at stake.

Google doesn't know everything, and no design is perfect. Our products ask for feedback, and Google acts on that feedback. When practicing these design principles, the Google User Experience team seeks the best possible balance in the time available for each product. Then the cycle of iteration, innovation, and improvement continues.

Third-party ads now available on the Google content network

2008-05-23T09:58:00.002+05:30

Got this email from Google Today

-----------------------------------------------------

Greetings from Google!

We're happy to announce that the Google content network now
accepts display ads served from qualified third-party vendors.
During this initial release, only ads in English are eligible,
although we look forward to offering more options in the future.

By accepting third-party ads, we can attract a greater variety of
advertising on the Google content network, which we believe will
result over time in increased revenue for publishers and more
relevant advertising for end users.

If you're currently opted in to image ads, you're already able to
receive third-party ads. If not, you can enable image ads to start
receiving third-party ads immediately.

If you choose to allow third-party ads on your site, please update
your privacy policy to inform your visitors that third-party
vendors may serve ads on your site. Please also provide links to
these vendor websites and inform your users that they may opt out
of cookies (if the vendor offers this capability). For more
information about updating your policies, visit
https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=94150.

You'll continue to have full control over which ads appear on your
site with tools like competitive ad filtering and the Ad Review
Center. Also, only advertisers with whom we have proven
relationships and who've clearly demonstrated commitments to our
quality standards may participate in this program. Our policies
governing ad content and formatting remain unchanged.

To learn more about third-party ads, please visit our blog post at
http://adsense.blogspot.com/2008/05/introducing-third-party-ads-on-google.html
and our FAQ at
https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/topic.py?topic=14535.
If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to contact us at
adsense-support@google.com.

Sincerely,

The Google AdSense Team

Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043

2008-05-19T15:00:00.002+05:30

IE 8: Better or Worse

2008-03-18T10:40:00.004+05:30

Hey, I was trying to download Windows updates but got this message.

It seems they were not able to identify that I am using IE-8 , thus prompting me to upgrade to IE-7.

So what next, I clicked on the "Emulate IE7" button in the command bar and surprisingly it worked.

IE 8: Beta 1 Available for Download!

2008-03-07T10:46:00.003+05:30

The downloads of the IE8 Beta 1 which was released by Microsoft at the Mix 08 conference, are available for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, x64 versions, Windows XP (SP2) and Server 2003 (SP2) as well as XP x64 and Server 2003 x64 .

Some of the details of the latest version are given below.

Microsoft wants to give the user easier access to typical activities involved when visiting a web site, for example sending data by E-mail or looking up an address in a street-map service. IE8 will make such operations possible via a context menu. The user can install it by JavaScript from any web site. For this purpose, a developer must describe the action in the form of an XML document.

A second innovation appears in the middle between news feeds, widgets and Firefox's live bookmarks. If the user adds "WebSlices" to his favourites bar, he can click it to have a quick look at the weather forecast and stock exchange prices. This favourites bar was previously known as the links bar: it offers space for news feeds and references to local documents, as well as bookmarks and WebSlices. Web designers can identify an area on their sites as a WebSlice by giving it certain class attributes - very much in the spirit of microformats.

Perhaps IE8 will give a strong push to the development of Ajax applications. New functions tackle the problem of navigation and connectivity; IE8 implements DOM storage, a storage mechanism specified in HTML5 that Firefox already knows about. That could offer a range of functions for storing offline data, similar to those of Google Gears. IE8 will also allow Ajax links to other domains; how the browser will solve the possible problem of security is not revealed in the documents so far published.

IE8 has borrowed from its competitors the feature of restoration following a crash, to enable work to be seamlessly continued, with a previously open tab for example. Microsoft claims as its major innovation the improvements made to the phishing filter introduced by the previous version. Bugs with HTML compatibility and with the DOM functions are said to have been eliminated, a known memory leak is said to have been closed, and speed is claimed to have been increased overall.

Source: HEISE Online

Michael Muchmore has also written a very comprehensive technical review. You can read it on PCMAG.com .

Tech quiz: How well do you know the latest advances?

2008-02-20T17:38:00.003+05:30

1. Microsoft introduced a new version of its Zune music player in 2006. Name a key Zune feature that Microsoft has promoted in its battle against Apple Inc.'s rival iPod.

A. WiMax connectivity
B. Wi-Fi connectivity
C. Wiki connectivity
D. Why should I care about connectivity?

2. Five years ago, almost 90 percent of all digital photo prints were produced on home printers. In 2007, what percentage of digital prints were made at home?

A. 72 percent
B. 50 percent
C. 38 percent
D. 24 percent

3. Amazon.com unveiled a new electronic book reader in November: a $399 digital screen with a keyboard and the ability to buy best-selling books for $10. What is the name of Amazon's new device?

Story continues below
A. Reader
B. Kindle
C. eInk
D. iRead

4. In 2006, only 20 percent of all digital cameras had a resolution of seven megapixels or above. Last year, about what percentage of all digital cameras sold in the United States boasted resolutions over seven megapixels?

A. 30 percent
B. 40 percent
C. 50 percent
D. 70 percent

5. In 2006, there were about 161 billion gigabytes of digital information stored online, on personal computers and on corporate servers. How much do experts expect to be stored in 2010?

A. 250 billion
B. 362 billion
C. 988 billion
D. 1.212 trillion

6. Which of the following electronics retailers won't be around to battle Wal-Mart and Costco with razor-thin margins this year?

A. Best Buy
B. CompUSA
C. Circuit City
D. Tweeter

7. Where do local merchants think they're most likely to find the consumers they're targeting with their online ads?

A. local newspaper sites
B. local television sites
C. Yellow Pages sites
D. Internet-company sites

8. IRobot added a new line to its robot vacuum cleaners and swimming-pool cleaners last year. What does it clean?

A. toilets
B. cat pans
C. home gutters
D. bath tubs

9. Flash drives that hold up to 32 gigabytes of data in a tiny space and plug into a computer USB port to upload or download files are showing up in all sorts of unlikely devices. Which of these is now being sold as a flash-memory device?

A. Swarovski heart pendant
B. Swiss Army knife
C. plastic sushi
D. ballpoint pen
E. all of the above

10. Which of the following companies agreed with the Justice Department to pay $21 million in fines for promoting illegal gambling in the United States?

A. Microsoft
B. Harrah's
C. PokerStars.com
D. InterCasino.com

Answers:

1. B. Wi-Fi is the wireless networking technology that is used in homes and at hot spots like coffee shops, and it allows Zune users to download a tune directly from a computer without plugging in a cable. Most iPods can't do that.

The iPod brand still dominates the world of music players. It had about a 60 percent share of the market for most of last year, based on unit sales, compared with around 10 percent for Zune, according to estimates by market-research firm NPD Group Inc.

2. C. Consumers increasingly are relying on retailers to print their photos. Most of the time, that means bringing the camera's memory card to a kiosk or mini-lab at a store, but a growing number of photographers upload their pictures to retailers' Web sites and then pick up the prints when they go to the store. People are increasingly reluctant to print their pictures themselves because of the cost of ink and specialty paper and the sometimes disappointing results of home printing.

3. B. Although the Kindle isn't the first electronic book device, the Amazon sponsorship brings vastly more content than earlier readers — 88,000 books and numerous periodicals available for purchase. And the Kindle offers wireless downloading, unlike Sony Corp.'s $299 electronic Reader, which requires users to download content through a PC.

It's too soon to say, though, whether the Kindle's advantages will help spark a market that has been close to invisible, especially in the glare of the popularity of portable digital music players.

EInk is the technology used by the Kindle and the Reader to display text while avoiding the flicker of LCD screens. IRead is a Facebook application that lets users list and review the books they have read.

4. D, according to NPD Group. And better picture quality isn't costing consumers more, as the price of the most popular cameras remains in a range of about $200 to $300. The steady improvement in resolution allows images to be tightly cropped and still blown up into clear pictures for calendars or photo collections. But this may be a trend that has run its course: Photography experts say further advances in resolution won't make much difference in photo quality.

5. C. Thanks to the proliferation of user-generated content such as YouTube videos and online photos, stored digital information is growing 60 percent a year, according to market-research company IDC.

6. B. CompUSA Inc., currently operating in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is being liquidated after its acquisition by Gordon Brothers Group PLC. But 16 of its stores have since been acquired by Systemax Inc. and will continue to use the CompUSA name in Florida, Texas and Puerto Rico.

CompUSA had struggled to find a profitable niche competing with larger firms with greater economies of scale. Best Buy Co. remains the No. 1 specialty electronics retailer, with rising sales of flat-screen TVs and other popular electronics. Circuit City Stores Inc. is No. 2, but it has been losing money as it revamps stores and tries to improve customer service.

7. D. Last year, for the first time, local advertisers spent more on sites like Google.com or Monster.com than on local newspapers' sites. Internet companies got 44 percent of the $8.5 billion local advertisers spent online, newspaper companies got 33 percent, Yellow Pages sites got 10 percent and local-television sites got 9.3 percent, according to media research firm Borrell Associates. This year, local online advertising is expected to rise 48 percent to $12.6 billion, led by growth in car, job and real-estate ads.

8. C. The Looj reduces the number of times a homeowner must climb a ladder to scoop leaves out of gutters. The robot was designed by iRobot Corp. to be small and light enough to be carried up a ladder and propel itself along the gutter.

9. E. Flash drives also have been decorated with Star Wars figures or scented like fruit. Sales of flash drives rose 66 percent last year to 232 million units, according to Web-Feet Research Inc.

10. A. Microsoft recently agreed to pay a total of $21 million without admitting or denying guilt for allegedly receiving money from online gambling companies for advertising on its Web sites. Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. agreed to smaller fines at the same time.

U.S. regulators maintain Internet gambling is illegal, but they can't go after offshore operators. Instead, they have cracked down on mainstream U.S. financial firms to stop them from handling payments and have gone after popular advertising-driven Web sites, such as Microsoft's MSN.com and Google.com, to stop them from promoting gaming sites.

By: William M. Bulkeley
(The Wall Street Journal)