Archive for the ‘Internet’ Category
Trillian Astra is ready to fly
August 15th, 2009 | 
Author: Trillian Astra has finally, officially replaced Trillian 3. Users who experienced the Astra beta will find the final version to be similar, with the biggest change being the features that are limited to the paid Pro version. If you’re new to Trillian Astra, this update makes the multi-protocol chat client competitive again.
Full Story…
CNETNews Trillian Astra is ready to fly http://bit.ly/5auaP
Posted in 
Tags: 
Open Social gadgets now available on iGoogle
Google is ready to open up its iGoogle home page to the social world.
The company is expected to announce Wednesday that gadgets for iGoogle can now take advantage of the Open Social API to build social-networking features into the small little software programs that iGoogle users can use to customize their home pages, according to Marissa Mayer, vice president for search products and experience. For example, gadgets will now be available for Flickr, YouTube, and social games like Scrabble.
Google opened up the Open Social API to iGoogle developers last year, but only in the “sandbox,” a protected area for experimentation. If developers like what they see, it could help turn iGoogle from a personalized home page for “tens of millions of users,” according to Mayer, into sort of a mini social network.
For example, friends (who have to be iGoogle users) can share YouTube videos that will appear automatically on the iGoogle home screen if you choose to embed that gadget on your home page. You can also access a “stream” of updates and see all the different types of content your friends have shared recently.
That’s exactly what Facebook’s News Feed does for folks on that social network. Google downplayed attempts to compare this service directly to other sites like Facebook, but “we’d like people to see all of the ‘push’ content that they would like to see on this page,” Mayer said. She was referring to content that is regularly updated and delivered to the user, as opposed to search, where a user “pulls” information from Google.
iGoogle users in Australia have been using these social gadgets for about a week. Games and news dominate the first crop of Open Social gadgets on iGoogle, with chess, Scrabble, The New York Times, Huffington Post, and NPR represented among the initial 14 applications from third parties.
Source :
CNETNews Open Social gadgets now available on iGoogle http://bit.ly/TrsQb
Google’s Caffeine: a jolt to search rankings?
One of the largest behind-the-scenes updates to Google’s search technology in three years is underway, as the company reworks its computing muscle.
Last night Google quietly began soliciting feedback for “Caffeine,” a new system for Web searches that is being tested completely separate from the live search results currently found through Google.com. Google makes almost constant changes to its search algorithms and infrastructure, but it hasn’t made an update of this magnitude since 2006, said Matt Cutts, a principal engineer at Google and considered one of the driving forces behind its approach to search.
Full Story…
CNETNews Google’s Caffeine: a jolt to search rankings? http://bit.ly/3S4gcB
Google invites feedback on super-secret search upgrades
Google is upgrading its search infrastructure and it’s being really shady about it.
In a post on its Webmaster Central blog, however, Google engineers Sitaram Iyer and Matt Cutts insist that ordinary users won’t even see the difference.
“For the last several months, a large team of Googlers has been working on a secret project: a next-generation architecture for Google’s web search,” the post reads, making it all sound vaguely like some kind of elf workshop. “It’s the first step in a process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions.” The user interface is unchanged.
Developers are encouraged to try out the new technology on a “sandbox” page and then offer feedback by including the word “caffeine” in Google’s feedback text field, secret-password-style.
Full Story…
CNETNews Google invites feedback on super secret search upgrades http://bit.ly/3cmEeh
Facebook gets Twitter-like search
New users to Facebook (and probably some existing users, but not all of them yet) are getting a new search experience in Facebook starting Monday. The new interface for search makes it possible to see all public results from Facebook users (the Everyone filter), or just results from your friends. Or, as before, only Events, Groups, or Applications.
The Everyone filter is the key new feature. It lets Facebook users monitor the entire network for news and updates on big topics, the same way Twitter was consumed for information coming from Iran after the recent election.
Like Twitter Search, the Facebook search result page alerts you when new results come in that match your query, but it doesn’t update the whole page until you ask. This is arguably the best way to keep people up to date without overwhelming them.
Full Story…
CNETNewsFacebook gets Twitter-like search http://bit.ly/15uYoI