Google is Still King : Google Beats Bing June 17, 2009

So, Bing, earlier known as the Kumo is finally here. Announced at the recently concluded: All Things Digital conference, the Bing is Microsoft’s first dedicated attempt to challenge Google’s domination in the search arena. And prima facie, it seems to be a very good attempt indeed if we are to go by the worldwide reviews received soon after launch. Bing is all set to replace Windows Live Search and will be fully operational, starting Wednesday – although it’s available in most countries now.

It’s now time for us to take a first look at Bing. Does it really have what it takes? Will it ever replace that Google homepage of yours? Before we delve further into this, let’s just try to shake off our prejudice (is that the right term?) most people have for anything that originates from Redmond. That, coupled with the unshakable faith in Google, makes for a nice combination, which usually ends up in most of us writing off any competition (to Google) even before actually trying them out. Remember Cuil? Anyone? So, has Bing managed to catch Google with its pants down? Or is it a product you can pass? Read on.

The Look
First off, what strikes you is the look of the Bing homepage. It’s loaded with nice wallpapers that seem to change on a daily basis. On a closer look, you notice that you can find the story behind the wallpaper by hovering your mouse over various “locations” on the image. The interface is quite basic and intuitive – as good as Google.

browser help and support

The only complaint here is the image that some people might deem is an unnecessary addition. For others, this might be a welcome change from the white, too minimalist, simple Google page.

Searching
The most important function of any search engine is the way it displays search results and Bing does it pretty well. The good thing about Bing is the way it throws the information at you in a much uncluttered, unconfused manner. The keywords you feed in are further used to “suggest” you more results. There is a related searches bar on the sides, similar to Google. As for the results, it does come up with what you are actually looking for most of the times. However, this one actually needs some time for you to “settle” in. Maybe a month down the line, we can comment if Bing can really replace Google, or even Yahoo for that matter, which if you’re not aware, is in second position in the search engine segment.

browser help and support

What we liked about the web results are the “snippets” of information that you see beside every search result link. To get an idea of what I am talking about, take a look at the image below. Once you search for a term and get a page with the search results, all you need to do is to hover your mouse over the thin line on the side of the list, and it will display what else is there on that page. Although I am not very fond of these mouse hover initiated things, this one does it in a very unobtrusive way. Nice!

Video, Images and Others
Bing also comes with the expected Video, Image, Maps and News search. You can “personalize” your image search by choosing categories like size, color and even people. In addition, if you click on any of the images, it opens up the image — but at the same time, it shows rest of the images in a pane at the left. This lets you avoid hitting the back button for looking more images. The infinite search functionality does away with multiple pages and search results
are added as you scroll down. This might be good for faster connections and PCs. As for videos, it has also been in the news for its ability to play explicit (amongst other) videos right from within the search results page. This has drawn sharp criticism from certain quarters. Well, coming to think of it, even though Google doesn’t allow you to play videos right from within the results page, it is capable of displaying explicit content by just changing the preferences. This also holds true in case of images. Bing comes with a similar option and it leaves me perplexed why only Bing is being singled out. You can search videos by length, screen size, resolution and source. Pretty neat!

Web browser repair

If you are in India and are checking out Bing, it is interesting to note that you simply cannot search for things using keywords that Bing thinks might return sexually explicit content. Therefore, if you search for something as simple as “sex”, you will get no results. Period. If that was not all, there is no option to change your preferences so that you may complete the search using the aforementioned keyword.

web browser support and help

If you are really looking for something, the only option now is to switch to one of the other localized pages (preferably U.S.) and you will get what you want there (ahem!). I am unsure if this is a bug or whether Bing India considers these words taboo!

Verdict
Bing sure is a good, robust search engine. Some of the features it has come up with are downright revolutionary when you compare it to Google and number two, Yahoo. Credit is due for Microsoft for providing users a capable, well thought-out search engine. You might take some time getting used to the “new set of search results” though. They have also managed to create a buzz around it and all that needs to seen is whether people will start using the service regularly. Technology enthusiasts and certain sections of this niche community might like the service and may even use the service, but replacing Google with Bing is a huge decision even for them. To replace what has become synonymous with search might be difficult and we do not see Google losing any market share in the near future. What Microsoft is looking at is the adoption of Bing by the layman, your average Internet user who still swears by Google and in some cases, is simply unaware of the fact that there is another option out there! Microsoft has had a good start with the Bing by creating the buzz around what is actually a nice search engine. However, it has a long, weary road to traverse before it could be a Google replacement. Microsoft however does seem to have Yahoo in its sight first!

Microsoft Business Users are being lured by Google June 10, 2009

A new software is introduced by Google to make it easier for businesses using Microsoft Corp’s Outlook. With the help of this new tool one can switch to its Web-based communications and collaboration products.

According to the release on tuesday this Internet company said that its new software can easily transfer data from a Microsoft Exchange server to Google’s cloud-based online service. The new product allows business users to continue using the Outlook client for email and other tasks, but the back-end functionality and data storage would move to Google, instead of residing on a company’s internal servers running Microsoft software.

The product, Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook, will be available immediately as part of the existing Premier version of Google apps, which costs $50 per business user but is also available to educational and nonprofit customers for free. Google product manager Chris Vander Way said the new product does not signal that Google is backing away from efforts to convince businesses to use its Web-based email, dubbed Gmail.

“We look at this as a way to provide choice for users who like to do things the old, Outlook way,”

said Vander Way.

The company said it currently has 1.75 million business users, including Genentech and Avago. Dave Girouard, president of Google’s enterprise business, would not break down how many of those customers use the fee-based version of Google apps and how many use the free, ad-supported versions. Girouard said the enterprise apps business generates “hundreds of millions” of dollars in revenue a year and is profitable and growing.

iYogi: In Growth Line! June 8, 2009

Founded in 2005
Founders: Uday Challu and Vishal Dhar
Main business: Technical support to PC users at home and in small businesses
Revenue: $7.1 million for 2008-09
Why it is cool: Present in US, UK, Canada, it’s growing 15 per cent a month and has now launched its services in Australia

“These are testing times for us,”

says Uday Challu, Founder & CEO, iYogi. The slowdown?

“No, because we are growing faster than ever…at 15 per cent a month,”

he replies. What iYogi was adding in six months last year by way of capacity and customers, it is now adding each month. And it has just acquired a US-based PC concierge company.

“The challenge is to get the growth right, but we have all good problems,”

says Challu. iYogi, which Challu founded with Vishal Dhar, President, Marketing, provides technical assistance to home and small business computer-users via phone and remote access. Based out of Gurgaon, iYogi’s 500 yogis (that’s what it calls its agents) support about 70,000 customers across the US, the UK, Canada, and now Australia. “We have got right what IT industry has not,” says Challu. “OEMs understand enterprises, but the consumer is a different ballgame.” This year, iYogi wants to make waves in India. It is currently running a beta with a telecom service provider to provide complete management of IT services of small business users. Every exchange that an iYogi customer has with its staff ends with a “Good karma” wish for the customer. Seems all “good karma” is coming back to iYogi!

For more about iYogi login at http://www.iyogi.net

Microsoft Office Next Version Announced June 5, 2009

Microsoft Office next version will be available in 2010
Microsoft Corp.'s is ready to provide the next version of its Office desktop programs in coming year, though not likely in conjunction with the Windows 7 operating system.

Microsoft is set to announce Wednesday that Office 2010 will be finished and ready to send to manufacturers in the first half of next year.

From there, it can take six weeks to four months or more for the programs to reach PC users, said Chris Capossela, a senior vice president in the Microsoft group that makes Office. The timing will differ for big businesses and individual consumers, and for people who buy packaged software versus those who download it.

Some industry watchers had expected a new version of Office this year, but Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer extinguished that rumor at a meeting with analysts in February.

Capossela declined to be more specific about a launch date. Windows 7, the successor to Windows Vista, is scheduled to reach consumers by the end of January 2010.

Office 2010 – previously known by the code name “Office 14″ – will include slimmed-down versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote that let people create and edit documents in a Web browser. Consumers will have access to a free, ad-supported version, and Capossela said the company is still hammering out what to charge businesses that want a version without ads.

Microsoft plans to let hundreds of thousands of people test a technical preview of the new Office portfolio starting in the third quarter of 2009, Capossela said. The company did not say whether average PC users will have a chance to test a more polished beta version.

Microsoft also said a new version of its Exchange e-mail server will be available for purchase in the second half of 2009. When paired with the next version of Microsoft’s Outlook e-mail program, Exchange 2010 aims to prevent e-mail faux pas and would warn people against trying to “reply all” to a huge distribution list. Microsoft said it can also be tweaked to stop people from sending e-mail outside the organization, helping businesses cut down on unnecessary e-mail and prevent leaks.

A beta version of Exchange 2010 was to be made available on Wednesday.

Fix Your Slow Computer June 4, 2009

Slow computer is one of the most irritated and frequent complaints that I found. But it is so easy to fix. There are a lot of things or factor is involved behind a slow PC or Computer.Below are few things that may be cause of slow computer and get the possible solutions too:

1. You have insufficient memory or RAM. XP runs well with a minimum of 500 megabytes and even better with 1 gigabyte. For Vista, double these numbers.How to find how much RAM memory is installed on an Windows XP computer.Number 1 stock art1. You have insufficient memory or RAM. XP runs well with a minimum of 500 megabytes and even better with 1 gigabyte. For Vista, double these numbers. To see how much RAM is installed right-click “My Computer” (for Vista right-click “Computer”), select “Properties” and you will see the amount of installed RAM. Click image on right to enlarge.

There are several web sites that can interrogate your system over the Internet and let you know how much RAM you have and what to buy to increase it. These include 4allmemory.com and crucial.com. The companies have very competitive prices and can provide technical support for installing the memory. As an alternative, you can have a local computer store install it for you.

(You also might want to read earlier posts: PC Club’s “Add RAM, drive to speed up that old PC” and the Gadgetress’ “The Memory Guide: A cheap way to speed up a PC.”)

2 Your PC is infected by a virus or spyware. Make sure that you have an anti-virus program installed and that it is updated periodically. Next, run a full system scan to see if you are infected. To check for spyware you can try the free Spybot Search and Destroy at safer-networking.org and to check for adware you can try the free Adaware available at lavasoft.com. For any software, always go to the main site to make sure you are downloading the latest version.

3 You have too many programs starting up when Windows boots up. Frequently, having too many programs starting up when Windows boots can rob you of valuable system resources and slow your PC. A quick way to identify all of the startup programs is to click “Start,” “Run” and type “msconfig” in the box without the quotes and click “OK.” If there is no Run command available you can also press the Windows logo key and tap the R key. Select the Startup tab and uncheck any programs that you do not need.

A better way to control startup programs is to download the free program named “StartupRun” at nirsoft.net/utils/what_run_in_startup.html. In Vista, right-click the program’s icon Desktop icon and select “Run as Administrator.” Knowing what starts up is half the battle. The other half is determining which programs you can live without.

Find out some tips:

• To find out if the program is required, record the name of the program for each entry in the StartupRun window or msconfig window and look it up in one of the online databases.
• These sites, www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php and bleepingcomputer.com/startups are two of the best. They have a guide at the top of the page letting you know if the program is necessary or not.
• When using StartupRun, it’s a good idea to use the “Disable” rather than “Delete”. After going through this tedious process (there’s no other way), you should re boot the system to make the changes effective.
• It might be wise to disable a few items at a time. If something stops working, you can always re-enable these items.

The ‘Properties’ of a letter drive also tell users how much space is left on the drive.Number 4 stock art Your hard drive is cluttered. It’s always a good idea to cleanup your hard drive periodically, especially the temporary Internet files. The best way to do this is to download and install the free “CCleaner” program from ccleaner.com. The CCleaner program should require a few minutes to perform its duties but if you haven’t done this for quite some time, it could take quite a while. Also, you should open “My Computer” (“Computer” within Vista), right-click your C-drive and select “Properties” (see image on right). Make sure that your C-drive is no more than 60% full. If it’s almost full, you will need to free up some space by uninstalling unnecessary programs or removing or relocating some of your data.

What Are The Way To Find My Norton Internet Security Serial Number? February 24, 2009

Before you can install Norton Internet Security you’ll need to find the serial number that came with the software. Norton Internet Security requires that you enter a unique serial number.

If you’ve lost your serial number, there is a way to find it as long as the program is still installed. You might be able to find your Norton Internet Security serial number if you’ve uninstalled the program but only if the serial number information was left in the Windows Registry.

The Norton Internet Security serial number is actually more of a product key than a serial number but the terms are usually used interchangeably.
Answer: The best way to find your Norton Internet Security serial number is with a product key finder program.A free product key finder program will automatically search your computer’s registry for your Norton Internet Security serial number and for product keys and serial numbers for your other software programs.

The product key finder program that I’ve confirmed will find your Norton Internet Security serial number is Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder. If it doesn’t find your serial number, try one of the other key finder programs that I linked to above and then let me know it didn’t work so I can keep this page updated.

Most product key finder programs are designed to find the product keys for operating systems like Windows XP or Windows Vista but some of them find product keys and serial numbers for several other programs too, including Norton Internet Security.

Important: You may have come across Norton Internet Security keygen programs or other kinds of Norton Internet Security cracks but keep in mind that these are not legal ways of obtaining serial numbers or product keys. The only legal way of installing this program is by using a valid Norton Internet Security serial number obtained through a legal purchase of the software.