Techstreamers's Blog

NEW YEAR WISHES

techstreamers — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 09:49:02 +0000

A very happy New Year 2012 to all.
—–Tech Streamers Team—-

Google breaks the BILLION barrier with record number of users in a single month

techstreamers — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 12:29:49 +0000

The rise of Google continues unabated as it emerged today that more than a billion visitors used its websites in May.
It marks the first time an internet company has hit the landmark figure, according to ComScore, a company which compiles web data.
The second most popular destination was Microsoft, with 905million unique visitors, and third was Facebook, which has grown by 30 per cent in the past year, attracting 714million visitors in the month.
The rise of Google continues unabated as it emerged today that more than a billion visitors used its websites in May.
It marks the first time an internet company has hit the landmark figure, according to ComScore, a company which compiles web data.
The second most popular destination was Microsoft, with 905million unique visitors, and third was Facebook, which has grown by 30 per cent in the past year, attracting 714million visitors in the month.
Google’s traffic has risen by 8.4 per cent over the past 12 months and Microsoft’s by 15 per cent.

The growth of Facebook forced Yahoo into fourth place. It had 689million unique visitors, an increase of 10.8 per cent.

ComScore sampled the browsing habits of two million internet users worldwide.
When the firm first measured online traffic in 2006, Google had just under 500million monthly unique visitors and Microsoft was the most popular web destination with 539million hits.

However, Google is now number one thanks to adding Gmail and YouTube to its portfolio.
MOST POPULAR ONLINE DESTINATIONS
The number of unique visitors to websites in May was:
Google – one billion
Microsoft – 905million
Facebook – 714million
Yahoo – 689million

Despite Google’s overwhelming popularity, however, internet users spent more time surfing Facebook – they browsed the social network for 250billion minutes in May, compared to 200billion minutes on Google.

Contributed by Sudarshan K

FACEBOOK WILL END ON MARCH 15th

techstreamers — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 13:18:42 +0000

Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook will be shut down in March. Managing the site has become too stressful.

“Facebook has gotten out of control,” said Zuckerberg in a press conference outside his Palo Alto office, “and the stress of managing this company has ruined my life. I need to put an end to all the madness.”

Zuckerberg went on to explain that starting March 15th, users will no longer be able to access their Facebook accounts.

“After March 15th the whole website shuts down,” said Avrat Humarthi, Vice President of Technical Affairs at Facebook. “So if you ever want to see your pictures again, I recommend you take them off the internet. You won’t be able to get them back once Facebook goes out of business.”

Zuckerberg said that the decision to shut down Facebook was difficult, but that he does not think people will be upset.

“I personally don’t think it’s a big deal,” he said in a private phone interview. “And to be honest, I think it’s for the better. Without Facebook, people will have to go outside and make real friends. That’s always a good thing.”

Some Facebook users were furious upon hearing the shocking news.

“What am I going to do without Facebook?” said Denise Bradshaw, a high school student from Indiana. “My life revolves around it. I’m on Facebook at least 10 hours a day. Now what am I going to do with all that free time?”

However, parents across the country have been experiencing a long anticipated sense of relief.

“I’m glad the Facebook nightmare is over,” said Jon Guttari, a single parent from Detroit. “Now my teenager’s face won’t be glued to a computer screen all day. Maybe I can even have a conversation with her.”

Those in the financial circuit are criticizing Zuckerberg for walking away from a multibillion dollar franchise. Facebook is currently ranked as one of the wealthiest businesses in the world, with economists estimating its value at around 7.9 billion.

But Zuckerberg remains unruffled by these accusations. He says he will stand by his decision to give Facebook the axe.

“I don’t care about the money,” said Zuckerberg. “I just want my old life back.”

The Facebook Corporation suggests that users remove all of their personal information from the website before March 15th. After that date, all photos, notes, links, and videos will be permanently erased.

By,
Vinod Deshpande

Blekko – the new Google killer launched

techstreamers — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 15:48:06 +0000

A new Internet search engine called which relies on recommendations from other users, has been launched and hailed as a ‘Google killer’. It filters out poor quality and irrelevant websites, which its founders claim have overrun the web and dominate search engine results, reports the Daily Mail.
It works by using humans to pre-select the most useful sites on key topics and then limit searches to those alone.
So-called ‘content farm’ websites, which are manufactured to score highly on searches but have little real information will be weeded out, as will pornography and spam.
According to Blekko’s founder Rich Skrenta to goal is no less than to ‘clean up web search and get all the spam out of it’.
On Blekko users can search using a word such as ‘global warming’ and come up with results as per usual.
Where it differs is with the use of ‘slashtags’, or different words separated by a slash.
If a user searches ‘global warming / green’ it would bring up only environmental websites to do with green groups or issues.
Similarly a search for ‘Paris Hilton /noporn’ would avoid any pornographic websites associated with the Hilton heiress.
Blekko has also taken steps to be more open than Google.
Next to every single search result is a small button marked ‘spam’ which allows the user to remove that website from their searches forever.
And unlike Google, the search rankings are completely transparent and can be accessed by simply adding ‘rank’ as a slashtag.
Contributed by Sudarshan K

Windows 8: Confirmed for Release in 2012

techstreamers — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 13:56:24 +0000

While Windows 7 is just a year, Microsoft announced the introduction of Windows 8 for fall 2012.

The confirmation of the exit within a year, the new Microsoft operating system meets the requirements of a market in exponential growth. Despite the enormous success of Windows 7, the U.S. firm would leave a 3 year cycle with this system, which is relatively short. It is true that Apple, the direct competitor, offering operating systems and more consistently with the development of mobile applications and iOS Android, Microsoft needs to compete.

Windows 8 is already expected to operate with the tablets. Indeed, this is the big shortcoming of the current system and Microsoft looks forward not to fall behind in this field, as was the case in the smartphone market.

Contributed by Sudarshan K

‘Minty’ makeover for Yahoo Mail soon

techstreamers — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 03:17:09 +0000

This fall, Yahoo is planning to reveal its revamped Yahoo Mail service. The project code named Minty is set to address the falling rate of users of the mail service as also to improve its performance in places where net connections are slower.

According to reports, Yahoo intends to bring the mail service in line with the simpler iPad and Android versions of the Mail product.

A Yahoo representative said, “We have been previewing our next version of e-mail that provides higher performance, sleeker design, and great integration” with social-networking sites.”

Yahoo witnessed a significant drop in the number of users in U.S. this year and a worldwide drop percentage of 7 percent as Hotmail and Gmail continued to record growth figures.

The drop in numbers for Yahoo is attributed to the growing number of SNS and their popularity. They could markedly threaten both Yahoo and Google’s rule. It was recently revealed that people are spending much more time on Facebook as compared to conducting searches on Google.

Another threat for Yahoo Mail is the burgeoning number of smartphones that run on Google’s Android platform which come pre loaded with Gmail.

Yahoo Mail brings a lot of revenue for the parent company in the form of users and ad space. In its bid to save face where its losing, Yahoo aims to make Minty faster, with higher performance and greater integration with SNS by including elements like Yahoo Flickr photo-sharing and photo editing features. May be these desperate measures will see Yahoo reclaim its lost position.

Contributed by Sudarshan K

India issues reprieve on Blackberry ban

techstreamers — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 09:00:32 +0000

MUMBAI—Research In Motion (RIM) Ltd. averted a ban on its BlackBerry services in India that would have affected more than a million users and halted the Canadian company’s expansion in the world’s second-largest mobile-phone market.

India’s telecommunications department will test RIM’s monitoring solution for 60 days to see if it allows security agencies to tap its messenger- and enterprise-mail services, Onkar Kedia, an Indian Home Ministry spokesman, said on Monday. Officials had given the Ontario-based company until Tuesday to provide monitoring tools or face a possible ban.

While India accounts for 2 percent of RIM’s 46 million subscribers worldwide, a ban might have set a precedent for other governments. Ehud Gelblum, an analyst with Morgan Stanley in New York, lowered his recommendation on the stock to “underweight” in an August 20 note to investors, in part because of the “ongoing chorus” of countries threatening to shut down BlackBerry service.

“If BlackBerry allows this to happen here in India, it’s not just an Indian effect,” Romal Shetty, executive director of the telecommunications practice at KPMG’s Indian unit, said before the decision. “It’s going to affect them in many other countries.”

RIM had said it would try to meet India’s security needs while ensuring its clients’ communications are secure, a selling point that’s helped it attract users including President Barack Obama. Saudi Arabian regulators let pass an August 10 deadline to shut down the service without taking action. The United Arab Emirates has said progress is being made in negotiations with RIM to avert a halt of the BlackBerry service from October 11.

The outcome in India may set the tone for how the country deals with services it says it wants to monitor. India intends to find ways to track voice-over-Internet protocol services run by companies such as Skype Technologies SA and Google Inc., a government official, who declined to be identified, has said.

RIM needs to persuade customers of the security of its messaging system, Scott Sutherland, an analyst at Wedbush Securities Inc. in San Francisco, said.

RIM held talks last month with clients including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. to reassure them about the security of the BlackBerry service, two people familiar with the situation said. At least one corporate customer told RIM it wasn’t satisfied with the explanations
far and sought an additional meeting, according to one person.

RIM offered to lead an industry forum in developing ways to balance India’s security needs with customers’ privacy requirements, according to a statement last week. Secure data transmission is an industry-wide matter and important to India’s economic development, RIM said.

The company maintains a “consistent global standard” for lawful access to its messaging system, which “does not include special deals for specific countries,” RIM said in the statement. It said it can’t meet requests from governments for codes to users’ data, because the BlackBerry corporate service was designed to prevent RIM, and anyone else, from reading encrypted information.

Collected By,
Vinod Deshpande

Five reasons Windows XP still rules the desktop

techstreamers — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 13:11:49 +0000

Microsoft may tout Windows 7′s growth curve, but the truth is that Windows XP rules the desktop, and will do so for many years. The most recent report shows that Windows XP has more than twice the market share of Windows 7 and Windows Vista combined. Add Mac OS X to Windows Vista and 7 numbers, and XP still far outpaces them.
Net Applications reports that Windows XP had 61.87% of market share in July, compared to 14.46% for Windows 7, 14.34% for Windows Vista, 2.48% for Mac OS X 10.6, and 1.82% for Mac OS X 10.5.
As Gregg Keizer reports in Computerworld, last month Windows 7 passed Windows Vista in market share and “has been on a fast pace to supplant Vista as Microsoft’s — and the world’s — No. 2 operating system.”
But Windows XP, at nine years old ancient by operating system standards, still leads by a large margin, and will do so for many years. Here are five reasons XP will continue to rule the desktop.
It just plain works
Windows XP has proved to be an exceptionally stable operating system that makes efficient use of what is now considered low-end hardware. It’s not prone to unexplained system crashes or oddball slowdowns. Year after year, it keeps plugging away. As the old Timex ad says, ‘It takes a lickin and keeps on tickin’. Many people figure there’s no reason to upgrade to a new operating system if their old one works fine.
Who needs frou-frou?
Windows 7 features some exceptional eye candy — Windows Aero, Aero Flip 3D, live taskbar thumbnails, and smoother desktop animations. But does all that make you more productive or make life better at the keyboard?
For many people, the answer is clearly no. So they’re staying with XP.
Two words: Web apps
In earlier days of computing, the most interesting and exciting apps were written for an operating system. In order to run them, you needed the newest operating system, and so were essentially forced to upgrade.
Today the most interesting apps for computers are on the Web, not the desktop. You don’t need a fancy new operating system to take advantage of them. A browser and basic hardware work just fine. So people don’t need to upgrade from XP if they want to run them.
Enterprises are conservative
Enterprises are by nature and necessity conservative organizations. They don’t like to court risk. If they’ve built a computing infrastructure and applications around XP, they need a compelling reason to risk to upgrade to a newer operating system. Many have yet to find that compelling reason and are happy to stay with XP.
Smartphones are where the action is
Plenty of people want to be where the tech action is — to be on the forefont of the newest apps, cutting-edge consumer hardware, and innovative services. That’s no longer primarily the PC. Smartphones have supplanted the desktop computer as the most innovative platform. There’s no excitement to upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7. There’s plenty of excitement in getting a new Droid X or iPhone 4. So that’s where people are spending their time and money, not on upgrading their operating systems.

Contributed by Sudarshan K

Indian Browser -EPIC

techstreamers — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 14:52:38 +0000

Bangalore: Hidden Reflex, a Bangalore based software startup, has launched a browser targeted at Indian audiences: Epic.

The browser has been created by a team of Indian engineers on the opensource Mozilla platform, it said in a statement.

“Epic provides a uniquely Indian browsing experience. Epic’s India sidebar supports Indian content by providing users access to the latest national and regional news from popular publications, live television channels, videos, stock quotes, live cricket scores, top music albums, and local events,” it said.

Users can choose from 1500+ customised Indian themes and wallpapers ranging from freedom fighters to famous Bollywood and regional film stars. Writing in Indian languages is supported throughout Epic. Users can instantly write in Indian languages on any webpage or in Write, Epic’s free built-in word processor. Twelve Indian languages are currently supported, the statement said.

Free antivirus scanning and healing is built into Epic, while another security measure warns users when they’re about to visit potentially dangerous websites.

Posted BY Mohan C

Mozilla previews Firefox Home for iPhone

techstreamers — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 05:02:30 +0000

iPhone users who have been disappointed that Firefox Mobile – also known as Fennec – won’t be coming to their handsets can rejoice in the next best thing: Firefox Home.

Announced over on the official Mozilla Blog, Firefox Home for iPhone isn’t a replacement browser, but an add-on to the existing browser built in to the iPhone which introduces Firefox-like features – including the love-it-or-hate-it ‘Awesome Bar.’

The most impressive feature of Firefox Home is the ability – via Firefox Sync, the newly renamed Weave Sync – to hook up to a copy of Firefox running on your desktop or laptop, providing access to browsing history, bookmarks, and even the tabs you last had open.

By hooking the iPhone into the Firefox Sync system, it’s possible to keep all your devices – desktops, laptops, and smartphone – synchronised, with access to all content on all devices. If you don’t run Firefox as your primary browser, it’s not much use – but if you do, then the ability to share browsing history and bookmarks between devices could prove a lifesaver.

Although the service hasn’t gone live yet, a video of an early version is available over on YouTube – and Mozilla is quick to point out that branding and UI improvements are high on the list “as we polish this off and submit it to the App Store.”

The app will be compatible with the iPhone and iPod Touch, and while Mozilla hasn’t offered any confirmations there’s no reason why it shouldn’t work with Apple’s new iPad slate either.

The last bit of good news for Firefox fans with iPhones? The Firefox Home app will be free.

Does Firefox Home look like the sort of thing that you want on your iPhone, or are you still holding out for an iPhone release of Fennec? Share your thoughts over in the forums.

By,
Vinod Deshpande