Google, Yahoo!, MSN and AOL are the four major players in the online services market. Each of these is working hard on improving upon their services to lure in more and more customers as they aim to increase revenues from online advertisement market.
The latest survey results are out and there is no prize of guessing the winner in the search engine market. Google owns the search department as it accounts for nearly half the searches conducted online in the USA.
However, Yahoo! dominates when it comes to other segments of interest from the online arena, in services such as Mail, News and Finance. Yahoo Mail accounted for up to 42.4 percent of email visits. MSN Hotmail was second with 22.9 percent share. Google Gmail might be very popular amongst the geeks on the internet but it just accounts for 2.54 percent share.
Yahoo! also dominated the news market, as it has been the most popular news service getting more clicks than Weather Channel, MSNBC, and CNN. Google News just came at the fifth position.
Malaysian Airline System Bhd is Malaysia’s largest airline company. The latest incoming reports claim that the company is considering eliminating as many as 22 percent of its workforce.
This would be the biggest such job cut for the company and would help them turn around the company.
Malaysia Airline is considering cutting between 3,000 and 5,000 jobs. This could cost them as much as 850 million ringgit but is not expected to hurt the company’s earnings targets.
The company has posted losses for the last three quarters and is considering job cuts for the first time. They are also looking towards selling off assets and cutting costs through other means to return to profit by 2007 as part of a three-year business plan.
They are talking with Qatar Airways and have asked them to absorb 1,000 of its workers. The company is also seeking government loans of 4 billion ringgit to fund operations.
A couple of months ago, search engine giants Google shipped an innovative software combo named Google Pack which included some free and shareware applications with a common installer. It included some well known applications like Trillian, RealPlayer, Mozilla Firefox and popular Google’s own applications.
However, the latest news on this front is that Google has dumped the popular instant messaging client Trillian out of this pack. And they have not exactly given an explanation for this action.
Scott Werndorfer, Cerulean Studios’ co-founder and head developer said in a statement on this development: “Our goals are seemingly no longer perfectly aligned with those of Google. Their reasons for removing Trillian are their own and were not made available to us. We harbor no ill-will towards them and wish them the best of luck; they’re going to need it.â€
The application has been popular for users who want to access multiple messaging protocols from a single interface. They enable the users to access a variety of IM services, such as America Online’s AIM, Yahoo’s Yahoo Messenger and Microsoft’s MSN Messenger from a single application.
A Google representative said in a statement: “Google Pack is currently in beta, and the selection of software available through the Pack will continue to evolve.†No other explanations were given.
Checkout: Google Pack
US based tech giants IBM (International Business Machines) has announced its decision to acquire Rembo Technology, a privately held Swiss software company.
The financial details of this deal were not revealed. Rembo is based in Geneva, Switzerland and they specialize in developing software that helps businesses automate the process of upgrading or install operating systems on servers or computers.
Rembo has an extensive client base of 800 customers, which include some big names like City of Munich and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The deal is expected to be complete by the second quarter of the current year and IBM would be integrating Rembo operations with their Tivoli software division, led by Al Zollar.
The products would now be integrated in the IBM’s Virtualization Engine portfolio of software, hardware and services and the technology would be integrated in IBM Director software.
Apple Computers has released a significant upgrade to its video-editing application, Final Cut Express. The latest version is now the Final Cut Express HD 3.5.
This new update comes in a universal binary and would run on both Intel and PowerPC based Macs. Other than that, the new feature includes Dynamic RT for real-time playback of multi-stream effects, Soundtrack 1.5 with a complete suite of professional level audio production tools, and LiveType 2.1 with additional animated text and titles in the box.
Rob Schoeben, Apple’s vice president of applications product marketing spoke about this new update: “Final Cut Express HD 3.5 is the total movie making package with many of the same tools the pros use at a price designed to appeal to aspiring pros.â€
He added: “Whether it’s multiple streams of video, professional audio tools or animated text and titles, Final Cut Express HD 3.5 is ideal for anyone who is passionate about the movies they make and delivers incredible performance on Apple’s new Intel-based Macs.â€
This application costs £199 for a fresh purchase. Owners of previous versions can upgrade for £65.
Entertainment industry giants Disney have said that the web users have watched ABC television shows available online about 3 million times since the initiative was started a couple of weeks ago.
This is just a proof of the fact that video content online has a huge potential for the movie and television studios in the United States. They just have to find a good way to monetize this initiative.
ABC began their experiment by offering two-month Internet trial earlier this month. This allowed the web users to watch four of its programs along with commercials. These shows include two of their current blockbusters “Desperate Housewives†and “Lostâ€.
Disney CEO Bob Iger added on the success of this concept: “We’re going to experiment with different business models.†The company is already selling ad-free versions of their television shows on the popular Apple iTunes digital content store.
The world’s largest PC maker Dell has finally decided to launch AMD powered products after market analysts speculated for long that such a move from the company.
Dell said that they are just bowing to customer demand when it decided to start offering microprocessors from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. in some of its high-end servers.
However, it is clear that they are realizing the fact that the competitors are benefiting from offering similar products based on technically superior service processors from AMD.
Dell is the only major PC manufacturer to stay Intel only despite the fact that AMD has gained on massively on the market leaders Intel in the recent times.
Dell founder Michael Dell said in a statement on this major policy change from the company: “We’re going to bring the best technology to the market. If you look at the history of our company, we have for the majority of the last 22 years asserted a position of delivering great value and great service to our customers.â€
This decision is a major victory for AMD who are gaining in the server market and would now supply processors to the world’s largest maker of personal computers. This move would help them gain further in the microprocessor market.
Google has been playing a waiting game with their Google Video beta service as YouTube continues to excite the web users with their ease and flexibility.
However, they have now changed their plans and have made it easier for the users to upload their videos on the Google Video service.
The company is hoping that more and more users would now prefer to use their service instead of the competition.
Until now, uploading a video on the service required the user to download a special application and install it on their machines. However, with the updated module, this step is no longer required.
In addition, users will not have to wait for long to see their videos hosted on the Google Video website. The process is easy and relatively fast on their competitor YouTube’s website.
Japanese automaker Toyota just recently launched the new Toyota Camry in the Indian market. However, they would not have expected the demand to go so high that they have to now stop taking further orders of this model in India to first meet up the existing booked orders lying with them.
Toyota Kirloskar Motors has been forced to take any more new orders of this car so that they don’t end up offend their customers by delaying the delivery of the car by a relatively long time. The company said that the production of the car is unable to match the grown demand in the market for their new model!
The existing orders have already resulted in a waiting period of three months for this model. The company said in a statement: “Demand for the Camry has already grown seven to eight times since the car was re-launched about two months ago. We have not been able to keep pace with the growth in demand and so are going slow on booking fresh orders.â€
Toyota used to sell around 70-80 units of the car prior to the launch of the new model. With the launch of the new version, the company has already received orders for more than 500 units in the last 2 months.
The car is imported and is trying to get the deliveries increased to meet this growing demand from the consumer.
Microsoft is taking some inspiration from the Apple iLife suite and adding blogging support to their word processor application MS Word.
The company is due to launch the latest version of their office suite, MS Office 12 early next year and they have incorporated blogging capabilities in this update.
Users would be able to configure some of the popular blogging platforms in MS Word. This would allow them to publish straight from inside the word processor.
Interestingly, Google already provides an add-on to MS Word, which enables blogging to Google Blogger weblog service. Microsoft would be supporting a variety of platforms including MSN Spaces, Google Blogger and others.
Interestingly, this new feature will also automatically upload pictures and convert Office graphics such as charts and diagrams into browser compatible PNG images. This would make it very easy for new users to blog using their favorite web processing application.
I have seen market analysts complaining about the fact that a lot of startups now fear launching new innovative services in the market as they fear that Google would copy their concept and kill their project.
We now have another Google’s service, which mirrors the functionality provided by sites like del.icio.us and many others. Google Notebook is now on.
The service allows the Google users to store and compile links to web sites, favorites, and snippets of information. It is currently in beta stage like a lot of other Google services.
Google Notebook was officially announced last week with the company saying that the launch would take place in the coming days. We had seen some screenshots floating on the internet and now it is open to anyone with a registered Google account.
The service currently supports Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox browser.
Visit: Google Notebook
Apple has released updates for several applications included in their iLife 06 suite. These updated applications are iDVD, iWeb, iPhoto and iMovie HD.
The latest versions of these updates are now: iDVD 6.0.2, iWeb 1.1, iPhoto 6.0.3 and iMovie HD 6.0.2. These are available for download from the Software Update system preference in the Apple Mac OS X operating system.
Apple had following comments regarding the updates in these four applications:
iDVD 6.0.2 “addresses issues with burning some 16:9 projects and improves overall stabilityâ€.
iWeb 1.1 adds comment and search support for blogs and podcasts published to .Mac, addresses usability and performance issues, and fixes image management problems associated with site load performance.
iPhoto 6.0.3 fixes problems with Photocasting of Smart Albums, sharing iPhoto libraries, and creating calendars and books.
iMovie HD 6.0.2 fixes a problem with PAL audio and displaying iLife sound effects automatically in the iLife Media Browser.
In addition, Apple has also fixed minor stability issues in all these applications.
Apple Computers today launched the new iBook replacements. The newly launched MacBook are powered by Intel processors and continues the shift for the company from PowerPC processors.
Apple claims that these new machines are the world’s most advanced consumer notebook featuring the Intel Core Duo processor. MacBook comes with a gorgeous new 13-inch glossy widescreen display in a sleek design. Apple claims that these new machines are up to four times faster than the 12-inch PowerBook.
Apple MacBook would now replace both the iBook and the 12-inch PowerBook. And with this the entire range of notebooks from the company are now powered by the awesome Intel Dual Core processors.
The prices for Apple MacBook start at $1,099 and there are three models on offer. The three models are a 1.83 GHz and 2.0 GHz MacBook in a newly designed white enclosure and a 2.0 GHz MacBook in a new black enclosure.
The company announced last year and shocked the market that they were switching from the IBM developed PowerPC processors to Intel processors.
AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) might be smaller than the market leaders in the microprocessors market but they have proved their technical abilities by launching some astonishing products in the recent years.
The company continues to perform admirably as they have now launched a line of energy-efficient desktop processors based on their existing models available in the market.
The current range of processors can consume as much as 89 watts or more but the newer models are designed to consume a maximum 35 to 65 watts.
Energy consumed by the microprocessors has become a talking point in the market as companies like Google have complained that little is done on this front and they spend a lot to keep the machines running at their peak.
Energy efficient processors are also required for notebook computers as power backup of these devices depend a lot upon the power consumed by the chips.
These energy-efficient chips will cost slightly more than the standard variety.
Software giants Microsoft have added yet another interesting service to their Live range of products. The latest product was introduced by co-founder Bill Gates on Tuesday and it is a cross-platform gaming service which would integrate games played on cell phones, Xbox 360 consoles and the upcoming Windows Vista operating system.
This service would be provided as part of the upcoming Windows Vista operating system and provides an exciting opportunity for the gamers. Vista is scheduled to arrive in January next year and this might turn into another major threat for Sony and their Playstation 3 gaming console.
Gates said in a statement on this service launch: “It means that you have one online community. This platform can really unleash developers to do amazing new things.†The company did not reveal the expected pricing for this service though it would extend the facilities provided by their existing Xbox Live service for the Xbox 360 console.
Gates added: “The vision here is each platform plays its own role. We really think we’re in a unique position. Microsoft is probably the only company that can pull this off.â€
Palm is continuing to launch new products and the latest in the range is the Treo 700p which becomes the second major update to the Treo lineup this year.
Treo 700p is also the first Palm OS device to support faster cellular networks. This device is capable of supporting the EV-DO (evolution data-optimized) networks.
Palm would be giving out more details like carrier availability in the coming days. The 700w was exclusively shipped through Verizon Wireless. The company said that both Sprint and Verizon would be carrying this new Treo 700p.
The device comes with 128 Megs of storage out of which 60 Megs would be available for data storage for the users. It comes with Bluetooth connectivity.
Search engine giant Google had just recently launched a new service enabling their users to create simple web pages (sites).
The company has been working on enhancing this service and has now launched an experimental feature enabling the users to place Google Gadgets on these pages.
These gadgets are similar small applications, which are already available on their Google Personalized Homepage service and enables third party developers to contribute their own code and mini applications.
The feature is currently in beta stage as the company warns the users of potential problems with this new facility. However, it is interesting to see that now users can get complicated features on their Google Pages by just selecting from a wide range of pre-developed mini gadgets.
I for one love to have a working version of the Pacman game on my test page on Google Pages!
Visit : Google PagesÂ
VoIP software market giants Skype has collaborated with two firms to provide instant translation services in more than 150 languages for their users.
The company has joined hands with Language Line Services, a language services firm, and Voxeo, which provides standards-based interactive voice response (IVR) technology.
Callers would be able to ask their queries in English and other languages. The service is quite flexible with languages ranging from Arabic to Vietnamese.
Interestingly, this service would be available for a small fee 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The company would be charging $2.99 a minute.
Open Source foundation Mozilla has launched the second major release of the Bon Echo edition of their popular Mozilla Firefox web browser.
This release is primarily targeted towards the developers and testers as they are looking for feedback on several new features added in this update.
Some of the new features are:
Links default to opening in new tabs, not new windows
Close buttons now appear on every tab, and the close behavior is slightly different
Inline spell checking in text boxes
Automatic restoration of your browsing session if there is a crash
Search suggestions now appear in the search box auto-complete for Google and Yahoo!
New search plug-in manager for removing and re-ordering search engines
Improved support for previewing and subscribing to web feeds
New microsummaries feature for bookmarks
New Add-Ons manager improves the user interface for managing extensions and themes
Updates to the extension system to provide enhanced security and to allow for easier localization of extensions
New search service that supports Sherlock and OpenSearch engines
Support for SVG text using svg:textPath
Download: Bon Echo Alpha 2 Milestone
U.S. antitrust authorities have good news for the software giants Microsoft. They have rejected the concerns raised by search engine giant Google related to the search box feature being introduced in the upcoming version of the popular Internet Explorer 7 web browser, which defaults to MSN Search Engine.
Google claimed that this default setting would give Microsoft an unfair advantage as Windows is the dominating operating system in use worldwide. Microsoft countered that challenge by claiming that if a user upgrade from an existing setup, the upgrade does not change the selected search engine. In addition, the company is providing users enough instructions on how to change the default search engine on the web browser.
The US justice department said in this issue that they found no basis for concerns voiced by Google over the search box being added in the IE7 update. They added that the new Internet search box in Microsoft’s browser “respects users’ and (computer makers’) default choices.†In addition, they also made it clear that the decision is final and they have concluded their findings in this matter.
