Google overtakes Yahoo to become No 2 in most visited site...

2006 has been a big year for Google, according to comScore. This year’s round of acquisitions and service offerings have made Google the number two most-visited site on the Internet, knocking Yahoo down to number three, while closing in on Microsoft.

Google bought the popular video sharing site YouTube earlier this year, driving stock prices over $500, according to the BBC. The comScore report, released late last week, says that Google saw 475.7 million visitors in the month of November, pulling barely ahead of Yahoo, which garnered 475.3 million visitors. Both sites lag behind Microsoft, which commanded an audience of 501.7 million. This is the first time Google has overtaken Yahoo, according to Bloomberg.

Since Google bought YouTube, the number of visitors to that site has increased nearly 24 times to 107.9 million. YouTube ranks 10th on the comScore charts, and its visits were not included in Google’s tally.

Google’s audience grew by 9.1% while Yahoo’s only grew by 5.2%, and Microsoft’s by 3.3%. Meanwhile online auction site eBay brought up the rear in fourth place

Wikipedia Founder Plans Search Engine

The search engine, code-named Wikiasari, would combine open source technology and human intervention to deliver more relevant results than the algorithm-based systems used today.

Jimmy Wales, founder of online encyclopedia Wikipedia, is planning to build an online commercial search engine that would compete with Google and Yahoo.

The search engine, code-named Wikiasari, would combine open source technology and human intervention to deliver more relevant results than the algorithm-based systems used today, Wales said Tuesday. "Human intelligence is still the best thing we have, so let's let humans do what they do best, and computers do what they do best." Wikiasari combines the Hawaiian word for quick, "wiki," with the Japanese word "asari," which means "rummaging search."

Relevance remains a challenge in online search, since machines can only take a roundabout approach in determining the ranking of results delivered to people's queries. For example, Google's automated system considers the number of links to a Web site in determining whether it's closer to the top or bottom of results.

Wales plans to combine the user-based technology behind nonprofit Wikipedia with open source Web-search software called Nutch, which is part of the Apache Lucene project. The latter has developed a full-featured text search engine written in Java.

Wales doesn't know how his search engine would combine human intelligence and technology. "We really haven't determined how all of this is going to work," he said.

However, Wales believes the time is right, given the availability of what he considers solid open-source technology. "The time is right, because we actually have some tools available to start building something interesting," he said.

Wikipedia depends on user contributions in building an online encyclopedia. Registered users can add any item or edit items already posted. The site works on the idea that the collective knowledge of the masses is better than a system run by editors and expert contributors. Wikipedia, however, has had its problems with erroneous postings, which are corrected as soon as site operators are notified.

Wales hopes to launch his search engine within two years. Development would be funded by his for-profit company Wikia Inc. Its investors include Bessemer Venture Partners and Amazon.com.

Wales hopes to make money with his search engine through online advertising. Text ads related to search queries and delivered with results have become a multibillion-dollar market, with Google the clear leader.

However, whether Wales can capture even a thin slice of the market against tech leaders like Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft, or even smaller search engines like Ask.com, remains to be seen.

Microsoft : War against phising !!

Microsoft is ramping up its fight against phishing, not just by continuing to improve Internet Explorer's phishing filter, but also by taking phishers to court. Announced today, the company is filing 129 lawsuits in the name of anti-phishing across Europe and the Middle East. According to a BetaNews report, Microsoft can file these suits because the phishers are damaging the company's image.

Because many of the defendants in the suits are young people as in teenagers, Microsoft is willing to accept settlements for the likes of 1,000 to 2,000 euros. Nevertheless, a recent criminal suit that dealt with phishing sent a Turkish man to prison for two and a half years. Other criminal suits were filed in Germany and France while most of the civil suits were filed in Britain.

The first lawsuit against a phisher was filed by the Federal Trade Commission in January of '04 against a 17-year old Californian teen that used a webpage resembling America Online to steal credit card numbers. The teen's punishment was a lifetime ban from sending spam and a US$3,500 fine.

Windows VISTA beta 2 - An exciting beta you can use !!

Micorsoft for a change has opened its Windows vista beta 2 to all users, and they even provide you with trial product key.Ok lets forget it all and come down to business, I installed vista ultimate edition last week and seriously didnt find anything discerning.

The beta is as smooth as any normal version, cool features wonderful new concepts.And it really looks like one for the future. The Collaboration tool and also IE and support for both 32 bit and 64 bit applications, and ability to run IE in both 32bit and 64 bit mode are real cool. The inbuilt phising filter,antispyware and Firewall have beefed up heavily.The security features have improved vastly.And cooler vista doesnt allow any software to run in admin mode without ur permission...so virtually denying spywares any control at all.

I got nVidia drivers for vista (yes most hw manufacturers already provide vista beta drivers).Even if vista installs ur driver I recommend you to download from hw manufacturer.Most XP drivers will do for Vista as well. Diagonistic tool in system menu recommends ur hw changes and driver updates and also suggests reasons why your PC is slower.

My recommendation for Vista (minimal)

Any P 4 or AMD XP or AMD 64

atleast 512 MB RAM(if you have a good ie 128MB or above graphics card)

(or)

1GB RAM

128MB or above graphics card(aero compatible)

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Microsoft's WGA(windows genuine advantage program) has raised more than a few eyebrows.When I first came across this news I was literally shocked that this issue hasnt gained needed attention.When Google is suing Microsoft over its MSN search default why no such antitrust suite has been filed against Microsoft bemuses me..

Ok let me explain what the real problem is , Microsofts Genuine advantage program which requires you to install an activex to verify ur Windows installation(to find pirated versions), calls back home (fancy word the online community coined for this issue) ie ur windows contacts Microsoft server everytime you start your machine.Though Microsoft says it collects no personal info, what shocks many is that this practice of microsoft has come out only after a year(since july 2005), until now no antispyware softwares or companies could detect this beahavior and Microsoft hasnt given an option for opting out of this problem.Only after a popular techie's blog exposing this issue Microsoft issued an statement in this regard.Microsoft gives a funny reason that in case if their validation tool fails and starts giving false positives, this approach will help them to shutdown the WGA program..

Now after much controversy Microsoft says that their sw wont call home everytime you rebot , well now only once in 14 days.. my question is if I have validated my software once what is the need for verifying after that??

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K J Dinesh, kj.dinesh@gmail.com , +919940392919

Zero day attack...

According to eWeek, there is a critical flaw in Microsoft Word that is being leveraged successfully to compromise fully patched Windows systems. The issue is designated as a zero-day attack because individuals responsible for the security incident are taking advantage of a flaw that was previously unknown.

Victims, it is reported, receive an e-mail that appears legitimate with an enclosed Word document. Once opened, the Word document launches a Trojan-like program that opens a back door into the affected system. Also troubling is the fact that neither the corrupt attachment nor the malware that it executes are currently being detected by anti-virus products. For all intents and purposes, attackers can gain full control of a compromised system using the method described in the article.

As there is currently no patch for the vulnerability being exploited, the recommended course of action for both home and corporate users is to be vigilant and reject any unexpected e-mail messages with Word attachment, even if they appear to come from legitimate sources.

It seems Microsoft is working on this and may release a patch on 13 jun 2006.But Antivirus vendors may introduce new updates much sooner.

Microsoft still the best..??

Well Even I have said about so many things about how Google is developing to be a biggie..But some industry analysts chuck away saying we’ll see how well Google matches with Biggies like Microsoft and Yahoo.

Their theory is not far fetched one rather they juz smoke out the facts.Google is showing attrocious growth and the stock’s value in NASDAQ is shooting up even people expect it to reach 2000$ (???) thats real Faaaaar fetched atleast for now.

One fact about Google’s income was missed by many,most of its current burgeoning account is from Google’s Adsense program or rather from the google ads you find in every nook and corner of the internet.Analysts feel that unlike Microsoft or Yahoo the regular software and web giants,Google has a long way to go.Google has been successful with Search service and all its products are also very popular juz because of the search service.But its revenues are from very much the unsung segements like ads and sponsors.Google has very few to show in terms of profits from its products. And though Google leads in search business by along way Microsoft(33% in email) and Yahoo(31% in email) are still the best No1 and 2 terms of email and chat services(yahoo 1 and MS 2) whereas Gmail accounts for juz 8%.Google is all about innovation but after sometime everyone will like to have a share of your innovation.Just the way it happened to Apple and Sony.If Google doesnt learn to play the game like Microsoft ..the bubble may break much sooner….

Google vs Bush

Well the fight is on between justice department and google,the justice department wants all the major search engines to provide the search data for every week to them.And the news is that except google everyone has accepted the proposal.Microsoft,Yahoo and others havent made any noise about this, meaning there’s no problem.The justice dept wants this data for a federal suit to prove in the court how easily porn content are available to children.

Though it might look reasonable, but in reality Google fears that the sensitive data it collects once shared will make the users afraid, simply its against its privacy policy.And once people come to know someone is watching and data is shared,people who prefer privacy will look for other options.And moreover the Fed suite for which data is needed is not a new one, everyone knows about how easily porn content is available on net,and the search majors may be asked to provide some survey results about the particular subject.Afterall the search majors are the biggest software companies and best in business. Well Bush will agree to this only if thats what their primary intention about the sensitive data. Already therPublishe is a talk about US control over internet and once US tries to take over the net we can expect more 9/11 in the cyberworld…….