Technology Click

Toshiba to launch blu-ray technology!

2009-08-16T02:00:00.000-07:00

Toshiba recently announced to launch players and laptops for Blu-ray Disc later this year. In a press briefing Toshiba said it had applied for membership of Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), the standards setting and licensing body behind the Blue-ray setup and would launch products before the end of 2009. Hot debate on the blu-ray is confusing a short no of purchasers because normal purchasers believe that it would comparatively expensive then DVD. Different surveys showed and technology writers are assuming that it would replace DVD very slowly and in long run.

[Original post on hotshouts.com]

Software Giant Microsoft' with a free PC security software!

2009-06-20T06:26:00.000-07:00

Microsoft Corp. is launching beta of free computer security program next week and is in pipeline to launch a finished product in the fall.

The program, Microsoft Security Essentials, is designed to find and kill malicious software that can steal passwords and other personal information or turn PCs into spam distribution hubs. When we will install PC security software, it will download updated lists of identified malware daily, but will keep a low profile unless it detects dangerous software. This software will have a friendly environment with PC and internet utilities as Microsoft also maintains a database of trusted software sources, so the tool won't accidentally block items like Google Inc.'s Web browser toolbar.

Security Essentials will compete with rival subscription programs from McAfee Inc. and Symantec Corp., and with several other free packages. But Burch said Microsoft isn't going after those company's customers — instead, the goal is to improve security overall by getting people who don't have current antivirus software to protect their PCs. This security software will available as a free download, but it won't be part of Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system, which goes on sale in October.

Microsoft is the most trusted name in IT. I think this anti virus program will help home and professional computer users. Well, personally I purchased 3 anti viruses (very famous names) but could not get desired results. My HP notebook has original windows XP and I use to repair it after almost 2 months...So im looking for Microsofts security software!

Tech blogger!

Hassaan Khan

Can google make youtube profitable?

2009-06-18T09:11:00.000-07:00

Online videos king web portal YouTube Inc.'s losses have been overblown by some analysts, but corporate parent Google Inc. doesn't mind the misperception, according to a buzz in the air.

Technology consultants at RampRate Inc. project YouTube's operating losses this year at $174.2 million — far below the $470.6 million estimated by Credit Suisse analysts Spencer Wang and Kenneth Sena in an April research report that became a hot topic on Wall Street and the Internet. The dueling forecasts are the latest twist in a guessing game that has intrigued investors since Google bought YouTube for $1.76 billion in late 2006. Although YouTube has become an even more popular diversion since the Google deal, it still hasn't proven it can make money. Google has acknowledged YouTube isn't very healthy project but still Google has not planned to sale it out. And Google has little incentive to set the record straight about YouTube's actual losses, according to RampRate, which specializes in managing technology costs.

RampRate reasons the perception of large losses at YouTube helps Google negotiate more favorable contracts with movie, TV and music studios licensing their video. What's more, copyright owners also are less likely to go to court in pursuit of unpaid royalties and damages if they believe YouTube is a big money loser, according to RampRate's thesis.

"Google is no doubt thrilled to let YouTube be known as a financial folly," RampRate's report said.

YouTube spokesman Aaron Zamost wouldn't comment directly on RampRate's report, but he stressed that Google has been running ads near or in millions of videos in an effort to curb YouTube's losses. He also said Google had little incentive to magnify its losses because YouTube shares revenue with its business partners.

I personally think Google Inc, is the biggest entrepreneurial example in the world. It looks impossible that Google just sell it out, the most popular video sharing website. May be, they will change some terms and conditions, patterns and technologies being used on youtube to energize it !

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Tech blogger

Hassaan Khan

Social networking and future!

2009-06-07T06:51:00.000-07:00

IT and business technology will take center stage in the post-recession economy, according to George Colony, CEO of Forrester.

In his keynote address at Forrester IT Forum in Berlin, Colony described the current economic turbulence as a "gateway recession" that will connect two different eras.

Colony listed five challenges that chief executive officers can expect to tackle during this recession.

In the past, "Technology was essentially a choice before for most companies, but digital is now mandatory. The CEO is no longer able to say 'I don't understand technology'. Today's boards can no longer forgive CEOs that don't understand digital," said Colony.

Secondly, said Colony, customers are no longer loyal to brands because there is more choice.

Customers are changing, he added. The new generation of graduates, the Y Generation or Millennials, are more comfortable with using social networking technologies than older media. They are twice as likely to use blogs, gaming sites and Twitter as to read newspapers.

"Colleges in US have stack of New York Times that are given away for free, but nobody reads them in the colleges. People no longer watch TV," he said. This means, "Companies must sell to them in a different way, connect to Twitter, MySpace and Facebook to reach customers."

The Forrester CEO also highlighted a demographic time bomb facing businesses. There will be challenges in attracting and recruiting the best graduates in future. The proportion of young people in the population is declining, while many workers are approaching retirement. In the next ten years, 40% of nurses will retire and 45% of federal workers will retire, he said.

"If you have a lot of COBOL, may want to build your next datacentre next to a retirement home," Colony quipped.

The fifth, and perhaps biggest challenge, is that traditional "black-box", internal innovation is "dead".

"Innovation will be defined by networks, you work with partners or competitors or customers using social technologies," said Colony.

In an interview with ComputerworldUK.com, Colony used the term "Social Sigma" to describe the way businesses need to embrace social networking tools and methodologies.

In the new post-recession era, customers will use social technologies to become an active participant in broad aspects of product development.

Colony concluded on a positive note, saying that in the post-recession era, it will be the turn of IT and business technology to shine.

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Source: www.pcworld.com

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/166269/social_networks_the_future_of_computing.html

My best online earning experience!

2009-05-27T03:50:00.001-07:00

I found many people saying that aw survey is a fake website. People say 'They don't pay there users'. I want to tell them that it is a genuine online earning website. They have simple conditions if you fulfill their conditions you will get paid. The procedure is very simple, make your free account and refer friends on aw surveys, you will get paid $1.25 per referral. And Fill available surveys as well.

Don't ever try to make fake accounts. They track same Names, IDs, and IP addresses for removing illegal users. So Join aw surveys, refer users, fill simple surveys and GET PAID!

Join Aw surveys: http://www.AWSurveys.com/HomeMain.cfm?RefID=Mhassankhan

;)

Hassaan Khan

HP and Blackberry's handshake!

2009-05-04T07:55:00.000-07:00

According to internet news Hewlett-Packard Co and BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd accounced that they have created an alliance to provide services for the BlackBerry.

HP CloudPrint for BlackBerry smartphones, which allows users to print e-mails and documents at the nearest printer using the Internet.

HP's enterprise customers can also use the PC maker's ProLiant servers to run the BlackBerry Enterprise Server software, the companies said.

BlackBerry handsets have become a choice of executives, lawyers, politicians and other professionals who use them to send wireless e-mail assistance.

Both HP and Blackberry are well known name and both have a large market shares in IT and telecom respectively. So people will definitely wait for this venture !

Do you know what is Bluetooth 3.0 ???????

2009-04-16T11:20:00.000-07:00

The Bluetooth 3.0 buzz is under construction. It the short-range wireless standard Bluetooth 3.0 will get its official launch on April 21. However, the developers of the standard, the Bluetooth special interest group' aren't officially saying anything. According to blog DVice, it has received a press release from the Bluetooth SIG that the latest Bluetooth standard will debut April 21 when specifications will be unveiled.

What is Bluetooth 3.0 ?

This technology is expected to deliver even faster short-range wireless speeds (up to 480 Mbit/s), improvements to reduce chances of device disconnections when syncing, and the addition of Generic Alternate MAC/PHY (AMP) technology that will reportedly allow Bluetooth 3.0 devices to transfer data at speed on equal with Wi-Fi.

What's unique about Bluetooth is its low cost and low power consumption, allowing it to be used in devices such as cell phones where cost and power consumption are huge concerns for developers. However, Bluetooth technology has struggled in its efforts to be adopted widely.

What the blogs are saying?

The Bluetooth SIG claims Bluetooth 3.0 can wirelessly transfer "an entire music library, a complete DVD [or] a vacation's worth of photos, all within seconds," according to the blog DVice. In addition to pumped-up speed, Bluetooth 3.0 could also feature "Enhanced Power Control," which reduces those annoying headset disconnects caused by putting your phone in your pocket or purse.

There are no details at the moment about Bluetooth 3.0-ready devices, but most Bluetooth watchers expect the Bluetooth SIG to release a list of manufacturers that have products ready to go at the Bluetooth 3.0 launch on April 21.

What Bluetooth SIG Representatives are Saying?

The news that Bluetooth 3.0 will launch on April 21 comes from two blogs: DVice and PhoneScoop. However, I spoke with several Bluetooth representatives and none of them could confirm a Bluetooth 3.0 announcement on April 21.

I did learn there will be an "all-hands meeting" in Japan for Bluetooth SIG personnel on April 21, but no one I talked to had any knowledge of an official announcement scheduled for that date. I also learned that while Bluetooth 3.0 is widely expected to be the official name for the next Bluetooth standard, codenamed Seattle, it has not become the official name just yet.

So, let us 21 april come, what people and media would say about it? We will let u know!

YouTube and Universal is coming with premium music site!!

2009-04-16T11:12:00.000-07:00

Google's YouTube and Universal Music Group, the world's largest music company, said that they will launch a premium music video website as they bid to increase revenue from YouTube's huge usage.

The new advertiser-supported site, featuring professional videos, will be called Vevo and is expected to launch in coming months, the companies said.

The deal is a boost for YouTube, which has been under increasing pressure from music labels and publishers who are frustrated that the popular site has been unable to pay higher fees for rights to use their music and videos.

Talks broke down late last year between YouTube and the No.3 music company Warner Music Group. Last month YouTube was forced to block all music videos in the UK and last week it had to do the same in Germany in a similar dispute with song publishers over money.

Vevo is an attempt to address this disparity between YouTube's popularity, it has 100 million users in the U.S. alone according to comScore, and its relatively low advertising rate or CPMs (cost per thousand page views) as it is called.

The new site will be a music video hub wholly owned by Universal, a unit of French media group Vivendi.

It will feature higher-quality videos, as opposed to the typical grainy and often user-generated videos on YouTube.

The idea is for Vevo to attract big-name advertisers and other content-owner partners.

"The rationale is to help make Vevo a place that brands feel more comfortable," said Rio Caraeff, executive vice president of Universal's eLabs.

"Ultimately we think it will increase in effect the CPMs and drive more revenue to YouTube and more revenue to the music business than they can have today," said Caraeff.

YouTube and Universal Music will share advertising revenue generated by the site. Both sides are betting that building a premium site will help increase advertising rates. Many big brand owners have avoided advertising alongside YouTube's ad hoc mix of user-generated videos.

David Eun, Google's vice president of strategic partnerships, said the higher quality professional content would appeal to advertisers.

"As we continue to work more closely with advertisers and potential sponsors we have a good sense of the type of content that they're attracted to," said Eun.

Industry watchers will likely compare Vevo with Hulu, a high quality online video service jointly owned by NBC Universal and News Corp with about a third of the number of users of YouTube.

Hulu which features popular TV shows and some movies, has been more successful at selling advertising inventory to big brand owners than YouTube.

Vevo will also serve as a syndication platform called the Vevo Music Network which will power music videos on partner sites.

Universal Chief Executive Doug Morris is said to be in talks on bringing other music companies on board to give fans a comprehensive music site. Talks with EMI Group and Sony Music, which renewed its YouTube deal in February, will likely be more straightforward than talks with Warner Music. But Universal is hoping to have all four majors and others on board before launch.

"The feedback from the fan and advertiser is that ultimately they want all of the premium music content and not just Universal Music Group," said Caraeff.

Caraeff declined to comment on whether the other music companies could negotiate for a stake in Vevo. The music companies jointly own stakes in other ventures including MySpace Music.

Plans for Vevo come in addition to the renewal and extension of YouTube's existing recordings and publishing rights deal to feature video content from Universal artists such as U2, 50 Cent and Kanye West.

(Courtesy: tech.yahoo.com)

Internet users are running out after file-sharing law in sweden!

2009-04-06T06:09:00.000-07:00

Internet traffic dropped fastly in Sweden this week after a new law came into their way, cracking down on online copyright violation.

An organization measuring Internet traffic, suggest that daily online activity dropped more than 40 percent after the law took effect on Wednesday.

Swedish Anti-Piracy Bureau said Friday that the plunge is a sign that violators are reducing their activity for fear of getting caught.

This law makes it easier to prosecute file-sharers because it requires Internet Service Providers to disclose the IP-addresses of suspected violators to copyright owners.

Making such global resources monitor can reduce illegal practices.

Is google serious in buying twitter?????

2009-04-05T13:23:00.001-07:00

Eric Schmidt recently left Twitter as a "poor man's email" and shot down speculation the Web search giant was interested in buying the micro-blogging sensation.

Arrington said Google would pay cash or publicly valued stock for Twitter, which turned down a 500-million-dollar takeover offer from social network colossus Facebook just a few months ago.

Arrington has told that Google and Twitter were in "late-stage negotiations" but he backed off that assertion slightly in a later post in which he said the acquisition talks were "still fairly early stage."

Schmidt also backed away from his dismissal of Twitter and said "we admire Twitter."

"We think Twitter did a very good job of exposing a whole new way to communicate," he said.

Also he added "I'm not sure prices are at their low yet," Schmidt said. "The situation globally is pretty dire. We are certainly looking. We haven't seen anything yet that was really exciting."

Twitter, which allows users to pepper one another with messages of 140 characters or less, has seen a dizzying surge in popularity since it was launched in August 2006, but has been unable so far to generate revenue.

But Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said last week that he expected to find ways to pump cash into the fast-growing free service, including possibly charging fees for commercial accounts used by businesses.

Stone, who unveiled plans this week to feature a search box more prominently on the Twitter home page, also said that Twitter remains focused on growth. The company has more than seven million users and claims a growth rate of more than 900 percent in the past year.

Twitter co-founders Stone and Evan Williams sold the blog-making website "Blogger" to Google five years ago.

Well ! They made blogger or someone from google made it! The thing i know is 'blogger' is successful free blogging community now a days.

Hassaan Khan

Can someone compete Google??

2009-03-09T12:10:00.000-07:00

According to internet based article, we have come to know that a British physicist is planning to launch a new internet search engine with highly energetic expectations to compete with Google'...

Well its not an easy game to compete Goooooooooogle'

London-born scientist Stephen Wolfram says that his company, Wolfram Research, is preparing to unveil the system in two months' time.

Known as Wolfram Alpha, the site is an attempt to address some of the deficiencies of current web search by understanding people's questions and answering them directly.

"Fifty years ago, when computers were young, people assumed that they'd quickly be able to handle all these kinds of things … and that one would be able to ask a computer any factual question and have it compute the answer," he wrote on the Wolfram Research website.

"But it didn't work out that way … I'd always thought, though, that eventually it should be possible. And a few years ago, I realised that I was finally in a position to try and do it."

According to its creator, the system understands questions that users input and then calculates the answers based on its extensive mathematical and scientific engine.

Natural language processing – the ability to determine – has long been a holy grail for computer scientists, who believe for interacting with machines in an instinctive way. And that, says Wolfram, is part of the code that Alpha has cracked.

"The way humans normally communicate is through natural language – and when one's dealing with the whole spectrum of knowledge, I think that's the only realistic option for communicating with computers too," he wrote.

"Of course, getting computers to deal with natural language has turned out to be incredibly difficult. And, for example, we're still very far away from having computers systematically understand large volumes of natural language text on the web."

Other search engines, such as Google, compare search terms against billions of documents stored on its servers, before pointing to the pages on which the correct answer is probably kept.

Although this method has proved phenomenally successful, many computer scientists have continued trying to create a system that can understand human language.

One of the most recent to claim a breakthrough was Powerset, which raised $12.5m (£8.9m) in funding and was under development for several years – but only released a limited search engine for Wikipedia before being bought by Microsoft for $100m last year.

According to Nova Spivack, the founder of another intelligent web service, Twine, Alpha is far more impressive than what has gone before.

"Wolfram Alpha is like plugging into a vast electronic brain, "It provides extremely impressive and thorough questions asked in many different ways, and it computes answers – it doesn't merely look them up in a big database."

Well..It will be proved after launching of walfram alpha, that how does it works!

have fun!

Hassaan

Facebook is looking towards twitter !!!!!!!!

2009-03-07T02:14:00.000-08:00

Popularity of Twitter and eager to satisfy the demands of many users for a more flexible service, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Wednesday that the social-networking site will roll out a redesign of many components on March 11.

The entrance theme will be new . "The new home page will let you see everything that's shared by your friends and connections as it happens," Zuckerberg explained in a post to the Facebook blog. "It will also provide you more control by letting you choose exactly who you see among the people and things you are connected to."

WOW MR. ZUCKERBERG !

Among other things, Zuckerberg said, users will be able to filter update streams so they can see updates from specific groups of friends. In addition, users will be able to see updates from celebrities and businesses by following them, much as people "follow" each other on Twitter.

New Profiling!

During a two-hour press conference to announce the changes, Zuckerberg praised both Twitter and MySpace for their innovative ways of connecting people. Chris Cox, Facebook's director of product development, said the company will introduce a feature that will change the concept of a profile and bring it more in line with Twitter's approach.

"The limit today with [Facebook] profiles," Cox said, "is that you can't reach a large audience with profiles. You can't have more than 5,000 people receiving your updates. So now you can set your privacy settings so you still have that intimate connection, but you can distribute your content to far more people who aren't friends. It sounds like a Twitteresque follow system, in that it's one-sided."

Zuckerberg added that the purpose of the change is to make the site more friendly for businesses and high-profile individuals to connect to customers and fans. "What we're talking about today," he said, "is that there's a philosophical change in that we want to converge these public figures (which are one-way) and friends (two-way connections). People asking for 5,000 friends don't necessarily want to connect with 5,000 people, they want to let 5,000 people connect with them."

Faster Updates

Another Twitter-style feature that will make an appearance in the new Facebook design are real-time updates. Currently, Facebook updates its feeds on a regular schedule, roughly every 10 minutes or so. The company will now pick up the pace.

By increasing the speed of updates and bringing them closer to real time, Facebook increases the likelihood that location-based services (particularly advertising) will be part of the company's future.

"[Location-based services] are going to be important things in the future," Zuckerberg said. "We're at a place today where we think things are increasing in speed; in the future the LBS stuff will be even more possible. I think you'll see is a directionality of being able to serve both public and closed services. We're going to be rolling out a lot more services through the rest of the year."

Great.... Well its a good example of "Global Village" product.

Best of luck Mr. Zuckerberg!!

Team

Technology Click.

Google is gathering cash' (Good & timely strategy, I must say)

2009-03-06T13:18:00.000-08:00

Google Inc plans to let its cash to be collected as it weathers the economic recession, the Web search leader's Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said on Wednesday.

Google will only use its $8.6 billion cash cushion for "conservative investments," Schmidt said, and is unlikely to start a dividend in the current environment.

CEO said the economic storm would affect all forms of advertising.

"We don't predict things like that," Schmidt said when asked if the company's diversity would shield it from the economic slowdown.

Schmidt added later in the interview that he did not intend to give revenue outlook as Google does not give forward guidance. Google continues to look at acquisition opportunities, but said he wasn't sure that prices were at their lows yet, or that the economic slowdown has reached its bottom.

Well, as a blogger, and young entrepreneur i want to say that collection of receivables as soon as possible is a good step, overall economies are shutting down. Less credit policies and terms will only be the solution for survival ....

Social and technology blogger

Hassaan Khan

Top 10 most costly domains --- WOW

2009-03-06T13:07:00.000-08:00

Porn.com, Diamonds.com -- Now, Toys.com -- Among Most Expensive URLs
How much is the word "toys" worth on the Internet? Hundreds? Thousands?

Toys, diamonds and porn make for some of the most expensive domain names.

(ABC News/Getty)

Try millions of dollars.

In a close bidding war, Toys 'R' Us last week bought the domain name Toys.com at auction for $5.1 million, placing it among the top 10 most expensive domain names on record.

And industry watchers say that it was probably a bargain.

"Had it not been such a recession, I think it probably would have gone for a little bit more than that," Ron Jackson, editor and publisher of the Domain Name Journal, told ABCNews.com. In better economic times, he said it might have sold in the $7 to $8 million range.

The reason a generic word like "toys" has such value, he said, is because it's a massive key word. Hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of people type that word into search engines every day, generating an incredible flow of traffic to Toys.com.

(abcnews.go.com)

Bad news for many people; No more pirated DVDs from China !!!

2009-03-06T13:06:00.000-08:00

Do u know, what gonna happen???????????????

If you've been copying DVDs using some made-in-China DVD player, think about taking good care of the device, as you might not be able to buy a replacement.
The Motion Picture Association of America on Friday announced that its member companies have won a breach of contract lawsuit against China-based DVD player manufacturer Gowell Electronics Limited. The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California issued a permanent injunction that prohibits the manufacturer from violating any term of the Content Scramble System license agreement.
The lawsuit started in June of 2008 after an MPAA investigation revealed that Gowell was manufacturing and selling DVD players that lacked the appropriate implementation of the CSS license agreement.
CSS technology is a security measure that controls unauthorized access to and copying of copyrighted content on DVDs. The CSS license mandates the content protection that enables film studios to provide consumers with more than 84,000 DVD titles, including 12,000 new titles last year alone.
The motion picture studios are third-party beneficiaries of the CSS license and may enforce it against licensees who fail to comply with its terms.
While this is the ninth such case in which a court has issued a permanent injunction banning future violations of the license, this time the plaintiffs are allowed to review and test any new or re-engineered products that incorporate the CSS technology before going to market.
According to the MPAA, worldwide motion picture industry losses total more than $11 billion annually to hard goods piracy, including bootlegging and illegal copying. MPAA member companies have now won three injunctions against noncompliant DVD player manufacturers and six against companies in the IT area. They intend to continue pursuing other violators vigorously through future litigation. .
(CNET)

HuH !!!!
Let’s see how much this step will be succeeded. But where Chinese growth in technology is so fast, I can predict that may be, some more unauthorized ways born in IT.

Microsoft and LG sign mobile collaboration deal !!!

2009-03-06T13:05:00.000-08:00

Can you imagin microsoft in your mobile????????

Microsoft Corp. and South Korea's LG Electronics Inc, signed an introductory agreement on strategic collaboration in mobile technology."According to this agreement they will do strategic collaboration in R&D, marketing, applications, and services in the field of converged mobile devices," LG said in a statement."Both companies will continue to define and align their mobile strategies through annual top management meeting.";)The agreement was signed during Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's trip to South Korea.Meanwhile larger home rival Samsung Electronics on the same day announced the launch of the domestic version of the Omnia touch screen handset model, based on Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system.The model will be available from mid-November under an exclusive deal with No. 1 mobile operator SK Telecom, Samsung said.Microsoft is hoping its Windows Mobile operating system can continue to challenge Symbian, a platform backed by the world's top mobile phone maker Nokia and used in two-thirds of smartphones -- mobile handsets with computer-like capabilities.Blackberry-maker Research in Motion and Apple Inc's iPhone are also growing threats to Symbian, while several manufacturers are planning or have started to roll out smartphones based on Google's Android software.Both LG and Samsung are members of the Symbian Foundation and are also developing models based on Android."These are not new deals, but rather a way for South Korean makers to reinforce existing alliances," said Greg Roh, an analyst at Korea Investment & Securities, about the Microsoft-related announcements."Competition is getting more and more fierce in the smartphone segment, and South Korean makers have some weaknesses on Symbian platforms, so it is understandable that they would broaden their alliances."(Reuters)

Well, i 'll say Microsoft is a giant firm, and will not accept that some other collaboration will get huge success. Definitely it does not mean that Microsoft will do conspiracies rather then giving extra ordinary solutions in particular product.

Google got more then 150,000 online submissions !

2009-03-06T13:04:00.000-08:00

A $10 million call by Google Inc. for beneficial, world-changing ideas has generated more than 150,000 online submissions.
More than 150,000 people have submitted ideas they hope will benefit the world -- and be funded by Google.

The deadline for people to submit ideas for the initiative, called Project 10^100, was Monday. Google employees will now sift through the ideas, submitted in 25 languages, and choose 100 semifinalists by January 27. Funding for up to five winning ideas will be awarded in May.

"We're thrilled by the large array of enthusiastic responses to Project 10^100. That number has exceeded our expectations," said Bethany Poole, a product marketing manager at Google.

"We're also very impressed by the variety and ingenuity of the submissions across all categories, ranging from health to energy, education and the environment," she said.

Google launched the ambitious project September 24 to help celebrate its 10th birthday. In announcing Project 10^100 (pronounced "10 to the 100th"), the Internet giant said to hoped to solicit and bankroll fresh ideas it believes will have broad and beneficial effects on people's lives.

The project's Web site (http://www.project10tothe100.com/) suggested that successful ideas address such critical issues as providing food and shelter, building communities, improving health, granting more access to education, sustaining the global ecosystem and promoting clean energy.

As an example, Google cited the invention of the Hippo Water Roller, a barrel-shaped container that holds 24 gallons and can be rolled with little effort like a wheelbarrow, making it easier for African villagers on foot to transport critically needed fresh water to their homes.

Over the past month, the Google project's Web site received more than 2.5 million unique visitors, and its video was watched more than a million times. Entrants had to briefly describe their idea and answer six questions, including, "If your idea were to become a reality, who would benefit the most and how?"

Now comes the hard part. More than 3,000 Google employees from more than 50 offices worldwide, with the help of an advisory board, will whittle down the massive list to 100 finalists.

"We will be going through the database and judging the ideas based on their reach, depth, attainability, efficiency and longevity," Poole said.

On January 27, Google will make the top 100 ideas available online for public voting for one week. A panel of as-yet-unnamed judges will then review the top 20 ideas and announce up to five winners in mid-February.

Funding, from a pool of $10 million, will be awarded in May. If the judges decide to reward five winning ideas, each will receive $2 million. If only two ideas are chosen, each will receive $5 million, and so on.

(reference: cnn.com)

Yahoo's top executives keep their jobs as slump deepens; 1,500 workers to be fired ! Oh

2009-03-06T13:02:00.001-08:00

Yahoo Inc.'s leaders still have jobs despite investor misgivings about their decision making, but at least 1,500 workers will be shown the door after the slumping Internet company's profits tumbled yet again in the third quarter.

The 10 percent reduction in Yahoo's payroll of 15,000 employees served as another stark reminder of the challenges facing a management team led by Jerry Yang as the deteriorating economy casts even more doubts about the Sunnyvale-based company's turnaround plans.

Although Yahoo's third-quarter profit plunged 64 percent, the cutbacks announced Tuesday are a small step in the right direction, said Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Derek Brown.

"But it seems like there is still a lot more work that needs to be done," he said.

Yahoo is bracing for a deep downturn likely to extend well into 2009 by trimming $400 million from its annual expenses of $3.9 billion. Besides shedding 1,500 workers during the next two months, Yahoo may close some of its U.S. offices and assign more jobs to lower-paid contractors in other countries.

"We are going into what is very clearly a recession mode," Blake Jorgensen, Yahoo's chief financial officer, said in a Tuesday interview.

Yahoo's determination to rein in its expenses seemed to please investors, who have been disillusioned with the company's direction for years.

Yahoo shares gained nearly 7 percent in extended trading after ending the regular session at $12.07, down 79 cents.

But Yang and his lieutenants have a long way to go to justify Yahoo's decision to spurn Microsoft's takeover bid of $33 per share last May. Microsoft withdrew the offer after Yang balked at the price, asserting his management team was pursuing a strategy that would prove the company was worth than the software maker's $47.5 billion bid.

"The heat is definitely still on Yang," said Canaccord Adams analyst Colin Gillis.

The purge outlined Tuesday marks the second time in nine months that Yahoo has resorted to mass layoffs in what so far has been an ineffectual effort to rebound from a financial funk that has left its stock price near a 5 1/2-year low.

(Reference: abcnews.com)

Hi Readers/Visitors,

2009-03-06T13:01:00.000-08:00

Welcome to My blog
This blog will give you the latest news and reports from science, art, religion, IT and technology..

Keep visiting...

Technology break..

Hv fun

tc

Hassaan k