Amazingly, I’ve not found enough blogs about it … I’m not sure if anyone noticed this change at all.

Google has published a new website on Sustainable Computering and explained their five steps plan to achieve the target to become a carbon-neutral company.

1. Minimize electricity used by servers
2. Reduce the energy used by the data center facilities themselves
3. Conserve precious fresh water by using recycled water instead
4. Reuse or recycle all electronic equipment that leaves our data centers
5. Engage with our peers to advance smarter energy practices

Personally I used this service very frequently and I was happy with the system. I guess Answers.com earned a handsome money from this redirecting service as well, as they are Google’s Premier Adsense Publisher and they blended Google ads very nicely and to be honest it was hard to separate the ads from the content.

Hopefully Google will substitute Answers.com’s service with some better options.

According to Qik “Qik enables you to share your moments live with your friends, family and the world - right from your mobile phone!” All the videos can be viewed live on Qik’s website or embeddable players in other websites.

The deal may help give Qik a leg up on its competitors Kyte and FlixWagon, neither of which come preinstalled on any phones.

Ballmer was short on details, saying more information would spoil the announcement. Windows Cloud is a separate project from Windows 7, the OS Microsoft is developing to succeed Windows Vista. Microsoft’s main rival Google already adopted Cloud computer offering users to use Google Docs. More and more companies are started cloud computing.

Microsoft want to adopt Cloud computing as it is cheaper in costs and less maintenance comparing to their fortune-building desktop-based software. Microsoft is developing online components for many of its products such as its SharePoint collaboration software; the Exchange e-mail server and its Dynamics Customer Relationship Management software, Ballmer said.

In May, they accounced Cashback Scheme where online buyers would get their money back buying products searching through Live search. But SearchPerks is different approach to learn about searchers behaviour and search trends.

According to SearchPerks Terms and Conditions, this promotion will be limited to first 1,000,000 responders before December 31, 2008.

Searchers need to register themselves first and then download Perk Counter Software. This software will record and send to Microsoft the number of web searches we will do each day on different search engines, the types of Searches complete, such as for news or images; and the number of online ads we click on. It also sends our Internet protocol address, the type of operating system, the language code of the operating system, the version of Internet Explorer, the version of the Perk Counter software we are using, and information about the browser we are using as well as which search toolbars, if any, are installed on the computer. The software also may collect information regarding the way we enter search queries for fraud detection purposes. The software does not record the search terms we use, the results we receive or the content of the ads you click on.

From the approach of the campaign, it’s clear that Microsoft is now keen to have knowledge of their potential searchers. Let’s see if they can do any better to knowing the facts and figures.

On 29th May 2008, Hutchison Telecommunications (Hong Kong) Limited announced that it has signed an agreement with Apple Inc. to bring the iPhone to Hong Kong and until today, users had to use their iPhone using Hutchison’s network unless they unlock their phone illegally. It’s definitely a good news for them.

The unlocked iPhone will sell for a high premium however, $695 USD for the 8GB model and $795 USD for the larger capacity 16GB model. In the US, where the phone sells the best, AT&T sells the phone with 2 year contract for $199 and $299 USD but will eventually sell the phone unlocked for $599 USD.

Source: Apple begins selling unlocked iPhones in Hong Kong

I’ve observed that Google is updated backlinks very quick now, you can search backlinks using http://www.google.com/search?q=link:http://www.hasan-online.com - you have to replace “www.hasan-online.com” with your own website address. Previously Google used to update backlinks only when they update PageRank - but now they are updating backlinks even their is not PR update.

There is another way to check backlinks, provably that’s the best way to check backlinks - using Google Webmasters Tool. Once webmasters submit their sitemap to Google, Google check all the incoming and outgoing links and show them in lists. That can be found under Links > Pages with external links.

However, lets talk about this PageRank update result … it’s been a mixed experiece for me. Few websites gained and some lost. Lets have a table:

Earlier Google published an interactive timeline to go through their 10 years journey, by year, by month - full of information, referenece and other details.

He announced their major expansion will be funded with the fresh investment. Money is expected to spend after the following:

• Infrastructure
• New feature development
• International expansion
• Hiring new people

According to Jay, Digg has over 30 million unique monthly visitors, and half of the total visitors are coming from outside USA. So they are planning for their international expansion in coming days, 2009. They will focus on visitors feedback and new features would be more personalized experience oriented.

He also they will be moving to San Francisco and they have already started hiring.

Source: Big News: Expanding & Growing Digg