Ryo Central Blog

Google Applies For TV Voice Control Patent

2012-02-21T08:52:00.001Z

Apple began the war, now Google is ready to fight it. Google applied for a patent to control TV with voice commands, and shows big plans for their Android@home. We will see more about that at MWC 2012 in a few days. This also means, if Apple will bring an Apple TV, it might lack voice control, because Google will for sure, fight for that patent. As you know, if you don't actually defending your patent, you're going to lose it.

Google 的貼牌冰箱（Google refrigerator） (Photo credit: Aray Chen)

Now the lesson was learned by Google. Unlike in the past, where Google invented a lot of things and didn't applied for patents, they have learn, they need to do so, not to get ripped off by other companies.

The patent system is broken. It's wrong from the beginning. But if nobody is going to fix it, Google have to play with the given rules. And now it looks like they finally will. You woke up the sleeping dog, now it's going to be very angry. Poor Apple. If Apple is losing the capability to control their rumored Apple TV with voice commands, it's losing their most discussed feature. Everyone said the "Siri for TV" will be a revolution. Now Google seems to have that revolution and worked long before at voice command than Apple.

We know "Voice Actions" from Android. And Google missed on that one to get a patent. Siri would have never happened if Google had the patent for voice controlling your phone. With the war Apple is bringing to the consumers, Google won't miss a second chance again.

New Google Bar In Google+ And Gmail

2012-02-16T11:26:00.000Z

Today I saw the new Google bar in Google+ and Gmail. You know, I want the grey one with the drop-down menu back.

The new bar has a consistent black row on top of the screen and then a non-consistent part within the page. I can't understand this design-wise. It's not clear and looks different on almost any page. On Google+ it's a balck bar with a grey bar below, in Gmail it's a black bar with a little transparent field on the upper right side of the page when using themes or a short grey bar in the original theme, and in Google search it has something like in G+ without the gray bar.

New bar on Google+

New bar on Gmail

So basically, it's always different depending on your settings and service.
However, not all services does have the new one by now. Picasa still has the new old black bar and YouTube has no bar at all.
That's when you listen to every naysayer on the net. Maybe it's best to give the user options to select which type they want. I'm not happy with this one at all.

Asus Raised The Price For Webstorage drastically

2012-02-15T14:55:00.000Z

Asus Webstorage. Unlimited space, for about $9 for 3 month? Yes that was an offer. Now everything is gone, making it another expensive and very limited cloud storage.

The leftover of a former outstanding cloud storage

Out of nothing, Asus cut the AsusWebstorage down. Now offering 50GB $49.99/year and 500GB $99.99/year. Limitations are going even further. Max file upload size is 1GB/2GB instead of max. 4GB, which renders the service useless for some backup functionality, and 10GB/20GB limit for file sharing (don't care much about this one). Backup (snort) is now limited to 1/2 computers, before it was a max. of 5 computers.
This is quite a downturn, and now nothing is left to be special against the competition. Such a raise in price and cut of features is very uncommon.

Does Asus know something about what the Google Drive is going to cost and justified their own prices? Or is Asus losing it? Because one thing is sure, if Google Drive comes out with a proce like they charge now for Docs Storage, Asus Webstorage and some others are out of business.

[via AsusWebstorage]

Free Playlist #086

2012-02-14T12:06:00.000Z

Another free playlist from Jamendo.com. Trance all the way. I hope you'll enjoy it.

Royalty Free Music - Stock Music Library | Jamendo PRO

Playlist:

1. Land of Dreams by Atomic cat

2. Abyss by Atomic cat

3. Afterwork by DieAitsch

4. One Step On Time by Snabisch

5. To Walk Alone by Jarek Laaser

6. Steam maschine by The-Watcher

7. Trance is in the Air by The-Watcher

Path hysteria, now Instagram reacts

2012-02-12T14:01:00.000Z

I'm not exactly an Apple fan by any means. But I can't get the hysteria about Path.
So Path took your contacts to compare if another user in your contacts is already using the service to notify you.

Path (Photo credit: SimonQ錫濛譙)

This is pretty much the same than many apps are doing. I'm not sure why the panic started now, but Instagram now seems to react before the light sheds on them, too. Now so many services are doing this. And that's a logical thing. How else you could make this feature happen? Hashes? Well, this wouldn't work much. If you want to now e.g. if your friends on Facebook are using this service, they need clear names. May it be that the app can make a hash out of your contact-entry on the phone, but it would also require to make a hash from your Facebook account with exactly the same value. Clear names are okay to compare with a secured connection.

Now what are those companies doing? The only wrong I can see here is, they should have stated this clearly, with a big prompt, that they are using your complete contact-list for comparing. That's the only thing. And those hysteric users need to chill a little. There are much worse things going on, and Apple did good on not blocking Path from the App-Store.

Wait until the panic-makers find out that basically WhatsApp is doing the same thing. And Kik, and KakaoTalk, and ...

[via TheNextWeb]

Instagram Now Prompts You to Share Contacts:

"With Path coming in for some intense criticism last week for uploading a user’s entire contact list without their permission, it appears that Instagram has used its most recent update to safeguard itself and its users by introducing a new privacy prompt when matching friend lists."

'via Blog this'

New Google Chrome 17: More Colorful And More Security

2012-02-09T07:07:00.000Z

You can recognize some minor UI changes, which make Chrome look a little bit more slick. The preferences are more colorful, the + sign for a new Tab disappeared. Instead it's a transparent Parallelogram.

Google Chrome 17

More important than that are the security improvements and the prediction for typing URLs in the omnibar and loading the sites you might visit upfront. That saves a lot of time.
You can only hope to to live in a country where accessing a specific IP isn't a crime. Or just turn of this feature. You would wonder what countries those are. Check local laws.
Chrome now checks .exe and .msi files for malicious behavior. Looks like security companies have a hard time to sell their products to Chrome-users or Android-users in the future. Wait a minute. First let's see how this works. But nice to have a little extra protection upfront.

Google Chrome Blog: Faster browsing, safer downloading: "When I visit my favorite sandwich shop, I always order the same thing: a chicken cashew salad sandwich on whole wheat (it’s awesome)."

The Super Bowl XLVI Thriller

2012-02-06T15:52:00.001Z

Yes, I was at a Super Bowl XLVI Party hours before the historic game began. The mood was very good, party all over the place, good food (yes, even for vegans), root beer fun and a local football team introduced themselves. All in all it was a well organized party. But it was nothing to the breathtaking game.

I saw a lot of Super Bowl games and I watched the big classics over and over again. And this was one of the most exciting Super Bowl game ever.
The New England Patriots had a brilliant season. The New York Giants started their engines right off before the playoffs. To be honest, both team deserved to win the game before it even started. I tended to give the NE Patriots more of a chance.

But then the start. 2 points given away from Tom Brady for a safety for intentional grounding. The defense of the Giants played a great game. From the first minute until literally to the last second, they were focused and putting big pressure on.
The offense of the Patriots went on and took the lead for quite some time.
Halftime. Madonna did a great show, but everyone was eager to see the game continuing. Then Eli Manning showed his great performance that night. He made the right decisions. Everytime. Again and again. Throwing great passes and controlling the game. The Giants receivers did a tremendous job, the RB's went berserk. New England however did a great job on their own. They gave nothing away.

Then the last minute began. New York scored a touchdown, which some said they let him through to get the ball in time for a counterattack. Whatever, Brady got the ball back with less slightly than 1 minute left. He tried hard. The pressure was extremely high and Tom Brady couldn't keep the calmness of Eli Manning and the New York Giants defense. Focused they defended extraordinarily and Brady didn't find the right decisions to outplay them. At last the Hail Mary pass was inevitable. A pass that could have brought the bowl to New England, He threw, but again the defense of the New York Giants did an awesome job and the game was over.

New York Giants 21 - 17 New England Patriots

Image by Getty Images via @daylife
All rights reserved.

What a game. This folks, will be in the historic books of football forever. The fans of both teams had excitement from the beginning till the end. There were two winners yesterday! One won the game, too.

Only in the US: Destroy America Tweet Makes You A Terrorist

2012-02-02T15:37:00.001Z

You may ask how dumb a system can get with paranoia and brainwashing?

Found this on RMS political notes:

A UK resident citizen who joked he would "destroy America" (UK slang
for have a party) and "dig up Marilyn Monroe") in LA was treated as a
real terrorist and
blocked from entering the US.They even searched his girlfriend's baggage for shovels.
When US border agents tell us how much they do to keep us "safe", I am
sure they will count him as one of the people they protected us from.
This reminds me of when the Australian TV producer tried to go to LA
to "shoot a pilot", and the border numbskulls thought he meant he
would kill someone.

Link: Destroy America

Image via Wikipedia

O RLY?
Bwahahahahahaha.

Dig up Marylin Monroe? I'l guess she isn't even blonde anymore. I'll dig up George Washington. Looks like the USA needs more from him again.
And destroying the USA? Hum. I think 70% of the world would want this, but that's what it means when you make a big time party. I'm destroying France instead. Paris is much better to party at.

But wait. It's no joke. And also makes clear: At least your Tweets will be read from the US border agents. See, your tweets ARE important.
And maybe we should travel to more friendly countries like China or Iran. They won't read all of the tourists tweets beforehand, or they apparently don't care much if you're a tourist.

Related articles

Polish Politicians Wearing Guy Fawkes-Masks: Now Anonymous IS A Worldwide Political Movement

2012-01-30T12:27:00.000Z

This is going to be a part of the history of the Internet.
While the Polish Government signs ACTA, member of the parliament wore Anonymous-masks to protest against it.

Source: imgur / License unknown

This epic picture is a mark for the movement and influence of Anonymous. The loose group, which doesn't have a structure itself, is a symbol for the fight for freedom in the net. Now, after "Operation Paperstorm", it's once more in real life, with politicians in Poland wearing the symbol of Anonymous, the Guy Fawkes-mask in the parliament.
I see this as an acceptance, even by politicians, that Anonymous is fighting a legal battle for the Internet. For sure, we will see this photo more than once on the net.

A call for other politicians in other countries to do the same and show the resistance against ACTA, which takes the power from judges and gives them to so-called right holders. And if we really must prove legality everything we own, we're all doomed. A witchhunt, that can be executed by big media companies at will.

Filehosters In Panic And Closing Services

2012-01-24T11:20:00.000Z

As predicted, the strike against Megaupload has much influence on other File- and Sharehosters. Many of them closing, or crippling services. Millions of legal files are no more accessible, and trustful users are going to experience how it is, when you can't share your own files, while lawyers questioning the Megaupload takedown.

FileSonic is basically nothing more that a webspace without direct linking: "All sharing functionality on FileSonic is now disabled. Our service can only be used to upload and retrieve files that you have uploaded personally."
FileServe allows only download the files you uploaded, like FileSonic.
Uploaded.to disabled the service for visitors from the US.
FileJungle & Uploadstation stopped his Affiliate-program
x7.to closed all the services
Dozens of other Filehosters are not reachable or abandoning their Affiliate-plans

Jobs at some of those services are in danger. Some employees are afraid to go to work. Think property has won? No Freedom has lost. Try to upload your own work for the public freely. At least you can try it at RapidShare.com. For now, they don't changed anything. It's a Switzerland based company. Maybe that's the future of US freedom. Fleeing to Switzerland.

RMS Political Note About Apple

2012-01-23T14:03:00.001Z

Interesting link from Richard M. Stallman:

Apple:

Why does Apple do manufacturing
in China rather than the US?
This article criticizes Apple's immediate reason. Looking more
deeply, I can suggest underlying reasons to criticize too.

Because Apple is greedy and unscrupulous, and has no loyalty

to any country. (It is a big corporation.)

Because of "free trade" treaties that enable the unscrupulous and

greedy

to use sweatshops in China or elsewhere.

Because the corporations dominated the US government since before

1990.

Wow. that article is harsh, but has some interesting points.
Just wanted to let you know.

Image via Wikipedia

Move Your File To Other Countries Before It's Too Late

2012-01-20T20:35:00.000Z

It's hard to trust any US cloud space after this #Megaupload incident. It's not the companies fault. But if my data are gone, that doesn't help.

Will move all my file out of the USA. Found AsusWebStorage to be a great alternative for my Ubuntu system and Android phone.

This even makes me think if Google is the right place to put my documents and using of the services. It can happen to any service in the USA. I'm shocked and looking for non-US alternatives in every aspect of the internet. This will be a long and tough switch for me.

Waiting for a statement of Google about how they will protect people property from the RIAA, MPIA and their servants. But I have little hope.

I think this act on Megapuload will cost the USA a lot of money.

https://www.asuswebstorage.com/

Megaupload Shut Down. Freedom Under Attack. Anonymous Fires Back

2012-01-20T18:12:00.000Z

You probably read it. Megaupload is no more reachable via it's domain. FBI made themselves a servant to the RIAA and shut down the popular filehosting and cloud service site.
Anonymous fired back for freedom, and brought down government sites, FBI and RIAA/Universal.

Image via Wikipedia

While some see this as the World Web War, I think, that it hasn't even started yet.
When the lights go off, and the Wall Street crashes (at last without their own fault), then you know it has begun.
I'm sure the fighters for freedom have not even started to use their full potential. make no mistake, if there will be a cyberwar, the governments will NOT win it. Politicians with no clue what the net is, old tech against high-tech fortresses, cyber forces without a command chain. I'm not complaining. As long as freedom can see a chance to win against the scum that wants to take the internet down, I think personally, it's a good thing. It's the resistance of the 21st century.

And for all that, only one song comes to my mind these days again.
It's in German, but you will get the idea for sure :)

Have fun with this song. It's under a creative commons license by Sid der Liedermacher

Get the lyrics. Download the song legally: http://soundcloud.com/sid
No bloodsuckers involved. Real Art.

Munzee Scavenger Hunt

2012-01-19T16:04:00.000Z

Today I made my first Munzee tour.
Munzee is basically a hunt for QR-Code marks. It can be everywhere. It can be just a sticker anywhere, or hidden in a container. It's like Geocaching in the end.

You can deploy or find a Munzee at munzee.com. The word comes from the German word "Münze" and got a little more catchy sound with the additional e at the end. You need to have an Android or iPhone to scan the QR-Codes with the available software.
You really can make this a quick hunt. Find, scan, done.

Overall it all depends on the one that deploy, that means lay out, the Munzees. This quick find mentality can also be a problem. A sticker somewhere is not exactly tempting if you come from Geocaching with many breathtaking ideas, and wonderful hides and containers. But you could also lay out a Munzee with a nice box, or in 20m high trees (don't let your phone drop:) ).

You also can put a Munzee in a Geocache. But stick it to the container, so no one will mistake this as a trackable. But there are some things you need to know if you do this.
The coordinate of a Munzee is public on the web. Everyone can see it. So don't put it in a Multicache-Final or a well hidden Mystery Cache. You can however, stick a Munzee at at Multi-Cache stage for special bonus. In this case, everyone can find it without disturbing the Geocache hunt or Munzee search, even if they are not participating in one or another.

I recorded my conclusion at the end of my little tour on video:

So short good and bad

Good

quick hides/finds with QR-Codes
addicting point-system
self-printing of the QR-Codes possible
perfect for places where no container can be laid out
replacement for some Nanocaches

Bad

you need an iPhone or Android
tempting to put a Munzee everywhere. Quality please.
coordinates openly on the web (watch your Geocaches)

I think I will do this while geocaching. Or is it geocaching, too?

Back Again After The Strike

2012-01-19T08:12:00.002Z

As you can see, Ryo Central is back. So are other sites. The English Wikipedia, had a blackout page, and many other sites protested in one way or another against SOPA and PIPA.

Wired.com had their headlines censored with black bars. Google had their logo blacked out. Other sites integrated a HTML5 animated black screen with a note. All around the Internet, you could find these signs of protest.
And that brought it to the mainstream media once again. Around the world, media reported about SOPA and the strike against it. That will help to stop censoring the Internet in other countries, too.

Was the strike a success? We will see. It's not over now. While most supporters reverted their engagement, it was because of the pressure. Apple, Microsoft, GoDaddy... they all did stop their support because of the public pressure. But did they changed their minds? What does it say if you supported something like SOPA or PIPA first, and promote that it's a good thing? I think it tells a story. SOPA might be renamed, a little changed, and come back. That may not happen.

So don't let your defenses down. Freedom is in danger. Every given day.

Wikipedia against SOPA and PIPA

2012-01-17T14:45:00.001Z

When I first heard about SOPA, I thought "What? A new word for soap opera?". But it wasn't. It was a new word for censorship.

Note: Not a live banner. It's just a screenshot from en.wikipedia.org

Wikipedia is one of the major sites that will shut down on January 18, 2012 in protest against SOPA. And not only that. While politicians almost completely gave up on SOPA, the content industry doesn't care much about the people and their will. They keep trying to establish key elements of SOPA through another word for censorship: PIPA. The so-called "Protect IP-Act", is another smoke grenade that should leave people in the virtual fog, without seeing the road ahead.

It's urgent to keep the defenses up. It's not over now. That's why some sites will still have a blackout tomorrow. Despite the late retreat from the government. The content greed necks haven't by now.

The #Geocaching weekend January 15,2012

2012-01-16T18:04:00.001Z

Our short geocaching weekend was really fun, like always.

On Saturday laguna.sam and I went for a nice multi in the woods.
Some problems at the beginning, but we made up for the search and found Stage 1 soon. We took the Almanac with the jewels and off we go.
Thanks to the trail, despite the cold weather, we were warm enough from the walking.
At the final, we guessed the wrong place, first. But after a little search, wildcat sensors =(^_^)= gave alarm :). So empty... I decided to leave a Geokret there.

On Sunday, laguna.sam and our important guest geocacher went to a "Three Investigators" Cache. After we strengthened us with food, we made a little Traditional before the first stage. We had no coffee, but malt beer and water. :).First stage found quickly. We wished there would have been some hot coffee inside. One nice stage after another we solved bravely. As I looked for the place for the gun, I found the dead body :). Brilliant!

From one crime spot to the other, we hunted the criminals down, and at last, we found the final. On the way back, we made another little Traditional with a twist. The container was found quickly, but then... how can we open it? After some time and Android-magic, we managed it.

Although we wanted to make the "Three Investigators" and the last Traditional in daylight, it turned into a night geocache.

The real night geocache we did want to make this evening, was a nice witch cache.
Here we went into the forest...

Eyes in the night, spiders in the tree,
spooky things in sight, will we pay the fee?

We had to examine every stage carefully. Our guest cacher spotted the stage 4, which I totally missed. That was the stage we searched the longest. Then we went along. At the final we first were on the wrong track. We examined the object there extensively. Nothing. But after some search around, there it was.

At the burning ash we looked around,
is there nothing to be found?
There beside there's something slithery,
we put the creature out of it's misery.

Another great geocaching weekend. Fun, fun, fun and laughter all along.

The night belongs to geocachers,
like the wind belongs to the sea.
Without the forest there are no treasures,
without the wind there is no flee.

Please, if you recognize this geocache, don't bring the GC-No. or name in connection with this post. Let people have there own suprise. Thank you and happy geocaching!

Foursquare down. Was it hacked?

2012-01-13T09:24:00.000Z

I was shocked to see the Foursquare service completely offline this morning. Rumors saying, massive amounts of user accounts has been deleted. And now it's gone. Was Foursquare hacked? It doesn't look good.

It's not even loading the status-page. If you go there directly it only says:

Site and app are down

3:45pm EST/8:45am GMT: We’re investigating now.

[UPDATE] 3:55pm EST/8:55am GMT: We’re still working to restore service.

[UPDATE] 4:05pm EST/9:05am GMT: We’re still chugging away, be back soon.

That really sounds like a major hardware problem or a hacking attack. Now many user will have some fear about their personal data and location-based information, I'll guess.

I hope we will soon get a statement on what, why, and when this incident happened. Nonetheless, I like foursquare and can't wait until they are back to check-in again.

Update: Foursquare is back up again. Questions remains.

Samsung Show New Chromebooks and Chromebox

2012-01-11T08:16:00.000Z

New Google Chromebooks and the Chromebox were showed off at the Samsung booth At CES 2012.

Remarkably thin and a metal case, makes them look a bit more elegant. 12.1 inch screen for the biggest model of the series 5. Most of the other features are the same to the old Chromebooks. Price will, unfortunately, be in the region of the old models. The costs of a Chromebook was always the most criticized point.
The Chromebox is a highly interesting device. 2 Monitors or TVs are attachable. For Web-Kiosk, or to make your TV a websurf-engine, it's perfect. Enough USB-Ports and a small size makes this very versatile. Too bad there is no recording software or extensive multimedia applications available for ChromeOS (yet).

Personally, I think it's a bit frustrating that the price of the Chromebooks are not falling. In my opinion they are still too expensive for the usage they bring. And 12.1" screen is okay. But why not bringing a Chromebook with 15" or 17" screen finally. It would be great for teh web. With a tiny screen, it doesn't makes the web comfortable to use.
The Chromebox... well. Let's see if people like to hook that up to their TV. Of course it's perfect for presentation and info-stations. Or if you want a low energy surfing station at your home. I'm 90% of the time in the web only, and together with the screen, my system consumes about 305Watts. You know what I mean. This does compete with Google-TV, right?

But again, can this be good enough to drag one away to buy the new Acer S5 Ultrabook ? I'm not fully convinced.

Why Internet Access IS A Human Right

2012-01-05T10:11:00.000Z

I choked today on an article in The New York Times, saying that Internet Access is not a human right. It almost sounds like citizen journalism is the target here. And it completely forgets where free speech is practiced in the future.

The Internet is your virtual tongue,
and your new pen and paper together.

It's essential to have the right to express yourself. Not only this, you have the right to actually do it. In the age of information now, with the evolution of electronic media, not only our focus has changed, but the importance of certain ways to express opinion and giving out information. In the future, the electronic networks will be the only important way to effectively spreading information and people opinions. Therefore the right to freely speak alone isn't effective anymore. The Internet access isn't something we can do with our minds. We need an interface, a connection. And this connections has to be treated the same way.

At Occupy Wall Street / Image via Wikipedia

While the evolution of electronic communications are growing faster every day, and the usage and number of people relying on the network, governments all over the world trying to regulate and restrict certain parts of the Internet to their needs.
Our possibility for free speech is going be taking away. And that shall not happen. It's clear, that very quickly, the UN must proclaim Internet access as a human right.

The article to me shows fear. Fear that citizen journalism is the only actual journalism in the future. Fear that the live videos from the New York protesters, are more relevant to people than a redacted article, smoothly written together with officials. That fear is possibly also a topic at the NYPD, as they use special lights to malfunction digital cameras. Why? Fear to let the world know the truth?

Image by Steve Rhode via Flickr

No matter if you're a protester on Tahrir square, or a protester at the Occupy Wall Street movement, if authorities can legally cut you off from the net, it's like they cut your virtual tongue out. And your virtual tongue needs to be protected by human rights the same way than your real one, because in the future, there is no difference anymore.

C64 30th Anniversary

2012-01-03T15:30:00.000Z

Yes, that right. 30 years of awesomeness. Despite not being build for many years anymore, the ghost of C64 is living on in Emulators and a huge retro-scene.

Picture Public Domain

In January 1982, the Commodore 64 was revealed to the public. In no time it stormed the households and occupied the lives of a whole generation. It had a big influence on our behavior. There is even a book written about that topic. But I think I will someday write my own experience :).

Photo by shane doucette from Saskatoon, CA / CC BY-SA

And we may not forget that the VIC-20 (VC-20) made the way free for the success of the C64 in 1980. Oh how I miss them. Don't shout at me, but silly me sold both of them. A big error.

But hey, I still have my Amiga 2000. I'll never gonna sell it.

Make Your Own ASCII Art With ASCII-Flow

2012-01-02T10:20:00.000Z

Those ASCII-arts are so cool and looks totally Retro. In a good sense.
But it's a pain to make them by Hand, due to the different fonts and different handlings of editors.
Now you can simply "draw" them. At asciiflow.com, you're able to make them easily and save them. You can export it to HTML or plain text.

It's so easy, that it's almost...

                       xxxxx xxxxxx
                      xx          xxxxxxxxxxx
                      xxxxx                  xxxxxxxxx
                          xxx                        xx
                            xx    xx                xx
                              xx          xx     xxxx
                               xx             xxxx
                SPOOKY!         x            xx
                                x   xxxxx    x
                               xx  xx   x   xx
                             xxx   xxxxxx   x
              xxx x x  xx xx              xx
              xxxx                    xxxxx
                 xxxxxxxx        xxxxxx
                        xxxxxxxxxx

But remember: ASCII drawings doesn't show up in image searches, or thumbnail generators.

A Happy New Year To All Of You!

2012-01-01T13:54:00.001Z

May 2012 be a successful and nice year for you. Let's go!

African Bullfrog Goes For Record On Android Game [Video]

2011-12-25T09:56:00.000Z

At least if... no watch this African Bullfrog compete on an Android game where you have to smash Ants. Watch till the end... :)

Well... Isn't that a cute frog? It looks so cute...

Google Stays The Default Search Engine For Another 3 Years

2011-12-22T14:49:00.000Z

The new agreement is signed that makes Google the default search engine for at least 3 more years. The money is badly needed for the open source project to deal with many future challenges.

Recently, Google Chrome surpassed Firefox in usage, and Mozilla is having a hard time to optimize Firefox to keep up in terms of speed, minimizing memory usage, and security. While the progression is good, Firefox likely seems to need a complete revamp.

This is not working without enough funding. Google has been a reliable partner in the last years, and will be for the coming. Google does fund many OSS-projects. In this one, Google gets something back. The default preselection of the search-engine is something companies fight over very hard. It's directly related with the income of Google.

So the logical and perfect synergy lasts longer.
It also destroys recent chatters that Google may not renew the agreement, because of the bigger share with their own Chrome-browser. Google is no Apple or Microsoft. It doesn't drop partners that easy.