At times, we feel disgusted when we arrive at a web page with some nice music listed, but to listen to them you first have to download some irritating software. This downloading of MP3 software will no longer act as an impediment, for Yahoo has arrived with a rather amazing music service that requires no software downloads!

You only need your browser to embed some simple JavaScript-based code to activate the MP3 player on any website. This means, you will no more require installing plug-in and flash players. The player in your browser will find the MP3 on a website and create a playlist. Definitely, other popular software will now get a run for their money.

I only hope that Yahoo does not add any money tag to this exciting musical gift.

Source: techcrunch

The software giant Microsoft is getting innovative and also experimentative. After the Queen of Britain setting “The Royal Channel - The Official Channel of the British Monarchy” on the video-sharing website ‘YouTube’, Microsoft PR people have also started their own channel “WindowsVistaAndLive” on the site. The channel, started on December 21, offers some good demonstrations of Vista, but it’s making news in the blogging world not for the less known features being publicized on the video-sharing site, but for the comments people have left on the channel.

As one can easily guess, the channel has received good number of comments and most of them are against the Vista. Most bloggers see Microsoft’s move to open the channel for comments as self-destructive. Most of the people who have left comment on its channel have found Vista to be a bad operating system, making is more annoying than appealing. One user EnzyteBob113 has written,

Are you sure you want to watch Microsoft’s YouTube channel? Yes. Are you sure you want to push the play button to begin watching the video? Yes. Are you really sure you want to push the play button? Dammit, yes. I wish Window’s Vista would stop treating me like I’m retarded.

Another user called Damejiar has expressed his heart as such,

Windows Vista really Sucks, too much requirements, too much memory consumption, and the interface is really bad, it was better Windows XP.
But I prefer Linux instead!!!!

Both ‘Linux’ and ‘Windows’ fans are giving negative feedbacks on Vista, the new Windows version, claimed to be a very evolved version of Windows. Many people are alleging Microsoft for being imitator, as they claim some open source operating system had already launched Vista-like system some five years back. One YouTube user, nebuchadnezzar38, said,

Vista sucks and Microsoft just steals innovations from other people. what losers. i wish i could pie Bill Gates again.

So, if you would like to share your views on windows, particularly Vista, the creators, Microsoft PR people would be too pleased (if you give some positive feedback about Vista, of course).

It can’t be said that the channel would succeed in breaking into competitors’ territory, but this surely proves that YouTube has grown too big and now commands respectable position in the world of communication. Had it not been so, the biggies like Microsoft and the Queen won’t have come to the video-sharing site with the desire for more effective communication.

And for Microsoft, “Any publicity is good publicity.” [This should keep them in good spirit.]

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Source: Techcrunch

Glubble does not only provide a safe web browsing for children, it also filters searchs and gives result only from approved list of site, which the Glubble developers call “Glubble World” of the user.

The Glubble free tool also improves the browsing experience of the entire family sharing the computer. It makes the Mozilla Firefox browser more user-friendly giving each family member a personalized homepage with individual login.

If you are among those looking for good things on the web, why not give it a try. Even if you don’t have child to monitor and guide, you will love the value addition that Glubble will do to your Mozilla Firefox browser. All those Microsoft Internet Explorer users will have to wait till they get something like this in their web browser. Alternatively, they can switch to the open-source Mozilla Firefox browser to have a better experience of the web.

Source: Glubble
Image:Glubble

The existing Netscape Browser’s need not panic, as the company would continue to support current version Netscape 9. They would even release patches or security fixes until the date. News is that AOL will cease further development on all Netscape web browsers.

Mozilla Firefox would not get the uplift as Drapeau recommends it for anyone running a Netscape-branded browser. Mozilla Firefox is an open-source browser and carries the last few versions of Netscape.

The success of Mozilla Foundation have certainly made them take this drastic step, desktop users would never forget the combat of Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer from Microsoft. It was during that course of time AOL purchased the Netscape Communications Corporation and adjoined it with the Mozilla project.

Mozilla was literally the successor of Netscape browser that had the problems of downloading and installing, its right that AOL decided to kill the lagged one and handover the reign to Firefox completely.

With the arrival of Apple Safari browser, the scenario of operating systems are challenging, no wonder the Netscape’s browser would be considered irrelevant as their users were vulnerable to attacks.

Source: wired

Image: ntlworld

Most of us consider Wikipedia to be the ultimate online knowledge base or encyclopedia. I always use Wikipedia for Celebrity information, games and other technical stuff that I don’t know. The next best thing after Wikipedia is obviously Google. But, with Google about to launch it’s own online encyclopedia the scenario is about to change.

The search engine company Google is going to design an encyclopedic dictionary for internet users. According to Google, this will compete directly with Wikipedia. This ‘dictionary’ has been christened as Knol. I guess that’s probably a short for Knowledge.

The Google version of online encyclopedia is going to be an organization of ‘user generated information’ covering all the fields of knowledge.Although, the Google knowledge platform is somewhat similar to Wikipedia there are some subtle differences.

For example Wikipedia is a collaborative system of authors. There are no ‘authors’ listed on the Wiki pages because there can be multiple authors for one page. Google’s knol will be authored. This is not the first time Google is coming up with such a platform.

The Google base is a similar knowledge base to that of Wikipedia. So if you are thinking that Google is launching knol just for advertising money you are wrong. Also, I would compare knol to blogger(another Google product). However, there is no information regarding the release of Knol. I think it’s kind of cool that Google is coming up with a Wiki like encyclopedia.

Image Credit:News

This is true that porn is still the most lucrative areas of online media and more traditional companies like PentHouse and Playboy have been struggling to bring it on the digital side. After the acquisition, Palo Alto-based Various is also offering more than 260 million existing users with roughly 1.2 million paid subscribers to PentHouse. Apart from the porn related social sites, Various is also involved in sites like Italianfriendfinder.com, gradfinder.com and faith based community site, called, bigchurch.com.

Marc Bell, CEO of Penthouse stated that PentHouse is trying to build its brand among 18 to 34 year old men. It is expected that this combination will bring an estimated $340 million in revenue this year.

The Yahoo Messenger is back in the news headlines again! The Yahoo messenger for the Vista windows has been finally launched. After almost 12 months of last version update, we are getting this new vista Yahoo messenger.

The unfortunate news is that the latest Vista Yahoo messenger doesn’t have any video or sharing abilities which the users are a big fan of. As of now, the Yahoo messenger is only a bare bones version of a fancy text messaging system.

Hopefully Yahoo is going to do something about it and we do hope that they don’t take 12 months to come up with the next update. If you compare the latest Vista Yahoo messenger version with the last messenger version, a few neat changes have been made.

You can basically chat in one corner of the messenger window while the other part plays a live concert. I think this is a great development although, the lack of video sharing capability is kind of disappointing.

Image Credit: Frogdesign

A new suite of online image editing tool, powered by Picnik has been launched by Flickr. The wifi camera cards will make it possible to have a clear image directly from the camera through the Flicker Picnik editor without involving any desktop software. Strong supporters of Photoshop might find many features of Photoshop Express missing from this new image editor but nonetheless it will be possible to upload images directly from the mobile phones to Flickr improving these images considerably.

To use the new Picnik editor follow the steps below:
• Log on to your Flickr account
• choose the photo to be edited
• On top of the chosen photo there is a ‘edit photo’ icon, click the icon
• The Picnik editor will load once the permission to edit and save the photo is given

The time required to load the Picnik editor depends on the size of the image to be edited.

The editing tools in the new online photo editor include:
• crop
• resize
• adjust
• exposure
• colors
• apply effects
• add text
• a set of clip arts to overlay
• custom borders

Most of these features are available free of cost. However, by upgrading to Picnik premium account for $25 per year, special features such as, special effect filters like the popular Flickr Lomo effect will be available.

Image: photoshop support

Source: blog wired

Google has always found ways to change and improve offering various services to its user, which is pretty much the reason for its unmatched success. It has virtually established and redefined the benchmark in internet-based services with all its innovations and variations of existing products. At times, it has scared the world with technology like ‘Google Map’ due to security concerns (but I find them really wonderful), it has also constantly amazed and pleased its users.

While Google’s mail service-Gmail is very popular and used widely across the world, the problem is with the fact that its IM services are not always all that popular. Google introduced instant messaging service in 2006 February and since then, despite catching up, the ‘Gtalk’ is not as popular are some of its more illustrious counterparts like those offered by Yahoo.

Now, Google has declared that it would integrate the very popular AIM of AOL into Gmail so as to facilitate direct chatting services for its users. AIM is a very popular service across the planet and more than 75 percent of all IM users on net use either AIM or its enterprise product for instant messaging. This is probably a service already existing by the time you check your mail next, as Google says this would be a part of English version of Gmail by 4th December.

It says that it would be subsequently introduced into other language versions. Now only if someone could tell Google to introduce an “invisible” mode in its chat window, it would help me stay away from some people without shooing them away constantly.

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Source

Data storage medium has been improving day by day. From the floppy disks we moved to CD’s and then to DVD’s and eventually to tiny USB drives. The latest in this data storage world is the Gdrive. Tech sites online have been talking about this Gdrive which is supposed to store all your data securely at one central location virtually.

This process eliminates the need to carry any kind of storage medium whatsoever. But, people are skeptical about this storage medium. Why? several reasons. First, privacy becomes a big issue when data is stored online even though the Gdrive is supposed to be a pretty secure location online. Second, the amount of data stored is also an issue i.e. file size becomes extremely important. Lastly, the network security is yet another aspect that plagues the user’s mind when it comes to online data storage.

Irrespective of all this, the e-gossip is that Google is coming up with the new storage concept called Gdrive. It will be your online hard drive. Similar online drives exist as of now. The Xdrive by AOL is an online storage drive. Xdrive offers a free 5GB of storage space while one can buy about 50 gigs per month at $9.95. Along with AOL, Microsoft and Apple have similar services. So, Google is a little behind when it comes to this technology. With that many online hard drives already existing, I think that most users will simply ignore Google online storage unless of course they come up with something really innovative.

Image Credit: Techepics, Cubic

The much anticipated launch of Firefox 3 Beta 1 has finally been accomplished. People had to wait months to get the taste of the new technology from Mozilla but now the wait is over.

Firefox Beta 1 is now available in over 20 languages and is available in stores right around the world. The new version is an improved one on its predecessor and is a novel one too.

The best part of the new version is that it provides a better presentation of a website’s identity. Besides providing better malware protection, Firefox 3 Beta 1 also enhances better downloading management and virus-protection.

Firefox 3 Beat 1 is also blessed with better and new graphics and font enhancement and is endowed with more support for offline web applications.

Firefox 3 Beta 1 is indeed expected to rock the software world. The new technology should take it one step ahead of its competitors.

Image Source: Seyirdefteri

Source: Blog Wired

Most of us are familiar with the video collection site called YouTube. It’s a place where you can share your videos and comments on the videos made by others. Recently, the online broadcasting site is working on its fight against Cyber bullying scheme.

Engineers from You Tube vowed to do something against online bullying. So, they dedicated a whole new channel to the cause! Still wondering what falls under online bullying? Setting up offensive websites about their teachers as well as offensive text messages are just couple of instances of online bullying. Of course, they are different from your real life bullying: locker room taunts and getting punched, etc.

Whatever it is, YouTube people seem to have taken a step to prevent the online or Cyber bullying. The new channel devoted to the cause is known as beatbullying. Initially, folks thought that this isn’t going to work. All it’s going to do is make the online bullies more aware of what they are doing. Furthermore, bullying is definitely a sensitive topic and can mess you up.

Also, this kind of channel faces the legal aspect, censorship. However, despite of all these ‘barriers’, engineers at YouTube decided to move on with the beatbullying channel. I think this is a great effort on the part of the YouTube. Hopefully, it will create a positive impact on the folks around and stop the whole bullying thing.

Image Credit: Politicsoffthegrid

The firm’s online advertising system will allow users to select specific geographic, demographic and user interests to present advertising to users. Known as SelfServe allows people to design profiles for their friends’ not faceless corporations but between banner and general indifference.

It is still unknown how much money MySpace will bring in developing this platform; but in an early estimate, it shows the number between $40 million and $70 million per month. SelfService can be used by companies of all sizes, so MySpace is looking for some big initial earnings.

Image: NetBanker

Alibaba.com is part of the larger internet company the Alibaba Group was founded by an English teacher Jack Ma in 1999. The stratospheric success of Alibaba.com can be gauged from the fact that it has raised $1.5 billion from investors for the IPO. Of the total money raised, Sunnyvale’s Yahoo and San Jose’s Cisco Systems have contributed $100million and $17.5 million respectively.

With over 162 million internet users, which is just a fraction of the 1.3 billion Chinese populations it will not be long when China would become the country with the world’s largest internet users. China is fast emerging as the manufacturing arm of the world with millions of small and midsize factories churning out products ranging from handbags, toys to electronics Alibaba will provide a global market for the products.

Alibaba.com helps the companies publish a company profile or as Alibaba.com calls it ‘an online storefront’. Companies worldwide are able to find low cost manufacturing partners from the site.

During the first half of this year, Alibaba.com made nearly$130 million in revenue.

Source:sfgate
Image:frost fire buzz

Skype has teamed up with Logitech to offer high quality video services in its upcoming windows 3.6 version. The partnership with Logitech will provide Skype a strong platform to cater needs of the common customers for whom, accessing high quality video calls are expensive.

The high quality video includes VGA-quality video calls, image description and clarity. The customers don’t require to purchase or install any video-conferencing equipment other than a 2.0-GHz dual-core processor, a gigabyte of RAM, 384 Kbits/s Internet bandwidth and Logitech webcams such as the Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000, QuickCam Pro for Notebooks, and the QuickCam Orbit AF.

The above three webcams feature a 2.0 Mpixel sensor, an integrated mic, Logitech LightRight 2 technology and an integrated autofocus.

The Logitech QuickCam software version 11.5 is a free downloadable application, while the Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000 and Logitech QuickCam Pro for Notebooks webcams are available for $99.99. The price of Logitech QuickCam Orbit AF is $129.99.

Skype will launch its Skype 3.6 for windows this month. It is a free downloadable software supporting 28 languages.

Interestingly, Skype’s video package is comparatively economical than Microsoft’s Unified Communications offer. The latter demands numerous servers and thousands of dollars to get started. Therefore, Skype may get an edge in the field of unified communication.

Image: Sfgate