Microsoft announces MSN Java Deal

Users who download or upgrade Java for Internet Explorer will be prompted to install a MSN search bar that will set Microsoft’s search engine as the predefined one.The deal announced by Microsoft for US surfers only, will enable several users to shift from Google in a couple of days.

Those who are installing the Java Runtime Environment for the first time will get a prompt to download and install the MSN and to make Microsoft the default choice for their browsers; those users who have previously installed Java on their personal computers will instead get the same prompts from the Java update interface.

The deal between Sun Microsystems and Microsoft is one of their very first on the the consumer side. However, there are some who suspect that the deal may not have such a big impact,as most users would still revert back to the very old Google.

Microsoft Backs New Yahoo Search Team

Microsoft Corp is taking up a new management team to take control of Yahoo Inc.’s Internet search business and sign a partnership deal following its failed takeover attempt.

Microsoft will put up $5 billion to back Jonathan Miller, the former chief executive officer of AOL, and Ross Levinsohn, a former president of Fox Interactive Media.

Microsoft is seeking ways to revive its online advertising business as the global recession stifles spending and Google Inc. wins more search users. For Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo, which spurned Microsoft’s bids of as much as $47.5 billion this year, a deal may help shore up revenue after losing out on a partnership with Google.

The terms would give Microsoft a 10-year operating agreement to manage Yahoo’s search business, plus a two-year option to buy it for $20 billion. Senior directors of the companies have agreed to the outline of the deal, the newspaper said, without citing anyone.

However Levinsohn denied the report, according to a blog post by the Wall Street Journal’s All Things Digital.

Source:Google News

SearchTogether,a new research project from Microsoft

Adaptive Systems and Interaction group at Microsoft Research Redmond have released a beta of SearchTogether,which is a free Internet plug in that allows groups of people to collaborate on Web Searches. Meredith Ringel Morris, a researcher spearheading the project conveys that SearchTogether is just a portion of a larger project about collaborative search.

As updated in one of the blogs, Microsoft’s SearchTogether is a breakthrough and different from traditional search, which is executed solo. SearchTogether gives opportunity for people at different locations to execute searches as a team.It basically enables people to divide responsibilities and pooling results in a shared Web space on the browser.

Existing search Engines enable users to find Web content on an individual basis.Search interfaces have not yet been able to support collaborative search. Collaborating on search generally means that while one person is at a keyboard,the other makes suggestions.It could also be possible that while two people,each viewing a Web browser, they would be using instant messaging or a phone.The product is expected to become very popular among schools,colleges and universities, where students would have to work on multiple projects.

SearchWiki, a new search tool launched by Google

Google has launched a search feature that provided an opportunity for net users to re-rank, delete and add comments on search results.SearchWiki, is an example of how search is becoming increasingly dynamic,providing people tools that make search even more useful.

Suppose a user does the same search, frequently.Later,the user can remove a site from the results that isn’t of interest.Users are also given the option to add comments to a site, which pops up every time that site is in the results.Users can further personalize search results by typing in the URL of a site they want to add to their search results for a particular search,or even move a site to the top of the search results.To enable SearchWiki,the user need to be signed in to a Google account and English must be the chosen language.

Additional feature is that users can keep track of all the changes that has been made with the option “see all my SearchWiki notes”.One can also remove any changes that have been made to the search results and can revert back to the usual search results.

Pubcon

Source:Pubcon definition-Wikipedia

Yahoo adds Glue for its US search results.

Web 2.0 Summit:YouTube,the second largest search engine

Microsoft transforms its live site to a social network

Microsoft has updated its online services and has transformed its live site to a social network.The changes include photo sharing,email,instant messaging capabilities as well as including contents from around 50 companies.The Web Services include Flickr,LinkedIn Corp,Twitter,Wordpress.org etc., through profiles and a news feed.The Web 2.0 industry observers have received several positive reviews regarding these updates.

Live.com users can now access several online services like mail, calendar, photos, online storage,etc.,including downloaded services like a mail client, instant messaging,Movie Maker,Photo Gallery,the Toolbar and other services. Eventually,this has become one huge social network.Check out http://www.windowslive.com/ for more.

Google’s major update-introduces Video and Voice Chat for Gmail

Video and Voice Chat has been added to Google,creating a major update for Gmail.In order to make this functionality work, we need to install a small browser plugin,available at the location http://mail.google.com/videochat .This update can function on all browsers and will work on PC’s with Windows XP or Vista, including Macs with OS X 10.4 or later.

We need to intially enable this new functionality from the ‘Options’ menu which is at the bottom of a Gmail chat window.Then we need to select the contact you want to speak with and click on ‘Video & more’ located in the lower-left part of the chat window.From here on,you can then start a voice or video chat.

Point to note that Google’s Gmail desktop chat program has not yet incorporated any video functionality yet, although voice chat is available for Google Talk long time ago.However Google has become a major competitor for skype for which video chat has been one of the major functionalities.

Microsoft CEO rules out option to buyout Yahoo

Microsoft Corporation Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer said that his company has no plans to make another bid to buyout yahoo.

“We made an offer, we made another offer, and it was clear that Yahoo didn’t want to sell the business to us and we moved on .We are not interested in going back and re-looking at an acquisition. I don’t know why they would be either, frankly. They turned us down at 33 dollars a share, said Ballmer as published in a blog.

On the contrary,Yahoo Chief Executive, Jerry Yang said that Yahoo would welcome Microsoft if it was ever willing to offer another bid with the former.Yahoo made these remarks after Google stayed out of the ad deal with Yahoo after the Justice Department notified the two companies of an antitrust suit.