I find some real good search results of last month while searching the web. I am sharing all of those search engine data with our reader.

Top search providers, ranked by total searches. Searches represent the total number of queries conducted at the provider.
Top 10 Search Providers for June 2008, Ranked by Searches (U.S.)

Source: Nielsen Online, MegaView Search

In June, Google Sites retained its lead in the U.S. core search market capturing 61.5 percent of the searches conducted, down slightly from 61.8 percent in May. Google was followed by Yahoo! Sites (20.9 percent, up from 20.6 percent in May), Microsoft Sites (9.2 percent, up from 8.5 percent in May), Ask Network (4.3 percent), and AOL LLC (4.1 percent).

Based on the five major search engines including partner searches and cross-channel searches. Searches for mapping, local directory, and user-generated video sites that are not on the core domain of the five search engines are not included in the core search numbers.Americans conducted 11.5 billion searches at the core search engines, representing a 7-percent increase versus May. Google Sites handled more than 7 billion core searches (up 6 percent from May), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 2.4 billion (up 9 percent), and Microsoft Sites with more than 1 billion (up 15 percent).

Source : comScore Core Search Report

NEW YORK, NY – July 15, 2008 – Google accounted for 69.17 percent of all U.S. searches in the four weeks ending June 28, 2008, Hitwise announced today. Yahoo! Search, MSN Search and Ask.com each received 19.62, 5.46 and 4.17 percent respectively. The remaining 42 search engines in the Hitwise Search Engine Analysis Tool accounted for 1.70 percent of U.S. searches.

Note: Data is based on four week rolling periods (ending /28/08, 5/31/ 2008, 6/30/2007 from the Hitwise sample of 10 million U.S. Internet users.  * - includes executed searches on Live.com and MSN Search but does not include searches on Club.Live.com.

Source: Hitwise

Share

Windows Live Calendar team working very hard to add more and more features to Windows Live calendar. There has been total 8 new features has been introduced by Windows Live Calendar team

Birthday Calendars: Windows Live calendar now automatically add birthday’s of your contact list and also send you reminders for birthdays. Only thing is Windows Live users have to do is that they have to add the birthday in their contact list.

iCal Subscriptions: Allow you to show calendars that update automatically from around the web. (This will be up and running very shortly!)

Holiday Calendars :Automatically add local holidays in your calendar. Windows Calendar team is adding more-and-more local holidays but currebtly they have added holidays for: China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Spain, Russia, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, United States and United Kingdom.

User Interface Changes: Now windows live calendar user can directly add events by just clicking on any date

Improvements to accessibility functionality, including better tabbing and F6 key support

Print views:Windows Live added print view support that help users to easily preview their calendar tasks before printing

Calendar tab in Windows Live Hotmail. via this new tab Hotmail users now can directly access calendar from their Hotmail or Windows Live E-Mail account.

Synchronize Windows Live Calendar with Windows Vista calendar.

Share

Well, fairly speaking its not an idea that struck my mind. I was surfing through archive of one of the programmer’s blog, and found this post. According to that post,

It’s unbelievable to me that a company would pay a developer $60-$100k in salary, yet cripple him or her with terrible working conditions and crusty hand-me-down hardware. This makes no business sense whatsoever. And yet I see it all the time. It’s shocking how many companies still don’t provide software developers with the essential things they need to succeed.

So true. I personally calculated myself, the cost of increasing infrastructure quality (read, better system, and better facilities) can be recovered in just a month, provided that it efficiently increases one’s productivity by atleast 10%. And then, the fact that better infrastructure leads to better state of mind, which means better productivity again. Not just me or other developers think this way, but whole gaming industry is running according to these principles. And no one can deny the fact that it is the fastest growing sector in IT industry.  I know it sounds ridiculous according to the managerial concept that those HR guys learn in their IIM classes. But sometimes you just have to think outta box to make sure you are the leader.

Anyways, to adhere to this bill, is totally a matter of choice of the HR. We can just hope for the same. By the time, we should just make a list of what changes can seriously affect the productivity and hence should be included in this bill.

P.S. - Few of them are my own thoughts and few are from other developers all across the world.

So, here is the list.

• Every programmer shall have a bigger workspace :- Well, easily this is one thing that can radically change the time required to search for a pad or pencil, while you are busy discussing the issues with your clients. It happened to me a lot of times. Dropping the pad, while looking for a whiteboard marker is not something that’s rare.
• Every programmer shall have two monitors :- Although increasing the number of monitors, reduces the amount of free space available on your desk. But it really helps to open multiple windows at times, and thus can save the time used for switching to help window every now and then, and coming back to code window. Also, it helps decreasing the frustration of accidentally closing a window while minimizing it.
• Every programmer should have better PC :- Programmers deserve the rights to work on best in class hardware, as they are the persons using computers for half of their life. And other point is that no one loves to wait for a program to compile or for a application to load, looking at those silly progress bar or status bar.
• Every programmer should have comfortable chair :- I should say I personally prefers bean bag, but if chair is comfortable, that’s good enough. After all, we have to sit on that chair for too long, and I don’t think your brain will work, if you are feeling pain in your arse.
• Every programmer should get enough of coffee and snacks :- Every other day, a programmer works for more than usual time schedule. So, enough of coffee, and snacks can always help him keep going for hours. Oh yeah, if s/he is a smoker, providing enough of smokes can be a good option too.
• Every programmer should get better mouse and keyboard :- At work, I just like most of the programmers, use a sticky keyboard, and a scroll mouse, and I really feel this is an important point for consideration.
• Every programmer deserves his own space :- What if some one keep on nitpicking on your just-a-draft webpage, saying that it doesn’t look cool? No one likes it, right. So, does the programmer. But, sadly managers just don’t understand. They keep on asking you to tell them how much percentage of task you have done to complete the homepage structure of the website. It simply hurts.
• Every programmer should have fast Internet connection :- In case, you don’t have offline help, its very important. I can still remember those days, when I was stuck on some stupid syntax error, and googling for same, took 15 minutes of my time, thanks to that silly 54kbps connection I have got at my desk. Just by increasing the speed to 256kbps, this time could have reduced to 5 minutes. And if you consider the fact that you encounter same situation every hour, that accounts for 15% of your productivity.
• Every programmer should have rights to ask “Why?” :- How many times you have felt as a programmer that something you are working on is not properly justified? That the spacing between two textboxes can be decreased by 10% to make the page look better and to fit more information? I felt it almost every day when working on a enhancements project. And then, you have got no right to ask why you just can’t do it. Is it because, some stupid jerk called Business Analyst didn’t thought of it first. I know it sounds crazy. People who have got no idea about coding, defines the way we should code, and we can’t even argue on that.
• Every programmer should have access to all the documentation, books and Google :- Why does the managers think that being a programmer, you should know every thing about your programming language, and environment used? Why can’t I just use Google to look for an answer, when I am stuck?  And do you know about any manager who have crammed every single management principles,he learnt from the business school?
• Every programmer should be given full right to wear any outfit :- I am never able to understand how can one’s outfit affect his work. One reason is that I have to wear professional outfits for those daily meetings, I may attend. But then, if I am supposed to attend those meetings, why the hell we need those managers for?

So, here is the list of points what developers think, should be included in their rights. I would definitely love to hear about other points that you think, should be a part of this bill. Well, till that time, I am off to file a petition to the programmer’s union about this bill. Oops, i forgot, i don’t even know about any union as such. Do you??? Do you even care about your rights????

Share

Google once again tops the top web brands in United Stated of America. Google attracted more then 120 million users while Yahoo holds the second place with approximately 113 million users.List of top 10 brands is as follows

1. Google.
2. Yahoo.
3. MSN/Windows Live.
4. Microsoft.
5. AOL Media Network.
6. YouTube.
7. Fox Interactive Media.
8. Wikipedia.
9. eBay.
10. Apple

Share

For many first time laptop buyers deciding how to go about buying a laptop is indeed a very tricky process. ReadersZone comes to the rescue of many such harried buyers by providing them with a detailed and easy to understand description of the various important specifications

Processor: Sometimes referred to as CPU or central processing unit of your laptop. This is the most important part of your laptop It’s always better to go with the fastest processor that you can afford. AMD’s mobile processors are usually more affordable than Intel’s.

Memory: Always look for laptops that have easy-to-access memory slots because memory is the first thing that a user would generally want to upgrade. Having more main memory is vital for system performance and more main memory lets you run more applications simultaneously.

Display Size: Unlike the desktop computer laptops are shipped with thin LCD screens. Wide-screen notebooks, which have an aspect ratio of 16:9, offer larger, sharper, and all-round better image than their 4:3 standard-screen cousins. 17-inch wide-screen laptop is a nice luxury if you’re not planning on traveling with it.

Hard Drive: Hard drive provides you the space for storing your personal data on magnetic disk. Generally a 160GB hard drive is good unless and until you are planning to store a huge amount of multimedia content like songs and movies. Hard Drive capacity alone does not make a good hard drive. The hard disk’s rotational speed also makes a big difference; a 7,200rpm laptop disk delivers significantly faster performance than a 5,400rpm model. The faster the disk spins, the better your notebook will perform overall, though a faster disk will also shorten your laptop’s battery life.

PC Cards and Express Cards: PC Card can plug into a slot on your notebook and can provide you with a number of connection types including modems, USB connections and wireless WAN radios which are all available in PC Card form. PC Cards are handy because they’re easy to upgrade and because you can buy third-party PC Card solutions after you purchase your notebooks. It’s always better to look for a laptop that has more number of PC Card slots. PC Cards and slots come in three sizes: Type I, II, and III. Type I cards are normally used for memory, Type II for input/output devices, and Type III for mass storage and firewalls. Express cards are the successor of PC Cards. Express Cards are smaller then the PC Cards and provides the twice the data transfer rate as compared to PC Cards.

Networking Options: Wireless networking has now become an essential part of any laptop. Most notebooks ship with a choice of 802.11b or 802.11b/G. Capable of data throughput of 11Mbps, 802.11b is fine for ordinary use. Public hotspots typically use 802.11b or 802.11g.

Video RAM: If you are not planning to play 3D games or do some graphics work then shared video memory is best suited for you otherwise if you are high end graphics user then go for a graphics chipset that at least share 64MB of system Memory.

Battery Life: If you do a lot of traveling with your laptop then it’s always good to have a battery that has the longest battery life available in all your models. Look for Battery capacity (measured in milliamp hours, or mAh), and the number of cells. Typical batteries have a mAh rating between 2,000mAh and 6,000mAh; higher the better. Cells are the actual compartments where power is produced and can range from four to 12; the more the better.

Share

Gmail automatically contact adding feature some times these contacts can lead to too much address book clutter. One of the advantage of auto adding contact list is that Gmail users don’t have to worry about to add contacts manually but this week Gmail team come up with a new concept of "My Contacts" and "Suggested Contacts." 

My Contacts contains the contacts you explicitly put in your address book (via manual entry, import or sync) as well as any address you’ve emailed a lot (we’re using five or more times as the threshold for now).

Suggested Contacts is where Gmail puts its auto-created contacts. By default, Suggested Contacts you email frequently are automatically added to My Contacts, but for those of you who prefer tighter control of your address books, you can choose to disable usage-based addition of contacts to My Contacts (see the checkbox in the screenshot above). Once you do this, no matter how many times you email an auto-added email address it won’t move to My Contacts.

Source : Gmail Blog

Share

Register for Small Business+ and you can download our FREE Entrepreneur.com eBook, Customer Loyalty: Secrets to Boosting Your Sales with CRM. It’s a comprehensive guide full of practical sales building techniques.

• Learn the key components to managing customer relationships
• Get insights into why CRM is so valuable to your business
• Learn how CRM adds muscle to selling power

With the cost of adding a new customer between five and eight times that of keeping an existing one, this is a must-read.

Download Free Entrepreneur.com eBook

Share

Using a mobile computer inside corporate office is very much secure as compare to using it outside the corporate network. In corporate network your mobile computer id protected with corporate firewall, anti-virus, spyware’s, corporate access control and other security polices but what about using mobile PCs outside the boundaries of corporate office. Many organizations using laptops for flexible work hours. Regardless the flexibility introduced by laptops in working hours also introduces more security risks and more unknown challenges. Once an employee takes their laptop and leaves, they are on their own. The laptop becomes an island unto itself and must be able to defend itself against malware, unauthorized access, and other malicious activities.

Microsoft’s latest operating system windows vista provides more secure foundation for laptops as compare to earlier versions of windows operating system. Let’s take a look at some of the components that go into Windows Vista’s security, and why Windows Vista should be the operating system of choice when securing your mobile computer is a priority.

Address Space Layout Randomization: Address space layout randomization (ASLR) is a computer security technique which involves randomly arranging the positions of key data areas, usually including the base of the executable and position of libraries, heap, and stack, in a process’s address space. Prior to windows vista memory addresses were static and could be discovered. Static memory addresses can be easily discovered by an attacker who is developing a malware or trying to do malicious activities on memory.

Data Execution Prevention: Data Execution Prevention (DEP) is a security feature Included in Windows Vista , that prevents any application or service to execute code from a non-executable memory location. These types of attacks mainly targets computer programs that are poorly written. Prevention from Data Execution Prevention is first introduced in windows XP sp2.

Windows Vista Firewall: Firewall is a critical first line of defense to protect your computer against many types of malicious software. Vista firewall monitors and restricts both incoming and outgoing traffic. Vista firewall also provides internet protocol security settings and Firewall filtering settings integrated. Monitoring outgoing traffic gives a fair idea which computer programs are trying to access the internet and whether are these programs also trying to send some important data to remote systems.

Internet Explorer with protected mode: Internet explorer running in protected mode provides an extra level of security and data protection to windows vista users. Protected Mode protects the system by ensuring that any malware or exploits encountered via the Web are unable to affect the operating system or core functionality. In Protected Mode, Internet Explorer 7 in Windows Vista cannot modify user or system files and settings without user consent. Protected Mode requires the user to confirm any activity that tries to put something on your machine or start another program.

BitLocker Drive Encryption: BitLocker Drive Encryption is a data protection feature available in Windows Vista Enterprise and Ultimate for client computers and in Windows Server 2008. BitLocker enhances data protection drive encryption and the integrity checking of early boot components. Drive encryption protects data by preventing unauthorized users from breaking Windows file and system protection on lost, stolen or inappropriately decommissioned computers. This protection is achieved by encrypting the entire Windows volume; with BitLocker all user and system files are encrypted including the swap and hibernation files. Integrity checking the early boot components helps to ensure that data decryption is performed only if those components appear unmolested and that the encrypted drive is located in the original computer.

This post is created while reading some articles on Microsoft Windows Vista website, Microsoft Technet Windows Website and definitions are taken from Wikipedia.

Share

May 16, 2008 Symantec released it’s two new Norton security products for public beta. Norton Internet Security and Norton AntiVirus. Norton has some significant changes in architecture as well as in code of it’s security products. Norton 2009 security products not only scan and run services faster then previous versions of Norton Security but also consumes less computer resources.