W3C Opens New India Office

September, 07 2009

Today the W3C India Office opened at a new Host: the Department of Information Technology in the Ministry of Communications & Information Technology. Swaran Lata, who is Director of the Human Centered Computing division (TDIL), will run the new Office with the support of deputy manager Somnath Chandra. W3C Offices act as local points of contact for W3C work and help ensure that W3C and its specifications reach an international audience. W3C would like to thank the India Ministry of Communications and Information Technology for their support in ensuring that W3C has a strong presence in India. The previous Office in India, hosted by C-DAC, has already closed. Learn more about the W3C Offices program.

Google’s second open source operating system announced

8 July 2009, 08:27

Google has announced that it is working on an operating system built to run the Google Chrome web browser. Google Chrome OS will be aimed at x86 and ARM based netbooks initially and built with a simple, lightweight architecture based around a Linux kernel running a “new windowing system” which in turn runs a version of Google Chrome. Dubbing it “our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be”, the company said that the new operating system should be shipped to consumers in the second half of 2010, but will be available as open source later this year.

The new operating system will “get you into the web in a few seconds” and have a minimal user interface, with most of the “user experience taking place on the web”. Google Chrome OS will also have a “completely redesigned security architecture” which the company compared with the security work it did developing the Chrome browser itself; Chrome introduced a number of innovations in isolating web content into separate processes. It aspires to make the OS such that “users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates”.

The company said the Google Chrome OS is a new project and not related to Android, Google’s mobile phone operating system. According to the announcement, it envisages Android as addressing the needs of smaller devices such as phones and set top boxes and some netbooks, while Google Chrome OS aims to run on anything from netbooks to fully fledged desktop PCs.

Google sees the overlap between Android and Chrome OS as an opportunity to cross pollinate developments between both projects, though some observers suggest that planned Android based netbooks may take a back seat. The “new windowing system” will mean that there is yet another player in the complex Linux UI future, though Google’s announcement suggests that they do not envisage the development of any native applications for the Chrome OS platform.

$18M Being Spent to Redesign Recovery.gov Web Site

July 08, 2009 9:50 PM

ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: For those concerned about stimulus spending, the General Services Administration sends word tonight that $18 million in additional funds are being spent to redesign the Recovery.gov Web site.

The new Web site promises to give taxpayers more information about where their money is going than the current version of the site.

“Recovery.gov 2.0 will use innovative and interactive technologies to help taxpayers see where their dollars are being spent,” James A. Williams, commissioner of GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, says in a press release announcing the contract awarded to Maryland-based Smartronix Inc. “Armed with easy access to this information, taxpayers can make government more accountable for its decisions.”

The contract calls for spending $9.5 million through January, and as much as $18 million through 2014, according to the GSA press release.

“We are pleased that another major milestone has been achieved,” Earl E. Devaney, chairman of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, says in the press release. “We thank the GSA for its assistance and look forward to working with Smartronix.”

UPDATE:  The RNC has released a new web ad mocking the Obama administration’s decision to allocate additional funds to the redesign of the Recovery.gov Web site.

Google thought Michael Jackson traffic was attack

by Tom Krazit

Searches for Michael Jackson surged a little before 3 p.m. PDT Thursday.
(Credit: Google)

Google has confirmed that the surge of Michael Jackson-related searches on Google News Thursday was first interpreted as an attack on its service.

Google News was inaccessible for some people Thursday afternoon right as rumors of Jackson’s death began to circulate, replaced by an error message reading “We’re sorry, but your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application. To protect our users, we can’t process your request right now.”

Of course, those queries were quite legitimate, as millions around the world searched for accurate information regarding Jackson following reports that he had suffered cardiac arrest. The spike in queries began at about 2:45 p.m. PDT Thursday, and Google thought the traffic was an attack for about 25 minutes before realizing what was going on.

Google also noted that it saw a huge spike in mobile searches. Yahoo’s data backed up Google’s; it set a record for unique visitors in a single day with 16.4 million visitors, and its lead story on Jackson’s death was the most highly-visited story in its history.

A website developed by Contrive Media was recently featured on CBS News.
EatAtHomeAlabama.com launch on CBS News – Birmingham, AL

EatAtHomeAlabama.com was created by Contrive Media for the Alabama Grocers Association as a tool for consumers to learn how to save money, eat a little healthier, safely prepare and store your foods, enrich your life and promote the grocery industry in the state of Alabama.

   Launch Video >>

We are constantly working at Contrive Media HQ. Here are some projects currently in the works…

• Alabama Grocers Association (URL: http://www.alabamagrocers.org) Contrive Media was asked to redesign the Alabama Grocers Association website.
Expected launch date: July 25, 2009

• Lou’s Pub and Package (URL: http://www.louspub.com/ ) Contrive Media was asked to develop a website for this award winning pub and package store located in Birmingham, AL.
Expected launch date: Late Summer 2009

• Buy Alabama’s Best (URL: http://www.buyalabamasbest.com/ )
Expected launch date: Late Summer 2009

• Florida Site Preperation (URL: http://www.flsiteprep.com/ )
Expected launch date: Late Fall 2009

• McWarren LLC (URL: http://www.mcwarrenllc.com/ )
Expected launch date: Late Summer 2009

• Debate You (URL: http://www.debateyou.com/ )
Expected launch date: N/A

• 47 Guys (URL: http://www.47guys.com/ )
Expected launch date: N/A

• Any Major Dude Recording Studio (URL: http://www.anymajordudestudio.com/ )
Expected launch date: Early Fall 2009

That was fast. Irish programmer and SEO specialist Paul Savage has made this very basic web service, which lists all results for search queries on Google and Bing side by side so you can compare which one produces the best results for the keywords you enter on one single page. We’ve played around with it a bit and found that the tool proves that the user experience for both search engines really is very different:

Searching for ‘Google’

Google will show news results about themselves first, and a link to their homepage later, which makes sense since people are probably already on there. The rest of the results consists of Google products and local versions of the search service. Noteworthy difference is the presence of a button that lets you drop down a widget displaying information about Google’s stock without the need to leave the page.

Bing, on the other hand, provides a list of possible extended search queries on the left sidebar, and a list of useful direct links to Google services below the first result. It also lists ’similar’ searches on the right sidebar (not visible in this screenshot) with alternative services – Bing being the first one they recommend. It also displays a box that you can use to jump to Google search, and it keeps track of your search history right on the page, unless you turn that feature off.

Searching for ‘TechCrunch’

Google only shows internal network links on the first SERP with the exception of our Twitter account, Netvibes profile and Wikipedia entry, while Bing mostly shows links to third-party services (Wikipedia, OnSugar, Flux, Blip.tv, AboutUs.org, Facebook, GitHub, Mahalo, etc.). From the viewpoint of TC the company, the latter situation is not ideal, and to top it off running the query on Bing apparently means potential visitors will see the names of competing blogs in the left sidebar. On the upside, you can open the Wikipedia article on TechCrunch on the same page, which makes for a seamless user experience if information about us was what you were looking for.

Searching for ‘Linux’

Using Google, you get much better results for this query, period. Google lists at least five very relevant links (Kernel.org, Debian.org, RedHat.com, LinuxJournal.com and LI.org) that you will not find in the first 15 search results on Bing. No nifty sidebars, nor any amount of spot-on similar results will help Microsoft here.

Searching for ‘Office Space quotes’

Here, Bing takes the top prize, although with this particular query the results are much more similar, which can be attributed to the fact that it is more detailed (three words instead of one like the other examples). Why do I say that? Because Bing is the only one of both that correctly lists the movie Office Space’s Wikipedia entry in the first few results, while Google doesn’t even list until the fifth page of results (both rank Wikiquote quite high). Also, this is where the extended search options in the left sidebar at Bing really shine: ‘Office Space sound clips’, ‘Office Space WAV files’, ‘Office Space Clips’, etc. – that’s the stuff you’d likely be looking for.

It is far too early and this is far too unscientific a research method to jump to any conclusions – we’d need a Jump to Conclusions mat for that – but using Savage’s tool gives you a nice clean overview of what most people who’ve tried both engines today: Google and Bing at the very least feel very different, and while you can argue about the quality of one engine versus the other back and forth as much as you want, it’s painfully clear both need improvement. Of course, if there continues to be no clear winner on the quality front, then Google has already won the battle before it starts, expensive ad campaigns be damned.

That said, please allow me to reiterate a point Michael made yesterday as well as in the past, that I most definitely agree with: Microsoft is damn right not to give up the search game yet like some are suggesting they should. Please stop calling for a monopoly in search, let these companies compete and fight hard for every user, and I’m sure we’ll see more innovation in this space soon enough.