If you've missed it, there's practically been a spy novel written over the past couple of days about Bing copying Google's search results. The whole thing started with a novella by Search Engine Land's Danny Sullivan, which related the tale of Google's honeypot trap to catch Bing in the act of copying its search results. Ever since, the two companies have been battling it out in public, accusing and denying, in blog posts, tweets and more blog posts, but one question still remains - what now?
Even if the move wasn't intentional on Microsoft's end, the end result is the same - Bing search results that more closely mirror Google's search results. One ex-Googler has some thoughts on how this can change how Google approaches search, which he shared earlier today on Q&A site Quora.
A couple weeks back, Google announced that future versions of its Chrome browser would no longer support the H.264 video codec, causing quite a stir among developers and video content producers. The move left Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 and Apple's Safari browsers as the only ones to support the video standard and a lot of people were upset about this.
Today, Microsoft has fired back, releasing a Chrome browser extension that re-adds H.264 support to the Chrome browser.
No, it's not Microsoft Word or Excel, but with the release of OneNote Mobile for iPhone today, Microsoft has made the first move towards putting its Office suite on the iPhone.
It's a note-taking app, and the mobile version lets you easily jot down notes, record audio, and scan documents. The app will sync information with your OneNote notebooks via Windows Live SkyDrive, and you'll be able to access your notes online via Office Web Apps. "While the OneNote Mobile app naturally doesn't have all of the functionality of the full OneNote 2010 desktop application for your computer," says Microsoft, "it's optimized for your iPhone's display and lets you handle the basics with ease." OneNote is also Windows only; there's no native Mac version.
While the United States seemed to move from a possible OpenID login to more of a "secure" intranet approach, Russia has moved from commercial software to open source. The two moves may not seem to have much in common, but they do. Control.
Under the banner of security, the U.S. has announced the creation of a "verified" ID program that looks for all the world like a walled, or at least fenced, section of the Internet. Russia has moved to open source not out of a philosophical belief in free software, but out of fear of American software hegemony.
In the ongoing battle between Google and Microsoft for the cloud-based education market, it's Microsoft's turn today to tout itself as "the premier cloud suite for education worldwide," announcing that Live@edu is now used by more than 15 million students worldwide. In October, Google announced that its Apps for Education had crossed the 10 million user mark.
Microsoft also announced a number of new institutions that have chosen to move to its cloud services, including Beijing Open University, Western Kentucky University, and University of Bologna.
Firefox has overtaken Internet Explorer to become the number one browser in Europe, reports analytics company StatCounter. According to December figures, Firefox had 38.11% of the European market share, compare to IE's 37.52%.
It's the first time that IE has been knocked out of the number one position in a major geographical area, says Aodhan Cullen, StatCounter's CEO, who points to the growth of Google's Chrome as the reason for the shift. It isn't that Firefox is gaining steam, but rather than IE is losing users to Chrome.
On the heels of an FTC report on consumer privacy and its recommendations for developing an online "Do Not Track" option, Microsoft has announced that IE9 will soon offer consumers "Tracking Protection." The new feature will be part of IE9's beta release early next year.
Tracking Protection will be an opt-in mechanism within the browser for users to identify and block certain forms of tracking. In addition Tracking Protection Lists will enable consumers to have more control over what third-party sites can track them while they're online - creating white lists, of sorts, for sites in which consumers don't mind sharing their data.
As a special Thanksgiving treat, members of the Windows Phone 7 homebrew community, Rafael Rivera, Chris Walsh and Long Zheng, released a tool for unlocking Windows Phone 7 devices to allow for the installation of unapproved applications. Similar to jailbreaking the iPhone, the new tool disables the controls which prevent "sideloading" apps, meaning loading apps outside of the official Windows Phone 7 Marketplace.
Although the software's developers claim the app is "completely safe and reversible," Microsoft has now released a statement saying just the opposite. Our advice? Proceed with caution, new jailbreakers.
OpenStreetMap is a global map edited by volunteers, like the Wikipedia of the mapping world. Founded in 2004, the project is a fascinating collection of local knowledge and is a lot of fun to participate in. Last month OpenStreetMap founder Steve Coast announced that he was leaving for-profit Cloud Made, the primary company behind OSM. Today he announced where he's going next: to be a Principal Architect at Bing Maps. Reaction in the mapping community has been mixed but this is a move that will be talked about for a long time. With the rise of location-aware mobile devices and platforms for processing massive amounts of data, including location data, geo technology is poised to grow far more important than it already is today.
Coast is a giant figure in the mapping world. In 2009, readers of leading geo publication Directions Magazine voted him the 2nd most influential person in the geospatial world, ahead of the Google Maps leadership and behind only Jack Dangermond, the dynamic founder of 41-year old $2 billion GIS company ESRI. Coast will turn 30 years old next month.
Earlier this month, hardware hacker Hector Marcan released his open source Kinect drivers, wining the $3,000 in prize money put up by Adafruit Industries, a NY-based company that sells DIY electronics kits. Since then, a lot of people have been posting hacks made possible through the release of these open source drivers - something which may have inspired you to hack your own Kinect peripheral.
Many non-technical folks have become more comfortable with hacking, thanks to the ease of "hacks" like jailbreaking the iPhone or rooting an Android. However, hacking Kinect isn't as easy as you might think. But if you're if you're a fairly advanced user, comfortable with the command line, Python, GitHub repo's, reverse engineering and more, this is one Weekend Project you're going to love.
