Bing - The Google Killer.

The new search engine from Microsoft and hotly Bing is on 3 June officially at the starting line. Microsoft describes its new search engine search is not in the conventional sense, but as a decision aid, the growing World Wide Web, navigate to find ...
The already published a video showing in fact that Bing less a web sorting machinery as a complex structured interface represents, which is arranged by categories in processed information search and concrete intentions and actions can make.
Even when Bing is, like all new search engines, according to the question whether the new search as a potential Google killer is. White man to the dismal failure of candidates such as former Wikipedia Search, is it with the statement, Bing is not a killer without a doubt on the safe side.
With high probability it will actually be the case that even the Bing search giant Google is in the best case a few more percentage points decline, but never its market leadership in Internet search can really threaten.
To the question after a killer status precise answer, you should first think about what about a Google-killer is. Is only a search engine, which Google from the throne of the leader will face a killer, or should we simply a better search engine as Google killer called?

The first real Google alternative : Microsoft’s Bing

Bing has had the courage to say "to hell with eking out the last millisecond of page load time," which both Google and, historically, Yahoo have always emphasized. In today's world, and moving forward, it's just not that important (mobile being an exception, but for that you can provide a custom experience).

Read Original Post

Google Apps : Can There Possibly Be a Downside?

If using Google Apps has any disadvantages, they mostly revolve around your personal relationship with your Internet connection. Assuming you do have a decent connection (something high-speed in nature is best), you’re good to go. If you don’t have an Internet connection, turn off the lamp and start dreaming. You must be online to use Google Apps. Checking your e-mail, updating your calendar, and collaborating on a document require online interactivity. Google Apps doesn’t work without an Internet connection. Internet connection speed is important, too: Google Apps does work over dial-up connections, but it’s so slow. (Nevertheless, you can always connect with dial-up when you’re away from your high-speed connection.)

When deciding whether to use Google Apps, remember that all these services are in perpetual beta, meaning that unlike traditional software that gets a new, big update every year or so, Google is constantly updating its services and adding new features. Although the most common features are fully implemented, you should check to make sure that the features your organization needs are available. (Along those lines, you may occasionally notice a slight difference between what you see on your screen and what you see in the figures in this book if Google made an update after this book was published.)

The upside, of course, to the perpetual beta model is that by the time the features of the new version have been rolled out, Google Apps users are already familiar with the changes, so you have to deal with only a minimal learning curve. When you and your fellow users get up to speed, you just need to keep using the products to stay up to date. And keeping ahead of the curve is an advantage, all by itself.

Google Apps : What’s in It for My Organization?

As part of the Google Apps program, Google hosts your e-mail, documents,spreadsheets, presentations, calendars, and more at little or no cost. A team,business, school, or organization of any size can have Google Apps up and running quickly. When you use Google Apps, your IT resources aren’t so drained because Google takes care of the technical details. Oh, yeah and they keep your information safe and secure.

Here are a few additional features of Google Apps that may grab the attention of decision makers and your IT department:

1. You don’t have to purchase or set up any hardware.
2. Because Google Apps are Web-based applications, you don’t need to download, install, update, or pay for software again when new versions are released. (Except for a Web browser, of course, and at least you don’t have to pay for that.)
3. Your organization can use its own domain name for e-mail addresses and Web pages when you use Google Apps.
4. Google boasts a 99.9% reliability rate, which means that the service rarely, if ever, goes down.
5. Google takes care of all the data backup and support operations.
6. Google provides online support resources for free and gives 24/7 support — including phone-based support — for Premier Edition and Education Edition users.
7. You can set up users quickly by using the Dashboard.
8. A single sign-on adds convenience for Premier Edition users. Users can sign in once and access all their Google Apps in addition to other corporate intranet or school resources.
9. Gmail can support an existing e-mail gateway.
10. Administrators can access e-mail migration tools for Premier Edition and Education Edition customers.
11. Gmail protects users by constantly updating and running very effective and efficient spam-blocking, virus-protection, and filtering software. Don’t forget one of the biggest advantages of using Google Apps: Whether you’re at the office, traveling, working from home, or sipping a latte in a café that has a wireless hotspot, as long as you have a live Internet connection, you can log into your Google Apps account. Also, you can check your e-mail and do other tasks from your mobile device.

Choosing the Right Google Apps Edition

As we mention in the “Meeting the Google Apps” section, earlier in this chapter, Google Apps consists of four main programs: Gmail, Calendar, Docs, and Talk. Anyone can use these services without signing up for Google Apps, but to help organizations replace or complement their existing systems, Google has some powerful administrative and collaborative tools for those ready to take the plunge.

You can choose from four Google Apps editions: Team, Standard, Premier, and Education. Each edition has been customized to meet the needs of different types of organizations, large and small:

1. Team Edition: This is the easiest way to start using the collaborative tools available with Google Apps with your school or work team. You don’t have to change your e-mail address or worry about any administration tools. Sign up for free with your existing e-mail address (see Chapter 2 on how to do this) and you can start connecting with other people in your domain right away. Gmail is not included in this edition.
2. Standard Edition: Use this edition if you’re a family, group, or small business. Register or transfer your domain to access Gmail, Calendar, Talk, Docs, and the Start Page. This version is free (meaning adsponsored) and supported by online help. You can always upgrade to Premier Edition later, if you want to.
3. Premier Edition: Medium to large organizations should generally use this edition. At the time of this publication, it costs $50 per user per year, but you likely currently spend more than that on maintenance of your existing setup. Because this is a paid edition, you can choose to turn Gmail ads off. This edition also has additional administration tools and security settings. Your users receive significantly more storage space than with the Standard Edition.
4. Education Edition: Built for — you guessed it — schools, colleges, and universities. Nonprofit organizations can also use this version. This version is free (although not supported by ads), and it includes many of the features from the Premier Edition (albeit a little less storage space). If you’re interested in the Education Edition, Google requires you to provide proof of accredited not-for-profit status.

The best program is the one that best meets the needs of your organization.

Google’s cloud computing

Google believes that you want to spend more time doing things with your organization, family, group, or school in an online environment.Called cloud computing, the premise is that users can create, edit, and store massive amounts of information through the Internet (or “cloud”) with any device that has a Web browser (such as a computer or cellphone) and Internet access. The Web applications (or apps, for short), as well as the files themselves, are stored securely on powerful servers in data centers throughout the world, as illustrated in Figure 1-1.

Users can share their information with others, including friends and coworkers, and collaborate in real time on important projects. Because the files are already online, a user simply sends a message to his or her friends that contains a link to a file, and those friends can click the link to see and contribute to the sender’s great work. Using Google Apps, you don’t need to send attachments back and forth or keep track of different file versions.

Google Apps brings cloud computing to the masses. And it helps alleviate some of the issues of traditional computing:

1. Cost: Computer hardware and software is expensive. For schools and businesses alike, buying PCs and servers, and all the software that goes with them, is making less and less financial sense — especially when it all becomes obsolete before anyone figures out how to use the new stuff. These organizations want solutions that can provide a better return on investment.
2. Maintenance: Maintaining all those PCs and the network software is a pain. Information technology costs even more money and uses a lot of resources — especially when organizations grow and someone needs to maintain all those new users.

So, why not go with Google and leave all the tedious technical stuff to the people not savvy enough to jump on the Google bandwagon? If you keep your information in their Internet cloud, you don’t need to buy any servers, load any software, scan for any viruses, or back anything up. No more rebooting the server or your PC when the system crashes, again. Everything just works with a lot less cost, maintenance, and hassle because it’s coming to you directly from Google.

To put it all into perspective, here’s an analogy for you: Would you rather hide your life savings under your mattress and risk it being stolen or lost in a fire, or store it in a bank where you have access to it anytime, anywhere, from an ATM machine?

In this new, Web-enabled world, your Web browser becomes your ATM, and Google becomes your bank. You can use your own domain name, company logo, and all that branded identity stuff to personalize your Google Apps. You can preserve your corporate, school, or organizational identity and slash your costs in a dramatic way.

Google Apps – new Game to play

Google is building a radically different way of working that can shatter the primacy of the current methods and reduce the need for all the tired, old office productivity software on your hard drive. Google provides most of the apps for free or at a fraction of the cost of traditional software.
Google Apps is a powerful set of tools that Google has bundled together to meet the needs of businesses, schools, government agencies, and other  organizations of any size. You can use Google Apps as a powerful digital communications infrastructure for your business or school that Google maintains for you. (Very sweet.) The key Google Apps are

1. Gmail: An e-mail app based on Google’s popular Gmail platform. This version lets you use your organization’s domain, such as user@ yourdomain.com.
2. Calendar: A calendar and scheduling app that allows easy collaboration.
3. Talk: Instant messaging, available directly from within Gmail or as a standalone software application. Talk also allows voice calls, voice mail, and file sharing.
4. Docs: A simple, yet powerful, set of word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation apps.
5. The Start Page: An app that you can personalize by adding gadgets to access any or all of the other Google Apps, as well as news, weather reports, entertainment information, and more from one place.

In addition to the apps themselves, Google provides some powerful tools for administrators in the Google Apps Dashboard. Features for administrators include

1. Web page creation tools
2. Domain settings
3. Advanced tools, including administrative support and migration tools
4. Individual apps settings
5. Custom Web addresses for your Google Apps
6. Phone-based support tools

What Makes Google So Successful

As you can tell from the title of this section, Google, like Frisbee and Kleenex, has become a household name. Web surfers everywhere use the word ‘‘Google’’ to describe the act of searching for something, many times not even realizing (or caring) that there is a powerful company that shares the same name. That works both ways, too; businesses both large and small hope they will be ‘‘Googled’’ by those same consumers, who will go on to find out more about what they have to offer and eventually make a purchase.

The place to start with Google is to determine how it can help your site become more visible on the Web. And the way to understand that is to understand how the Google search works. Here’s an overview to give you the gist of it.

1. Google’s founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, came up with formulas for indexing the contents of Web pages, storing them in a huge database, and retrieving pages based on keyword searches.
2. Google uses automated programs to scour the contents of Web pages on a regular basis (just how frequently is one of those trade secrets I already mentioned). The programs record the contents of many pages and the URLs and store them in a database.
3. You, the end user, type a word or phrase like ‘‘Irish dancing’’ into Google’s search box and click the search button. When you do this, a program is activated on Google’s servers. The program searches the pages that have already been stored in the database. That’s right: when you click the search button on Google’s home page or in the Google Toolbar, you are searching Google’s database of Web pages, not the ‘‘live’’ Web itself.
4. Google compiles a set of search results ranked in the order of highest relevance to your search. It’s Google’s system of page ranking—of determining which items are on the top on the first page of the results—that’s as notable as anything in this system.

As an end user, you already know how the search system works: it helps you find Web pages that contain information you’re looking for. But ‘‘Going Google’’ means you want to make use of the system from the standpoint of someone who wants to do better business. You can take advantage of the system of keyword searches and page rankings to achieve the business objectives outlined in the sections that follow.

Downloading Picasa

Picasa, like Google Desktop, is software you download and install on your computer. Downloading Picasa is easily done by navigating to http://picasa.google.com, and clicking the Try Picasa now button in the right-hand side of the home page. This will take you to a software download screen where you will download Picasa as an executable file to your hard drive.

Understanding Google Apps

If you’re like me, you have spent years purchasing and installing applications for your computer. The centerpiece of those applications has probably been Microsoft Office,the application suite that is virtually ubiquitous and that includes the Microsoft Word word processing application, Microsoft Excel for spreadsheet, PowerPoint for presentations, Outlook for e-mail and communications, and Access for database applications. Every few years, a new version of Office is released, and you have the option
of installing it so you can keep up with the people you work with in other companies,who have their own versions of Office, too.
Google Apps is a set of Web and business applications that is aimed at competing with Microsoft Office. What makes Google’s offering dramatically different from Office is the fact that the applications are all offered online as Web-based services that you access with your Web browser, not as separate applications you install on your computer. This ‘‘software as a service’’ approach wasn’t invented by Google.Lots of other companies give you the ability to store files, keep your financial records, and perform other functions online using your browser. The fact that these applications are being offered by one of the most popular and best-known—not to mention most successful—Web businesses around is what makes Google Apps notable. Google Apps is Google’s signal that it wants to shift from being the leader in Web search to a leader (if not eventually the leader) in Web services.

Downloading Picasa

Picasa, like Google Desktop, is software you download and install on your computer. Downloading Picasa is easily done by navigating to http://picasa.google.com, and clicking the Try Picasa now button in the right-hand side of the home page. This will take you to a software download screen where you will download Picasa as an executable file to your hard drive.

Downloading Picasa

Picasa, like Google Desktop, is software you download and install on your computer. Downloading Picasa is easily done by navigating to http://picasa.google.com, and clicking the Try Picasa now button in the right-hand side of the home page. This will take you to a software download screen where you will download Picasa as an executable file to your hard drive.

Organizing Your Images with Picasa

Picasa is a free, downloadable software package offered by Google. While still in its developmental phase, Picasa nonetheless offers many powerful tools allowing you to organize, manipulate, and modify the images stored on your computer’s hard drive. Because Picasa organizes your images chronologically regardless of their location, it becomes not only easier to compare the volume of images created from one month/ year to the next, which can be useful if you are in a business environment and need to inventory your images, but also to simply find files that you may not have remembered were there. Essentially, instead of having to go through your hard drive searching for stray images, you have only to install Picasa, and the work will be done for you.

Picasa combines tools previously found in separate programs, such as the slide show creation of PowerPoint, for example, and the photo manipulation of Photoshop. You won’t get anywhere near the quantity and sophistication of specialized tools found in the aforementioned programs, but Picasa’s interface is both intuitive and easy to use, and allows you to perform surprisingly powerful actions without any prerequisite knowledge. Also, don’t overlook the fact that Picasa is free, thus potentially saving you hundreds if not thousands of dollars.

Finally one big plus to keep in mind is that Picasa is, after all, a Google product. So it has many built-in methods for getting your photos online. Tasks such as creating a Web album, emailing images, or even adding them to a blog can be performed at the click of a button.

Understanding Web Traffic Analysis

When you create a Web site, your hosting service should provide you with a way to track the number of visits each page receives as well as some indication of where they are coming from. This isn’t information for its own sake: you want to be able to analyze and act on the data. By learning about who visits your Web site, how your visitors find you, and what they do while they are browsing through your online presentation, you can tailor your product selection and presentation to better meet their needs.
Traditionally, the practice of Web site traffic analysis is referred to as reviewing the ‘‘log files,’’ the information-packed and techie-looking files that contain computer addresses and Web page URLs. Such information needs to be displayed in the form of a graph or chart to understand it better, and that’s exactly what Analytics does. Typically, you want to look at information over a particular period of time, whether
it is a month, day, or week. You need to pay attention to facts such as:
• Domain Reports—This kind of report tells you which domains your visitors come from.
• Referrer Reports—A ‘‘referrer’’ is the site that referred someone to you—in other words, it’s the site a visitor was visiting just before it came to your site. By tracking referrals you can see which links steer you the most visitors.
• File Type Reports—These sorts of reports tell you what type of files are being accessed by your visitors—they might be images, presentations, PDFs, and so on.
• Browser Reports—These tell you what kinds of browsers your viewers are using so you can tailor your content to particular versions or types if needed.

Often, log file reports present you with a ‘‘Top Ten’’ list of pages visited, files accessed, domains that visit you, countries of origin, and so on. When you’re trying to choose from Analytics’ rich set of reports, you might keep such options in mind so you can present your coworkers and managers with the information they need to make informed decisions about your Web site and what sort of content is contained on it.

How Can Google Talk Help Your Business?

Google Talk isn’t just a supplement to phones and e-mail. It’s also a way to save money. Like most of the other Google services described in this book, it’s free. You can install it on each of your employees’ computers and get them typing messages to one another quickly and without incurring any expense at all. And if you run up costly long-distance phone bills with international calling, you can opt to exchange chat messages with Google Talk instead. Since you’re using the Internet to communicate, you don’t pay anything more than you already do for Internet access. And you ‘‘converse’’ almost as fast as you would on the phone.

Not only that, but Google Talk can be used for an increasingly popular technology called Voice over IP, also known as Internet phone service. Programs like Skype and Vonage let you use your computer as a telephone; with a microphone and (optionally) a headset, you can literally speak (yes, I mean really speak with your actual voice, the old-fashioned way!) over your computer using Google Talk. Why use your
computer as a phone when you already have lots of phones at hand? The answer is in your pocketbook. Programs like Google Talk enable you to talk to someone across the country or across the globe without spending a dime.