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Microsoft’s Bing took a bite off Google, but has room to improve

binglogoMicrosoft’s ‘Bing’ search engine wants to give Google a run for its money. Bing continues to gain market share against the worldwide search engine leader, Google. Bing officially launched on June 3, initially taking over what was previously the Microsoft ‘Live Search’ market share.

However, after a month, Bing has slightly increased its share from 7.81% of all U.S.based searches to 8.23%. Google, during that same time span, dropped from 78.72 % to 78.48 % of U.S. searches, a decrease of 0.24 %, according to StatCounter’s data. Looking at the two month span, April - June, Google drops to 0.59 %, while Microsoft gained to 1.02%.

Microsoft is not keeping out Bing from the crowd. They are aggressively marketing Bing on television and online. Microsoft has also beat Google to searching “tweets” from Twitter users.

Yet, Microsoft has lot of room to improve. Microsoft was caught off guard when one of the biggest news stories in years took place. The flood of traffic following the reports of the “King of Pop”, Michael Jackson, being rushed to a Los Angeles hospital on June 25th, where he later died, was a good test for Bing’s stability. Google first thought the surge was an attack on its servers. Mean while, later that day, Microsoft admitted that they could have done a better job delivering relevant stories during the two or so frantic hours in which searches went through the roof.

bing-mj-stats“By most reports, Bing did not deliver the best experience for our customers soon after TMZ posted the news on their blog,” wrote Jacquelyn Krones, senior product planner for Bing News. “As Search Engine Journal pointed out, we had the story but it was hidden at the bottom of the main page and even deeper in our xRank result.” Bing’s xRank is supposed to track the most popular people surfacing on the Internet on a given day: Karl Malden currently ranks highest in xRank.

Although Microsoft’s Bing took a bite out of Google’s market share in short amount of time, the truth is that the change is not nearly as dramatic as it appears. It will take a lot more from Bing to become the ‘King of Search Engine’. Like Twitter, when it comes to instant news courage, Microsoft Bing’s search result architecture has failed to keep up with the public demands. Microsoft Bing yet, has more room to improve its performance. But one thing is certain, Google needs to start worrying about Bing.

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The Infamous ‘The Pirate Bay’ is SOLD

tpbThe notorious ‘The Pirate Bay’ (TPB) known for its BitTorrent trackers (often illegal) has agreed to sell the website for $7.7 Million to a Swedish software company Global Gaming Factory X AB, announced this morning.

The Pirate Bay lost the lawsuit and was found guilty of facilitating copyright infringement in April this year. The four co-founders of The Pirate Bay, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde and Carl Lundström, were sentenced to face a year each in prison, pending appeals in addition to a $3.6 Million fine.

Music and film companies including Warner Bros. (WMG.N), MGM, Columbia Pictures, 20th Century Fox Films, Sony BMG (6758.T), Universal (GE.N) (VIV.PA) and EMI had sought damages of more than 100 million Swedish crowns ($12.6 million) to compensate for lost revenues.

“We would like to introduce models which entail that content providers and copyright owners get paid for content that is downloaded via the site,” said Global Gaming CEO Hans Pandeya, in a statement.

Two weeks ago, The Pirate Bay launched a VPN service promising to make file sharers and other internet users more anonymous online. About 180,000 people have signed up for the $7 monthly service. A week later, they announced the “beta extreme” testing of a YouTube-like service called VideoBay. The VideoBay site is using two open-source technologies: Ogg Theora for video and Ogg Vorbis for audio to handle its media playback. Unlike YouTube which requires Adobe Flash Plug-in to playback video and audio.

Padeya said “Pirate Bay draws enormous amounts of Internet traffic but added that it needs to adopt legitimate business models to stay in operation.”

“The Pirate Bay site is among the top 100 most visited Internet sites in the world. However, in order to live on, The Pirate Bay requires a new business model, which satisfies that requirements and needs of all parties, content providers, broadband operators, end users, and the judiciary,” said Pandeya.

“Content creators and providers need to control their content and get paid for it. File sharers need faster downloads and better quality,” he added.

The Pirate Bay (TPB) has more than 6 million registered users, and they regularly share multimedia content like movies, TV shows, music, etc. that would be otherwise impossible to get legally. The excellent recent example was The X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie, which was available online, almost a month before the release in theaters worldwide. Obviously, the links were taken down.

While it is not certain whether the site would continue pointing the way to free files, the long time users and supporters of the website are very upset and disappointed with the decision they have made. I think they have a good reason to because The Pirate Bay will likely become a ‘cash cow’ with new ownership in place.

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Will there be an iPhone 3G S recall?

iphone3gs-pic6There are new reports surfacing that new 3G S iPhone batteries are overheating.

This is, apparently, a reasonably common phenomenon–the hot iPhone. Around the forums, people are blaming Push features and bad batteries, and all sorts of things. Apple doesn’t seem to have responded to the complaints.

One user reported that he was recording video when the phone became very hot and died. Another–this is on the Apple Web site, in the forums–says there is a heat sensor inside that will record overheating and can be used to demand a replacement phone from the folks at the Genius Bar. We’ll see about that.

Will there be an iPhone 3G S recall? Based on my experience, no. Still, battery problems are the stuff of which recalls are made and Apple has not been immune from them in the past.

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HTC Hero, the first Android phone to support Adobe Flash

large7HTC announced their very first Google Android powered phone to support Adobe Flash and also includes customizable UI (user interface). It is called “HTC Hero.” It includes a new Sense widget-based feature, which allows you to do everything that WebOS can, but it uses Android. It can transform you phones focus from business to weekend mode. Like Palm’s Pre, the HTC Hero seems ready to fully integrate your local data with all your subscribed social media sites. Sorry Palm, you are not alone anymore.

icon_use_scenes“As the first Android device with Flash, the new HTC Hero represents a key milestone for Android and the Flash Platform. With close to 80 percent of all videos online delivered with Adobe Flash technology, consumers want to access rich Web content on-the-go.” stated Adobe Platform Business Unit VP and General Manager David Wadhwani. “The collaboration with HTC offers people a more complete Flash based Web browsing experience today and presents an important step towards full Web browsing with Flash Player 10 on mobile phones in the future.”

It includes 3.2-inch TFT-LCD with 320 x 480 pixel resolution, 5 megapixel auto-focus cam with microSD expansion, Qualcomm’s MSM7200A proc running Android at 528MHz, 512MB/288MB ROM/RAM, 900/2100MHz HSPA and Quad-band GSM, trackball, audio/video support, GPS, 802.11b/g WiFi, 3.5mm audio jack, G-sensor, compass. Battery Capacity is 1350 mAh which gives the Talk time up to 420 minutes for WCDM and up to 470 minutes for GSM. While the Standby time is up to 750 hours for WCDMA and up to 440 hours for GSM.

Hero arrives in Europe in July with T-Mobile and Orange, Asia later in the summer, and North America even later in 2009.

Check out the ‘first look’ video and pictures below:

[via Engadget]

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Windows 7 release details announced, including discounts

windows7Today, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) disclosed the details about the highly anticipated Windows 7 operation system, which is expected to be in the stores on October 22, 2009. Starting Friday, consumers in U.S. will be able to pre-order Windows 7 at discounts of more than 50%.

Microsoft has been working on the free-upgrade program which will allow consumers to upgrade copy of Windows 7 Home premium for $49 or Windows 7 Professional for $99, starting June 26. That offer is good for both XP and Windows Vista PCs, regardless of whether someone has been trying out the pre-release version of the operating system.  The offer however is limited to the time and number of copies Microsoft is willing to sell, which has not been specified yet. The upgrade will be available at Amazon, Best Buy, Microsoft’s own store, Office Depot, OfficeMax, Costco, Staples, Wal-Mart and several other retailers.

The full version of Windows 7 Home Premium is priced at $199, with an upgrade from Vista or XP costing $119. The full version of Windows 7 Professional is $299, with upgrades going for $199. Windows 7 Ultimate is priced at $319, with the upgrade version at $219. “Overall, customers will be paying less and getting more with Windows 7,” wrote Brandon LeBlanc, Microsoft’s in-house Windows blogger.

Microsoft also announced that consumers who purchase a vista-based personal computer as of Friday will be eligible to upgrade the system to Windows 7 at no or little cost when it becomes available on Oct. 22nd. “Anyone who buys a PC from a participating OEM or retailer with Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, or Ultimate on it will all receive an upgrade to the corresponding version at little or no cost to customers,” wrote LeBlanc.

Please note that even though Microsoft has scheduled the upgrade program from June 26, 2009 to January 1, 2010, it is up to the chosen retailers and PC manufacturers to run the time frame of the upgrade program. They may offer the option for only short period.

HP has already announced the Free Upgrade to Windows 7 online. Other retailers and PC manufacturers are expected to follow soon.

For Windows 7 upgrade option FAQs: click here.

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