Daily IT News

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2007-04-13T20:04:00.000-07:00

AOL to upgrade podcast search

2005-09-15T06:21:00.000-07:00

America Online on Wednesday announced plans to add search options to its podcast offering by this fall.

A podcast "search and discovery" feature will be added via a new version of Winamp Media Player, while another search option will become available as a result of a new deal with TVEyes, AOL said. The new features are likely to become available this fall, according to the company.

The Podscope search engine from TVEyes will be integrated with AOL Search, the Internet firm said, noting that Podscope will allow users to discover additional podcasts through spoken-word indexing.

Podcasts are radio-like shows that can be downloaded from the Internet to a computer or digital music player. They differ from traditional radio in that they allow listeners to "time shift," or listen to programs at their leisure. Podcasting is also different because the means of production and distribution is readily available to anyone. Podcasting is catching the attention of technology companies and even venture capital firms.
AOL's main podcasting feature, called Podcasting 101, includes programs from the eclectic Santa Monica, Calif., FM station KCRW, "This Week in Tech," "Sports Bloggers Live," "Reel Reviews," as well as feeds from the BBC, CNN and other sources. The company said original-programming podcasts from AOL Music, Moviefone, AOL Coaches and KOL (kids), and RED (teens) will be added in the coming months.

"Over the next few months, we will be expanding our podcast experience with more exclusive and original programming--from AOL and from partners--and adding more advanced search options," Bill Wilson, senior vice president of programming at AOL, said in a statement.From Cnet

Google launches blog search

2005-09-15T06:20:00.000-07:00

Google has launched a blog search feature, as it seeks to go head-to-head with archrival Yahoo in the booming blog market.
Google's tool is designed to find listings beyond those published through its own Blogger.com service by searching blogs that publish feeds via RSS or Atom. The feeds are checked frequently for new content, Google said on its Web site.
An upcoming feature will allow bloggers who publish site feeds to request inclusion in Google's search index.
The tool is designed to find blogs posted in multiple languages, including Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese, among others.
The tool can be accessed at Blogsearch.google.com, at Search.blogger.com, as well as through the Blogger.com Dashboard and the "Navbar" of any Google BlogSpot blog, Google said on its site. The service is the same in all locations, though the Navbar method features two buttons, one that allows people to search for text in the blog they are currently viewing, and another that requests a search of all blogs indexed.

Advanced-search options let people specify a particular language, title or author's name.
This latest move puts Google into a market that Yahoo has been dabbling in.
Last month, Yahoo launched an ad-network for bloggers and other small publishers and began quietly testing blog search technology in South Korea.

Microsoft's MSN has yet to enter the blog-search market, but the software giant has stated it is taking aim at rival Google with plans to entice developers to build applications that rely on MSN properties.

Additionally, according to SearchEngineWatch, Microsoft is testing a tool for searching RSS feeds. From cnet

New Yahoo Mail beta to be unveiled

2005-09-15T06:15:00.000-07:00

Yahoo was set to unveil on Wednesday a limited public beta of its new Yahoo Mail service, featuring a new interface more like that of a desktop e-mail application and faster response time.
As first reported in June, the new Yahoo Mail beta will feature e-mail caching; message preview; drag-and-drop filing; the capability of quickly searching e-mail headers, body text and attachments; and the ability to view multiple e-mails at the same time in separate windows and scroll through all message headers in a folder rather than one page at a time.
In addition, the new version will add address auto-complete, right-click menus and standard keyboard shortcuts.
The beta will be available to a limited group of Yahoo Mail users in the United States and will be expanded to include users worldwide in coming months, Yahoo said. Users will be able to choose the new version, stick with the older version, or switch between the two.
The amout of storage for the free service will remain 1 gigabyte.
From Cnet

Google hires Net pioneer Vint Cerf

2005-09-09T03:14:00.000-07:00

Google announced on Thursday that it hired Internet pioneer Vint Cerf, as the search giant seeks to build a network foundation for its future Internet applications.
Cerf, who co-designed TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol), will help Google develop architectures, systems and standards for next-generation applications, the company said.
"Vint Cerf is clearly one of the great technology leaders of our time," Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive, said in a statement. "His vision for technology helped create entire industries that have transformed many parts of our lives."
In 1973, Cerf co-designed TCP/IP for the U.S. military while working as a Stanford University assistant professor and DARPA scientist. He worked at MCI for most of his career, with an eight-year break to work at the Corporation for National Research Initiatives.
Cerf is also working on a new set of communication protocols in deep space for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The project is designed to create an Internet communications connection between planets. Google said Cerf will continue with his work in the Internet community. From Cnet

Skype to hit mobile phones this year

2005-09-09T03:08:00.000-07:00

At the Voice On the Net (VON) conference in Toronto, Skype Technologies co-founder and CEO Niklas Zennstrom reported that a mobile version of Skype will be available this year.
Skype is a free global telephony application that allows for VoIP communications, it currently runs on Mac OSX, Windows and Pocket PC, Skype plans to release a version for Embedded Linux, Symbian or Windows Mobile devices later this year.
“We will encourage hardware manufacturers to deploy Skype on their devices.” said Zennstrom. SkypeMobile for mobile devices (our unofficial name for the new Skype) will be targeted to hardware manufacturers for integration into new dual-mode (GPRS + WiFi) mobile devices once made available to carriers. Our guess is that whichever manufacturer will adopt Skype first is the platform SkypeMobile will be released for.
Regulatory issues may slow Skypes deployment down, large telecommunication companies have huge pull when it comes to communication regulations. They earn billions of dollars each year from long distance calls, they also pay the government millions more in taxes each year. According to Zennstrom these companies will be the last ones to continue charging for long distance communications on a per call basis while other companies have started offering flat-rate services.
It may be hard convincing a manufacturer to allow Skype to be put on their device and be available right out of the box, the carriers will bitch and complain that it will cut their airtime revenues. Besides, what will stop them from removing the software once its in their hands? We know sneaky stuff like this has happened before. From Mobilemag

OK, Google...Now What? Five Products That Might Be

2005-09-07T19:29:00.000-07:00

GoogleNet
What it might be: A nationwide broadband network that provides free Wi-Fi access, possibly subsidized by localized Google advertising. Evidence it's in the works: Google has been buying up unused fiber-optic cable around the country. Read more about it: Business 2.0's Om Malik has been all over this story.

Gbrowser
What it might be: A Mozilla-based, Google-branded Web browser with some unique Google functionality. (Every time the company launches something new, this idea makes more sense--or at least I can sure envision a browser that incorporates aspects of such products as Google Toolbar, Google Desktop, Gmail, and Google Talk.) Evidence it's in the works: Google owns the domain name Gbrowser.com. Read more about it: Here's a BBC report from last year, when this rumor first cropped up. If Google really has been working on this that long, I wouldn't be startled to see it emerge from the labs before long.

Google Office
What it might be: A competitor to Microsoft Office. Your guess is as good as mine as to what that might entail. How about a mean-and-lean browser-based suite that stores everything online and is compatible with the Microsoft file formats? Evidence it's in the works: None, but it's fun to speculate about. Read more about it: Gary Rivlin's recent New York Times story on Google mentions it in passing as a current subject of industry scuttlebutt.

GoogleOS
What it might be: A rich browser-based, Web-enabled application platform that runs on any computing platform and starts to compete with traditional operating systems (such as, well, Microsoft Windows). Evidence it's in the works: Nothing specific, but the more well-rounded and sophisticated Google's suite of Web-based tools becomes, the more sense it makes. Read more about it: Blogger Jason Kottke outlines what GoogleOS could be. (It's a long but rewarding read; I think Kottke's latched onto the most plausible scenario in which Windows' dominance might see serious erosion.)

Google Grid
What it might be: GoogleOS on steroids, with unlimited storage and clever personalization features based on the 2007 Google-Amazon merger that formed the Web powerhouse known as Googlezon. Evidence it's in the works: This one's definitively fictional...for now at least. Read more about it: If you haven't seen Robin Sloan and Matt Thompson's amazing little work of speculative fiction in the form of a Flash movie, check it out.
From PC World!

Skype signs up first 3G mobile partner

2005-09-03T22:25:00.000-07:00

Net telephony company Skype announced it has signed a deal with its first mobile operator.

The company has agreed to a partnership with German mobile operator E-Plus, which will offer its customers free use of Skype's voice over IP (VoIP) service as part of its flat-rate data subscription package for 3G (third-generation) data card users.

Under the terms of the deal, announced Thursday, Skype will continue as E-Plus' exclusive VoIP supplier. Skype has already garnered 2.8 million users in Germany and will now gain access to some of E-Plus' 9.8 million customers.

No details were released on how many E-Plus customers are currently using Skype. The subscription will be available to customers throughout Germany for a flat rate of 39.95 euros ($50.08).

Amrish Kacker, a senior consultant at research firm Analysys, said the move into the mobile market is not as significant for Skype as it may first appear.

"To get into the mainstream, it needs to be part of the (data) packages that work on a per (megabyte) basis--not everyone is going to want to spend €39.95," he said. "But once you get down to that level, you open up more complexities--you have to pay for the data used to transmit the voice call."

Skype also hinted that it plans to venture further into the mobile territory. Skype CEO Niklas Zennstrom said the VoIP provider has its eyes on a more global mobile strategy. "We look forward to working with other innovative mobile operators around the world," he said in a statement.

The company is already working with mobile handset manufacturers, including Motorola, to develop Skype-enabled devices.

A recent study from analyst firm Evalueserve predicted that Skype will have a significant impact on the world of European telecom companies.

According to the study, the per-minute charging methods used by both fixed and mobile operators will put them at risk of losing customers. Evalueserve predicted operators can expect a drop in revenue between 5 percent and 10 percent by 2008, primarily due to Skype
From Cnet!

MSN buys into Net-calling futurem

2005-08-31T08:03:00.000-07:00

Microsoft announced on Tuesday that it has purchased a small Internet calling start-up called Teleo, as part of a move to expand the capabilities of MSN Messenger.

The move comes as all the major portal and IM companies are moving more heavily into Internet calling. Last week, Google launched its own instant-messaging service, dubbed Google Talk, with a focus on voice chatting.

Microsoft has its eyes set on something more like Net phone company Skype's service, however. A key part of Teleo's technology is focused on making calls from a computer to an ordinary telephone, a feature that company executives said would start finding its way into MSN Messenger before the end of 2005.

"We've been making a lot of investments in voice, but as we looked at continuing...we had that build or buy discussion," said Brooke Richardson, lead product manager for MSN's communication services division. "We decided that if we wanted to do things rapidly, Teleo was a good fit."

The acquisition underlines the growing importance of voice services, increasingly indistinguishable from an ordinary telephone, to the instant-message platforms that have been one of the Internet's most popular applications.

This has tracked the explosive growth of Net calling, or voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services over the past several years. Just as VoIP has been available for years to hobbyists and early technology adopters, voice chat has been an option inside most instant-messenger applications for some time.

However, the growing popularity of broadband Internet connections and improvements in VoIP infrastructure technology have helped boost the quality substantially. The growth of companies such as Vonage and Skype, and even AT&T's rival service, has helped put Net calling on the radar screen for more consumers.

"I think all (the IM companies) think that this is an idea whose time has finally come," said Jupiter Research analyst Joe Laszlo. "All of them realize that while voice chatting between IM users is a nice thing, what they really need to do longer term in order to make the platform more viable is make that connection out to the phone networks." Adding features that call out to ordinary phones could also give the IM companies a new revenue stream, because people are used to paying for phone calls, Laszlo noted.

The Teleo technology will also let Microsoft build click-to-call links into the MSN service, so that local search results--for a pizza parlor or flower shop, for example--can include a link to let the computer call directly to the business.

The companies did not provide financial details on the acquisition. Richardson said the Teleo technology would be used primarily within MSN applications, rather than being integrated into the Windows operating system. From Cnet

Google aims for Web developers' hearts and minds

2005-08-29T01:48:00.000-07:00

Google is taking a page from Microsoft's well-worn playbook for tech industry domination: Rather than just rolling out new products and features, the search giant is trying to win the hearts and minds of Web developers.

Earlier this week, Google introduced Google Talk instant messenger and an upgrade to Google Desktop Search, which adds a product called Sidebar that pulls data from the Net and serves up a personalized panel of information such as e-mail, stock quotes and news.

Both offerings, notably Sidebar, have the potential to lure away current Microsoft users, analysts said. But Google--in a technique perfected long ago at Microsoft's Redmond, Wash., headquarters--has made software developers an important target audience as well. As with nearly all its services, Google is supporting standards and providing hooks intended to let outside developers create add-on products. Of course, the ever-widening array of Google products has some people wondering whether the company is out to create the rough equivalent of an operating system. Strictly speaking, Google's products are not a replacement OS, but the collection of tools released thus far serve the same purpose, said analysts. Even products that run on Windows PCs, such as Google's Picasa photo-editing software, could tie back to Google's online services.

"It doesn't seem like they have to deliver an operating system or a browser. They're doing a pretty good job of co-opting what Microsoft has done and putting Google stickers on it," said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Jupiter Research.

But longtime Microsoft watchers believe it wasn't just the OS that made Microsoft the most profitable company on the planet. The software titan's vaunted developer-outreach network created a rich "ecosystem" of applications that run on Windows and Office, its desktop application suite, driving adoption of the company's core products.

Some say that's exactly what Google is now trying to re-create on the Web. From Cnet

Intel dials up Skype support

2005-08-29T01:47:00.000-07:00

SAN FRANCISCO--Intel is investing in VoIP giant Skype to make sure the company's software products are streamlined for Intel's next generation of dual-core processors.

Intel senior vice president Pat Gelsinger said Wednesday that the two companies were working together at the research and development level to build what he called "good business-class audio," for voice-over Internet protocol networks.

"I'm happy to announce a partnership between Intel and Skype to make their clients better on our platforms using our software technology, codec technology (encoding and decoding software), and our dual-core platforms," Gelsinger said during his keynote at the Intel Developer Forum here. The collaboration will lead to "improvements in the number of participants in calls and the quality of calls as well."

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. An Intel representative said Skype does not receive funds from Intel Capital, the chipmaker's investment arm.

Skype, out of Luxembourg, produces software that lets people make phone calls using a PC connected to the Internet. Gelsinger said Skype's software has been downloaded more than 150 million times since its introduction nearly two years ago. Skype advertises that it has as many as 3 million simultaneous users at any time of day. While Skype's annual revenue has not been disclosed, analysts suggest that its valuation could be in the $6 billion to $10 billion range.

The service currently works fine on Intel computers, but an Intel representative said the chipmaking giant wanted to make sure the service ran even better on the upcoming Centrino mobile platform, code-named Napa. Due out in the first half of next year, Napa's technology combines the dual-core Yonah processor and the multimedia-enhanced Calistoga chipset. Much of the improvements in the communications depend on enhancements to the digital audio signal. During the keynote, Gelsinger compared a simple recording over a public switched telephone network, or PSTN, with the same recording over a digitally enhanced VoIP network. The enhanced version was noticeably clearer than the standard call.

PSTN has an audio frequency range that tops out at 3400Hz, Gelsinger said, but VoIP will permit "wideband audio" that expands the frequencies as high as 8000Hz, Gelsinger said, meaning that voices sound more natural and are easier to understand.

In addition, VoIP applications will reduce phone call costs, integrate with PC applications and make it easier to translate speech into text.

"This announcement certainly follows a trend these days of further commoditizing voice calls," IDC analyst Richard Shim said.

The Intel representative said the chipmaking giant has publicly announced similar VoIP development partnerships with Cisco and Avaya.

Intel and Skype have worked side by side on VoIP issues before. Along with Microsoft, the three companies sent a letter last September asking the IRS to "refrain from any attempt to extend the excise tax to VoIP services." From Cnet

Skype releases IM developer tools

2005-08-29T01:45:00.000-07:00

VoIP giant Skype is now letting Web sites and other Internet applications tap into the pool of people using the Luxembourg-based company's instant-messaging service.

The company on Wednesday unleashed its SkypeWeb and SkypeNet developer tools. By doing so, the company says, it's opening up its platform to people who wants to integrate Skype Instant Messaging--a lesser-known feature of Skype--into their applications.

"Skype to wants to embrace the rest of Internet," Skype co-founder Janus Friis said during a recent interview.

Skype IM is given away free, along with the company's Net phone software, to people who register with the company. The company says that it has 51 million registered users but did not provide an estimate of how many of those people use the IM service. Skype says, however, that it can be a significant threat to instant-messaging giants America Online, MSN and Yahoo. Representatives of AOL and MSN did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Yahoo spokeswoman Terrell Karlsten said Skype is a "newcomer to a market where Yahoo Messenger has consistently taken market share from its competitors."

In any event, Skype's Friis said he expects a large number of hardware and software makers to weave Skype's IM into their creations during the coming months. But he wouldn't identify any companies intending to do so.

He did offer hypothetical examples. People playing massively multiplayer online games could use Skype IM to taunt rivals and discuss strategy with teammates. The instant-messaging capabilities could also be incorporated, Friss suggests, into software-based media players for personal computers, Web sites for dating, blogging and "eBay kinds of auctions."

But there's one major drawback to Skype's new initiative. People can't incorporate Skype's Net phone features into their applications. Like many other companies in the VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) business, Skype makes software that lets people place free calls over the Internet. It's this product for which the company is best known.

"Voice is an emerging area of technology; we're watching it keenly and will help promote maturation," said Kelly Larabee, a Skype spokeswoman. "The demand and the interoperability existed for IM, and we acted."

The move come a few days before the second anniversary of Skype's first release. Since Skype's launch on Aug. 29, 2003, there have been 12 billion minutes worth of Skype phone calls In addition to people who use the free software to place PC-to-PC calls, more than 2 million people pay a few dollars a month for a service that lets them reach landline and cell phones.

Skype and host of rivals are using VoIP technology to offer more calling features for less money. In this topsy-turvy market, Skype represents a competitive extreme: Using peer-to-peer architecture, it claims it can offer its software-based telephone service for free to tens of millions of people, and still make significant profit by persuading a fraction of its users to pay for premium services.

Of course, calling with Skype, as with other VoIP systems, means poor voice quality if the digital voice packets must contend with crowded Internet connections. Emergency dialing is also a problem; many VoIP operators can't guarantee 911 calls reach an emergency dispatcher near enough to do much help.

And in order to make a big impact, Skype needs to get its service off of PCs and onto familiar phone equipment via the traditional phone network, which most people still use. From Cnet

P2P users traveling by eDonkey

2005-08-29T01:33:00.000-07:00

A new study by ISP network service CacheLogic suggests that file swappers around the world are converging on a new favorite technology, possibly in response to pressure by Hollywood studios.

Last year, British company CacheLogic said BitTorrent--a peer-to-peer technology optimized for downloading large files--was accounting for more than half of all the file-swapping traffic on Internet service provider networks around the world.

A year later, peer-to-peer traffic in general continues to account for the majority of data traffic on ISP networks, usually between 50 percent and 70 percent of the total, the company said. But BitTorrent has been overtaken by usage of eDonkey, a rival with more power to search for content, but with similar speedy download features.

"That seems to be the trend most of the way around the globe, apart from Asia where there is a lot of BitTorrent," said Andrew Parker, CacheLogic's chief technology officer. "BitTorrent traffic levels are in decline."

The study, CacheLogic's second comprehensive survey of the traffic that runs over its ISP clients' networks, is an indication that file swapping remains a powerful force online around the world.

Overall, peer-to-peer traffic accounted for 60 percent of the data traveling through networks around the world at the end of 2004, the company said. Donkey's rise comes after highly publicized Hollywood legal campaigns against BitTorrent hubs, which have resulted in the disappearance of many of the most popular sites using that technology. The Motion Picture Association of America is also targeting eDonkey users, but that network has gained less publicity.

Parker noted that eDonkey also has been translated into local languages in many countries around the world, aiding its spread overseas.

Other surveys have previously noted that eDonkey had long since replaced Kazaa as the network with the most numbers of simultaneous users. CacheLogic's survey focuses instead on the volume of data flowing through networks. From Cnet

Asianux plans expansion to India, Southeast Asia

2005-08-29T01:02:00.000-07:00

Asianux currently has three members: China's Red Flag Software, Japan's Miracle Linux, and South Korea's Haansoft. These three companies jointly developed Asianux 2.0, a server version of the Linux operating system that was formally announced Friday in Beijing. Each of the partners offers Asianux 2.0 under its own brand name, such as Red Flag DC Server 5.0, for example.

Asianux 2.0 -- which is now available in English, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese-language versions -- offers several improvements over the first version of the software, which was developed by Red Flag and Miracle. In this release, the operating system adds support for 64-bit processors and offers improved performance and reliability, the group said.

The Asianux 2.0 launch in Beijing was attended by top executives from all three companies: Chris Zhao, the executive president of Red Flag; Daniel Cho, a director at Haansoft; and Takeshi Sato, president of Miracle.

With the release of Asianux 2.0 behind them, the three partners are now looking to take a bigger role in Asia's Linux market. "We'll expand our cooperation project to other Asian countries and to the world," Cho said.

Asianux is currently looking for partners in India, Singapore, and Malaysia, Zhao said. "We hope we can find some local partners in these countries," he said, noting the group has already begun the process of evaluating several companies as potential partners.

Among the factors being taken into consideration, potential partners must be able to contribute development resources to the Asianux project, provide local language capabilities, and offer support for Asianux users in their home countries, Zhao said.

In addition to bringing in more partners, Asianux is looking to win more high-profile deals in Asia. Cho noted that Asianux 2.0 was recently selected for South Korea's National Education Information System (NEIS) project, a system being developed to handle student records for 10,000 schools across the country.

Looking to the future, Cho said Asianux hoped the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, which recently mandated that its IT systems use open-source software, would adopt its version of the Linux operating system. From infoworld