Google finally takes its Google Apps suite out of beta - mainly to persuade the enterprise market that it is 'serious'.
By Asavin Wattanajantra
The applications that make up Google Apps – Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Talk – have finally been taken out of beta for both consumers and enterprise.
The word “beta” is now removed from the product logos for apps like Gmail, which has worn the tag for more than five years.
Google said that it realised having its applications constantly in beta confused some people, especially those who thought of ‘beta’ as being not ready for ‘prime time’ use.
However, it seems that Google’s movements in the enterprise space was the real motivation for the company to get rid of the label, to make sure that it was thought of as a ‘mature’ product suite.
“We’ve come to appreciate the beta tag just doesn’t fit for large enterprises that aren’t keen to run their business on software that sounds like it’s still in the trial phase,” said Google Enterprise product management director Matthew Glotzbach.
“So we’ve focused our efforts on reaching our high bar for taking products out beta, and all the applications in the Apps suite have now met that mark.”
Glotzbach said that 1.75 million users around the world use Google Apps since it was released for businesses two years ago.
In the UK, the Guardian News and Media group is one of the high-profile organisations that already use Google Apps, which we reviewed earlier in the year.
Google Apps has also has two new features. One is email delegation, which allows IT staff to screen and send others' email.
The other is email retention, which gives administrators the ability to set up policies and comply with regulations, so they can determine what email is purged from the system.
In May, Google Enterprise's Dave Armstrong claimed that Google were well positioned to offer consumer tools better than ones found in the workplace.
The launch of Wolfram Alpha this month has some wondering if we’re moving into a new age of search. We certainly could be, but it’s unlikely it’ll be a Google-free world.
Indeed, this latest development – as cool as it is – is a continuation of a long string of innovation the sector has seen since the birth of the web. Wolfram Alpha is likely to fill one niche area of the market, while other innovations step-up to solve other problems. That may still leave Google holding the bulk of the market, but at the very least it’s encouraging that so many are continuing to develop new ideas despite such a near monopoly.
How search works
Every search engine is a bit different, much to the annoyance of search engine optimisers the world over. That said, search engines basically send out a robot or spider across the web to follow each and every link. The service then indexes what it finds, with different engines storing different bits – for example, Google, stores everything found in the source of the page, while others just look at what’s displayed.
When a user searches all these indexed pages, relevancy comes into play. Google’s PageRank is the most famous algorithm, but every engine has its own way of finding the best results.
But it’s not just the web that’s searched. Wolfram Alpha is promising to return answers, not just documents, from across the web, while many other searches look at more than the web or even limit themselves to specific niche areas of it. Consider the Pirate Bay. The now-notorious site offers a search of BitTorrents, specific file types that are key to its users. Or consider Google Maps – it is searching for anything that can be geographically pin-pointed. Even services like Twitter are changing the way search works, by letting us search what people are tweeting about.
Before the web
Quite simply, the world didn’t need search in the early days. In the beginning, all web servers were listed on a CERN website that was edited by a man then known as Tim Berners-Lee – those were the days before he was knighted.
Once that list became unwieldy, a search tool dubbed Archie – that’s ‘Archive’ without the ‘v’ – searched via a database of web servers. Soon after, Gopher’s rise led to a pair of new search tools, comically dubbed Veronica and Jughead, which searched using file names and menu titles.
It wasn’t until 1993 that the first robot came about. It was called the World Wide Web Wanderer, but it was for measuring the web, not searching it.
Modern search kicked off in December of that year with JumpStation, which used a robot to crawl the web, indexing it to make it searchable – the three key aspects of modern, or at least current, search. JumpStation was limited to titles, but another system called WebCrawler took it a step further the next year, managing to search full text.
Going commercial
Lycos kicked off the money making in 1994. The Carnegie Mellon project not only robotically indexed every word on a page for searching, but it was also used by the public and went commercial.
But it had competition. Among the pack that emerged over the next few years was Excite, Magellan and Infoseek, in addition to Altavista and Yahoo. Perhaps surprisingly now, at the time Yahoo didn’t search via full pages and keywords, but instead used a web directory system.
By 1996, dominant browser Netscape was struggling to keep things fair, so for a fee of $5 million it let search engines buy the search spot on the Netscape page in rotation.
But the search engine market was set for a shakeup. In that same year, Larry Page and Sergey Brin teamed up at Standford University to develop a search engine based on relevancy, initially dubbing it BackRub. Two years later, Google was incorporated as a company with investment of $1 million; a year later, they had $25 million to play with.
Google time
In 2000, the market as we know it now started to take shape. The dot com bust took down some, but Google’s PageRank bumped it into the limelight, and it started offering advertising that year.
Still, competition remained. In 2002, Yahoo upped its game by picking up proper search tech in the form of Linktomi in and later Overture, which owned Altavista. Yahoo even used Google’s search until 2004, when it melded its acquisitions together into a coherent search tool. That year also saw Microsoft enter the ring, creating its own tool in 2004.
But Google’s IPO in 2004 showed who was really in control of the market, putting the net worth of the company at about $23 billion. Now, it gains several hundred million queries a day. That said, Google has been hit by privacy and other controversies, and notably misses searching the “deep web” – all the data that isn’t linked the way Google likes it.
Challenging Google’s dominance
While Google has seen a few challenges to its market dominance, although none have yet to make much of a dent.
Last year, an engine named Cuil launched, to much media coverage. While the company itself didn’t use the phrase “Google Killer,” a lot of journalists and bloggers did. And it sure didn’t look good for Cuil – or any other Google challengers – when the service was derided for poor results and performance.
Last year, Cuil co-founder Tom Costello told IT PRO: “Other people tend to want to actually make it a story about ‘oh, here’s David coming along against Goliath.’ And again, I think that with the story of David and Goliath, David doesn’t always win on the first shot. A lot of time, people want a very quick resolution to these things.”
Even though Cuil continued to struggle to gain market share in the following months, Costello thinks the service has a future. “Even when you see Google – built to the kind of dominant position they have - it took them 10 years to build to that position. Search is not a business where you have overnight success. It’s not a business where you change the behaviour of billions of people worldwide who use search overnight.”
Maybe the challenge won’t come from a new service, but from established players instead. That’s certainly the goal Microsoft had in mind when it made a massive bid for Yahoo last year. While the bid failed, Microsoft has continued to try to partner with Yahoo on search.
At the moment, Microsoft’s third and fourth ranked Live and MSN searches pull in about five per cent of the market, with second-ranked Yahoo adding another 10 per cent, according to Net Applications. Google takes about 81 per cent, though, meaning it has a lot of room for error to stave off any challenges, even from big players.
While a straight-up deal between Yahoo and Microsoft could cause some disruption in the online ad market, it’s going to take something new to topple Google from its throne. Could pairing a big name with a new idea be enough? If Wikia Search is anything to go by, then the answer is no.
That project was backed by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, so it had an attention-pulling big name from the start. It was never intended to overtake Google – Wales said he hoped one day to get five per cent of the market – but to offer an open, transparent search alternative. Wales said at the time: “The idea that Google has some edge because they've got super-duper rocket scientists may be a little antiquated now.”
Instead, Wikia Search looked to crowdsource its relevancy, asking users to rank the results of a search, rather than rely on mysterious algorithms like Google. But the service never took off, and as the recession hit, Wales shut it down, noting it was pulling just 10,000 unique users a month.
What’s next?
While Wales has promised to return to search as soon as finances allow, others are looking for new ways to find information on the web. Sir Tim Berners Lee is still at it, pointing to the semantic web – and in turn search – as the future. This looks to remove ambiguous words from the search process, making results more specific.
Microsoft is also set to be launching its new search tool as early as June. Codenamed “Kumo” at the moment, it looks to be a rebrand of its current Live search, but includes a few changes such as using categories to separate out different types of results.
And then there’s Wolfram Alpha, the engine that promises to return answers, not documents. While it certainly looks impressive, it’s so unlike what people currently use search for that it’s unlikely to be the force that topples Google.
But then, in such a fast moving area of the tech world, who knows when the next Google could be created in a university somewhere around the world…
Version 3.5 of the Firefox web browser is imminent. We explain what to expect from this major update.
By Benny Har-Even
While we agree that Internet Explorer has come on a long way, we still don’t think it’s the best option out there.
There are now several web browsers out there, all competing for your attention and the biggest of these alternatives, Firefox, has just received a major update.
What is Firefox?
If you recall your web history, in the late nineties, the ‘browser wars’ were conducted between Microsoft and Netscape. We all know who won that one, but out of the ashes of Netscape came an open source browser project – originally Phoenix (out-of-the-ashes, geddit), then changed to Firebird, and then eventually to Firefox.
Since version 2, released in October 2006, it’s started to significantly eat away at Microsoft’s market share and version 3 achieved a over eight million downloads in a single day - getting itself into the Guinness World Records in the process.
Firefox is widely liked for its expandability, with its design allowing for the creation for third-party plug-ins or ‘add-ons’. These provide extra features and make for a highly customisable web browsing experience.
What happened to Firefox 3.1?
Soon after version 3.0 was released, Mozilla began to take up the version 3.1 update and this was supposed to have been released some months ago. However, as new features and enhancements were added it was renamed to version 3.5, to better reflect the number of improvements.
OK, so what’s new in 3.5?
There are a number of new features in 3.5, but the one that many will care about it promised speed improvements – competition has hotted up in recent months with both Google’s Chrome and Apple’s Safari 4 claiming speed records, and Firefox 3 is starting to feel its age.
It’s all to do with the use of the Javascript rendering engine. Javascript is used for much of the new fangled Web 2.0 world we live in today, so getting it speedy is important - and Mozilla claims that it’s twice as fast as Firefox 3 was and can compete with Chrome and Safari.
The new version also supports HTML5, the latest web standard and this contains support for a new video tag – which means that you’ll be able to watch video in your browser without any need for a plug-in. The videos are in the open source Ogg Theora format though, and Daily Motion is the only major video site to support it as yet.
Other new bits include an ‘In-Private’ mode – just hit ‘Ctrl-shift-P’ to stop Firefox from remembering your browsing session – perfect for searching for that new job or - ‘ahem’ – other activities. You can also tell 3.5 to forget a site you’ve been to after the fact, just by finding and deleting in the history.
Tear it Up
We also like being able to tear off your tab and drag it out to make a new windows (nicked from Chrome) and ‘Location Aware Browsing’, so if you’re searching for information you don’t need to tell it anything – it knows where you are. Yes, you can turn it off, you paranoid people.
Downloadable fonts can help make web site start to look ‘the way the director intended’. This means you don’t need to have a font already on your system for the web page to use it, negating the need for designers to user static images, which makes for a more editable and searchable internet.
Finally, the ‘session restore’ has been improved, so in the event of a unexpected shut-down or crash, everything is remembered, which could be great if you’re composing an email in the browser.
Buying softwareonline can be tricky, especially if you are new to shopping via the internet. Whether you are upgrading an existing software package or looking for a specific program to install, the process will be a lot less complicated if you know what to look for.
Tip # 1 Read customer reviews. Many popular online stores, such as Amazon, allow users to leave their comments about a particular product. Reading other customer reviews may help to make your decision easier because it gives you an idea of others who have experienced the product firsthand.
Tip # 2 When considering any type of software, make sure that it is compatible with your computer. Most software requires a specific processor type, such as Pentium or Celeron, and a certain amount of free hard drive space. The reason is because, in order for software to function properly at quickly, the computer must be able to handle the application. By being familiar with your computer's configuration, you will be able to select the right software.
Tip # 3 Become familiar with the software by reading it's description and capabilities. Before purchasing any type of software, you should make sure that it is exactly what you want or will enjoy learning. Often times, after software is opened, there is no refund policy for buyer's remorse.
Tip # 4 Purchase software from a reputable company. This will ensure customer service, reliability, quality products and timely shipment. By purchasing software from a reliable source, you will also ensure that the title is authentic and not an illegal copy. The best way to check out a business's reputation is through the Better Business Bureau.
Tip # 5 The best part of shopping for software online is the competition. Because there are so many retailers, prices are more competitive than if only one store had the software that you want. Shop around and compare prices before making a final decision.
Tip # 6 When making a purchase online, consider using a credit card. Most credit card companies provide a dispute resolution process, which is beneficial if the product is not delivered, is not as advertised or is damaged and the company will not stand behind the transaction.
Tip # 7 If purchasing from another individual, such as often the case with online auctions, confirm that the software has all manuals and/or product keys to ensure proper installation.
Tip # 8 Learn about the company's return, refund and/or exchange policy. In many cases, especially with software, the company may refuse to accept the product back for a refund. However, there is always the possibility that a program is damaged or doesn't function properly, in which case the store should honor the purchase with an exchange for the same title. When buying software online, it's best to purchase from a store that is reasonable when it comes to exchanges if not refunds.
Tip # 9 When purchasing softwareonline, take a moment to look at the company's shipping costs, methods and availability of a way to track the package following shipment.
Tip # 10 Common payment methods include credit cards, checks and/or money orders. If you want to purchase software online, you will need to do so from a company that accepts a convenient payment method. If you do not have a credit card, most companies will accept a mailed payment. Most companies, however, recommend not sending cash.
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Spyware programs are really bad pieces of code that get injected into your PC via dangerous areas on the on the internet, What happens afterward can vary - it might collect all your private data and send them to someone else, it can give your passwords to the hacker who made the spyware and might actually make room for viruses, trojans etc. So removing them is important.
Almost everyone who uses the Internet on a regular basis has some kind of spyware removal software installed or has at least heard of these programs. But what many don't realise is that not all of these programs are equally effective.
So you can't just randomly pick one, install it and forget about it. There are many spyware removal programs in the market that are made by incompetent programmers who do not give you adequate protection.
These spyware removal programs are not what you should be using. They rarely have regular updates and can catch spyware only from a few different sources. The most dangerous are fake spyware programs, which themselves are viruses, trojans or spyware.
So choose your spyware removal program very carefully.
When you think your system is infected with spywares, the first thing you should do is backup your data. You don't have to backup everything on the disc, because that would include the spyware as well.
Do not back up programs because they may be infected. Image files, audio files, video files and text files are all safe to be backed up. Put them on a separate disc and keep them safe. After you have properly backed up all your data, you can begin installing a spyware removal program. You can download one from the Internet and then install it onto your hard drive.
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Spyware is one of the most downright obnoxious problems you can face with your computer. Spyware is very sneaky and it can cause a lot of different problems. It works by taking over some part of the way your computer functions. Since most folks don't download anything bad with their programs, it tends to "piggyback" its way onto your computer.
For example, the programs you use to download music frequently have tons of spyware. This can slow the computer function, monitor behavior to see which sites you're prone too, and then display ads or various other messages pertaining to what you might like.
Occasionally, spyware masquerades as an anti spyware program. Thus, rather than cleaning your computer, you just get more spyware. It's frustrating and can be overwhelming.
Removing Spyware
There are a number of ways to get rid of spyware. The first thing to do in all cases is disconnect yourself from the internet. This is important, because it relies on your Internet connection.
First, go to your Control Panel and attempt to get rid of the program. You can get to the Control Panel through your computer easily. After you get there, you need to go into Add/Remove Programs.
A lot of these harmful programs can be easily uninstalled. After uninstalling, reboot your computer.
Now you want to use your anti virus scanner. Your scanner will pick up spyware and adware as well as viruses. There are a host of quality scanners and free ones on the internet. You have to be careful and make sure you aren't just downloading more spyware though.
Once the scanner has finished, it will let you know what to do with the infected files.
You may want to have your computer in safe mode when you are doing all of this.
If none of these options work then you need to get to the drive before the spyware loads up. To do this you'll need a BartPE Bootable CD. Such CDs will let you get into the file manager and get rid of the spyware files yourself.
Cleaning out your browser cache is the next step. This requires resetting your browser files and deleting any sites or favorites that might be problematic.
The key to preventing spyware after this is paying attention to the programs you download. You want to make sure any programs are legitimate. It pays to be careful since a lot of programs have it attached.
After all these steps, you won't have a problem anymore. Make sure your computer runs the way it was meant to by keeping it free of spyware.
The applications that make up Google Apps – Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Talk – have finally been taken out of beta for both consumers and enterprise.
The applications that make up Google Apps – Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Talk – have finally been taken out of beta for both consumers and enterprise.
