Thursday, June 22, 2006

Windows Live Search inside Windows Live Messenger

"Very soon, we will release a feature of Windows Live Search built into Windows Live Messenger that we think will help you while chatting with your friends. Tell us what you think! You can try this new Search feature from the activities menu of conversation window, it includes our three most popular scoped search features – Web, News and Images. These scoped results are based on Windows Live Search, so you get the same results as if you were searching on live.com." [http://blogs.msdn.com/livesearch/]

Google Joins FCPL

"Google is committed to protecting your privacy and to supporting an Internet environment that also respects individual privacy. Today, we're joining a group of notable U.S. companies calling for federal consumer privacy legislation." [http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/calling-for-federal-consumer-privacy.html]

Summer Exertions Rule Weekly Google Zeitgeist

"Google.com Gainers
  1. World Cup 2006 - "footy" mania continues unabated as countries compete head to head in the month-long fest for the global soccer prize
  2. father's day - the annual celebration for dads took place June 18
  3. us open - major golf championship ended June 18 with the 5-over 285 win by Australian Geoff Ogilvy
  4. tamara hoover - a round of news stories appeared last week about a Texas high school art teacher who was dismissed after personal photos of her were discovered on public photo site Flickr
  5. tokyo drift - fast cars, loud crashes are the bread and butter of the newest "The Fast and the Furious" movie franchise to hit theatres weekend of June 16
  6. nacho libre - another summer flick, this one a Jack Black comedy about the popular Mexican wrestling known as 'lucha libre,' opened to lukewarm reviews weekend of June 16
  7. bonnaroo - the little town of Manchester, Tenn., hosted the fifth year of this increasingly popular music festival for 80,000 fans, which boasts performers including Tom Petty, Radiohead, Buddy Guy, and many more
  8. kaka - Brazilian soccer superstar in the news as the head of the Real Madrid team is quoted in June 19 stories saying he will recruit Kaka away from his current team (Milan)
  9. brenda song - young actress has first starring role in the new Disney Channel made-for-TV movie, "Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior," which premiered June 16
  10. H5N1 - new reports surfaced June 18 of bird flu virus outbreak in chickens found in Northern China
  11. heather mills mccartney - U.K. tabloids continue their field day recounting rumors about the questionable past adventures of the former model, land mines activist and soon to be ex-wife of Sir Paul
  12. jennifer tilly - apart from her film career, the actress is making a mark in the world of celebrity poker matches on Bravo cable TV
  13. dwyane wade - in a June 18 matchup, Miami Heat hoops player broke a 48-year-old NBA finals record for free throws made in a game, taking the Heat to victory over Dallas
  14. warped tour - teenage punk fans are flocking to this summer music tour around the country, with dates last week in Milwaukee and Minneapolis
  15. flag day - the annual commemoration of the U.S. flag took place June 14, marking the day in 1777 when the U.S. Continental Congress approved the stars and stripes design" [http://www.google.com/press/annc/zeitgeist2006/zeitgeist_06192006.html]

Google Launches Google Search Appliance and Google Mini Australia and New Zealand

"Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced the availability of the Google Search Appliance and Google Mini for customers in Australia and New Zealand. Local businesses and organisations can now utilize Google's search technology to search across their internal content, including company intranet, databases, business applications and public websites. "

Adobe and Google team up for Toolbar

Adobe is offering the Google Toolbar to its customers as a free download -- a great way to take Google search with you anywhere on the web.

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

SHARE your Google Calendar with ALL

Now Google Calendar USERS can SHARE their calendar events with ALL their FRIENDS.

READ COMPLETE GOOGLE BLOG POST

go to GOOGLE CALENDAR

NEW - Windows Live Messenger

Today, Microsoft is Launching NEW - Windows Live Messenger.

To get new MLN go to http://join.msn.com/messenger/overview2000

Yahoo! Messenger with Voice Beta (version 8)

Yahoo is OFFERING new PLUG-INs for eBAy and Amazon with New Yahoo! Messenger.

To download new YAHOO MESSENGER CLICK HERE.

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Google's Picasa Web Albums

Google is testing Picasa Web Albums.

Google wrote:

"Reading feedback from Picasa users is one of the best parts of my job. And lately the feedback has been especially clear and direct: please offer an easy way to share photos online. Today, we’re delighted to begin testing a new Picasa feature that does just that. It’s called Picasa Web Albums.

In case you’re not familiar with Picasa, it’s Google’s free desktop photo management software. Picasa is a quick download that makes it easy for people to organize and edit their pictures using something that’s simple and clutter-free. It’s all about the photos. And now we’ve tried to bring that same experience to online photo sharing with Picasa Web Albums. Just pick a bunch of your photos from Picasa and upload them into a web album in a couple of clicks. Once they’re online, it’s super-easy to share them – click the “Share” button from anywhere on the site or, just email friends the URL for your public gallery.

Take a look at the photos that our tester wants to share: Try flipping through photos using the arrow keys (we pre-fetch photos so they load quickly). Zoom in and out to check out details or see the whole photo. Or maximize them on a large monitor. We focused on the photos, not ads or archiving, because we know how important your photos are to you especially when you want to share them. Of course, there's a lot we want to add and improve — which is why for the moment, we're only testing this feature by invitation. If you’re interested in making your own Picasa Web Albums (and helping us make it better), give us your Gmail address here. We’ll be sending out invitations first come, first served.

Once you have an invitation, you’ll be able to download the latest version of Picasa with the web uploading feature. And actually, it’s not just about web uploading -- there’s also downloading. We wanted to make sure you can keep enjoying the photos your friends have shared with you. With this in mind, when viewing others’ galleries, you can download an entire album of photos directly into Picasa with just a couple of clicks. For uploading and downloading to and from Picasa Web Albums, you’ll need the new version of Picasa – again, it’s only available to invited users for the time being.

Finally, you may be wondering if this costs anything. No, and no hidden fees either. Picasa is free as always, and Picasa Web Albums comes with 250MB of free storage space. That’s enough for approximately 1,000 wallpaper-sized photos at 1600 pixels each. We also offer an easy-to-understand storage upgrade option if you have a whole lot more pictures to share."