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Microsoft word on the net: writely.com

Writely.com provides you a unique net tool. A Microsoft word like program right from the web page of any net connected PC for you to create your document instantly. It also lets you collaborate with others too.

Go to writely.com login to your account (provided free) and start typing.

Recently, Writely has been on the news for having acquired by Google. Google has a grand plan to threaten Microsoft with a web based PC. This is sort of a much touted network PC where you store, retrieve, and work, all on the web and straight from any web page. With the wide scale deployment of broadband Internet, the situation with the bandwidth is fast changing. High speed wireless, and fibre connectivity is also altering the landscape of Internet connectivity.

Currently since they are moving onto Googles systems they have disabled new registrations. However any day they will reopen the registration. Google has been reportedly planning a Gdrive; a hard drive for everyone straight on the web with unlimited storage. Google might be planning to provide all, an interface screen where you can receive your mails, store your files, use your instant messenger, and operate your word processor and spreadsheet straight from the page.

Experience first hand at Writely.com

Google buys online word processor Writely - Xinhua, China

Wiikipedia’s growing pains.

As you may be aware Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia on the net. It is also simple to use as well as one which can be edited by all. That means if you are an individual with specific expertise in an area, you could go on to the Wikipedia website and create an article very easily, sharing your knowledge with an authentic and highly popular online encyclopedia.

Problem with such open to all editing is that if someone decides to abuse the feature and write nonsense or adds information specifically aimed at defaming someone; there is no way to stop it except through efficient monitoring. Wikipedia’s editors do go back to the content you have added as fast as they can. However the problem is that if they miss something that is abusive or wrong, it can be disastrous for the authenticity of this service depending upon the severity of the mistake.

Recently such a thing did happen and Wikipedia has since stopped allowing anyone (anonymous) editors from being able to edit it. The erroneous article appeared on Wikipedia claimed that a well known journalist might have been responsible for assassinations of the Kennedy brothers, which was a false charge.

However, to this day, Wikipedia remains immensely popular and growing in popularity. This is also because other online encyclopedias such as Encarta and Britannica remains fully closed or only partly accessible to web visitors without a premium membership.

Main Page - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wikipedia locks out anonymous editors - VNUNet.com
Wikipedia's Paradox – BusinessWeek
False claim has Wikipedia revising article-creation rules - Seattle Times.

Google has a new ‘Base’.

So far, Google was just indexing your content for their search engine. Now with the Google base going live, Google will take the entire content to their servers provided you give it to them.

The service is currently under beta testing but available to public.

You can post items like course schedules, events, articles, news, recipes, jobs etc...You can define your own items if your needs does not get met with the available fields. Search giants foray into inviting all types of content has been touted to be an eBay and Craigslist killer. Whether it will really kill anything is a wait and watch.

However, it looks like that after indexing and continuing to index data from world’s websites, Google is now inviting all types of content directly from individuals. This takes away the time it takes for their crawlers to go to a website and index its data for it to be made available to net. With the ‘base’, once you input and submit into the base, your data or classified ads are instantly on the net for world to see.

Company says eventually data that comes out of base service will be integrated with the main Google index.

Although commerce is not added to the service right now, it looks like that’s the idea behind it and soon it will be extended to commerce and more action will follow such a move. When the service is eventually commercialised, it is expected to be a threat to not only eBay and Craigslist but also traditional classified ads through Newspapers.
   

Visit base.google.com and see the action

Google throws open the doors to Base - PC Pro
Google Base Debuts for Hosting All Content - PC World
With Google Base, Ubiquitous Web Company Extends Its Reach - Washington Post (require registration)

Microsoft debuts windowslive.com & officelive.com

Faced with the threat from companies like Google, Yahoo, Salesforce.com etc in the software service market, Microsoft is introducing two new sites intended to deliver software services online.

Windowslive.com or live.com is currently in beta (unfinished work) testing. However you can play around with it to study the options available. It looks something like the My Yahoo or Personalised Google home page where you can customize lot of options.

Currently in live.com, you can aggregate weather, news etc from various channels and platform is expected to be extended to a newer e-mail system and messenger provided straight from the live.com

Officelive.com is expected to provide a hosted platform, including a free domain name, hosting space, e-mail addresses to small businesses.
   

Together, this could turn out to be a platform through which you may be able to run a basic version of MS Office package. Sun Google alliance and the talk of bringing openoffice online version are sure to have speeded up Microsoft’s announcement of these software services.
   

About the competition between Google and Microsoft in view of the new offerings from Microsoft, one commentator put it as a “clash of two models, rather than clash with Google as a company. This he said because Google has been pursuing a net platform model which Microsoft has traditionally not followed. Now with the live and officelive, they are pursing the net model which they are not used to or rather does not liked to get used to.

Live.com | Officelive.com

MS Previews Windows Live, Office Live Internet-Based Software Svcs - DigiTimes
Microsoft Goes Live with Live.com Portal Plans - ClickZ News
Why Microsoft Is Going "Live" - BusinessWeek

Google – The Advertisement empire.

Intelligence and innovation combined with great speed is what made Google one of the top media companies in the world. Advertising on the Googles ad network is highly prized today. As companies fight to bid for ad space, for them, the cost increases and Googles revenue skyrockets.

New York Times newspaper is carrying an article on how Googles ad network evolved and reached the position it is in today. They have covered in detail the turbulences the organisation has gone through; both in the Google management and on net’s virtual world.

Google wants to dominate Madison Avenue, too – nytimes.com (require registration)

Google and Sun has alliance plans.

Web Office may be coming: Unlike the ubiquitous office package of Microsoft, which includes Word, Excel, Power Point, and Outlook, which we launch from our desktop, we may soon go to the Internet to launch similar office packages.

In such an environment, your computer will not sit at your home or office. Your computer will float on the Net and likely on a Google server. This may not be wild imagination anymore. With Sun Microsystems, planning to join Google it feels like “Network is the computer” slogan is finally going to be realised.

Highlights of what is in store at Google: Google may be developing an Internet based computing platform, Google may become a major source of ad on the Internet. They have already surpassed Time Warner to become the world’s biggest media company sometime back. Google has announced partnership with NASA to obtain the brain power of NASA scientists in the areas of information technology innovation.

As part of the agreement with Sun Microsystems, Sun will include the Google Toolbar as an option in downloads of its popular Java Runtime.

In addition, openoffice.org, which is a popular and free office package, will figure prominently in the agreement. This is a package we are likely to see transformed into the web office software matching in capabilities with Microsoft’s office.

Sun, Google in office software pact - Reuters.uk
Google and Sun horse trading - ZDNet
Analysts: the best of Sun-Google pact is still to come  - VNUNet.com

What happened to Alexa website ranking service?

Alexa was one of the very few services, which could be easily used by anyone through an easy to use toolbar on their browser to find out the popularity of  a website.
   

Most people have been finding this service quiet useful. One day Alexa said that you cannot use the service from “this IP address (Internet Protocol Address)” and then it started saying this for other IPs as well. We would like to know from the Internet community if this service is still functional or if it is shutdown for any reason.
   

They were assumed Spyware by most anti-spyware programs however, most people found their service quiet useful and not causing any harm except collecting data in order to feed it back to them.
   

Amazon company who bought Alexa in 1999, added alexa web services data in Alexa. Alexa uses a Web Crawl technology to collect data about website information and usage. Alxa.com home page is also inaccessible from the Internet currently in our tests.
   

Does anyone have any feedback on Alexa? if so, please write in comments.

HD DVD is coming!

If the current DVDs only let you see the actors clothing in great clarity, new format will let you see whether the person is wearing a small pin on his shirt. Such is the clarity expected out of HD DVD (High Definition Digital Versatile Disk).

Competing formats from Sony group (groups of technology companies) and Toshiba group have been competing for high definition formats of blue ray and HD DVD respectively. The latest news to come out on the format war is that Intel and Microsoft, two tech giants have decided to back Toshiba sponsored format.

With these two giants supporting the format, currently it looks like HD DVD has gained an edge. However, we may not know who won this format war until few more years of commercial use.

Toshiba welcomes Microsoft, Intel decisions to support HD-DVD - Japan Today
Microsoft and the HD DVD format wars - ZDNet
Will Microsoft and Intel Be Enough for HD-DVD's Success? - Softpedia

Tomorrow, Google will host you!

Not just your e-mail and search, soon Google might be in charge of your video, photos, word processing, spreadsheet data, and net-based phone etc.

Google is most interested in creating their own dark fiber based network independent of but connected to the Internet so that they can provide an alternative to desktop-based computing using their own Google network. With half the world’s search being conducted by Google already, it may not be long before they take over your desktop and take it to the net to a net-hosted platform.

Already many of our applications are net based except word processing, spread sheet, presentation packages etc... Many people also depend up on tools like GoToMyPC to connect to their PC when they are away.

Instead of using such tools, what if you could make use of a hosted platform capable of meeting most or all of your computing needs from any net connected computer in the world with only a browser - what about Internet as your new Laptop?

This is the essence of a new, brilliant article by CNet - Google builds an empire to rival Microsoft.

Zabasearch is a free search site, it might reveal all about you!

ZabaSearch free people search includes white pages, public records, addresses, and phone numbers.

What comes free about a person?
1. The addresses where he or she live.
2. what his or her phone numbers were (unlisted or not)
3. What year he or she was born.

The above information on many individuals can come to you free of charge (Currently applies to the US). However, for a price they can do a background check on the same person. Background check cost around 49 $.

You can see an example background check which gives away precious, private information. This is an alarming proposition for those people who value their personal information and would like to keep it discreet. A sample background check we found on the site had reports on his property, neighbours and much more bewildering amount of information.

It is all out there for a small price. When combined with something like Google earth, in the future you might be able to zoom into the person’s house for a small additional charge. Where is our privacy? It is all in the drain with the advent of the Internet.

Zabasearch - it might reveal all about you!