Yahoo ! GeoCities: Now Closing after 15 Years of Web presence

Geocities was created in 1994 as an easy way for people to create a Web presence. Fifteen years later, Yahoo has decided to close the doors on the iconic webpage service. Ars reminisces upon the good times of Geocities.

U.S. Internet search giant Yahoo! Inc., said it would close out GeoCities, a personal Web page service it purchased for $2.9 billion in 1999. The GeoCities Web page now sports a prominent note that says, “Sorry, new GeoCities accounts are no longer available.”

Yahoo bought GeoCities for more than $2.9 billion in dot-com-priced stock in 1999, when GeoCities had more than 1.1 million users. However, while the idea of having a personal presence on the Internet has caught on, GeoCities turned out to be a backwater, not the mainstream.

Still unclear is what exactly will become of GeoCities pages. New sign-ups are already no longer permitted, but what about existing sites?

Here’s how Yahoo put it: “You can continue to enjoy your Web site and GeoCities services until later this year. You don’t need to change a thing right now–we just wanted you to let you know about the closure as soon as possible. We’ll provide more details about closing GeoCities and how to save your site data this summer, and we will update the help center with more details at that time.”

The purchase 10 years ago anticipated the popularity of personal Web pages, but GeoCities did not match up to the interactive capabilities of social networking services, like Facebook, Cnet said. Unsurprisingly, Geocities has declined in popularity in recent years thanks to the plethora of similar and easier-to-use services—not to mention the rise of social networks like MySpace that allow the same demographic to make equally horrific pages and try to pick each other up at the same time. Add to that the explosive popularity of various blog platforms and the suffering of the online advertising market, and it’s really not a shock to see Geocities going the way of the dodo.

“I’m feeling lucky” button costs Google $110 million per year

Google cofounder Sergey Brin told public radio’s Marketplace that around one percent of all Google searches go through the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button. Because the button takes users directly to the top search result, Google doesn’t get to show search ads on one percent of all its searches. That costs the company around $110 million in annual revenue, according to Rapt’s Tom Chavez. So why does Google keep such a costly button around?

“It’s possible to become too dry, too corporate, too much about making money. I think what’s delightful about ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ is that it reminds you there are real people here,” Google exec Marissa Mayer explained, or at least tried to.

Internet Explorer Vs Firefox Vs Chrome: Fight for the Preeminence on Browsing

They’re back! Just when you thought the “browser wars” were over, with the two camps – Microsoft and Mozilla.org – settling in for a kind of intransigent détente, along comes Google to stir things up all over again.Clearly Google is unhappy with the current state of browser geopolitics and feels it needs to roll its own in order to ensure a robust base for its myriad hosted applications (e.g. Gmail, Google Docs, etc.)

To that end, Google has designed an almost completely new Web browser. In fact, other than the core rendering engine — which is based on the open-source WebKit standard of Safari fame — everything in Google Chrome constitutes a rethinking of how you engineer a browser application.  

Mozilla had already claimed its 3.1 version could outperform Chrome when it comes to speed (and most independent tests show it at least tying). Now, the engineers have incorporated Chrome-initiated options such as the ability to drag and drop tabs in and out of browser windows. The second alpha release also adds support for the HTML 5 video tag, which gives Web developers expanded options for embedding video within a page. Don’t forget, too, that Microsoft’s new Internet Explorer 8 beta 2 – released at the end of August and quickly eclipsed by Chrome’s introduction — is also vying for a piece of the pie.

Here’s a breakdown of the high and lowlights of each offering and where it stands as far as a full release.

Contender #1: Google Chrome

The status: Windows beta released September 2. Mac OS X and Linux versions still under development and said to be coming soon. No indication of targeted full release date.

The good:

• Reliability. Chrome’s multiprocess architecture makes a bad Web page less likely to take down the whole browser.
• Speed. Chrome loads fast and keeps your surfing super-fast.
• Simplicity. Its clean design wastes no screen space.
• Searching. The Omnibox lets you type search terms or URLs into a single spot and figures out what you want.
• Privacy. Chrome offers an “Incognito” mode that lets you easily leave no footprints from where you’ve been.

The bad:

• Privacy. Chrome’s taken a lot of heat for its monitoring and collection of user data, some of which happens before you even hit enter.
• Security. It didn’t take long for users to discover vulnerabilities in the beta browser. Several of these have already been patched.
• Reliability. Some sites and online services still don’t work with Chrome.
• Consistency. Because Chrome is build on the WebKit system, it differs from the dominant platforms that most designers focus on.
• Support. Chrome doesn’t yet have any add-ons or customization options available. It’s yet to be seen how these, once developed, will compare to the rich options available for Firefox.

Microsoft demos “Windows 7” it’s new Operating System with Multi touch features

People will increasingly interact with computers using speech or touch screens rather than keyboards, Microsoft Corp. Bill Gates said. Microsoft chairman Bill Gates talking at the All Things Digital conference in San Diego said “Windows 7” the new operating system from Microsoft scheduled for release in 2009 would incorporate new forms of communication and interaction. Today almost all the interaction is keyboard-mouse. Over years to come, the role of speech, vision, ink – all of those things – will be huge.”

Microsoft’s next operating system (OS) will come with multi-touch features as an alternative to the mouse. Windows 7 will enable user to enlarge and shrink photos, trace routes on maps, paint pictures or play the piano.Microsoft Chief executive officer Steve Ballmer presented “a small snippet” of the next version of Windows and asked he wants to perform better than compare with success of Vista.

Industry watchers say Microsoft is hoping that Windows 7 can change the way people interact with PCs in the future.” Touch is quickly becoming a common way of interacting with software and devices,” writes Windows product manager Chris Flores in a blog post.”Touch-enabled surfaces are popping up everywhere including laptop touch pads, cell phones, remote controls, GPS devices and more.”

Website Beta News reports that “beta testing of the product should begin later this year although a lack of touch-screen devices could slow widespread trials of the new interface”.

Source:BBC

Google handed over the personal information; Police nabbed the accused in India

Google handed over the personal information; Police nabbed the accused in India.

An Indian man is facing five years in jail for making an “offensive” comment after Google handed his personal data to local police.

Rahul Krishnakumar Vaid, a 22 year-old IT consultant, was arrested after posting derogatory comments on Google’s Orkut social networking site.Vaid was posting in a forum called ‘I hate Soniya Gandhi’ and was identified after the police asked Google to hand over his email address.Vaid was arrested after a police raid on his house on Friday and has been charged with breaking section 292 of the Indian Penal Code and section 67 of the Information Technology Act.

If found guilty he faces a possible five years in prison as well as a fine. The case highlights a curious facet of Indian law. The creator of the forum cannot be punished, since an individual’s dislike is covered under personal freedom of choice. However, the information Vaid posted is classed as “vulgar”, thus the arrest.

Vaid’s arrest also highlights Google’s increasingly tarnished reputation, despite its unofficial motto of ‘Do no evil’.The motto gained the company much kudos in the IT industry but, after Google’s activities in China, many are now questioning its stance on human rights.

Source:http://www.vnunet.com