Windows Live Folders, Online Storage Service

LiveSide found a new service from Microsoft called Windows Live Folders, Redmond's version of the long-awaited GDrive.

Windows Live Folders, which was briefly available at http://folders.live.com, will offer 500 MB of storage and 50 MB as the maximum file size. There are three built-in folders for documents, music and pictures. The permissions are at the folder level, as each folder can be private, shared or public.

Personal

* Use personal folders to back up important files that are only for you.
* Get to your files from any computer with Internet access by signing in with your Windows Live ID.

Shared

* Shared folders make it easy to collaborate with coworkers or classmates.
* You decide how much control each person has over each shared folder. Some can just read what's there: others can add and delete files.
* Everyone who is sharing uses their own Windows Live ID.

Public

* With public folders, anyone on the Internet can view your files, but they can't change them.
* Want to show your public files to others? Just send them a link! Each folder and file has its own web address.

Google Search Results, Displayed in Columns

If you have a large monitor, you definitely blame Google for wasting so much space in the search results pages. This Greasemonkey script (that requires Greasemonkey for Firefox) places two search results in a row, so all the 10 search results could be visible without scrolling down. The results have a ranking number to make the order clearer.

Google and the Web-Based Malware

Google made an interesting study [PDF, 438 KB] about the pages that try to automatically install malware (the so-called "drive-by download") by exploiting flaws in Microsoft's Internet Explorer. By analyzing all the pages from Google's index, the study found that 450,000 URLs launched files that contained malware. If we assume Google's index has 20 billion pages, that means one in 2,222 pages launches malware. Trojans were the most frequent category of malware, followed by adware.

"The installed malware often enables an adversary to gain remote control over the compromised computer system and can be used to steal sensitive information such as banking passwords, to send out spam or to install more malicious executables over time."

It's also useful to know "the four prevalent mechanisms used to inject malicious content on popular websites: web server security, user contributed content, advertising and third-party widgets". As an example of widget, the study mentions a free stats counter that required users to include links to some external JavaScript files in order to monitor the traffic. At some point, the files started to include exploit code. In this case, the malware was outside the control of the webmaster, but could still be dangerous to the users.

"Examining our data corpus over time, we discovered that the majority of the exploits were hosted on third-party servers and not on the compromised web sites. The attacker had managed to compromise the web site content to point towards an external URL hosting the exploit either via iframes or external JavaScript."

Google started to flag the web sites that try to install malware (example of query). They're still included in Google's index, but you'll have to manually copy the URL and paste it in the address bar to visit the site. Most of the pages let you download pirated software and music. Also the newest version of Google Desktop shows warnings if you visit one of these sites.


The best defense against these threats is to use more secure browsers like Firefox or Opera and to install anti-virus / anti-spyware software (Google Pack includes all of these: Firefox, Norton Security Scan and Spyware Doctor, but there other free alternatives).

{ via BBC, that hires people who don't know how to count and draw the inaccurate conclusion that "one in 10 web pages scrutinised by search giant Google contained malicious code that could infect a user's PC" .}

Perpetual Beta

There's no final version. Nothing is static, everything is changing. With every new iteration, small changes make you realize the creature is alive. You're never bored: sometimes they're doing small tests and you get the chance to see things before they're launched, in other cases the evolution takes you by surprise. As with most beta software, there's no guarantee that things will go well, but this new perpetual beta removes most of the risks because the changes are much smaller.

When a product is still in beta, you never know what's going to happen next. It may change its direction, it might morph into something else. It's an unfinished product, like we all are, always open to new horizons.

It's like writing a book, publishing it and then realizing that you should have written something else. But you can't change too much until the second edition. In the web apps world, the second edition can be launched much faster and it doesn't require buying a new copy.

With all its mistakes, the beta application is honest and admits is not yet perfect. It's still testing, exploring, challenging the possibilities.

New Ways to Visualize Google Search Results

There's little innovation in the way search results are presented: 10 links followed by some text excerpts. Of course, you can change the number of search results and sometimes view more information about a site, but that's all.

Some mostly unknown search engines like KartOO found different ways of displaying search results. For example, KartOO puts the results on an interactive map. The importance of a page is visually represented by the size of the associated icon and each page is connected to a list of keywords that help you refine your query.


Google felt it's time for a change and will add two new ways to visualize the results of a web search:

* on a timeline. View search results chronologically. Although Google doesn't have a way to determine the date when a web page was created, they can estimate it and offer timeline of the most relevant search results for a query, similar to Google News Archive.

* on a map. Google already associates some web pages with local businesses and shows information about the physical address of a business using a Plus Box. For some queries (like NY spa) there are a lot of local results that could be placed on a Google map, like in Google Base.

Google wants to change a lot of things in search this year by integrating specialized search results in the standard web search (Google Universal Search), using personalization to disambiguate queries, expanding the snippets and suggesting other useful specialized search engines in a completely new layout.

Update: The two new views are available at Google Labs.

Google Image Labeler Is More Exciting

Last year, Google launched a game that pairs you with someone, asks you tag random images and gives you points if one of your tags is identical to one of your partner's tags. Google Image Labeler was inspired by a system developed at Carnegie Mellon University whose purpose was to improve the results of an image search engine.

After 8 months since the application is live, the top contributor has 100,000 matched labels. Google Image Search has more than 200 million images in its index.

Until now, for each match you got 100 points. But many people realized that they could easily win points if they typed generic tags like "man", "people", "photo". To make the game more exciting and to improve the quality of tags, Google decided to change the way you get points. Now you can get anywhere from 50 to 150 depending on how specific your tag is.

"Labels that are more descriptive receive more points than generic labels. For example, for an image of a red corvette, matching on "red car" or "corvette" would receive more points than a match on the label "car". This is because more specific labels are even more helpful in our efforts to improve the quality of image search results, so we wanted to credit players accordingly."

Also the time for a round was increased from 90 seconds to 2 minutes and the thumbnails look bigger (they aren't bigger and your browser does the resizing).

The Sound of Nature, in Google Earth

New Scientist reports that a passionate collector of nature sounds created a software that integrates the sounds in Google Earth. "Bernie Krause has spent 40 years collecting over 3500 hours of sound recordings from all over the world, including bird and whale song and the crackle of melting glaciers. His company, Wild Sanctuary in Glen Ellen, California, has now created software to embed these sound files into the relevant locations in Google Earth."

The software will be launched on May 29 at Where 2.0 conference, but you can hear some of the sounds at Wild Sanctuary's Flash site.

"Maps have traditionally been two-dimensional reference points. Even with 3D perspectives an essential component has been missing--the soundscape. Like the soundtrack to a film, this final element not only answers the question Where am I? but informs the viewer what they can expect to find either in a virtual or actual visit," explains Mr. Krause.

Google Earth already integrates content from National Geographic, Discovery and other sources: photos, videos, live webcams, articles, but most of them are loaded outside Google Earth, in a web browser.

Google Earth 4.1 Adds Homepage, Maps Integration

Google Earth 4.1 brings the option to add a start location (or a homepage, if you like) as a placemark. There's also a button for viewing the current location in Google Maps, in case you want to share something interesting with a friend or to add a link in your site. Google Earth Blog shares some details:

At the top of Google Earth, where the tool icons appear, you see a new icon at the right which looks like a "map" - this button enables the new "View in Google Maps" option. When you click on it, it opens your browser window and shows you the same view in Google Maps. Finally, simple button interface to Google Maps from within Google Earth! One difference is that Google Maps is always oriented north up, and you can't zoom as close as in Google Earth.

If you want to try a new way to use Google Earth, get SpaceNavigator, a controller for 3D applications. "Pressure sensing technology allows the controller cap to become a virtual extension of you. Push, pull, twist or tilt the cap a fraction of inch to simultaneously pan, zoom and rotate 3D imagery. Increase pressure to go fast or decrease pressure to make intricate adjustments."

Google Reader Optimized for Wii

Google Reader has a new interface optimized for Nintendo Wii. If you have the Opera browser created for Wii (which is still free until June 30), you can browse through your feeds easier with Google Reader.

Unlike other applications built by Google, Reader has many well-built views that expose the same data but adapt to different characteristics of the medium. There's a view for the personalized homepage (and one of the best Google gadgets), one for mobile phones and two views for the desktop.


{ via Google Reader blog }

Photo Feeds for Google Screensaver

If you installed Google's photo screensaver but you can't find MediaRSS feeds to add, Framechannel lets you create a feed from more than 200 channels of photos that include NASA's photo of the day, travel pictures, images from National Geographic, news and weather. You have to create an account, select your favorite content and copy the URL of your feed. Then add the feed to Google's screensaver. The cool thing is that the URL of the feed remains the same even if you add or remove a channel.

For those who don't want to install Google Screensaver, there are alternative programs or plug-ins for Windows and Mac.

Google Analytics Relaunches With a Simplified Interface

The powerful but way-too-complicated Google Analytics was redesigned by the Measure Map team and has a cleaner look.

"With this new version, users can experience greater visibility of important data, clarity of appearance and more intuitive navigation paths. Utilizing more features and improved metrics, Google Analytics summarizes data and statistics in plain language so that website owners can make more informed decisions. The tool incorporates score cards and summaries that distill information into key performance indicator summaries," says Google in a press release. Other new features are emailing reports and PDF downloads.

The new version is available for some of the existing users and for those who sign up to Google Analytics starting today. For a sneak peek, check this video introduction and read a detailed post written by Avinash Kaushik.



{ The second screenshot is licensed as Creative Commons by vrypan. }

Windows Live Hotmail Launches

After more than a year of testing, Microsoft launches a new version of its free webmail application Hotmail. While initially the name was Windows Live Mail and the intention was to bring Outlook's interface online, Microsoft couldn't make this radical change compelling for its user base and had to make a lot of compromises.

First, the name was changed to Windows Live Hotmail. Then the Outlook-ish interface, similar to the one from Yahoo Mail Beta, is only an option. By default, Windows Live Hotmail has a classic interface that doesn't uses AJAX. "The full version has drag-and-drop functionality, right-click menus, and a reading pane to help you view e-mail quickly. The classic version uses check boxes and doesn't have a reading pane."

CNet reports that the change was necessary because "the program was too slow to load, too different and, well, just not like the old Hotmail it was intended to replace. It was a painful realization for the more than 100 managers and developers on the project. In banking on a snazzy Web 2.0 application to try to catch up to rivals Yahoo and Google, Microsoft had dramatically overshot its audience."

The classic interface is closer to Gmail, although it still uses folders, doesn't have threads and there are a lot of annoying usability issues like the weird position of the "Send" button.

Another bad choice is the "Today" panel that greets you when you open Windows Live Mail. Instead of seeing your inbox, you get the chance to read popular news and articles from MSN. CNet offers a possible explanation for this:

"If you open Windows Live Hotmail and notice that your first message doesn't automatically open in the preview pane, you can blame Match.com. Initially, Microsoft figured people would like to see their first message. But, it turns out that many people don't necessarily want their co-workers or anyone else to see that Victoria's Secret special offer or the update from their online-dating service."

Microsoft continues to show little respect for its users by not adding support for POP3 or IMAP. Instead, they want to push Windows Live Mail Desktop that displays text ads in a Gmail fashion and an "Outlook connector software that will enable anyone with a copy of Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007 to use the software to access Windows Live Hotmail messages and contacts".

News Feeds and Events Added to Google Finance

Google Finance lets you subscribe to more information about a company. There's a new RSS feed for news, a calendar with all the conferences and other important events, the option to view and export the historical prices for a stock.

A more useful new feature is a calendar with all the important events for the companies included into your portfolio. There's no feed for news in the portfolio section, though.

Google Finance will eventually add sections for all the links from "more resources", managing to mix the best information from other financial sites with its services.

{ Thank you, Mike. }

Defining Google Collaboratively

Now you can use an invitation for Google Docs & Spreadsheets more than one time, so I decided to test this feature by letting you edit a document called "Define:Google". You should write your own definition for Google or edit the already existing text, like in a wiki.

You could edit the document if you had a Google Account. Unfortunately, only the first 200 people who sign in to the document can edit it (this is a limitation in Google Docs).

The document is public and will be updated after every change.

Update: 18 hours, 3010 revisions and 500 collaborators later, the 1871 words document has an interesting shape. For some reason, more than 200 people could sign in and some of them actually deleted the whole thing or duplicated the text. But I think this shows that Google Docs could become at some point a way to build cool wikis and that the selling point of Google's office suite should be collaboration.


Note: The document is no longer editable. Thanks to everyone who took the time to write something.