Google Unveils Personalized Search Beta

Google has launched a beta version of its newly developed Personalized Search service, allowing the search engine to tailor results to the user.

Google said that a fishing enthusiast, for example, would now get different results than a musician when entering the word "bass" as a search query.

The service builds on the My Search History feature launched as a beta in April. The service "remembers" past searches, allowing users to quickly retrieve a recently visited page.

Over time the collection of past searches allows Google to learn about a user's interests and deploy that information to deliver better search results, according to the company.

"This is a major step forward in the personalization space, and Google masterfully laid the groundwork with My Search History," Forrester Research analyst Charlene Li said on her blog .

To further increase the relevancy of search results, Li suggested that Google could in the future include RSS feeds to which users would subscribe, as well as bookmarked sites to get an idea of their interests.

The search engine could also look at the time lapse between when a user clicks on a search result and closes the page. This would allow the service to assess whether a result has been successful by tracking the length of time that a user spends on the page.

To deal with privacy concerns, Google requires users to sign in before they can use the service. They can also delete past searches from the search engine's memory or pause the recording feature.

Web users who currently subscribe to Gmail, Google Groups, Google Alerts or Froogle Shopping Lists can activate the feature by using their existing log-in and password.

world's 'fastest gaming CPU'

AMD today launched its latest gamer-oriented single-core processor, the Athlon 64 FX-57, positioning the part well above its recently released dual-core desktop chips.

The FX-57 is also the first member of the FX family to be fabbed at 90nm. It's also the first to support Intel's SSE 3 vector processing instruction set.

Those features clearly qualify the chip for gamers, but AMD also said it would engage with the overclocking community. Previous Athlon 64 FXs have been clock-unlocked, but AMD is making no secret of the fact. While overclocking the part will still voids its warranty, AMD said it wants to make the process safer by providing recommendations for heat-dissipation systems and other tools used by overclockers to ensure stable processor operation. The FX-57 has a maximum thermal power rating of 104W at its official clock speed.

AMD has upgraded the chip's integrated memory controller to work with 533MHz DDR SDRAM. Its predecessor, the FX-55, was limited to 400MHz memory. AMD isn't phasing out the FX-55 just yet, nor is it reducing the older product's pricing. Instead, AMD is using price to sandwich the top-end dual-core Athlon 64 X2 between the FX-55 and the FX-57.

Unlike Intel, which is pushing its dual-core Pentium D as a gaming processor almost as much as it is promoting the Pentium Extreme Edition as one, AMD wants clear blue water between the X2 line and the FX range. The former is for digital content creators, the latter is for gamers and overclockers, it says. It's certainly true that few if any major-league games support multiple processors, so there's little direct benefit to be had from using a dual-core CPU, but a dualie does allow gamers to run other code without the fear that it will negatively impact game performance.

Mind you, since the X2 4800+ is clocked to 2.4GHz and the FX-57 to 2.8GHz, it's hard to imagine AMD-friendly gamers not wanting the single-core part no matter what. The X2 is also locked against overclocking, AMD said. The FX-57 delivers around seven per cent greater performance than the 2.6GHz, 130nm FX-55, according to AMD's own benchmarks.

The new chip is priced at $1031, $30 more than the X2 4800+ and $204 more than the FX-55. The FX-57 is available immediately from AMD and from the usual-suspect system builders and PC vendors

Samsung Wins Latest Memory Speed Race

Memory races are perhaps not as exciting as the processor and graphics card battles, but no less essential to the development of the PC and now Samsung has taken GDDR to the next level.

Fabbed at 90nm, the 512MB 2Gbps GDDR3 (Graphics Double Data Rate 3) module has a massive 8GBps throughput making it 70 per cent faster than the 1.2Gbps chips used in the current wave of video cards.

The chief benefit to gamers will be higher resolution images and faster rendering, while Its first real world implementation will likely be in the upcoming next gen consoles, the Sony PS3, Microsoft Xbox360 and Nintendo Revolution.

Clearly at this stage there is no date for mass production, but one would have to think large quantities will be available in time for the Microsoft’s baby which is due before the end of the year.

In related news, Samsung has also initiated mass production of its 1.6Gbps 512MB GDDR3 modules which it developed in December 2004. This alone with allow onboard video card memory to reach a massive 1GB.

This technology stuff just doesn’t slow down, does it?

Microsoft works on own BitTorrent

Microsoft researchers in Cambridge, UK, are developing their own peer-to-peer file-sharing software. Codenamed Avalanche, the program makes it easy to share content by dividing files such as software, audio or video, into chunks, much like BitTorrent. Using "network coding", it can re-create missing blocks of data that can be used in place of missing chunks.

In BitTorrent systems, server sites do not host the files being shared. They host links, called "trackers" that direct people to where they can the pieces of a file instead.

But unlike BitTorrents, Avalanche does not depend on trackers. The Avalanche program on each computer shares the files automatically, without having to search a user's hard drive.

The problem with many file-sharing applications is that not all the pieces to make a complete file may be obtainable.

Sometimes there is heavy demand on the file-sharing network, which can slow download times, when people try to find missing parts.

Through its network encoding, Avalanche is designed to rebuild the required part of a file once it has enough other pieces of a file to work on; this means Avalanche can turn any part of a file into what it needs.

Microsoft says that the system stops people re-distributing content because it will only forward files that have been "signed" by the publisher.

Skype rocks

Skype adds video to its VoIP service

vSkype adds video and sharing to your Skype experience.

Skype says:

Getting started is simple. Just connect a camera, download our free vSkype plug-in, and invite up to 200 buddies to a video call - even if they don't have a camera. But wait, there's more! You can also share anything you see on your screen, even your entire desktop! Whether you use Skype for business or to connect with family and friends, now you can show a presentation, work on a spreadsheet, or share photos of your weekend fun while seeing everyone on the call!.

Sample screenshot of six people in a vSkype call.

Yahoo launches 'deep web' search

Yahoo’s battle to wrestle control of the lucrative search engine market stepped up a gear today when it introduced the internet’s first "deep web" search service.

The service allows users to search subscription-only websites containing content that most search engines cannot usually access. The search service is free, although users must have a subscription to the relevant content-provider if they wish to click through to read the pages they find.

Yahoo is hoping the service, which is still in development but available to use at uk.search.yahoo.com/subscriptions, will be used by professionals looking to find the in-depth content often found on subscription-only websites.

Initial content providers for the service include FT.com, the Wall Street Journal Online, Forrester Research Inc and thestreet.com. Content from Factiva, LexisNexis, and Thomson Gale will be included in the coming weeks.

Salim Mitha, the director of Yahoo Search in the UK, said the additional subscription search service was part of the company’s strategy to become the "only place consumers go for information".

Users of the service can type in search terms and are then presented with matching results from content providers which include MTV, the music video channel, and Reuters, the news agency.

Michael Jackson 'suicide' can kill your PC!

Pop king Michael Jackson fans beware. Any message on your computer monitor that says that Michael Jackson has made a suicidal attempt will surely crash your computer.

According to eonline, the latest virus doing the rounds is "The "News from Neverland Ranch" displaying information about a "suicidal attempt" by Michael Jackson.

When the user clicks on the "Read more" button to find out more details, the computer hangs.

The "News from Neverland Ranch" dispatch--also known by the subject line, "Re: Suicidal aattempt [sic]" which goes somewhat like "Last night, while in his Neverland Ranch, Michael Jackson has made a suicidal attempt. This attempt follows the last claim was made against the king of pop. 46 years old Michael has left pre-suicid [sic] note which describes and interpretes [sic] some of his sins," has been making rounds since Thursday.

Computer security analysts however, say that this virus will last only as long as hackers don't find another one to hog the limelight, adding that Jackson virus is doing the round because

Jackson is in the limelight now.

"If I counted the number of times Osama bin Laden has been found alive, I'd run out of fingers. No matter what the emails say, though, the al Qaeda leader has not been captured. And Michael

Jackson, by all accounts, has not been felled by a "suicidal attempt. This is probably getting attention right now because they're exploiting Michael Jackson," eonline quoted Steven.

Microsoft's Acrylic.

Microsoft has released a test version of a new professional graphics tool code-named Acrylic.

The software is based on Expression, the graphics application Microsoft acquired with its 2003 purchase of Hong Kong company Creature House, the software giant said on its Web site.

Microsoft describes the software currently available as a 77MB free download as bringing together pixel-based painting and vector graphics features. These capabilities will put the product squarely in the market currently dominated by software maker Adobe Systems with its pixel-focused Photoshop and vector-driven Illustrator products.

Acrylic appears to support opening and exporting to Photoshop and Illustrator file formats, as well as other standard graphics formats. In addition, the application appears to be able to export to Adobe's Portable Document Format, or PDF.

The test software, or beta, also has a limited life; it will expire Oct. 1.

Microsoft has recommended relatively high system specifications for Acrylic, saying consumers should preferably run the software on an Intel Pentium 4 machine, with Windows XP Service Pack 2, 512MB of memory, 500MB of disk space and a pressure-sensitive graphics tablet supporting the WinTab interface.

Prototype of HD DVD-R Developed

A group of four manufacturers has announced the development of a prototype of a HD DVD-R disc, the write-once next generation DVD disc that can be produced at high volume on standard DVD-Recordable production lines. Hitachi Maxell and Mitsubishi Kagaku Media/Verbatim, two of Japan's leading manufacturers of optical disc media, have separately tested and verified the manufacturability of the write-once discs, which use a new organic dye specifically developed for blue-laser applications, and confirmed the prospect of volume production. The new dye is the result of a joint development project by Hayashibara Biochemical Laboratories, a key manufacturer of dyes for DVD-Recordable discs, Mitsubishi Kagaku Media/Verbatim and Toshiba Corporation. Hitachi Maxell and Mitsubishi Kagaku Media/Verbatim will commercialize HD DVD-R discs in spring next year, at the same time as the launch of HD DVD recorders and PCs with built-in HD DVD drives by hardware manufacturers, including Toshiba. Standard DVD-Recordable discs use a photosensitive organic dye as the data storage medium in their recording layer. In the transition to HD DVD, manufacturers had to meet the challenge of developing a dye for HD DVD-R discs that could be used with the narrow wavelength of a blue laser and offered sufficient readout stability. The newly developed organic dye is highly sensitive to blue laser light, has the readout stability essential for practical use, and the solubility in organic solvent required for easy production of the dye recording layer by a spin-coating process. As the HD DVD-R disc is based on the same disc structure as DVD discs, back-to-back bonding of two 0.6 millimeter-thick substrates, already installed DVD-Recordable manufacturing lines can utilize the new dye in efficient production of HD DVD-R. Hitachi Maxell and Mitsubishi Kagaku Media/Verbatim have both used the new dye in trial production of prototype HD DVD-R discs (single-layer, 15 gigabytes) on their current DVD-Recordable production lines, and confirmed that the process can be applied to mass production. "By combining our cumulative know-how in high-density optical disc technology with the breakthrough of the new dye, we have tested and proven the manufacturability of HD DVD-R discs," said Norio Ota, Executive Officer and General Manager of Development and Technology Division, Hitachi Maxell. "We will prepare for mass production of HD DVD-R on our current lines, in readiness for market growth in applications including HD DVD recorders and PCs with HD DVD drives."

Bagle Resurfaces

Email security service company, MessageLabs has issued a warning about a new variant of the Bagle worm that is currently making its presence felt over the Internet. The company has reportedly intercepted about 8,50,000 copies of the worm already and has given it a "high outbreak" rating. The Bagle variant arrives as an empty e-mail with an attachment in a zip file. Users who open the attachment release a Trojan, which then attempts to download the actual virus from various locations. The virus then disables anti-virus programs, picks up email addresses from the user s computer and forwards itself to the acquired list. Also, on activation, the worm drops a copy of the executable file on to the infected computer, which further polls a vast list of URLs for the availability of mass-mailing component. MessageLabs said that the Bagle worm appears to have originated from an address claiming to be within Yahoo Groups. Since its origination in January 2004 the Bagle worm has reportedly had about 70 variants.

Mindset Tool from Yahoo

Yahoo has released a new beta search tool called Mindset which allows users to sort search results for queries into commercial or non-commercial results.

Search queries can be adjusted 'on the fly' by moving a slider bar - which sits at the top of the search page - to the left or right in order to show more commercial or more informational results.

Yahoo's Mindset operates as an online tool - no download is required - and can be found [here].