Random Rants

Anything that tickles my fancy.

Archive for May 18th, 2007

Google Universal Search and more.

Posted by silverstag on May 18, 2007

Ever got frustrated for having to search for different stuff at different places? Ever wondered why you need to search images, video, news, maps, web and all using different search tools? Google heard you. Or should i say Google crawled your mind?

Google presents the Universal Search. Universal search adds news, images, videos, books and local results in the standard results. “Google’s vision for universal search is to ultimately search across all its content sources, compare and rank all the information in real time, and deliver a single, integrated set of search results that offers users precisely what they are looking for.”

New design: Google adds a horizontal navigation menu to all of its services, but the menu will feature different links based on the page you’re currently viewing. Check this post for screen shots.

Search Experiments: Google Experimental, a new place from Google Labs where you can see new features and layouts tested for the search results. You can play with them and send feedback so that Google makes them better and they eventually become a part of the Google search experience.

Have FOG(Fear Of Google)? Paranoid about Google tracking your web activity? Here’s something that can cure it.

Here are some other updates:

Via Google Operating System and Official Google Blog
Have Fun.

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MS Windows and Office violate 532 patents?

Posted by silverstag on May 18, 2007

Lately, there’s been a buzz about Microsoft’s claim that Linux violates 235 of their patents. Let me start by quoting a proverb from my mother tongue(translated of course): “Set your house right before trying change the world”. Can you guess why i quoted that particular adage?. Well, read this post on Ed Burnette’s Dev Connection.

Don’t get opinionated yet. Read the complete post. Seems to me that these claims from Microsoft, are just a way to Sabotage the momentum Open source software has been and is picking up. We will have to wait and see what happens.

Update: Looks like i was prejudiced about this whole thing. Microsoft doesn’t want to sue the Open source community after all. Read this. Via Linux.com
Here’s another interesting post on Linux Journal. This article takes a different angle on the whole patent claim deal. I particularly like the analogy he draws of Microsoft with Sun and IBM. Read it and you’ll like it. More News here:

Via Linux&OpenSrc Blog.

Posted in microsoft, opensource, patents | Leave a Comment »