Internet Explorer 9 : First look

Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) is upcoming new browser by Microsoft. Microsoft has released its Beta version 3 days back on 28^th October. Internet Explorer 9 is Hardware-accelerated HTML5. Internet Explorer 9 moves rendering of text and graphics from the processor, to the graphics card. That means, your website’s contents/images will be clearer and video will play smoother on Internet explorer – 9. When I first came to know about IE9, I had few questions in my mind.

1. is it fast enough?
2. is it compatible with different versions of windows?
3. What are the new security features in this new browser?
4. is it good/cool enough to win back former IE users who have migrated to Firefox, chrome and other browser?

Geek’s review:

The first thing which disappointed me a lot, was the system requirements. IE9 is not supported in windows XP & is only for windows 7 and Vista (32 and 64 bits). Thus answering to my 2nd question of compatibility. Sadly Microsoft has ignored its best OS the Windows XP. How hard is it for Microsoft to make a version compatible to windows XP? I still do not understand why Microsoft is wasting money and time on Vista & why Microsoft wants to kill windows XP?

Any way you can download its beta version from http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/internet-explorer/download/ie-9/worldwide, the size of the installer is around 19 MB and installation is very slow, frustrating and forces you to restart your system after installation. But in the end I was able to install it on my laptop.

First look of IE9:

Ya, it's impressive. It is clean, simple and very minimalist. The address bar box works both as address bar and the search box. Browser options like home, file, history, bookmarks and tools are shifted to top right of the browser and represented by 3 icons only.

Pin website: IE9 has this very impressive feature to pin your favorite website in task bar as apps. You will just need to drag the favicon from the IE9 box down to your taskbar so that whenever you want to open this website just click on the icon in taskbar.

But how much is the use of this functionality is still to be seen? I really do not want to fill my task bar with different websites. Or my task bar space will not be enough for it. As a developer I would like to develop an app or add-ons which will show me the option to choose the website from pined websites when I do a right click on my task bar. Actually this will be very useful for the user if we integrate this option with “pin the website” feature. Regarding to website apps pining functionality I would say it’s new, refreshing but not much useful.

HTML-5 Test (How well does your website support HTML-5?) : Microsoft says that IE9 supports HTML-5 and CSS-3. But when I did html-5 test on http://www.html5test.com/ IE9 scored only 96/300 when firefox 3.6 scored around 130 and chrome scores 231 out of 300. IE9 is lacking behind in HTML-5 support by a huge margin in comparison to chrome and firefox. But ya, there is definitely an improvement from IE8 to IE9. IE 8 scores only 26 in HTML-5 test.

Speed/Security/other features: I can clearly see IE9 is faster than firefox 3.6 but slower than chrome. IE9 has no default ad blocker integrated with it. IE9 uses SmartScreen filter that warns you if the website that you are visiting contains threats.

Finally, Microsoft has realized where search box should be open when we press Ctrl-f. In IE9 it gets opened in the top of the browser just below URL bar, not like IE 8 which opens search bar in the middle of page.

Well, IE9 is cool, cleaner, simpler, fast and secure. Now all 3 browser giants are at equal level. Browser war is on now. This is a very good move by Microsoft to get back it's browser market share. It will be very interesting to watch how browser users will reply to IE9. For me, all three are equals now. I have more option now. But still my priority will be chrome-> Firefox -> IE9.

Write your IE9 experience or your questions about IE9 as comment to this post. Remember IE9 is still in Beta version. Use it on your own risk.

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GOOGLE INSTANT : Search Before You Type

8th September, The day when Google officially announced and added another milestone to make search easier, faster and efficient. Google Instant gives result as you type. you will get your search result faster than your typing speed.

I have been using it since the last 2 days and I have only one sentence to describe this i.e. “It’s mind blowing.” Here is some more insight to Google Instant and my first impression of it.

Features of Google Instant:

There are mainly 3 features of Google Instant:

• Instant search result: you get your search results before you can type. As soon as you start typing, Google Instant automatically shows results for a popular search that begins with those letters . You get your results before you finish typing your query and hitting enter.

• Predicted result: Google instant predicts what you are going to type next and gives predicted search query in search textbox in gray text. This predicted search query remains until you type next character.

• Scroll to search: Using up and down arrow keys you can scroll to suggestions and you get a updated search result page as you move on the suggestions. No need to click on “google search” button, no need to hit "enter" anymore.

Google says that Google Instant saves 2-5 seconds per search query and I can clearly see that it is saving our search time.

Also, Google has integrated safe search in Google Instant. If you want to search any uncensored adult things, Google Instant doesn’t suggest anything. You will need to hit enter in order to get search result.

Is it really effective? Generally, when we search anything, we have search query or phrases in our mind and we search or type accordingly. Here in Google Instant for every character, the search result page is being loaded or refreshed. The screen is flickering with results while typing query. I think this is very distracting to user.
Also I can not see any improvement in the quality of search results. It is fast and instant but search results are same as what we get in normal google search.

I think Google Instant is targeted at mobile phone users who are going to be the major revenue sources for google in the upcoming years. Predictive search result is similar to predictive text options which are used in smart phones and designed specifically to expedite the speed of typing on tiny keyboards.

Overall, I really like the instant results and seeing how the results change with just the addition of one letter. It will be interesting to see how the public take to it and adapt themselves to new search techniques.

Please let us know your views and experiences of Google Instant.

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Gaming Industry Part-2

We are back with the second chapter of the Gaming Industry. This is the story of a Japanese company who jumped into the gaming market and is still playing strong.

Kyoto, the Japanese based Nintendo began as a playing-card manufacturing company. It entered the home video game market in Japan in 1983 after it started its entry into electronics in 1970s with its Famicom system.

Nintendo focused on producing fewer, but higher quality games. The Famicom could display 52 colours at a resolution of 256 *240 pixels, superior to the competition of the day. Famicom cost 50% less than the closest competitor. A security chip was installed into every console to ensure that only Nintendo approved games could be played on the system.

Atari filed a number of lawsuits against Nintendo complaining of monopolistic practices.
But by 1990, Nintendo had captured 90% of the US home console market. It had big hit titles like Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda. In the meanwhile it faced competition from another Japanese console maker – Sega who had also successfully entered US market. The marketing and relatively softer licensee policies of Sega paved the way for an extremely competitive market.

But the big war was just about to begin. By the mid 1990s Sega was the least of Nintendo’s worry as Sony the Big Electronics player entered the video Game market with a bang- Playstation.


~Naineet

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Gaming Industry

The Video Gaming Industry has experienced significant changes in its 30 years old industry. The industry has seen big changes right from the days when Atari was providing household games at US. We have tried to provide you with an overview of the history of Video Games through our present article. The first of the articles in the series talks about first Gaming Company- Atari

Atari: It was the first in the gaming industry. It introduced a home version of the ball and paddle game of Pong in the year 1975. Atari sold 150,000 copies of Pong in the first year itself.

Its competitor Fairchild Channel F produced the first gaming console. Atari followed suit with its 2600 VCS (Video Computer System). Each of its cartridges was retailed for $25-$30. By 1979, many other gaming and toy companies entered the home console market – Mattel, Coleco, RCA and Philips Electronics. Atari represented two - thirds of the home console market in the United States. The home versions of arcade games such as Space invaders and Asteroids were a hit. It had turned into a $3billion business by 1982.

The industry started collapsing by 1983. The market was full of multiple consoles and poor quality software. Atari developed E.T a game based on Steven Spielberg’s hit movie by the same name. It was the last nail in the coffin. Atari posted a $536 million loss and the company was sold at a substantial discount in 1984 to Jack Tramiel (who named his company Atari Corporation).

The market was all silent for several years after the collapse until Nintendo came. Just be patient for the next article which would tell the story of how Nintendo took the US market by storm………….

~Naineet

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Oracle’s strategic acquisitions

This is a guest article by a very good friend of mine and author of www.mindcron.com.

Mergers, Takeovers, Buying businesses and Strategic acquisitions are the best management activity to become the no. 1 and expanding the business throughout the globe. Most of the corporate icons have eagle eyes for the strategic acquisitions in current corporate scenario.

Why not? There are lots of successful examples in front of us. Mittal Steel Company is sitting on the top of the steel world, Bharti Airtel has got 5th ranking in telecom industries after acquiring Zain and there are lots of lot stories.

IT industries are more aggressive in acquisitions and mergers. Microsoft has more than 200, IBM has more than 90, HP has around 100, CISCO has more than 140 and TCS has around 12 acquisitions and mergers to show global presence.

ORACLE is not lagging behind of anybody and has a remarkable record of corporate strategic acquisitions in the world of information technologies.

DATABASE e-Test (March 2008) Innobase (October 2005) Moniforce (December 2007) mValent (February 2009) Secerno (May 2010) (pending) Sleepycat (February 2006) TimesTen (June 2005) TripleHop (June 2005) APPLICATIONS AppForge (April 2007) Haley (October 2008) Interlace Systems (October 2007) LogicalApps (October 2007) Market2Lead (May 2010) Silver Creek Systems (January 2010) TempoSoft (December 2005) PRODUCT LINES Agile (May 2007) Hyperion (March 2007) PeopleSoft (January 2005) Primavera (October 2008) Siebel (January 2006) Telephony@Work (June 2006) IMPLEMENTATION AND INTEGRATION TOOLS Global Knowledge Software (GKS) (July 2008) SERVER AND STORAGE SYSTEMS Sun (April 2009) Virtual Iron (May 2009) INDUSTRY SOLUTIONS Communications and Media Convergin (February 2010) eServGlobal's Universal Service Platform (USP) (May 2010) (pending) HotSip (February 2006) MetaSolv Software (October 2006) Net4Call (April 2006) Netsure Telecom Limited (September2007) Portal Software (April 2006) Sophoi (October 2009) INSURANCE AdminServer (May 2008) Skywire Software (June 2008)

MIDDLEWARE AmberPoint (February 2010) BEA (January 2008) Bharosa (July 2007) Bridgestream (September 2007) Captovation (January 2008) ClearApp (September 2008) Context Media (July 2005) HyperRoll (September 2009) GoldenGate (July 2009) Java (April 2009) Oblix (March 2005) OctetString (November 2005) Sigma Dynamics (August 2006) Stellent (November 2006) Sunopsis (October 2006) Tacit Software (November 2008) Tangosol (March 2007) Thor Technologies (November 2005) ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION Primavera (October 2008) FINANCIAL SERVICES i-flex (August 2005) HEALTH SCIENCES Phase Forward (April 2010) (pending) Relsys (March 2009) INDUSTRIAL MANUFACTURING Agile (May 2007) Conformia Software (June 2009) Demantra (June 2006) G-Log (September 2005) RETAIL 360Commerce (January 2006) Advanced Visual Technology (AVT) (October 2008) ProfitLogic (July 2005) Retek (April 2005) UTILITIES LODESTAR (April 2007) SPL WorldGroup (November 2006)

Position associated with oracle after acquisitions:

• 11 of the top 11 global aerospace and defence companies run Oracle's mission-critical back-office applications and technology
• 9 of the top 10 global aerospace and defence companies run Oracle's Siebel customer-facing applications
• 8 of the top 10 European Union member Ministries of Defence run Oracle applications
• 20 of the top 20 global automotive OEMs and suppliers depend on Oracle applications to accelerate innovation and time to market.
• 15 of the top 15 North American automotive OEMs rely on Oracle applications to optimize their demand-driven supply chains.
• 15 of the top 15 Fortune 500 automotive manufacturers run Oracle software and hardware
• 5 of the top 10 global chemical companies run Oracle applications
• 8 of the top 12 high performance chemical companies run Oracle applications
• 2,700 chemical companies run Oracle technology
• 780 chemical companies run Oracle applications
• 98 of the top 100 telcos run Oracle Applications
• 97 of the top 100 telcos run Oracle Fusion Middleware
• 100 of the top 100 telcos run Oracle Database
• 10 of the top 10 network equipment providers rely on Oracle's Sun hardware
• 43 of the largest U.S. school districts run Oracle applications
• 10 of the top 10 academic universities worldwide run Oracle applications
• 10 of the top 10 research universities run Oracle applications
• 15 of the top academic institutions in Europe run Oracle applications
• 8 of the 11 Big 10 university conferences in the U.S. run Oracle applications
• Oracle is #1 in Financial Services customer relationship management
• Oracle is #1 in Financial Services human capital management
• 20 of the 20 top banks run Oracle
• 9 of the top 10 securities firms use Oracle applications
• 4 of the top 5 mutual fund companies use Oracle applications
• 4 of the top 5 world stock exchanges use Oracle applications
• 40 of the top 40 high technology companies run Oracle
• 30 of the top 30 Electronic OEMs run Oracle applications and technology
• 8 of the top 10 Semiconductor companies run Oracle applications
• 14 of the top 25 High Technology Distributors run Oracle applications
• 10 of the top 10 Fabless Semiconductor companies run Oracle applications
• 8 of the top 10 Electronic Manufacturing Services (EMS) companies run Oracle applications
• 9 of the top 10 Software companies run Oracle applications
• 9 of the top 10 global manufacturing giants run Oracle applications
• 9 of the top 10 Fortune's Most Admired Firms run Oracle applications
• 10 of the top 15 office equipment manufacturers run Oracle applications
• 20 of the top 20 insurance companies run Oracle applications
• 20 of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies run Oracle applications
• 10 of the top 10 contract research organizations (CRO) run Oracle Applications
• 20 of the top 20 medical device companies run Oracle applications
• All of the entertainment companies in the Global 500 run Oracle Applications
• 12 of the top 15 U.S. media companies run Oracle applications
• 6 of the top 15 publishing houses run Oracle applications
• 6 of the top 12 U.S. newspapers run Oracle applications
• 3 of the 4 major U.S. television networks run Oracle applications
  
• 3 of the top 4 global advertising organizations run Oracle applications
  
• More than 160 upstream companies run Oracle applications
• 9 of the top 10 oilfield service companies from Reuters Online run Oracle applications
  
• More than 100 downstream companies run Oracle applications
  
• 9 of the top 10 integrated oil companies from the PFC Energy 50 run Oracle applications for their downstream businesses.
• 9 of the top 10 Global IT Services firms run Oracle applications
• 8 of the top 10 "Best Firms to Work for" in Consulting Magazine run Oracle applications
  
• 27 of the top 35 companies on InformationWeek's list of most innovative consulting and business services firms run Oracle applications
• 10 of the top 10 leading outsourcing service providers run Oracle
  
• 20 of the top 20 global retailers run Oracle
• 10 of the top 10 global fashion retailers run Oracle
• 20 of the top 20 global grocers run Oracle
• 10 of the top 10 European retailers run Oracle
  
• 10 of the top 10 North American retailers run Oracle
  
• 10 of the 10 top hotels get better results with Oracle
  
• 4 of the 5 top ports get better results with Oracle
  

• Let’s go for another!!!

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Google's Failed Products

"GOOGLE", whenever we hear this word there is only one thing which comes to our mind i.e "INNOVATION". Yes, Google is a synonym of "SUCCESS" and "INNOVATION" and my readers might have observed that till now we (Team GeekOnNet) have written only about it’s successful projects/product or successful innovation. But this time we are going to change the trend and we are going to write about Google’s failed product/project

My readers must be wondering, but it's true. Like other biggies (Microsoft, Apple etc.) Google too has a list of failed products/projects . Let's discuss some of its biggest flop products one by one.

1) Google Video: It was a clone of Youtube and other video sharing sites, But unfortunately it wasn’t able to generate traffic or revenue. This product became useless after the acquisition of youtube. I have no idea why is google video still alive.

2) Google Lively: Lively was a Three-Dimensional universe where user could create different 3-d a avtar and could interact with other avtars. Google launched Lively on July 8, 2008 as an experiment in providing people with more ways to express themselves on the Web. Again, people didn’t like it and google had to close down this project on 31 dec 2008.

3) Google Buzz: Yes, I am considering this Twitter look-a-like product as failed product. I have already predicted that this product is not going to be as useful as other Google products are.

4) Orkut: issshh... Is it a failed product? I think it is a semi failed product. As you can see in my "war of online social networks" post, orkut has least number of active users compared to 2 other biggies like Facebook and MySpace. Orkut is popular in south Asian countries like India, Pakistan and South American countries like Brazil, Argentina etc.

5) Friend Connect: Friend Connect allows users on the internet to connect with their friends on different websites. I see only few websites and blogs are using this service.

6) Wave: I have no idea what is happening with this over hyped product.

7) Google Page Creator: Google Page Creator was a website creation and hosting service by Google. The service had been shut down in 2009, while existing published pages migrated to Google Sites.

8) Google latitude: I have not heard a too much about this product. This product allows a mobile phone user to allow certain people to track their location.

There are few other products like Knol, Google Health which never met their target audience and became useless. Sometimes it happens that our expectations and predictions go wrong. I think the above list is not too big for a company like Google.

I am sure we will keep loving Google even after seeing the above list. Google is something which has changed everyone's life and continues to make life more comfortable.

If you have any other Google’s failed product in your mind please write as comment to this post. I will add that to my list.
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I would like to thank Mr. Sanjit for his valuable information. I am enhancing the above list.
iGoogle, Google click-to-call, Google NoteBook, Google SideWiki, GOOG-411, Google Answers
Thanks again!!!

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