Wasiq Ansari’s World

Google ’sister’ launches in China:
A new search engine and social network provider called Goojje has appeared online in China.

The site contains very similar branding to Google, and the final syllable “jje” sounds similar to the Mandarin word for older sister (jiejie).

Goojje’s search results appear to be filtered for sensitive content in accordance with Chinese regulations.

Google has recently objected to those restrictions, but the new site appears to be urging it to remain in China.

Google said on 12 January that hackers had tried to infiltrate its software coding and the e-mail accounts of Chinese human rights activists, in a “highly sophisticated” attack.

The California-based firm – which launched in China in 2006 – said it would remain in China only if the government relaxed censorship.

According to the Reuters news agency, Goojje has a message on its site which reads: “Sister was very happy when brother gave up the thought of leaving and stayed for sister”.

While Goojje sounds like “sister”, the word Google sounds similar to the Mandarin word gege, which means “big brother”.

Google has declined to comment.

Source: news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8483597.stm

For as long as anyone can remember Microsoft Office has a cheaper ‘upgrade’ price option – but not for Office 2010.

Microsoft has confirmed to Office Watch that there will be no upgrade pricing offers for existing Office users.

Everyone, existing customer or not, will pay the same prices for Office 2010 with no ‘reward’ for customer loyalty.

Over the years the ‘upgrade’ offer has been gradually limited. Many moons ago there was a ‘cross-grade’ or ‘competitive upgrade’ price to encourage people to switch from rivals like Word-Perfect.

Back in 1997 Office Watch saved our readers lots of money. Downloading the free Compuserve or AOL software or getting it from a widely available disk was enough to qualify for the cheaper Office 97 pricing. Alas Microsoft closed that loophole.

With each new Office version the rules on upgrade/cross-grade were tightened. The rival products were dropped from the list, then upgrades were limited to the past two versions. And now the whole concept of upgrades is gone from Office.

No more version hopping:

Some Office users would ‘version hop’ – upgrading every second release of Office to maintain their entitlement to upgrade pricing.

There’s no reason to do that anymore. Stick with the version of Office you have until there’s a compelling reason to change.

And if you do decide to get a new Microsoft Office suite, you’ll pay more.

In addition there is no psychological encouragement to stick with Microsoft Office by getting a cheaper price for sticking with Microsoft. Some might decide that instead of paying full price they’ll look at OpenOffice or Google Docs instead.

Presumably Microsoft figures that most people are so attached and familiar with MS Office that they stick with it regardless – and they may well be right.

Source: news.office-watch.com/t/n.aspx?a=1359&z=12

CNNIC excludes oversea registrars from .CN registrations

CNNIC, the official registry for .CN, announced that all oversea registrars will no longer be allowed to register .CN domains starting with January 6, 2010, 18:00 PM (Beijing Time). The registration stop is planned to be temporarily. According to the Chinese registry, difficulties in handling the comprehensive new application material are the reason for this drastic development. The new application material is required since the middle of December 2009, when CNNIC suddenly changed its registration policies.

CNNIC has not specified a date at which the exclusion of oversea registrars from .CN registrations is removed again. The registry has announced to further explore methodologies on how to verify the registration information with its oversea partners. As soon as a new mechanism is established, CNNIC will reopen the registration.

We hope to be able to offer you .CN domains again soon. Prior to this last change, CNNIC has carried out two more changes in its registration policies:
1. Since January 1st, 2010, China domestic registrants are no longer allowed to register a .CN domain via an oversea registrar.
2. If any registrant’s business license or personal ID are not in Chinese or English, he has to file in a notarized English translation of these documents for domain name application starting with January 15th, 2010, 9:00 AM (Beijing Time).

Source: www.rrpproxy.net/show_news.php#news1104

CCNIC Notification :

In order to further enhance the authenticity, accuracy, and integrality of the domain name registration information, now notify as following:

1. Domain name applicants need to submit the formal paper based application material when making the online application to the registrar. The application material includes the original application form with business seal, company business license (photocopy), and registrant ID (photocopy).

2. Registrar should carefully review the application material. When application is deemed qualified, registrar need to submit the application material via fax or E-mail to CNNIC, and withhold the original application material.

3. From the day of the submission of online application, if CNNIC does not receive the formal paper based application material within 5 days or the application material auditing is not qualified, the domain name to be applied will be deleted.

4. The above regulations will be executed since 9:00AM (Beijing Time), Dec 14th, 2009.

High-quality online video has been in high demand in China, and Chinese search provider Baidu is hoping to fulfill that need.

Baidu announced on Wednesday that it is creating an independent company to offer premium online videos to Chinese Internet users. The new entity is designed to work with content providers to supply copyrighted material, including movies, TV shows, sports, and animation, and it will generate its revenue through advertisements.

“As China’s Internet industry evolves, we have seen increasing demand for high-quality video content on our search platform. By establishing this new company, we will be able to better serve our users and customers with superior content and focused resources,” Xuyang Ren, Baidu’s vice president of marketing and business development, said in a statement.

“Online video is a rapidly growing sector in China, and I believe Baidu’s search platform will provide a solid foundation for the new company to address the increasing demand for premium content,” said Yu Gong, former president and chief operating officer of China Mobile’s 12580 hotline service, who is set to head the new venture as CEO.

Baidu, which has outshined Google’s Chinese search engine to become China’s top search provider, has been eager to get into the online-video business.

But video has long been a thorny issue in China, as the country has grappled with video piracy for years. DVDs of pirated movies and TV shows have been a lucrative business in the Chinese market, with obviously no compensation to the studios, networks, and other content providers. Pressure from the United States has pushed the Chinese government to try to crack down on the illegal trade. But the low cost and wide availability of pirated videos have kept it a thriving market.

Piracy has gone more high-tech in recent years. More and more illegal videos, including full-length movies and TV shows, have shown up on popular Chinese video-streaming sites such as Youku and Tudou. A group of content providers filed a lawsuit late last year against some of these Chinese sites, charging them with copyright violation, China.org reported. So far, the case has resulted in a legal judgment against Youku, ordering it to pay a small sum in damages.

TVs with Internet access have also become a new haven for video piracy, as Chinese users can now download illegal videos directly off the Web into their living rooms. The Google-funded service Xunlei, a Chinese peer-to-peer file-sharing service, has been the target of lawsuits, alleging that it distributes copyrighted movies and TV shows without compensating the studios or networks.

Source: news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10426495-93.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Bit.ly Partners with Security Firms to Block Spams, Scams from Twitter

Bit.ly, the service Twitter uses to shorten URLs to keep them under the service’s 140-character limit, announced partnerships on Monday with Verisign, Websense and Sophos that are designed to keep spam and malicious software off of the network.

The partnerships should help solve a major problem with the service: that you don’t know where your browser will take you after you click on a shortened link, which makes Twitter the perfect potential hideaway for spammers, scammers, phishers and the like. Concern about the security of Twitter links spread last month, after “search engine optimization experts” Roman Latkovic and Robert LaQuey, Ph.D claimed in a $8 study that Bit.ly and other URL shorteners pose a dangerous threat to Twitter users.

“Bit.ly is not alone; there are more than 100 URL shortening services online and each one of them could be used to plant malicious codes and to infect users computer, or to steal her or his data or even identity,” wrote LaQuey in an e-mail to wired.com.

Bit.ly’s new partnerships aim to solve that problem in three ways.

Verisign’s iDefense service will screen IP addresses, domains and URLs based on its reputation database, to find those that “host exploits, malicious code, command and control servers, drop sites and other nefarious activity,” according to Bit.ly general manager Andrew Cohen.

WebSense’s ThreatSeeker Cloud will analyze the content on pages linked to through Bit.ly in real-time to identify and block “spammy URLs, malicious content and phishing sites.”

Meanwhile, Sophos rounds out the equation by analyzing the behavior of potential spammers to “go[] beyond blacklists, to proactively detect spam and malware.”

Bit.ly owes much of its success to its status as Twitter’s URL shortener of choice — one reason the company raised $2 million earlier this year, while Redirx (coded by a friend of mine), which also shortens URLs, is on sale for $47.

“Bit.ly is one of the largest sharing services on the Web, with millions of shortened URLs created every day,” said Cohen in a statement. “A large part of our success is due to the trust users have in our service and we work hard to earn that trust by warning our users about spam and malicious content.”

Blocking every single malicious link from Twitter is likely an impossible task, but these partnerships should go a long way towards putting Twitter and its users at ease about their URL shortener of choice.

Source:www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/11/bitly-partners-with-security-firms-to-block-spams-scams-from-twitter/

Today is a significant day.  Not only did comScore rank Technorati Media as the fifth largest social media property, we’re also pleased to announce the re-launch of a wholly new Technorati.com. Technorati was founded to help people find great blog content, and with this launch, we’ve improved some of the existing ways and added a couple new ways.

The Technorati.com beta site you see today has literally been rebuilt from the ground up. When you take a look at the new site, you’ll see some things you like, and you’ll notice some things that are gone (some of which will be back soon). But we guarantee you’ll see a more stable site that helps you find the blog content you’re looking for. We’ve already gone into a lot of the “why” behind the changes, so without further ado, here’s what’s changed.

Technorati Authority:
In the past, we based Technorati Authority on six months of blogosphere data. Because most searches are looking for items less than a month old, we’re going to narrow that window in a similar way. In the past, because the data window was so long, Authority and the Top 100 lists it powered were relatively static.  With the new algorithm, the resulting Authority will better reflect the fast-changing nature of the blogosphere.  Its new inherent volatility will also show which blogs are rising and falling in authority, rewarding authors on posting frequency, context and linking behavior, as well as other data inputs.

We are also excited to announce Topical Authority. As opposed to overall Technorati Authority, Topical Authority is limited to a specific category. Some blogs may rank in more than one category.

Search:
Our search previously prized recency above all else – the real time web – and the old algorithm delivered the last result, not the best. As many high authority blogs have earned a mainstream media status, we’ve added more weight “relevancy” to deliver the most relevant results from authoritative sources while still acknowledging timeliness. Simply put, when you do a search, the results should be a lot better.

Improved blog directory:
The new blog directory is vastly improved.  Of note, you can now view top blogs overall by Authority, AND top blogs by category by Authority.  The results are something readers have requested for years: Top Lists for major categories, AND the daily risers and fallers in each category as well.

Original articles:
Bloggers can now directly publish articles on Technorati.com.  This provides a unique opportunity and yet another way for authors to present their content to a larger audience, directly by presenting articles to millions of readers and indirectly by receiving traffic from links back to their own blog or site.  Conversely, it also provides the audience yet another way to discover great content and new authors.  Down the road, we envision further opportunities for some participating authors who may choose to also join Technorati Media.  As this is a totally new feature, we want to stress that this is additive to the discovery process: readers will still be able to search algorithmically selected content, browse the directory for blogs in favorite categories and now read a selection of in-depth articles. Find out how you can contribute an article.

What’s gone for now?
With six years of history behind us, we have also discovered what’s important and not important in our offerings.  As such, some things will go away permanently, and others will return later with enhanced utility that reflects the new features of the site.  Here’s what’s coming back shortly after launch:

• Technorati Charts and API: both will be returning later.
• Widgets – For those sites with widgets on their sites, there’s no need to worry.  Some widgets will continue to serve as they have in the past, and some that utilized legacy Technorati technology will either change slightly or temporarily disappear without any affect on web pages. Technorati will be developing some exciting new widgets that match the new features in the site.
• s.technorati.com is still there, but it’s moved to the main site at Technorati.com/search.
• Watchlists are gone.
• Some (but not all) RSS feeds.

And a special mention to our partners:

• JS-Kit for providing comments.
• ShrinkTheWeb for providing site thumbnails.
• Get Satisfaction for support

And finally, we want to thank all of the publishers that are part of Technorati Media. In the 15 months since we launched, Technorati Media has grown into the largest social media advertising network.  With over 400 influential blogs and niche social networks and communities, the network reaches 108 million monthly unique visitors.  We enable marketers to engage with social media at scale by approximating the audience reach of a large social network. Our publishers have enabled five quarters of consecutive growth, and the new Technorati.com.

Next week, we’ll release the 2009 State of the Blogosphere report (with a preview at Blog World Expo this Friday). This is our biggest effort yet with a survey executed by the well known political polling firm Penn Schoen and Berlind, interviews from more than a dozen of today’s most successful professional bloggers, and additional data sources.

Source: blog.technorati.com/2009/10/a-totally-new-technoraticom-technorati-media-rising.html

Twitter Adds "Report as Spam" Button

Today we’ve added another tool to our spam fighting toolbox that will give users the ability to flag bad accounts on Twitter.

Folks can now help us conquer spam by calling our attention to a profile they find questionable. Click the “Report as spam” button under the Actions section of a profile’s sidebar and our Trust and Safety team will check it out to see what needs to be done. No automated action will be taken as a result of reporting a user as spam (in other words, it can’t be used to incite an angry mob against an account you don’t like.) And once you report a profile it will automatically be blocked from following or replying to you. You nailed it!

Our spam fighting tools will continue to evolve as new behaviors emerge, and as always, we’ll keep trust and safety at the top of our list.

S0urce: blog.twitter.com/2009/10/help-us-nail-spammers.html

Google search results sometimes include documents that were not originally formatted to be viewed in a web browser, such as PDFs. In the past, the only way to view these documents was to download them and open them in a separate viewer application. To provide an alternative, we made it possible to quickly and easily view these files as HTML right in a web browser by clicking “View as HTML.” This was an improvement, but unfortunately the “View as HTML” option loses some of the formatting from the original PDF, such as graphics, tables, fonts and other elements.

Today, we’ve added new links to “Quick View” PDFs in your browser with the formatting intact. The new links are based on the same technology that’s available in Google Docs and Gmail, as well as to webmasters through the Google Docs viewer. We’ve been rolling this technology out to the search results page since July, and as of today we’ve added “Quick View” links to more than 50% of the PDFs in our index. The new links appear at the end of the second line of the result, right underneath the title.

For example, here is a search result for the IRS 1099 form:

Google Adds "Quick View" of PDFs to SERPs

Clicking “Quick View” will open up the PDF right in your browser with graphics, formatting and tables preserved. This is what it looks like after opening:

Quickly view formatted PDFs in your search results

Over time we’ll be rolling out the viewer for more documents and file types. In the meantime, in some cases you’ll see the “View as HTML” link, which allows you to see a basic HTML-only version.

Viewing PDF documents in your browser might not make paying taxes any more fun — but hopefully this feature will make it a little bit faster!

Source: googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/quickly-view-formatted-pdfs-in-your.html

Google acquires reCAPTCHA

The image above is a CAPTCHA — you can read it, but computers have a harder time interpreting the letters. We tried to make it hard for computers to recognize because we wanted to give humans the scoop first, but we’re happy to announce to everybody now that Google has acquired reCAPTCHA, a company that provides CAPTCHAs to help protect more than 100,000 websites from spam and fraud.

Since computers have trouble reading squiggly words like these, CAPTCHAs are designed to allow humans in but prevent malicious programs from scalping tickets or obtain millions of email accounts for spamming. But there’s a twist — the words in many of the CAPTCHAs provided by reCAPTCHA come from scanned archival newspapers and old books. Computers find it hard to recognize these words because the ink and paper have degraded over time, but by typing them in as a CAPTCHA, crowds teach computers to read the scanned text.

In this way, reCAPTCHA’s unique technology improves the process that converts scanned images into plain text, known as Optical Character Recognition (OCR). This technology also powers large scale text scanning projects like Google Books and Google News Archive Search. Having the text version of documents is important because plain text can be searched, easily rendered on mobile devices and displayed to visually impaired users. So we’ll be applying the technology within Google not only to increase fraud and spam protection for Google products but also to improve our books and newspaper scanning process.

That’s why we’re excited to welcome the reCAPTCHA team to Google, and we’re committed to delivering the same high level of performance that websites using reCAPTCHA have come to expect. Improving the availability and accessibility of all the information on the Internet is really important to us, so we’re looking forward to advancing this technology with the reCAPTCHA team.

Source: googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/teaching-computers-to-read-google.html

Combined Company Will Deliver Comprehensive Solutions for Creation, Delivery and Optimization of Content and Applications

SAN JOSE, Calif. and OREM, Utah — Sept. 15, 2009 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) and Omniture, Inc. (Nasdaq:OMTR) today announced the two companies have entered into a definitive agreement for Adobe to acquire Omniture in a transaction valued at approximately $1.8 billion on a fully diluted equity-value basis. Under the terms of the agreement, Adobe will commence a tender offer to acquire all of the outstanding common stock of Omniture for $21.50 per share in cash.

Adobe’s acquisition of Omniture furthers its mission to revolutionize the way the world engages with ideas and information. By combining Adobe’s content creation tools and ubiquitous clients with Omniture’s Web analytics, measurement and optimization technologies, Adobe will be well positioned to deliver solutions that can transform the future of engaging experiences and e-commerce across all digital content platforms and devices.

The combination of the two companies will increase the value Adobe delivers to customers. For designers, developers and online marketers, an integrated workflow — with optimization capabilities embedded in the creation tools — will streamline the creation and delivery of relevant content and applications. This optimization will enable advertisers, advertising agencies, publishers and e-tailers to achieve greater ROI from their digital media investments and improve their end users’ experiences.

“Adobe customers are looking to us for solutions to deliver engaging experiences and more effectively monetize their content and applications online,” said Shantanu Narayen, president and chief executive officer of Adobe. “This is a game changer for both Adobe and our customers. We will enable advertisers, media companies and e-tailers to realize the full value of their digital assets.”

“Omniture’s mission has been to enable our customers to optimize every digital interaction,” said Josh James, CEO of Omniture. “By joining forces with Adobe, we will accelerate our ability to deliver on that vision and together bring new innovation to the market that improves content engagement, advertising effectiveness and the overall user experience, which will drive more advertising dollars online.”

Expanded Opportunities for Adobe and Omniture
This acquisition will significantly expand Adobe’s addressable market and growth potential, broadening solutions Adobe provides to the rapidly growing Internet advertising, e-commerce and digital media markets.

The combination will also expand Adobe’s offering of mission-critical solutions to the enterprise customer. Adding the capabilities of Omniture will further enhance Adobe’s offerings and ability to appeal to online marketers, including chief marketing officers.

The acquisition of Omniture will further diversify Adobe’s business, adding a scalable SaaS platform that captures over a trillion transactions per quarter, an expansive partner ecosystem, and a recurring revenue model.

For Omniture, joining Adobe will provide global operational scale and the ability to more quickly penetrate new geographies and markets, thereby accelerating its go-to-market strategy and growth potential.

Integration and Closing Details
As part of the expected integration of the two companies, Omniture will become a new business unit within Adobe. Omniture’s CEO, Josh James, will join Adobe as senior vice president of the new business unit, reporting to Adobe’s president and CEO, Shantanu Narayen.

The completion of the transaction, which is subject to customary government approvals and the satisfaction of other customary conditions, is expected to close in the fourth quarter of Adobe’s 2009 fiscal year.

The proposed offer represents a premium of 45 percent over Omniture’s average closing price for the last 30 trading days through yesterday’s close.

Adobe believes the acquisition will be accretive to Adobe’s non-GAAP earnings in fiscal year 2010.

The companies will make information, including an FAQ and other details about the acquisition, available at http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/invrelations/adobeandomniture.html.

Conference Call Scheduled for 2:00 p.m. PDT Today
Adobe will comment on the acquisition of Omniture today during its Q3 FY2009 earnings conference call, which is scheduled to begin at 2:00 p.m. PDT today. Investors, analysts and press can participate in a live Webcast via Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro or access the live conference call using the following access information:
Webcast: Go to http://www.adobe.com/ADBE and click on the Q3 FY09 Earnings Conference Call icon
Live Call: Dial 888-213-3930 and use passcode 3412311
Questions: Contact Adobe Investor Relations at 408-536-4416 or ir@adobe.com

The call and Webcast will last approximately one hour. An archive of the call will be made available in Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro for approximately 45 days. Listening to the live Webcast works best with Adobe Flash Player version 10 or later. Firewalls designed to protect corporate information can prevent listening to the Webcast.

Forward-Looking Statements Disclosure
This press release includes forward-looking statements, within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, that are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, including the risks to both companies that the acquisition of Omniture will not be consummated, as the transaction is subject to certain closing conditions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including statements regarding: the anticipated timing of filings and approvals relating to the transaction; the expected timing of the completion of the transaction; the ability to complete the transaction considering the various closing conditions; any management for future operations; any statements of expectation or belief; and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. In addition, if and when the transaction is consummated, there will be risks and uncertainties related to Adobe’s ability to successfully integrate the products and employees of Adobe and Omniture, as well as the ability to ensure continued performance or market growth of Omniture’s products. These risks, uncertainties and other factors, and the general risks associated with the respective businesses of Adobe and Omniture described in the reports and other documents filed by each of them with the Securities and Exchange Commission, could cause actual results to differ materially from those referred to in the forward-looking statements. The reader is cautioned not to rely on these forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are based on information currently available to Adobe and Omniture and are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. Neither Adobe nor Omniture assumes any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements or other statements included in this press release.

Additional Information and Where to Find It
This press release is for informational purposes only and is not an offer to buy or the solicitation of an offer to sell any securities. The solicitation and the offer to buy shares of Omniture’s common stock will only be made pursuant to a tender offer statement on schedule TO, including an offer to purchase and other related materials that Snowbird Acquisition Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Adobe Systems Incorporated, intends to file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, Omniture will file with the Securities and Exchange Commission a Solicitation/Recommendation Statement on Scheduled 14D-9 with respect to the tender offer. Once filed, Omniture stockholders will be able to obtain the tender statement on schedule TO, the offer to purchase, the Solicitation/Recommendation Statement on Schedule 14D-9 and related materials with respect to the offer, free of charge at the website of the Securities and Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov, from the information agent and dealer manager named in the tender offer materials or from Snowbird Acquisition Corporation. Omniture’s stockholders are advised to read these documents, any amendments to these documents and any other documents relating to the tender offer that are filed with the SEC carefully and in their entirety prior to making any decisions with respect to the offer because they contain important information, including the terms and conditions of the offer.

About Omniture
Omniture, Inc. is a leading provider of online business optimization software, enabling customers to manage and enhance online, offline and multi-channel business initiatives. Omniture’s software, which it hosts and delivers to its customers as an on-demand subscription service and on-premise solution, enables customers to capture, store and analyze information generated by their Web sites and other sources and to gain critical business insights into the performance and efficiency of marketing and sales initiatives and other business processes. In addition, Omniture offers a range of professional services that complement its online services, including implementation, best practices, consulting, customer support and user training through Omniture Education. Omniture’s over 5,000 customers include eBay, AOL, Wal-Mart, Gannett, Microsoft, Neiman Marcus, Oracle, Sony and HP. www.omniture.com

About Adobe Systems Incorporated
Abode revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information – anytime, anywhere and through any medium. For more information, visit www.adobe.com

Historical Information:
Note to Readers: The press releases, presentations and printed remarks and materials are included on this web site for historical purposes only. The information contained in these documents should be considered accurate only as of the date of the relevant document. This information may change over time. Visitors to this web site should not assume that the information contained in these documents remains accurate at a later time. We do not have any current intention, and expressly disclaim any obligation, to supplement, update or revise any of the information in these documents.

Source: www.omniture.com/press/777