Microsoft unveils new Bing search engine

Bing search engine

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - – Microsoft on Thursday unveiled a new Web search engine, Bing, designed to intuitively understand what people are seeking on the Internet and challenge online king Google.

The US software colossus described Bing as a "Decision Engine" and said it will be deployed worldwide at Bing.com by Wednesday.

Bing's launch comes in the wake of Google and Yahoo! announcing refinements to their search services and the launch of a Wolfram Alpha query engine that delivers answers instead of lists of websites.

"Today, search engines do a decent job of helping people navigate the Web and find information, but they don't do a very good job of enabling people to use the information they find," said Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer.

"When we set out to build Bing, we grounded ourselves in a deep understanding of how people really want to use the Web."

Bing relies predominately on algorithms and key words to provide results for online searches but has infused some semantic technology that deduces intended meanings of phrases, according to Microsoft.

"The Bing service is a first step," said Whitney Burk, director of communications for Bing. "We still have plenty of work to do and we are excited to get it out into the wild next week."

Bing will replace MSN Live Search, which has languished in a distant third place behind market-leading Google and second-place Yahoo!

Bing is vastly better than Microsoft's Live but doesn't outshine Google when it comes to general Internet search, according to analyst Matt Rosoff of private firm Directions On Microsoft.

"They want to give you more information without having to click through to a lot of other sites," said Rosoff, who has used Bing during the past month as part of a Microsoft test program.

"I like it, but I don't think it will get me to switch from Google entirely. They are not naive to the scope of the challenge. They are going to keep throwing money at it for awhile."

The search engine is aimed at online shoppers and will initially focus on helping people make buying decisions, plan trips, research health matters, or find local businesses.

For example, people using Bing to shop online will automatically be provided product reviews and those planning trips will get information regarding travel bargains.

Bing has a "Best Match" feature that identifies and gives high priority to answers that seem to best fit queries.

"Quick Tabs" that appear automatically on search results pages recommend query refinements.

As examples, searches on cities could trigger tabs for information regarding weather or tourist attractions while queries on films might prompt tabs for movie sound tracks or actor biographies.

Semantic technology is used for online research quests on topics along the lines of "Was Albert Einstein married?"

Documents or videos can be previewed without clicking through to links.

"The most popular button in search today is the 'Back' button," Burk said. " "You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to find something on the Internet. Bing is really designed to help people narrow in on things faster and make smarter decisions."

Bing gives Microsoft "a leg up" on competitors but is more likely to lure users from Yahoo! because "Google is too much of a habit for everyone," Forrester analyst Shar VanBoskirk said in a blog post.

"Microsoft's Bing will change the face of search," VanBoskirk wrote. "Bing focuses on delivering answers, not Web pages."

In what is a growing online search trend, Bing delves into websites to summarize what they have to offer in easily scanned preview boxes.

"We are trying to surface functionality right to the top so people don't have to look for it quite so hard," Burk said.

Microsoft cited study results indicating that an estimated 30 percent of online searches are abandoned out of frustration and that searchers often fail to get what they seek on a first try.

Sun to connect billion with Java app store

Sun is to launch a Java application store, chief executive Jonathan Schwartz has revealed.

Currently code-named 'Project Vector' but likely to be called the Java Store, it was described by Schwartz as a "network service" that will connect companies of all sizes and types to the approximately one billion Java users found worldwide.

"Vector… has the potential to deliver the world's largest audience to developers and businesses leveraging Java and JavaFX," Schwartz wrote in a blog post on Monday. "Most folks don't think of Sun as a consumer company, and largely we're not, but our runtimes reach more consumers than just about any other company on earth."

When Oracle's takeover of Sun was announced in April, the companies said Java was the most important software Oracle has ever acquired.

Schwartz referred to deals Sun has had with search companies for the distribution of those companies' toolbars alongside Java updates, and noted how those deals had seen search traffic increase for Sun's partners while bringing in significant revenue for Sun.

"The revenues to Sun were… getting big enough for us to think about building a more formal business around Java's distribution power — to make it available to the entire Java community, not simply one or two search companies on yearly contracts," Schwartz said. "And that's what Project Vector is designed to deliver."

According to Schwartz, candidate applications will be submitted for Sun's approval via a "simple website" then presented under free or paid-for terms to the Java audience via Sun's update mechanism. Developers will bid for position on the storefront, and Sun will also charge them for distribution.

"This creates opportunity for everyone in the developer community — and specifically, for any developer (even those not using Java/JavaFX) seeking to reach beyond the browser to create a durable relationship with their customers," Schwartz said. "Remember, when apps are distributed through the Java Store, they're distributed directly to the desktop — JavaFX enables developers, businesses and content owners to bypass potentially hostile browsers."

Further details of Project Vector's business model, technology and roadmap will be made available at the JavaOne conference in San Francisco on 2 June, Schwartz said.

This article was originally posted on ZDNet UK.

Google releases a faster Chrome 2

Google has made available a new version of its browser, which it has named Chrome 2.

The company has stressed that Chrome 2, which it announced on Thursday, is not a major release with a host of updates. It is named '2' mainly as a metric to help Google keep track of changes internally, it said. Chrome 2 does, however, include some new features and a speed boost.

Google attributed the speed boost to the incorporation of a new version of WebKit — Chrome's underlying engine — and an update to the browser's V8 JavaScript engine. As a result of these changes, Darin Fisher of the Chrome team wrote in a blog post, "interactive web pages will run even faster".

"We've also made sure that JavaScript keeps running fast even when you have lots of tabs open," Fisher wrote. "Try opening a bunch of web applications and then running your favorite benchmark."

Chrome, like rival browser Opera, displays a panel of most-visited site thumbnails on each newly opened tab. One feature of Chrome 2 is the ability to remove certain of those thumbnails, if the user does not want particular ones to be displayed.

Another new feature is a full-screen mode, which entails hitting F11 to maximize a video or presentation by hiding the title bar and the rest of the browser window. Chrome 2 also introduces form autofill to the browser for the first time.

The new release, build 2.0.172.28, is the final version of a beta that was given to testers in March.

This article was originally posted on ZDNet UK.

Try Wolfram Alpha .Its live; give us your impressions

Wolfram Alpha is live, and we want your feedback.

Following a delay due to technical glitches, the new "computational knowledge engine" went live to the public Friday night, and we're interested in learning more about the public's initial experiences with the service. If in case you missed it, Wolfram Alpha can be found here.

You may want to familiarize yourself with the service before giving it a try. For more background on how Wolfram Alpha works, read this exchange between CNET's Stephen Shankland and Rafe Needleman, who were given early access to the service. This photo gallery of screenshots will let you know what to expect as you put the new service through its pace.

Once you get your hands on it (so to speak) we're mostly interested in whether or not you feel it retrieved the results you were looking for, or answered the questions you entered. Try broad queries like the weather; try specific queries about your favorite sports team, hometown, or profession.

And once you've kicked the tires, please fill out the form below so we can measure the search engine's performance and relevance during its debut. Wolfram has already warned us that the service might encounter initial launch problems over the weekend, so keep that in mind.

Thanks for your help, and we'll follow up next week with the results.

HP laptop batteries recalled for over heating

After two reports of flaming laptop batteries, the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced Thursday that Hewlett-Packard is voluntarily recalling 70,000 lithium-ion batteries that shipped with several models of its HP and Compaq laptops.

HP's Pavilion dv9500 is one of 21 HP laptops affected by Thursday's battery recall.

(Credit: CNET)

The recall affects nine models of HP Pavilions, nine models of Compaq Presarios, two models of HPs, and one HP Compaq laptop model sold between August 2007 and March 2008. For the full list, see the CPSC's site.

There were two separate reports of batteries that "overheated and ruptured, resulting in flames/fire that caused minor property damage" but no injuries, according to the CPSC report.

HP is instructing consumers who may be part of the recall to remove the battery from their notebook and contact HP to find out if theirs is affected. HP says it will provide a free replacement battery. For more information, see HP's Battery Replacement Program site.

Palo Alto, Calif.-based HP is the world's largest computer vendor, and like many of its peers in the industry has been part of several similar battery recalls. The most recent incident involved 100,000 Sony-made batteries faulted for overheating late last year. HP had sold 32,000 of the affected batteries in its laptops. But that was tiny by comparison to the massive recall caused by Sony batteries in 2006.

Eight reasons we still need an iPhone Gmail app

Tuesday's release of a much-improved Web client for Gmail on the iPhone and Android handsets was nice, but it's still got me salivating at the idea of a native application for the iPhone. Over the last year we've hounded the Gmail team on whether one was on the way, and the answer is--in typical Google fashion, that there will be no discussion of products that have not been announced.

But that doesn't mean one isn't in the works.

So let's take a look at what a native Gmail application could give us over what Apple is currently offering and is set to release in the upcoming 3.0 firmware.

1. Push delivery/Push notifications
Gmail for Android does something no other client of Gmail does: push notifications. This means that the second you get a message it lets you know with a pop-up. The fastest you can set the iPhone's Mail application to refresh Gmail is every 15 minutes. So could a native iPhone application do the same thing as Gmail for Android? Probably.

An official Google spokesperson told us that no other platform has this push service (including desktop clients), and the other official Gmail native apps simply auto-refresh every few minutes. With the upcoming firmware 3.0, Google could offer the push notifications of new messages through Apple's push data stream either in the form of a badge that updates on the app's icon, or with a small preview that pops up with the first line or two of the message.

2. Offline/Gears
The new version of Gmail for Android has offline reading and composing, meaning you can go through your mail and get work done even when you don't have a connection. While the iPhone's Mail app lets you read, save, and compose messages, it doesn't download a big chunk of your in-box or all of the attachments that come with it, which means you can be out of luck if you can't get online to view a work document or spreadsheet. Which brings us to...

3. Attachment handling
The attachment viewing of Gmail on the desktop can be an absolute joy. PDFs, PowerPoint presentations and PDFs can be viewed in an HTML viewer that cuts down on the start-up time and the requirement for any special software. While the iPhone can natively view these, it doesn't include search or the option to save the file locally. A local app could offer both.

Likewise, when composing an e-mail in the native Mail app, adding attachments is limited to photos, which with the upcoming firmware is much simpler with systemwide copy and paste. However, if you're using the Web client, it's incapable of accessing your local files, which means you're stuck using the native app if you want to add or take a quick photo as an attachment.

4. Smarter archiving
Not all Gmail users archive their messages, probably because they don't understand what it does. Archiving takes a message out of your in-box while keeping it in your account, letting you search for it later. It's a handy feature, yet the iPhone native mail client gives the impression that we're deleting messages we don't want to see in our in-box, something which goes against the very principle of having 7GB of mail storage.

If you've set up Gmail using the iPhone's Gmail setup wizard you can in fact archive messages by selecting them and moving them to your "All Mail" folder. Alternately, for native app users who have set up Gmail using the special IMAP instructions the delete function does not actually delete the message but archives it. Confused? A native Gmail app might make a better differentiation between the two, and let you control what you want deleted and archived from the get-go.

Gmail's task list

5. A standalone task list
Gmail's task list is not the most full-featured to-do list app out there, but it's simple and handy. Having it as part of a native app would let you access it and make edits when offline. Google could even give users the option to create hard due dates for each item, which could be synced up to your phone's calendar and give you a buzz when they had to be done.

6. Combined contact look-up
Here's a problem: I have one contact list on my phone and another on Gmail. Sure Google has an official solution that will sync up both and combine them into one massive contact list, but what if I want to keep the two separated to keep my iPhone's phonebook a little smaller?

A native application would help sort that out by making use of the contacts I have on my phone and giving quick auto-complete-as-you-type suggestions for people on my Gmail contact list. Right now, typing addresses from the native iPhone will only bring up auto-complete suggestions if that person is on my contact list, or if I've recently sent them a message.

7. Built-in chat
Chat has become a big part of Gmail's desktop version, yet on the iPhone it's relegated to a finger-friendly browser version that will sign you off when you close your browser or switch tabs. That's not a good solution. Why not build it into a native version of Gmail on the phone like there is on Android?

(Credit: Apple)

8. GPS and location awareness
Location is becoming an increasingly important part of mobile apps, and Gmail is no different. When Google puts advertising into the mobile version of Gmail you can bet there's going to be a play on location. Contextual information from inside of your e-mails is one facet, but if Google can figure out where you are and offer something more targeted, you can bet it will.

More importantly, it will open things up for some fun extras, like being able to announce your location in your signature. This is a feature that's available in the desktop version, but would be a whole lot more useful when your messages are coming from a mobile phone.

These are just a few reasons the iPhone is long overdue for its own native Gmail app. If you've got any of your own, feel free to leave them in the comments.

Update: Made a clarification about archiving items in the native iPhone client.