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Raw Bytes Computer News KPBX FM 91.1 Radio National Public Radio Network Frank Delaney Producer Broadcast on Thursday Morning 7:35 AM During Morning Edition Support Public Radio ! The Theater Of the Mind |
In computer news this week 09/13/2006 |
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Microsoft
introduces its own search engine – or – Ho hum – another search
engine ... If you
think you hear the sound of bugles blaring in the background, that’s
probably part of Microsoft’s kickoff of its new search engine, called live.com. Currently
about 75% of all internet searches are done on google or yahoo – with
google doing the lion’s share, and there are at least a hundred other
similar but smaller search engines available. I actually feel there’s
parity in the major search engines, and seldom does one find something the
others don’t. But
Microsoft feels threatened particularly by
Google, because Google is trying to make inroads into online office
applications, which threaten Microsoft Office, so Microsoft is now trying to
take away users from Google. Microsoft
has already
made its www.live.com the default search engine for all their
MSN subscribers, which gives them out of the blocks a base of several million
users, and they’d love to be your internet portal too. The term
“internet portal” means what website you see when
you log onto the internet. In all
web browsers, you have what is known as a home page. This means that when you
turn your computer on, and click on whatever web browser you use
– Firefox – Internet Explorer – you enter the internet at
the same place each day. This is
your default doorway to the internet – your internet portal - the
website that shows up first when you connect. You might
think this is a small thing, but it’s not – it’s huge. Everyone wants to be your homepage. That’s
why when you buy a new pc, and turn it on and it connects to the internet
– often it connects to the home page of the vendor you bought the
computer from, like Hewlett Packard.
And often vendors have marketing arrangements with other vendors, so
that you might connect to some other website – and that company has
paid your pc maker a fee to make them your default home page. It’s
a body count. You come into a particular home page everyday, and that
company gets to count you in their advertising statistics, and can guarantee their advertisers
that you and millions of people daily are going to see their ads, and they make
money off you. An amazing number
of people don’t know that you can change your home page with a couple
mouse clicks. In both Firefox and Internet Explorer, it’s 2 mouse
clicks – Tools – Internet Options or Options – and you come
right to the choice under general for Homepage – which you can change
and then save . Then the next time you come on the internet, you’ll
come to the page of your choice, and anytime you click on the Homepage icon
on your browser, you’ll go back there. So what
should your homepage be? There’s no rules – it’s up to you. If
you like silly stuff, you can come into a joke page. If you’re a sport
freak maybe a sporting news page. For me, I
want to come into a page where there’s an immediate internet search
option, in case I’ve read something in the morning newspaper I want to
look up, and an option for a lot
of different types of news. So my
home page is Google.com. By default I’m ready to search, and if I click
on News I get a quick compilation of Top stories by topics, and I can click on
any of these topics to see more detailed news. And I
realize google is counting me as a warm body in their website statistics, but
it works for me, and Microsoft needs the competition. For Raw Bytes This is Frank Delaney (C) 2006 MTA Micro
Technology Associates http://www.mtamicro.com/kpbx.html PO Box 31522 Spokane, Wa 99223-1522 (509)624-7230 |
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