Category Archives: General

Facebook News Feed Redesign Rollout

Exactly one year ago, Facebook laid out its vision for the future of news feed. Now Facebook announced its Newsfeed redesign, the handful of people that first got the redesigned Facebook Newsfeed didn’t like it, so the social network made some adjustments before rolling it out to everybody, starting on Thursday.

The new News Feed looks almost exactly like Facebook’s mobile News Feed, bearing new iconography, bigger photos, new fonts (Helvetica and Arial), and story cards.

There are also other slight changes to the redesign, like larger buttons added to the “people you may know” section along the right rail and slight design tweaks to icons on the “update status” and the “add/photos/videos” tabs across the top.

Facebook users with their languages set to English will also see a standard search bar across the top of the page, while others will see a standard search bar.

“We want to be clear that this update does not affect ad specs, ads performance or optimization,” a Facebook spokesperson told Mashable. “These changes are visual updates and do not affect how content is surfaced to people, nor do they change how stories are ranked in News Feed.”

Microsoft’s Siri Competitor To Be Named Cortana

Microsoft is working on a competitor to Apple’s Siri virtual assistant codenamed “Cortana,” it was originally glimpsed as “zcortana,” a software folder seen in screenshots of Beta version of the “Blue” update to Windows phone 8.

Cortana is a codename taken from an artificial intelligence from the popular “Halo” game series for PC and Xbox, capable of learning and adapting to environments, and assisting the main character, Master Chief. It not only allow users to interact with their devices using voice commands -it will utilize cloud technology to connect Microsoft systems across all platforms, including Windows Phone 8, the coming Xbox One and Windows 8 computers.

While Siri pulls information from Wolfram Alpha and Yelp to answer queries, Google Now is capable of using email and calendar data to anticipate queries and present data it suspects the user will find important. Cortana will likely go beyond voice commands like Google now, according to The Verge’s Tom Warren.

If you’re a Windows user and would like to take a sneak peek at the technology behind Cortana, check out the Bing Translator app for Windows. Microsoft is reportedly rolling out Cortana-derived enhancements to that app’s speech recognition system.

Yahoo Planning To Bring Back Search Tech

Yahoo reportedly wants out of a deal that tie its search services to Microsoft. According to Re/code post, Yahoo CEO Mayer is pushing two new initiatives called “Fast Break” and “Curveball” that could position Yahoo once again as a player in Web search and the lucrative search-advertising market that accompanies it.

It has been thus since former CEO Carol Bartz got Yahoo out of the search technology business in 2009, in favor of the Microsoft deal that was called the Yahoo & Microsoft Search Alliance. Under the 10-year agreement, Microsoft’s Bing search engine provides the search technology on Yahoo, as well as the search-advertising technology.

If Yahoo decides to create their own search engine, it’s very likely they would first start with English before expanding it to any other languages, making a Microsoft deal for those search results crucial. Yet it’s not clear how merely taking back control of its own search product will help Yahoo turn around its shrinking market share.

The “Thin-Content” Warning

According to Google Webmaster Blog by Chris Nelson, “Affiliates that produce thin content and have little-to-no-value-add on their site may be penalized for going against Google’s guidelines.”

Websites that copy the same content over to different pages, replacing just a few words or geographically anchoring the same information to a different location, will be susceptible to a “thin content” warning. Another more subtle aspect of websites that Google Webmaster Tools scans is the relevance of syndicated and RSS feed content.

Chris Nelson stated that “As with any violation of our quality guidelines, we may take action, including removal from our index, in order to maintain the quality of our users’ search results.”

Article Original Source: http://bangalorewebdesigncompany.in/google-alert-subtle-warning-to-affiliates-thin-content/

Google Lets Google+ User Land In Your Gmail Inbox

Google announced new integration between Gmail and Google+, Gmail users will have a broader pool of names to select from, as Google+ connections will start to appear below saved contacts when typing out a recipient.

According to a blog post by Google product manager David Nachum, the sender will be able to send an email using only the person’s name. Your email address won’t be displayed to people who send you a message through Google+, but will become visible if you reply. The system will be turned on by default, but Google said it would let users opt out.

Emails from people you follow on Google+ will appear in your primary inbox; emails using the new system from people you don’t follow will appear in Gmail’s “social” inbox tab.

Back in December 2011, Google started keeping Gmail contacts automatically updated via Google+. Now Gmail goes a step further by suggesting your Google+ connections as recipients when you are composing a new email. These are potentially useful additions for Gmail users who actually use Google+, although there is clearly room for annoying emails. You can also adjust the “Email via Google+” setting in Gmail once it’s available to avoid receiving message from people you really don’t want to spam your inbox.

Article Original Source: bestwebsitedevelopmentcompany.com

Twitter Launches Question And Answer Based Search Engine ‘Jelly’

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone announced the first details of his new venture Jelly, a question and answer based search engine for iOS and Android.

In a description of Jelly featured on the startup’s website, the company says using Jelly is a more fun way to search for topics or images. It’s an app that lets you ask questions, push them out to your network, and get rapid responses. “If you have a question, there’s someone out there that knows the answer,” Stone says in a video accompanying the official blog post.

The app aims to capitalize on the popularity of mobile smartphones and the pervasiveness of social networks. The app is also meant to personalize the search experience—it might take more inspiration from Quora, a community-based question-and-answer site, than from Google or Bing.

Facebook is working on its own new search tool, called Graph search, which is meant to answer people’s questions based on information about their friends. And Microsoft’s Bing search engine already incorporates data from Facebook and Twitter into its search results to give users more context. And though it is not meant to be “social,” Google offers its Goggles search tool on mobile devices, which aims to answer questions based on photos. What Jelly will be doing differently is that it will tap into new algorithms to help target the questions to specific networks, specifically using images. Jelly is placing a bet on the altruistic side of human nature.

The app is available now for iOS and Android.

Yahoo Buys Company SkyPhrase-Natural Language Processing Firm

Yahoo has acquired SkyPhrase, a start-up with a focus on natural language processing. According to the blog post revealed by the company Skyphrase will join Yahoo’s New York office and will work with Yahoo to help continue its goal of marketing computers deeply understand people’s natural language and intentions.

The acquisition is just the latest in a spree of purchases by Yahoo under Marissa Mayer’s leadership and it suggests that Yahoo shares the same interest in understanding complex, colloquial input that major tech companies from Facebook to Google have ventured into.

The challenge for Yahoo will be see if they grow SkyPhrase to touch ore of their products. The race for NLP is on, the stakes are high and all of the big players, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Amazon and Nuance are in a buying frenzy. Yahoo however is the one of that seems to be the best at leveraging the tech in products that reach consumers in the least amount of time.

The acquisition indicates Yahoo sees voice search as a thing of the future-an idea touted most recently by Google. The internet giant has been pushing its Google now voice search service over the last year, and it has even hinted that voice search is where internet browsing is headed. However Yahoo hasn’t specifically detailed what SkyPhrase will be doing under the Yahoo labs research firm.

‘OK Google’ Chrome Extension For Hands Free Voice Search on Desktop

Google has released a chrome extension that brings the voice-activated “Ok Google” command to the browser. When installed, it allows those on the desktop to speak their commands to the browser using the “OK Google” hotword.

The extension also supports reminders, so you can say “Ok Google, set a timer for 30 minutes.” Once installed, you’ll have to give Chrome permission to access your computer’s microphone. Then, a “Say OK Google” notice will appear in the Google.com search bar. When it recognizes your voice, a red microphone will appear and Google will type what you say before giving you an answer. The extension is explicitly labeled as a beta, but it seems to work well.

You need to be on the Google search page for it to work, and it won’t read out all your answers — so its functionality is limited.

For those who are worried about Google listening to all your conversations, the default setting will stop listening for “OK Google” commands after five minutes, which the search giant says saves battery life. A shaded microphone means that it’s listening; the outline of a microphone means that it’s not.

Google Wallet Card Now Available to Order

While the NFC-based Google Wallet payment system may have not taken off, Google is taking another swing at things with a physical Google wallet card, basically fills the same role as the Google wallet app tried to do previously acting as a prepaid debit card that pulls funds out of any connected account.

If you’re in the U.S and have the option to get a Google wallet card, you’ll be prompted in the Google wallet app or on the Google wallet website, where you’ll then have to verify your identity and request the card. Verifying your identity is as simple as giving your name, address, birth date and social security number, but Google already had the necessary information from previous purchases for us to order with two clicks.

The card will arrive in 10-12 days according to Google, and you’ll be ready to activate it and set it up for payments thereafter.

The Wallet card will let you pay for items at any retailer, even those that don’t have the little NFC kiosks Wallet has thus far relied upon. The charge should be relayed to your Wallet account just like you had used an NFC phone. It’s unclear if that’s just the Wallet balance, or if cards are included too. This fits nicely with Google’s strategy of uncoupling the NFC payments in KitKat from the hardware secure element. Google is really making Wallet easier to use on multiple fronts.

Google Helpouts-Get A Help From Experts Via Video

Google has officially announced the launch of Google helpouts after several months, it’s a new offering that people and businesses can use to make money via live social video.

Google said on its blog that its goal with Helpouts is simply to “Help people help each other.” Helpouts can open a new brand new revenue stream for the Mountain View, Calif.-based search company.

Five ways Google can make money of its new Helpout service.

Charge Experts

Google allows now experts to set a price for their help. When Google tested this service, it took a 20% cut of the paid Helpouts as a platform fee. It should also be noted that Google will not charge medical professionals for health care Helpouts.

Charges Brand

You can get help from individuals or from brands you already know and trust. Google could promote these Helpouts in search results, similar to how advertising works in Google Maps, it will be another tool Google can add to its ever-growing portfolio of marketing services.

Bring More small Businesses to Google Service

It will give small businesses a chance to market their expertise for free or cheap and maybe generate a few extra dollars for the company. For Google, it’s another way to get more small businesses involved in its lucrative advertising platform.

Traffic from About.Com and WikiHow

Google search is the number one destination for people to answer a question or get help. With Helpouts Google can keep this traffic for itself, as well as the advertising revenue that the traffic generates.

More users on Google Plus

Google continues to push its Google plus social network by requiring users to sign up in order to use other services. Gmail accounts, YouTube and Hangouts are all tied to Google plus platforms and Helpouts are no different. Google Helpouts appears to be a service that benefits everyone involved, including users, small businesses, big companies and of course Google.

The beauty of Helpouts is its simplicity and it is a wonderful simple idea, using a webcam to show someone how to do something seems blindingly obvious-but this is the first time it has really been implemented in such a way as to be accessible and workable.