tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-185252832024-03-14T07:55:17.559-07:00Wandering in ElysiumExploring the world of technology and management.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger77125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18525283.post-91850447156272028952020-09-20T09:49:00.004-07:002020-09-20T09:49:47.539-07:00Making WFH work<p>Redundancy. </p><p>Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world and the entire family had to rely on the home Internet connection for getting everything done, I was dreading the day when that connectivity would go out. That day came a couple of months back, when my wife and I had work calls lined up and both the boys were about to start their online classes. Thankfully, that exclamation point near the Wifi icon disappeared in five minutes, but scared me enough to make me sign up for a second, back-up connection.</p><p>Some basic research led me to the venerable EdgeRouter X, which could take in both ISP connections and provide a single load-balanced connection to the wireless AP. Setup was simple enough, the folks at Ubiquiti have done an amazing job with the wizard that can get you started in less than 5 minutes. Basic networking knowledge is helpful too, to get more done out of this workhorse of a machine. </p><p>What pushed me to the EdgeRouter was its Gigabit connectivity, whereas the cheaper TP-Link ones cap out at 100 Mbps. With one 150 Mbps and another 100 Mbps connection, I didn't want the router to be the bottleneck. Speedtests at fast.com and speedtest.net both provide around 230-240 Mbps, meaning that load-balancing is working, and is actually aggregating for multi-part connections. Also setup Tasker and Connectbot on my Android to SSH into the router and toggle load-balancing and failover at the touch of a button. </p><p>Unless something drastic takes out both the connections simultaneously, it's a reassuring feeling to know that there's some redundancy to the lifeline that's making things manageable in these crazy times. </p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0Bengaluru, Karnataka, India12.9715987 77.5945627-15.338635136178846 42.4383127 41.281832536178847 112.7508127tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18525283.post-1792924101708083442018-09-01T09:17:00.000-07:002018-09-01T09:17:16.681-07:00Wireguard - the new VPN kid on the blockHaving tried my hand with <a href="https://rankwil.blogspot.com/2015/11/raspberry-pi-2-getting-started.html" target="_blank">OpenVPN</a> to provide a secure Internet connection for my gadgets while travelling, I was less than impressed by the throughput on the Raspberry Pi. At a measly 3 Mbps, it was simply not good enough.<br />
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I had heard about Wireguard almost a year back, but last week's <a href="https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/08/wireguard-vpn-review-fast-connections-amaze-but-windows-support-needs-to-happen/" target="_blank">ArsTechnica article</a> rekindled my interest. Many others have also tried their hands, and looks like it's all set to take over the VPN landscape. Major benefits include a much simplified setup (compared to the maze that is OpenVPN), superior performance (throughput much greater than others), much smaller codebase (only 4,000 lines of code, compared to 600,000 for OpenVPN and 400,000 for IPSEC) which theoretically translates into a reduced attack surface and others.<br />
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Spun up a VPS instance and installed Wireguard. From install to setup on both server and client, it literally took less than 10 minutes and I had a working connection on my Android phone. A quick test indicates almost 4-5x times faster speeds than OpenVPN, and nearly instantaneous connection against the roughly 8-10 seconds for OpenVPN. Another major benefit seems to be that the protocol is not chatty, and packets need not be sent regularly to keep the connection alive - a major concern for mobile devices with batteries that drain quickly. It also promises full IP roaming on both peers (term to refer to both 'server' and 'client' on Wireguard), again significant when switching between WiFi and cellular connections where each transition would have otherwise initiated a full renegotiation of the session.<br />
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Still under heavy development, I couldn't find a package for the Raspberry Pi yet, although it can be compiled. The Android release is very basic and experimental. However, Wireguard could be soon integrated into the Linux kernel itself, giving it much needed code review and mainstream acceptance. Even Linus himself seems to be <a href="http://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/1808.0/02472.html" target="_blank">a fan</a>. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18525283.post-28498278154935420332017-11-08T01:20:00.004-08:002017-11-08T01:20:59.513-08:00Six second ads and consumersSeems like the whole of advertising industry is moving towards shorter ad formats. Driven primarily by behemoths YouTube and Facebook, and taken up by other digital publishers, even <a href="https://newsline.com/amc-to-offer-walking-dead-advertisers-six-second-ads/" target="_blank">TV is embracing six seconders</a> as the next big thing. Is this just us admitting to the fact that consumer attention spans are rapidly shrinking or just that we can't be bothered to properly craft the story with the time and attention it deserves or maybe a combination of both?<br />
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There's definitely a strong case which can be made for the six-seconder. A brand which has already reached threshold levels in awareness may benefit by using it to amp up the frequency, and thereby, top-of-mind recall - major FMCG brands being an obvious example. There are also many brands with creatives which are worth watching over and over, in infinite loops of six seconds each. But when everyone jumps on the bandwagon, I'm not too hopeful the thinking will last, and we will end up being pummelled by them.<br />
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In a hyper-fragmented landscape of infinitely scrolling timelines and unlimited media choices, the primary benchmark by which creative and media efficacy should be measured is very simple - relevance. Are we reaching the right audience in the right context and telling her a story that she finds useful, and maybe even enjoys? Chances are, she will appreciate the effort and remember us for it. Or would we rather cop out and hope that she forgives us the six second intrusion, since there's so much less of it to hate?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0Bengaluru, Karnataka, India12.9715987 77.59456269999998312.4764182 76.949115699999979 13.4667792 78.240009699999987tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18525283.post-59889079685620574812017-07-15T06:56:00.002-07:002017-07-15T22:16:19.748-07:00Perspective is everythingThe new job now takes me on a longer commute, through the insane Bangalore traffic at rush hours. Having avoided it for the last three years, thanks to Namma Metro, this was something I was dreading.<br />
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Podcasts to the rescue. There's nothing better than Radiolab and This American Life, with Snap Judgement and The Moth sprinkled in for good measure, to help endure the never-ending, bumper-to-bumper traffic and the ensuing road rage. I would strongly recommend these and a few others (refer sidebar for links) to make time on the road a little more bearable.<br />
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As Rory Sutherland so eloquently puts it in this <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXneozZwJR0" target="_blank">video</a>, perspective is everything.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0Bengaluru, Karnataka, India12.9715987 77.59456269999998312.4764182 76.949115699999979 13.4667792 78.240009699999987tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18525283.post-73321493828574168182015-11-24T03:20:00.000-08:002015-11-24T04:09:33.499-08:00Raspberry Pi 2 : Getting startedNot having played around with Linux for a long time, I finally decided to set up a Raspberry Pi 2 project. For $35, this tiny computer does pack a punch. This <a href="https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-2-model-b/" target="_blank">spec sheet</a> details out everything. You can basically set up a small web, mail, or home automation server and <a href="http://www.itpro.co.uk/mobile/21862/raspberry-pi-top-16-projects-to-try-yourself/page/0/1" target="_blank">more</a>.<br />
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My idea was to turn it into a VPN gateway that sits between my TV and home router and serve up a US IP through OpenVPN. This will basically let me stream Netflix or Hulu directly on the TV, without the need of Miracast or DLNA devices/software.<br />
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Having dabbled with OpenVPN and basic routing when setting up my VPS, this was fairly straightforward. I was inspired by this <a href="http://makezine.com/projects/browse-anonymously-with-a-diy-raspberry-pi-vpntor-router/" target="_blank">Makezine guide</a>, which used two Wifi dongles - one for connecting to the local network and the other for hosting the VPN access point. Picking the correct dongles is also important; it would need to support the soft AP function. I used an Edimax EW-7811 Un and a Tenda W311MI. Both are fairly cheap and robust, although the Edimax one seems to drop a lot of packets.<br />
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In addition to stock Raspbian (a Debian-based distro, optimized for Raspberry Pi), you would also need to install <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hostapd" target="_blank">hostapd</a> which will turn the dongle into an AP and also <a href="http://www.thekelleys.org.uk/dnsmasq/doc.html" target="_blank">dnsmasq</a> for basic DHCP and DNS for clients connecting to the AP. Once done, you would need to use iptables to do the routing, which basically takes the traffic from the wifi subnet and forwards it to the VPN tunnel. Any client connecting to the AP will have a public IP address of the VPN server.<br />
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Performance in terms of VPN throughput remains a concern. My Android phone, connected to the VPN directly, gives 18 Mbps down, whereas the Raspberry AP only gives 3 Mbps. Many discussions suggest this could be due to a bottleneck, as the Ethernet and USB ports share the same interface and the traffic has to traverse the bus twice. Switching the inbound interface from USB to Ethernet didn't improve the situation either; some commenters also suggest that the CPU itself could be a problem. However, 'top' didn't reveal much load on the CPU.<br />
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3 Mbps is barely enough to provide a SD stream, so HD is pretty much impossible. Still needs some digging around to identify where the bottleneck is. Even so, I would consider this project a 'fruit'ful one.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy5EKKDyOJlB_q2LNInDdKVXic462EAoxQeO5pufXWq-hQ561MFYMUsSUYMrZgZkCOFY-iQPjYyJxcmLAwLZ7zSj4FVcoVlCRPCfSZK9zAhsqOx6V-VFiYO71nG8Hcu9XezOmV/s1600/IMG_20151123_224045.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy5EKKDyOJlB_q2LNInDdKVXic462EAoxQeO5pufXWq-hQ561MFYMUsSUYMrZgZkCOFY-iQPjYyJxcmLAwLZ7zSj4FVcoVlCRPCfSZK9zAhsqOx6V-VFiYO71nG8Hcu9XezOmV/s320/IMG_20151123_224045.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">With the case open</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvBfSuPmq9dJslCj9qDJU1x1YSnMT2cKaWNVhA7RF03gJR90bG3vHOSpGwS-QB3Nn_muXllmeJtVnWF-v5r5WVaODDmEmk8-NSojkA1FTzdiI01ocqjZ_4bl9XPrYa1q6sx51o/s1600/IMG_20151123_224202.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvBfSuPmq9dJslCj9qDJU1x1YSnMT2cKaWNVhA7RF03gJR90bG3vHOSpGwS-QB3Nn_muXllmeJtVnWF-v5r5WVaODDmEmk8-NSojkA1FTzdiI01ocqjZ_4bl9XPrYa1q6sx51o/s320/IMG_20151123_224202.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Up and running</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18525283.post-62362344381040110672011-01-31T23:04:00.000-08:002011-02-04T02:10:29.407-08:00Kindle 3G - First impressionsFinally, after months of waiting, I have the Kindle 3G in my hands. And it has been well worth the wait.<br /><br />The screen is a pleasure to read from, coming almost close to a printed book in terms of resolution and sharpness. Having read an e-book for more than an hour in a sitting, I came out of it without a headache or eyestrain. The Kindle truly delivers on Amazon's promise that within a few page turns (virtual, of course), you will disappear into the book. I know I did.<br /><br />The experimental web browser is just that, experimental. The pages take some time to load, but it helps if images are turned of and you are reading the mobile version of the page. But then again, I didn't buy it for browsing the web, and it is more than a nice-to-have.<br /><br />I only wish that Amazon brings down the Kindle book prices than their physical copies, still can't see the rationale of a digital copy costing as much as the real thing. However, if you are a bibliophile and can't have enough of the printed word, the Kindle is the best gift you could buy yourself.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18525283.post-60011685243101725132009-06-26T10:21:00.000-07:002009-06-26T10:24:08.295-07:00Sixth Sense - Virtual information, real worldAugmented reality finally seems to be coming to the real world. In an amazing demonstration of the possibilities, <a href="http://www.ted.com/speakers/pranav_mistry.html" target="new">Pranav Mistry</a> and <a href="http://www.ted.com/speakers/pattie_maes.html" target="new">Patti Maes</a> of MIT Media Lab show how simple off-the-shelf components can be put together to make your own wearable gestural interface.<br /><br />Called <a href="http://www.pranavmistry.com/projects/sixthsense/" target="new">Sixth Sense</a>, the device consists of a camera, a pocket projector with mirror and a mobile phone. The phone remains in the user's pocket, and uses visual input from the camera and the projector acts as the monitor. It can be programmed to recognise hand gestures and virtually any surface can be used as a screen.<br /><br />With these basics in place, Sixth Sense can seamlessly plug in information from the virtual world to the real world. For example, a person browsing through a new bestseller at a bookstore can project Amazon ratings and reader reviews right onto the book and make instant decisions on whether to buy the book or not. You can check your flight timings by just holding the ticket in front of the camera. The system will scan the ticket and retrieve the current status from the Web, through the mobile phone's data connection.<br /><br />An extremely interesting application of ubiquitous technologies, Sixth Sense has amazing potential to change how we see and interact with the world around us. By supplementing the real world with meta information and an easy-to-use interface, this is one technology that really lives up to its name. [<a href="http://www.pranavmistry.com/projects/sixthsense/" target="new">Sixth Sense demo</a>]Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18525283.post-91009316615736062002009-01-05T09:18:00.000-08:002009-01-05T09:35:19.079-08:00Change is good<span class="sqq">“<span style="font-style: italic;">It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.</span>” - Charles Darwin</span><br /><br />Some people hate change. They just can't let go of the familiar and even bother to try and learn something new. Evolution takes care of them.<br /><br />ZDNet's Ed Bott gives a good example of change in the technology world. In his <a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=630">Microsoft Report</a> blog, he recounts how his colleague gripes about the user interface changes in Windows 7, the latest version of the operating system, which is still in development. As Bott himself notes, you can't please everyone. But to all those people who keep on complaining about how they have to keep up with the changes in software or hardware or everytime their favourite website has a new design, just remember Darwin.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18525283.post-5045012558384156302008-12-16T09:15:00.000-08:002008-12-16T10:05:37.794-08:00Google Suggest, now with ads?Google seems to be experimenting with ads in their search box, which will pop up as soon as you start entering a query. According to this <a href="http://searchengineland.com/google-search-suggest-get-ads-links-answers-15821.php" target="new">SearchEngineLand</a> article, the ads seem to be in test phase, and may not be implemented at all. They may be just testing the waters to see how users react, but this is surely an indication of how much pressure even Google seems to be facing in the current economic downturn. For a company which has kept its homepage free of any paid ads, integrating commercials right into the heart of its product is a big step.<br /><br />Judging by the number of people who come to this blog, searching for ways to <a href="http://rankwil.blogspot.com/2008/08/google-suggest-turn-off-autocomplete.html" target="new">turn off the Google Suggest</a> feature in the search engine's homepage, it may not be their most popular feature.<br /><br />It will be interesting to see how the users react if they do indeed start ads in the search box. Maybe people will just grin and bear it, realizing that good things do come at a price, or maybe we will see some migration to Yahoo and Live search engines, which have been dwindling in market shares with every passing month. Google may have just given users an excuse to try them out after all.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18525283.post-50812527003967405842008-10-17T10:51:00.000-07:002008-10-17T11:13:03.199-07:00Launching Chrome was good after allWhen Chrome was launched early September, there was much hue and cry about the need for yet another web browser in an already crowded market. I <a href="http://rankwil.blogspot.com/2008/09/chrome-why-another-browser-is-good.html" target="new">thought</a> it was a good thing. Now, it is getting better.<br /><br />Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, at the Hardware 2.0 blog on ZDNet, has <a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=2781" target="new">published</a> some numbers on how the new <a href="http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/10/14/firefox-31-beta-1-now-available-for-download/" target="new">Firefox 3.1 beta 1</a> stacks up against IE, Chrome and the rest. If Chrome set the bar high in ACID 3 and SunSpider Javascript benchmarks, Firefox 3.1 has pushed it even higher. Chrome still takes the lead in Google's own V8 JavaScript benchmark quite convincingly though.<br /><br />The Firefox 3.1 beta 1 also comes with a slew of features which will hopefully inspire developers in the opposing camps to create some magic of their own. As Kingsley-Hughes puts it, competition is good.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18525283.post-21603263188440941772008-10-14T09:39:00.000-07:002008-10-14T10:34:35.342-07:00Anti Spam - Spamming the spammersDid you know that <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-9831556-16.html" target="new">95 percent</a> of all email sent in 2007 was spam? Yes, that is a fact.<br /><br />In spite of all the legislation, the spammers keep marching on. Filling up mailboxes, overloading servers and clogging networks worldwide, the spam keeps coming. So how do you get back at them? That's right, spam them back.<br /><br />AuditMyPc, an online security testing site, has put up a tool that they hope will give spammers a large dose of their own medicine. Anti Spam is basically a web-page that fills itself with fake email addresses every time it is viewed. The way the developers hope to get it working is like this:<br /><br />1. Spam-bots, which scour the Web, looking for email addresses to spam, land on the Anti Spam page.<br />2. They find loads of email addresses (all of them fake, by the way), and promptly adds all of them to their databases.<br />3. Finally, they follow the last link on the page, which links to itself, thereby loading the Anti Spam page with a fresh list of fake email addresses. The process repeats, filling the databases with enough worthless addresses to make it inefficient to spam.<br /><br />That sounds like a really interesting concept, and I for one would love to see it work. But would it really? The <a href="http://www.cnet.com/8301-11455_1-10064537-10.html" target="new">Buzz Out Loud</a> crew makes some good observations on the idea. Adding fake email addresses to the spam database surely would take down the conversion ratio, but still might not bring down the absolute hits the spammers get. As far as they are concerned, it is all automated and wouldn't matter much.<br /><br />ISPs could see a flurry of attempts to send emails to non-existent accounts, and that could help them identify potential spammers more easily and blacklist them. This is all assuming that spammers don't blacklist the Anti Spam page first and let their bots go round in circles, feeding on fake addresses.<br /><br />AuditMyPc encourages the public to link to their Anti Spam page, so that bots are more likely to find it and collect the bogus addresses. As far as I can tell, their appeal seems to be working. Type in 'anti spam' on Google and guess what is the first <span style="font-weight: bold;">organic</span> result? If the company decides to make an actual anti-spam product of its own in the future or even take ads for them, they surely won't be needing any search ads. The Anti Spam page may not take down too many spambots, but it won't hurt their site traffic.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18525283.post-11052947651530821152008-09-16T11:15:00.000-07:002008-09-16T12:02:55.194-07:00DECE - The future of DRM?<span class="sqq"><span style="font-style: italic;">“The nicest thing about standards is that there are so many of them to choose from.”</span> - Andres S. Tannenbaum <span style="font-size:85%;">(Also seen attributed to Ken Olsen)</span><br /></span><br />I love that quote. It is funny. It is funny because it is true.<br /><br />In a digital media landscape littered with incompatible standards and casualties from the format wars, a host of technology and media powerhouses are joining hands to bring a consumer friendly version of DRM for content. In other words, <span style="font-weight: bold;">a standard</span> for DRM.<br /><br />The Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE), which is backed by the likes of Cisco, Fox, HP, Intel, Microsoft, NBC Univeral, Paramount Pictures, Philips, Sony and Toshiba, among others, will offer customers the "buy once, play anywhere" freedom that has been taken away by conventional DRM. Simply put, the standard will enable content bought from consortium members to play on DECE hardware/codec. Not so much DRM-free as having no DRM at all, but a step forward, nevertheless.<br /><br />Will DECE succeed in convincing consumers who are sceptical about DRM and how it restricts their usage of content they had paid for? Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, a technology columnist at ZDNet, says it beautifully with the title of his blog post - <a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=2618" target="new"><span>DECE : Lipstick on the DRM pig.</span></a><br /><br /><span class="sqq">Read the Reuters story - <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSN1534200820080915" target="new">Studios form digital-download ecosystem</a><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18525283.post-64659803780843313862008-09-10T10:25:00.000-07:002008-09-10T10:52:21.715-07:00Chrome - why another browser is goodIt has been more than a week since Google unleashed Chrome on the Web. Statistics abound on the market share erosion of the incumbents from the newcomer's arrival. Frankly, I think it is far too early for the numbers to make sense. There will be enough downloads and installs in the first week as people try out the new software and figure out if it is actually any good. (Remember, it was promoted in the Google homepage, no less - the most expensive virtual real estate in the world. That has to count for something.)<br /><br />So how can the new browser help the Web? In a market crowded by the likes of Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Safari and Opera, is there any need for yet another commodity software which is free anyway? I think there is.<br /><br />Firstly, Google has open-sourced Chrome. This means virtually anybody can peer under Chrome's hood and take the best features and even improve upon it. Like the rising tide that lifts all boats, every browser developer and user stands to gain from this.<br /><br />Secondly, I think the sandbox-approach to the whole browser and even individual tabs is an innovative move. If one site crashes your tab, just close it without bringing all the other tabs and browser windows down. (I am not sure about this, but I think only Chrome has implemented this as of now.) Spawning new processes for individual tabs keeps the user in control, and the entire system more secure.<br /><br />Thirdly, Google has a way with how it puts the user in focus in product design. The clean, minimalist look of the Google homepage is appreciated by millions, and Chrome has borrowed this philosophy in its user interface. I am sure other browser designers can take a page or two from the Google design book and weave it onto their own. No big, bloated buttons and no useless menu bars. Keep it simple, silly.<br /><br />There are many things that I don't like at all about Chrome, but that will form the topic of another post. But if somebody has ideas for yet another Web browser and intend to release one soon, I am all for it. Better too many than too few.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18525283.post-40023071084812289662008-09-10T09:58:00.000-07:002008-09-10T10:10:22.447-07:00Of spam blogs and captchasSeems like even Blogger has spotted my irregular posting patterns. I tried to make a new posting and it won't allow me to do that, unless I solve another one of those captchas. And they even have a nifty link nearby which says 'Why do I have this', which explains that my blog has the "characteristics of a spam blog". I have applied to unlock my blog from the captcha curse, which apparently requires human intervention. Serves me right for not posting by procrastinating.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18525283.post-86010156325224595512008-08-26T10:02:00.000-07:002011-10-25T06:33:56.865-07:00Google Suggest - Turn off autocompleteGoogle seems to be rolling out new features in a hurry, or in this case, integrating an old one. The official Google blog has announced that the Suggest feature will be available by default on the engine. Judging from the responses of bloggers, it is a love-it or hate-it feature. Personally, I don't care for it much, what with the suggestions coming nowhere near what I want to type in. Indeed, it is more of a distraction than anything.<br /><br />It is quite easy to turn off too. Just type in - <span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=0" target="blank">http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=0</a></span> and you have it. The feature can be disabled easily using the Preferences link from the homepage as well.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18525283.post-59916188410619809572008-08-16T09:49:00.000-07:002009-02-14T08:59:48.542-08:00Google sort by date or relevanceGoogle seems to be testing a new feature. Its News and Blog Search had this feature from the beginning, but seems like you can now sort your web search also by date or relevance. Probably they figured out that people were searching for news and blogs from the main search engine itself, and were shifting often to News and Blog search functionalities to get the latest updates. Maybe they had been working on this for sometime, and the Olympics just came by and users searching for medal tallies just pushed it to the tipping point. (It is worth mentioning that they have been manually tweaking search algorithms for Olympics related content, as has Yahoo and Live search.)<br /><br />Here is a screenshot that I got a couple of minutes ago. Probably they are rolling it out only to a few users at the moment, as they usually do. Your mileage may vary.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_G4QopNVTaWc/SKcHBy7mjoI/AAAAAAAAAC0/4wo3THg0cWI/s1600-h/google.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_G4QopNVTaWc/SKcHBy7mjoI/AAAAAAAAAC0/4wo3THg0cWI/s320/google.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5235160819274518146" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Update - Feb 14, 09: From my web analytics, I can see that more and more people are searching for this feature from all parts of the world. Either Google is rolling it out slowly in test regions, or this has the potential to be an incredibly popular feature.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18525283.post-67864621661891599882008-02-14T08:43:00.000-08:002008-02-15T17:33:53.314-08:00The importance of being Yahoo's ValentineThe irony about writing on technology is that much like the subject itself, it becomes obsolete before you can say "Gordon Moore". Which is why analysing Microsoft's bid for Yahoo and the subsequent refusal is not exciting, now that we are a couple of weeks into it. But what would be really interesting to watch is Yahoo's flirtation with News Corp., considering the fact that it just passed on over $44 billion from the Redmond giant.<br /><br />Is Jerry Yang simply holding out for a better price from Microsoft, considering how desperate Microsoft has shown itself to be in the race for the Web dollar? Or does he believe that a tie-up with the media behemoth can actually bail Yahoo! out of its impending financial crisis, given its relatively poor performance in online advertising sales <span style="">vis-à-vis</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span>Google? (Even with all the commotion around it, Yahoo has been <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/13/technology/13yahoo.html?em&ex=1203051600&en=5ca05b43179650ce&ei=5087%0A" target="new">acquiring </a>online ad companies to stay afloat.) The Wall Street Journal <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120293230377566103.html" target="new">says</a> that its owner News Corp could hand over MySpace and some other online properties to Yahoo for as much as 20% stake in the Web giant. This could keep Yahoo safe from a hostile bid from Microsoft, and also give it access to a wider user base, not the least of which would be the world's largest social networking site. Of course, monetising it would be a different story.<br /><br />Looking from Microsoft's perspective, it just may be willing to raise the offer if Yahoo plays its cards right. But given the fact that it would have to finance even part of the current offer with debt, which would be a <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=abE3VMLYbfxM&refer=home" target="new">first</a> in the company's history, it is highly unlikely to be much of an increase. Microsoft's stock did crash as soon as the offer was made, reflecting possible shareholder opinion that even the current offer is too much.<br /><br />But even this willingness to borrow for the first time clearly indicates how serious Microsoft is to get Yahoo. Both the companies have been playing catch-up with Google in online advertising revenues, and neither have had much success yet. Even together, they may not be able to do this, given the complexities of integrating two large hi-tech companies and hit the ground running in probably the world's most dynamic industry. As one comment in a news site said, "Tie two rocks together and they still sink." Maybe. Depends on what you tie them with.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18525283.post-31617333349413343172007-09-16T05:46:00.000-07:002008-02-15T08:59:21.252-08:00RSS agents and Instant Messaging botsIt is hard enough to keep track of all the RSS feeds we have in our subscription list; knowing when they have been just updated would be helpful, but even more tough. Why not combine the power of RSS and Instant Messaging to give you an instant update? The idea is nothing new, and there are tons of services out there already.<br /><br /><a href="http://alerts.yahoo.com/" target="new">Yahoo Alerts</a> helps you pick different topics from a list, or even enter a custom RSS feed from third-party site, which can be delivered by email, Yahoo Messenger or text message. Some other websites that provide similar services are <a href="http://www.imified.com/" target="new">Imified</a>, <a href="http://www.rasasa.com/" target="new">Rasasa</a>, <a href="http://www.feedcrier.com/" target="new">FeedCrier</a> and <a href="http://www.zaptxt.com/" target="new">ZapTXT</a>.<br /><br />You can use them to subscribe to RSS feeds (news, weather updates, sports score, etc.). As soon as the feed is updated, the bot would IM you the summary. It actually converts the pull based RSS into a push technology; you are updated as and when it happens. Of course, you can control the frequency and content of the updates through a web interface. What is really great is that some of them don't even require registration; just add a bot as your IM buddy list and you are done.<br /><br />Imified, for instance, has a Blogger widget. You can add the Imified bot as a buddy on your IM, start a chat session and pull up sports score (from an RSS feed) or update your Blogger post; all of this from your instant messenger. Kind of like <a href="http://www.twitter.com/" target="new">Twitter</a>, which also has the same functionality. You can also create your own widgets and customise it to your requirements.<br /><br />What is really great about using IM as a platform is that you can use your mobile phone's IM client to access the services anywhere, anytime. You are waiting for your bus, and in comes a new instant message : "Manchester United 2 : Liverpool 1 FT". No more expensive text messages, no more manual browsing!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">More Bots</span><br /><br />As you may know, Google Talk uses the Jabber protocol. Add eliza at swissjabber.org (in the usual email id format) as a contact in your Gmail account and you can start up a chat session with a bot.<br /><br />There are also lot of Jabber bots that can provide weather, dictionary and mail notifications. (<a href="http://mail.jabber.org/pipermail/juser/2005-June/001099.html" target="new">Jabber bots</a> and <a href="http://www.chatopus.com/articles/bots.html" target="new">IM Bots for Jabber</a>). Please do leave a comment if you find other interesting services/bots.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18525283.post-54096623123989249442007-09-05T04:08:00.000-07:002008-02-15T09:02:38.136-08:00Unlocking your iPhone - Legal or not?<p>It has been some time since I put my last post. Six months, to be more accurate. And so much has happened in this time that I can't even begin to describe what. Google has bought over Doubleclick in a multi-billion dollar deal, the iPhone has finally come out (and promptly unlocked, I must add), Opera Mini 4 is in beta, millions of blogs have started since, and a lot many abandoned. Wow, and I haven't even scraped the surface yet. </p><p>Let us get back to the iPhone. I have said this once, and I will say it again - Apple is a master marketer. Their phone is not the first to have touch screen, nor is it the only smartphone with music capabilities by a long shot. Heck, it doesn't even have 3G. Still, you find thousands of people waiting in serpentine queues to get hold of the sleek black gadget. Pretty impressive for a commodity product, which is also tied to AT&T as the sole service provider. But then again, Apple has succeeded in setting up the iPhone as "the" product, and not a commodity after all. </p><p>Now to the whole unlocking the iPhone issue. Hacker groups across the world would have been working tirelessly to crack open the iPhone's lock to the AT&T network, ever since the product was unveiled late June. It is to Apple's credit that it took them so long to break open the lock; most hardware and software protection technologies have fallen in a few days' time. However, once the first method came in, others have followed pretty rapidly. Both hardware and software workarounds have been devised, independently confirmed by leading websites.</p><p>So the question is, would unlocking the iPhone be legal? If AT&T has not subsidised the cost of the handset from Apple to the subscriber, then surely this is between the user and Apple, isn't it? Or is it? What business is it of AT&T's to check what a user does with a phone she has bought from Apple? Seems like a pretty grey area even for the legal pundits, and as for me, I am still left wondering. However, if you go by common sense, what I do with hardware I have bought is nobody else's business, not even the company I bought it from. I could buy an iPhone and use it on AT&T network or choose not to, use it as a very expensive doorstop or simply put it in a blender and run the motor. Most product warranties would be void if you do any of the above three things, but wouldn't I still be legally entitled to do this? The US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) has explicitly cleared unlocking phones as long as they are used for legally connecting to a network. </p><p>Apple would probably be forced to go after these unlocked iPhones as per their agreement with AT&T and they would probably have the law on their side if the unlocking is being done on a commercial basis (in which case the above DMCA protection might not hold). But what is to stop a hacker group from releasing software on the Net which anybody can download and run on their iPhones to get them unlocked? Would it be still piracy or abuse of Apple/AT&T's IP rights?</p><p>The legal muscle of two of America's biggest companies might thwart most outfits hoping to profit out of the whole unlocking debacle, but if you are smart enough to unlock your own iPhone, you just might get away with it. But don't take my word for it, decide for yourself.</p><p><u>Links:</u></p><ol><li><div align="left"><a href="http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/24/know-your-rights-is-it-illegal-to-unlock-my-iphone/" target="new"><u>Engadget</u> - Know your rights</a></div></li><li><div align="left"><a href="http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2007/tc20070827_230698.htm" target="new"><u>Businessweek</u> - Why Apple can't stop iPhone hackers</a></div></li><li><div align="left"><a href="http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070903-iphonesimfrees-iphone-unlock-reseller-program-puts-users-at-legal-risk.html" target="new"><u>Arstechnica</u> - iPhoneSIMfree's iPhone unlock "reseller" program</a></div></li><li><div align="left"><a href="http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061124-8280.html" target="new"><u>Arstechnica</u> - Cell phone unlocking legal (for three years)</a></div></li></ol><p align="left">Update: Apple has announced a $200 price cut on the iPhone, in less than 10 weeks of the launch. All tech devices get better, faster and cheaper with time, but this one is phenomenal! <a href="http://news.com.com/Apples+iPhone+price+cuts+leave+mixed+feelings/2100-1041_3-6206367.html" target="new">CNET article</a></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18525283.post-82595462718805752762007-02-16T04:35:00.000-08:002007-03-16T04:40:43.120-07:00You will be assimilated<p>The Borg is perhaps as representative of the Star Trek series as much as Enterprise or Voyager is. Always on the prowl to make contact with new species and assimilate them into the Collective, the Borg is one of the most feared enemies of the Federation. </p><p>The Borg is unique. Unlike other species, the Borg do not fight for territory or power. They only need your technology. The purpose of their very existence is to find and assimilate alien technology to their own. Once a species is assimilated, all their technological expertise and cultural distinctiveness passes on to the Collective. The Borg drones are not individuals, they share a Collective mind or its cybernetic equivalent.</p><p>I can not help but wonder how much we live in a Borg-like state today, with a life more and more immersed in technology. A new breed of human beings who love technology and want to be surrounded by it, be it our Blackberrys or iPods, our smartphones or laptops. Cases abound of people addicted to the Web or their smartphones, losing all sense of time and reality when they are plugged in, much like the Borg drones. So the next time you feel the urgent craving to check your mail when you are holidaying in Hawaii, stop and recall the Borg hail. </p><p>Resistance is futile. Maybe it is true. Maybe we are being assimilated.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18525283.post-1168687537408354922007-01-13T03:14:00.000-08:002007-01-13T03:25:37.623-08:00iPhone - Anything different?Amidst the usual fanfare and hype surrounding any Apple product launch, the iPhone seems destined to be the next star product from the company. Described by Steve Jobs as "magical" and "revolutionary", the iPhone is expected to change the landscape of technology once again.<br /><br />But before we start drooling over it, a bit of reality wouldn't do any harm. The iPhone is a combination of the legendary iPod and a GSM phone. It also comes loaded with standard smartphone features, Bluetooth and PIM functionalities. The one thing that is sure to excite Apple loyals is the operating system it runs : OS X. Put in a sleek Apple-style cool interface and you have got the iPhone. The 4 GB model that would be released later this year comes at $499, and a 8 GB one would cost $599.<br /><br />The iPhone has no usable feature that isn't available on other competing devices, so I can't see why they would call it magical and revolutionary. If you are talking about the capability to play MP3 and other digital audio formats on mobile phones, others have had it for years together. WiFi and Bluetooth are nothing new either.<br /><br />Apple has, quite predictably, decided not to open up the iPhone to third party applications. Any new application that you would like to run on the iPhone would have to come from Apple, and that too, at a price. Most mobile platforms, including Symbian and Microsoft, allow third party software to be run on their systems. This encourages more developers to contribute software, which in turn attracts more users looking for greater variety of software. (Also known as the Network effect).As a result, the price of software on these platforms would be much lower than controlled platforms like Apple's, simply because of the demand supply equations.<br /><br />iPhone applications would be costlier to develop as developers would have to pay out huge sums as royalties and license fees to Apple, and this would inflate cost to the end user. So anybody getting an iPhone is not only looking at the base price tag, but a much higher investment in terms of cost of additional software. The usual service charges associated with Apple would still stick, as even the battery comes built-in and you would have to go to Apple for servicing it.<br /><br />With all the above, Apple doesn't seem to be looking to market the iPhone to the masses. But then again, Apple has never tried to be the mass-market company. Either way, it would be really interesting to see how the iPhone does in the already crowded market.<br /><br /><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6247803.stm?ls" target="new">BBC</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone" target="new">Wikipedia</a> (Technical specifications)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18525283.post-1167478574128953272006-12-30T03:12:00.000-08:002007-04-10T05:38:28.100-07:00Neuronet - The Matrix is here?The Matrix films have been ridiculed by many people to be an impossible scenario- with machines enslaving human beings and feeding off our body heat to keep us immersed in a virtual world. Well, they have not mastered us yet, but a recent announcement from the International Association of Virtual Reality Technologies could indicate the birth of a more Matrix-like Internet.<br /><br />Called the Neuronet, scheduled to go live in 2007, the network would provide a platform for virtual reality and gaming innovators around the world to develop applications for a second-generation network.<br /><br />Virtual reality refers to computing systems which provide sensory feedback to the user to make her feel like she is actually in a different environment. For example, flight simulators are examples of virtual reality environments where a trainee pilot can learn the nuances of flight training before actually flying a multi-mllion dollary aircraft.<br /><br />Although much cruder than the versions depcited in sci-fi movies like the Matrix, virtual reality is all set to grow in the coming years with quantum improvements in computing power and network bandwidth.<br /><br />The Neuronet would be separate from the current Internet, the IAVRT announcement explains. Virtual reality programs like IBM's Second Life has become very popular among its members, where they can actually live out a virtual life.<br /><br />3D designer Sven Johnson has questioned the "reality" of the virtual reality network, saying that it could be a "get-rich-quick" scam funded by domain name sales. (<a href="http://blog.rebang.com/?p=1137" target="new">link</a>)<br /><br />Scam or not, it is only a matter of time before virtual reality environments become more possible and inviting to the masses. Even now, the chore of getting online, checking your mail and IMs, hanging around in a social networking site, etc. is considered by some to be "virtual reality". Where "real" ends and "virtual" begins is becoming a tougher question to answer.<br /><br /><a href="http://news.com.com/2100-1033_3-6146339.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-20&subj=news" target="new">CNET article</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18525283.post-1165053728885008442006-12-02T01:59:00.000-08:002007-01-15T23:22:48.468-08:00Opera Mini 3 - Mobile web unleashedStudy after study proclaims the arrival of the Mobile Web, information on the go and being "always connected". The few who have actually explored the Web on our mobile devices would know better that things are not all that great right now. Clumsy browsers trying hard to fit Web pages on the small screen, slow download speeds and the worst of all, the exorbitant charges for data usage by mobile operators.<br /><br /><strong>Opera Mini 3</strong><br /><br />Opera Software, the makers of the popular desktop Web browser, have announced the latest version of their browser for Mobile phones, Opera Mini 3. Opera Mini is a Java application that can be installed on most of today's smartphones or mobile devices supporting Java.<br /><br /><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/407/854/400/986179/om1.png" border="0" />Unlike traditional mobile browsers like Opera's own Opera Mobile and Symbian browser, the Mini does not connect to the concerned web server directly. Instead, it connects to a proxy server that fetches the requested page and reformats the original HTML, Javascript and multimedia content into a format optimised for mobile phones. Thus, when you type www.yahoo.com in the address bar, the application relays it to the proxy. The proxy then fetches the Yahoo! homepage, strips it off all the bells and whistles, optimises for your specific device and sends it to the application. All the app has to do is take this and render on the screen, a much easier task when the heavy objects are taken off. <p><strong>The killer utility</strong><br /><br />What makes Opera Mini so useful is that it cuts out the data consumption drastically, since the proxy has filtered out most of the unwanted content already, making the pages much lighter. Some reviews claim to have observed 70-80% reduction in the data consumption, which can be extremely useful considering the exorbitant charges levied by mobile operators. Thus, even if the webpage is not optimised for your mobile device, you can expect Mini to step in and do the dirty work for you.<br /><br />The standard homepage of the browser carries a Google searchbox, and a customisable search engine containing sites like Wikipedia and Dictionary.com. RSS feeds are also supported, and so is photo blogging that helps you blog from your phone to the Opera Community server. The scroll feature is really user-friendly and keyboard shortcuts are really a breeze.<br /><br /><strong>Mobile web proxies</strong><br /><br />If your phone doesn't support Java and you can't install Mini, you can still use other mobile web proxies to reduce your data usage. A good one is Google Mobile service, available at <a href="http://www.google.com/xhtml" target="new">www.google.com/xhtml</a>. Enter the site name or URL in the Google Mobile search box and click on the relevant link. Google Mobile uses a proxy server to interpret the target webpage into a format more suited for mobile devices, although you can't really compare it with the Mini's performance. But then again, that was not what it was designed to do. It is a search again, after all. For browsing on mobile devices however, I highly recommend getting the Mini. Goto operamini.com on your mobile and install the app. The Web is truly mobile now. </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18525283.post-1163146134419193782006-11-09T23:59:00.000-08:002007-04-10T05:37:18.987-07:00Gmail client on Java mobile<p>Google released its mobile client for Gmail sometime back, but I never actually got around to testing it until now. After having used Gmail & Yahoo Mail on my mobile browser (Opera), I had quit the service as the data transfer charges were getting out of hand. This client does help out a lot in that regard and much more.</p><p><strong>Installation</strong></p><p>The installation of the software was pretty simple. Type in the download URL (gmail.com/app) in your mobile browser and you can dowload the client and have it installed on your phone under a minute. There is hardly any setting or configuration changes required, and you can use it out of the box. You will need to have Java support on your phone for the client to work. Most modern phones support Java, so that isn't really a problem. (Installation on my Nokia N70 was very easy and totally trouble-free.)</p><p><strong>Functioning</strong></p><p>Once the program is launched, you are prompted to enter your Gmail username and password to sign in. A fairly redundant warning appears saying the program will use the network to send and receive data. Once confirmed, your Gmail inbox loads almost instantly. You can select messages and read them as conversations, in true Gmail style. I have not found that feature useful enough to cheer about, but some of my friends are crazy about it. </p><p>What is really interesting about this tiny app is that it can provide you almost all Gmail features, as if you were using it on a PC. Major functions are available through the numeric keypad, and also through a menu if your prefer that instead. Besides standard email functions like reply and forward, you can also archive, mark as read or unread, report as spam or delete. </p><p>Google claims that this client is faster because it has built-in prefetch feature, which automatically loads links in background while you are still reading the first message. Preloading is not recommended if your phone company charges for every kilobyte downloaded, as you may waste money on messages you never actually read. For a flat rate data plan, it is simply great.</p><p>The Settings menu does not offer you much though. You can choose to be signed in always, or turn off the preload messages or use smaller fonts, and that is about it. Another thing the program lacks is a new mail notification feature, which I believe would come in the later versions. Also, you can not compose an email to a new email address, unless you have added it in your contacts list which is not all that great either. For a Version 1.0.0b launch however, I think the program comes off really nice. </p><p><strong>Better than Gmail through mobile browser</strong></p><p>One major advantage of this application over using Gmail on a mobile browser is that it can limit your data consumption to a great extent. Many phone companies charge for data usage (usually for every Kilobyte downloaded) and over a month, this can add up to a decent amount. By using built-in forms like the login prompt, the app reduces your data consumption, which would have otherwise cost you for every sign-in. The prefetch feature is simply great if your data plan is a flat charge one, as it really speeds up the mail functions many times. </p><p>This application should encourage more Gmail users to use the service on their mobile devices, widely considered to be the next phase in computing. I would love to see if Yahoo can come up with something similar, as my experience with Yahoo! Go has been less than satisfying. Considering the two companies are going neck to neck in so many areas, it wouldn't surprise me to see a similar app from Yahoo very shortly. (Read the <a href="http://rankwil.blogspot.com/2005/10/google-and-yahoo-clash-of-titans.html">Google - Yahoo rivalry</a>)</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18525283.post-1161937630727220112006-10-27T01:26:00.000-07:002006-10-27T01:29:44.970-07:00Social search with Google CustomSpeak search and Google comes to mind. There is a very good reason why that is so. They try to make all Web users search more and more using their engine, and they roll out newer and newer ways of doing that. The newest in line - Custom Search Engine for everyone.<br /><br />Using Custom Search, built upon Google Co-op, anyone can make a personal search engine of their own, defining the sites they want to be searched. They can either limit the search to a few sites, or the entire Web, emphasising the defined sites. If your passion is astronomy or computer hardware, you can define the few sites you visit religiously and the searcher would get results from these few sites.<br /><br />Strategically speaking, this move from Google is nothing short of brilliant. When everybody you know is digging or bookmarking on del.icio.us, Google could have probably beaten all of them to the game by bringing in social search in its own ingenious way. Let us examine how Google has done this.<br /><br />Suppose you are very passionate about astronomy, and has been so for some time. Definitely, you would be an authority on the best sites on the subject and visit them regularly. When Google gets you to sign up for Custom Search on astronomy for your site, you would be defining them with your favourite astronomy sites, and more often than not, these would be sites with premium quality content.<br /><br />You have essentially built an engine that searches the best sites on astronomy, and the definition of best is coming from you, a human being, who can recognise quality content much, much better than a computer program. Google has thus succeeded in coaxing you to sharing your judgement and reviewing skills, which combined with Google's automated technology brings up the best results on astronomy. Somebody who has used your Custom Search would find it giving more relevant results than the generic Google search, which even by Google's standards has not contained spam sites to a large extent. The site with the Custom Search thus gets more visitors searching on it and it is ideally a win-win situation for all concerned - Google, the Custom Search site and the users who search through it.<br /><br />Google has always faced strong criticism because of the lack of human element in its search technology. The famous Googlebot and PageRank are, after all, only computer programs. Many people say that is an inherent weakness as they can be tricked by malicious webmasters who try to stay one step ahead of it. Yahoo!, on the other hand, had a better technique of human editors reviewing the pages in their directory, thereby providing quality content. But this model was simply not efficient enough to keep up with the tremendous pace that the Web is growing at. Any attempt to do it would be overwhelming, if not impossible.<br /><br />Google might have jumped one more step ahead of Yahoo! by subtly bringing in the human element it has been so far lacking in their technology. With more and more Custom Search Engines springing around the Web, the quality of search results should also improve dramatically.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.google.com/coop/cse/" target="new">Get your own Google Custom Search</a><br /><br />P.S: You can try a sample one at the bottom of this page.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0