Yearly Archives: 2011

LeadMaster announces new functionality, synchronization with Google calendar.

Using the new Google calendar synchronization feature, LeadMaster CRM users may sync LeadMaster and Google calendar events bi-directionally. This enhancement is available for all LeadMaster users free of charge.

This product enhancement further allows LeadMaster users to ramp up productivity and reduce inconsistencies due to double entry and/or lack of up-to-date calendar data. Since Google calendar integrates with a wide variety of cell phones and computer calendars changes in one calendar will be reflected in all calendars that are synchronized with Google. This allows for keeping appointments and information up-to-date regardless of the calendar the information is entered into.

The Bing search engine overtook Yahoo! for the first time worldwide in January and increased its lead in February according to web analytics company, StatCounter. Its research arm StatCounter Global Stats finds that globally Bing reached 4.37% in February ahead of Yahoo! at 3.93%. Both trail far behind Google’s 89.94% of the global search engine market.

In the United States Yahoo! at 9.74% still retains its lead over Bing at 9.03%. Google’s share in the US is 79.63%. In July 2009 Microsoft announced an agreement whereby Bing would power the Yahoo! search technology. This has been implemented in the US, Canada, Australia, Brazil and Mexico.

“It is significant that Bing overtook Yahoo! globally for the first time on a monthly basis but it remains a tough battle to claw back Google’s market share,” commented Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter. “Although Google dipped below the 90% mark in February worldwide for the first time since August 2009 it shows little sign of losing its global dominance any time soon.”

StatCounter, which specialises in website visitor analysis for organisations and bloggers, provides free lifetime stats and free detailed analysis on the latest 500 hits. Members can upgrade to access more detailed stats from $5 a month.

StatCounter Global Stats are based on aggregate data collected on a sample of over 15 billion page views per month from across the StatCounter network of more than three million websites.

StatCounter, which provides free website traffic information, publishes search engine stats in its StatCounter Global Stats, a free online research tool. It also monitors internet market share battles including browsers, Social Media and operating systems including mobile.

Google has announced that they will be making User Managed Storage available to Google Apps customers at prices ranging from $5 to $256 per year for 20GB up to 1TB.

User Managed Storage is a service that has allowed users to purchase more storage space when they fill the allotted quota on their personal Google Accounts. This service will be rolled out for users of Google Apps accounts as well, allowing the purchase of extra storage for Google Docs, Picasa Web Albums, and photos from Blogger.

Any of these products that is over its storage quota can use the extra storage on a first-come, first-served basis. Users that upload lots of files to Google Docs, sync their Office documents to the cloud using Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office, or store and share pictures using Picasa or Blogger can now expand the storage space available for these files.

User Managed Storage can be enabled by your domain administrator from the Google Apps Control Panel at https://www.google.com/a/[your_domain.com] (replace [your_domain.com] with your actual domain name). Note that the Google Checkout service must also be enabled to allow end users to purchase additional storage. If your organization isn’t using Google Apps yet, you can learn more and sign up today at http://www.google.com/apps/more.

More info: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2011/03/now-available-with-google-apps-user.html

Ofcom, the UK communications regulator, recently took a thorough look at 11 broadband packages, which collectively account for over 90 percent of all British broadband subscriptions, and found that actual download throughput was less than half (only 45 percent) of the advertised “up to” speed, reports Engadget.

The worst offenders were resellers of BT’s ADSL lines, with Orange dipping below 3Mbit on its 8Mbit lines and TalkTalk occasionally offering only 7.5Mbit to users paying for a 24Mbit connection, while Virgin’s cable connectivity won out by sticking most loyally to its listed rating.

Full story: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/02/shocker-uk-regulator-finds-average-broadband-speeds-are-less-t/

Google has recently made a change to it’s search algorithm which is said to lower search results returned from content farm websites.

The change is so far said to have affected 12% Of US Google search Results.

Sistrix a German SEO company has posted an article detailing changes.

“During this week, Google announced a significant algorithm-update which aims to increase quality in Google’s search results. Domains containing low-quality content are supposed to be found less often, high-quality pages are to achieve better rankings. At the moment this update is active in the US-Index, more countries are about to follow.”

More info at: http://www.quora.com/SEO/Which-websites-dropped-the-most-in-the-Google-algorithm-change-of-February-2011

Google has announced global availability of Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office, which was launched as beta in 2010.

Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office brings collaborative multi-person editing to the familiar Microsoft® Office experience. You can share, backup, and simultaneously edit Microsoft Word, PowerPoint®, and Excel® documents with coworkers.

The plug-in syncs to Google’s cloud so that multiple people can make changes to the same file. A Cloud Connect toolbar is displayed in Microsoft Office that allows users to sync their version of the file with an online version in Google Docs.

Requirements:
Windows XP with .NET Framework 2.0, Windows Vista, or Windows 7
Microsoft Office 2003, Office 2007, or Office 2010

Google Cloud Connect is not available for Mac OS X

More info: http://tools.google.com/dlpage/cloudconnect

Google Chrome Background Apps is a feature that allows web apps to run without seeing them.

“Apps and extensions that use the new “background” feature can continue to run in the background—even if the user closes down all of Chrome’s windows. “Background apps” will continue to run until Chrome exits. The next time Chrome starts up, any background windows that were previously running will also be re-launched. These windows are not going to be visible but they will be able to perform tasks like checking for server-side changes and pre-emptively loading content into local storage.

One way you can use background windows is to preload content and data so that they are immediately available when the user opens your app. You could also issue HTML5 notifications to alert the user when important events occur—for example, a friend wants to initiate a chat session. There are plenty of possibilities here, and we look forward to seeing what you’ll do.”

More info: http://blog.chromium.org/2011/02/amping-up-chromes-background-feature.html

Sample app on the Chrome Web Store: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/biecdmomngcfnkjelkbfjijebfednkno#

Panguso.com, will combine the strengths of Xinhua, a leading news agency and content provider, and China Mobile which has the latest network technologies, said Panguso, a joint venture of Xinhua and China Mobile, in a press release.

“The operation of Panguso is an important move by Xinhua and China Mobile to extend our cooperation in cyberspace,” said Li Congjun, president of Xinhua News Agency, at the opening ceremony.

The search engine is expected to contribute to the development of new media in China and better serve Chinese netizens, Li said.

China now has about 457 million Internet users