Google Shown to Be Ineffective

Search engine effectiveness is becoming a big discussion with many online magazines and news sources and today the latest report was released. The results are likely quite surprising to some people because the rankings do not follow the same patterns as the most used search engines. In fact the most used search engine, Google, is quite a bit less effective than the other two big players.

According to the report both Bing and Yahoo are about 20% more effective when it comes to finding the correct thing than Google is. Of course because Yahoo essentially uses Bing’s search system Yahoo has little involvement but either way it was still surprising to see such a big gap in performance. The success rate was measured using a broad amount of data collected during a single month; a success was considered any search that led directly to the user clicking a link. According to the study Google searches were successful approximately 68% of the time while Bing and Yahoo were both over 80%.

Of course the effectiveness of search engines depends on many things including user input; so the ratings might not exactly be perfect. Google will surely be doing something to increase the effectiveness of their search system in the near future but at this time nothing has been announced or confirmed. It also seems quite unlikely that ineffective searching will lead to a shift in popularity towards Bing of Yahoo since Google is still gaining steam.

Android Holds 40% of US Market

The most recent release of smartphone usage in the United States has shown that Android is growing quicker in the U.S. than originally anticipated. Android took a whopping 40% of the market in this most recent survey which is an impressive jump of 2% in just one month. Obviously iOS and Blackberry are the other two big names when it comes to smartphone usage in the United States.

Android really is beginning to dominate the market though as Blackberry continues to lose ground the quickest. Apple reportedly stayed consistent at just over 26% for the past few months while Blackberry dropped in order for Android to grow. Of course the number of smartphone users nationwide is also growing quite rapidly.

The report shows that in the past quarter of a year smartphone usage has increased by a staggering 8% nationwide. That marks the fastest increase in smartphone growth ever for the United States which seems to indicate that smartphones are simply becoming more and more of a necessity for many people. As smartphones become more and more popular the growth rate is also expected to increase thanks to essentially a ripple effect that will travel through waves of population. Analysts are expecting Apple to take back part of the market with the release of the upcoming iPhone 5 but until then Android will likely continue to grown the fastest. Obviously one new iPhone probably won’t be enough to give Apple a major jump either so for now Android is essentially unmatched.

Facebook announced this week that they will be paying a reward or bounty to anyone who finds and reports security bugs they find on the Facebook site. This is not a new idea as Google, Microsoft, and many other big companies already use

Facebook Offering Bug Bounty

similar reward programs but Facebook is coming at it from a slightly different angle.

Unlike many websites and companies Facebook understands that there are plenty of bugs out there to be found; as such the reward they are offering is quite small compared to the other guys. Facebook is paying a minimum of $500 per bug reported to the first person that found or reported the bug; if the security issue is important or large the payout will obviously increase as well. Compared to Microsoft, Mozilla, and Google however this $500 reward is remarkably small simply because Facebook is aware that there are many problems out there to be fixed.

Fortunately the overall goal is simply to fix the problems any way possible. Facebook is obviously such a large website that it is impossible for an internal research team to find and patch all imaginable bugs or problems so Facebook has decided that outside sources are the best case possible; this has worked in the past for many companies so it only makes sense that Facebook will quickly begin payout for bug discovery and in turn they will begin eliminating these problems. No word on how long it may take to find and fix many bugs but Facebook is hopeful that it will be underway soon.

Sony Insurer Refuses to Pay for Damages

For the past 4 months Sony has been going through some tough times. Hacking and other major security breaches left Sony with a big pile of negative press along with millions of unhappy customers. Along the way Sony also had to pay a pretty penny to repair and protect all of their systems; generally companies have insurance for this but it seems Sony’s insurance isn’t going to pay out after all.

Earlier this week Sony’s primary insurance company reportedly told the company that they were not required to pay for any of the repairs or additional work simply because it was not something that was covered by Sony’s insurance policy. Obviously following that news Sony was less than pleased but just today Sony’s insurance company has taken it a step further by beginning some legal proceedings to prove that they are not responsible.

Zurich American Insurance Companies is the company specifically that filed the lawsuit and according to them they are not responsible for covering incidents stemming from unsecured networks or other data breaches. The lawsuit was filed in New York as a way for the company to officially be cleared from having to pay for any of the damages and at this time neither party has publicly commented on the lawsuit. On the other side of the table Sony is expecting to spend around $200 million to fix and increase security, much of that was anticipated to be covered by insurance; with the reduction in insurance money Sony may once again skimp on security measures.

Google is Affecting Our Memory

This week an interesting piece of research was released to the public; apparently Google and other search engines are having a drastic effect on memory and how people remember things. Traditionally people tend to remember facts or details about things and they would then supplement this knowledge with basic ideas of how or where to find more information; now however it seems that pattern may have been reversed thanks to the wealth of information available.

Transactive memory is the official term for this but in the most basic terms it simply means that people remember where to find information rather than remembering the information itself. This is not a new thing as people have always kept track of sources of information but now it seems to be manifesting itself into search terms or phrases. Study participants reportedly showed much better memory of what search terms they used to find information than of the actual results themselves; this is not inherently a bad thing according to the researchers but it does definitely show a change in human memory.

In fact many researchers are not surprised by these results; Google and other search engines have become much more common in modern life so it is not surprising to see that they have become a standard source of information for many. As these search engines get more and more popular it seems that human memory will likely continue to evolve which is not necessarily a bad thing; assuming we still retain the ability to remember certain things.

Google's Social Network Launches

Google has been hyping their upcoming social network called Google+ and this week it has finally gone into a public testing state. As with many new Google services Google+ is starting life as a beta test which is open only with an invitation but currently the social network is growing at an astounding rate.

Already Google is reporting that millions of people have been joining the social network each and every day; this is quite astonishing given how new the social media site is. As mentioned it is currently impossible to sign up for Google+ without being invited by a current member but because invitations are essentially unlimited people are having absolutely no trouble finding a way to join.

As for the exact details of what Google+ does, it is somewhat difficult to understand without simply trying. Google+ is just another social network like Facebook but thanks to being affiliated with Google there are already plenty of other services built into the system. Using any Google account like a Gmail account users can join and begin using Google+ without actually making any sort of new account. The Gmail integration also makes it remarkably easy to find friends, colleagues and family members on the social network as well. Overall Google+ is still in the early release stages but so far it is showing some seriously promising signs; no word on if it will be able to take down the Facebook giant but that is surely what Google is hoping to see happen at some point in the future.

Facebook Preparing to Launch Skype Chat System

Skype and Facebook have reportedly been working together on a project that may finally be released to the public this coming week. Facebook announced this week that they will be having a press conference event on the 6th at which a major update will be announced; many inside sources have confirmed that this is the official announcement regarding Skype integration.

Skype video and voice chatting have been rumored to be coming to Facebook chat for quite some time but it seems that now it might finally be coming for real. Inside sources indicate that the update will likely only include video chat for now although voice chat surely wouldn’t be too difficult to implement along side video chat.

At this point exact details are obviously still unknown though rumors seem to point towards two different systems being rolled out. The first system will likely be a desktop based application which allows you to chat through Facebook chat using text or video. The second, and perhaps more important system is rumored to be a full integration of Skype video chat into browser based Facebook chat. This would be revolutionary as very few video chat systems have been fully integrated into a web browser.

Of course this comes just days after Google’s startup social network revealed the ability to initiate group video and voice chats. It is not surprising that Facebook is finally planning to announce their upcoming video chat system but it is surprising that it has taken so long to finalize the program.

Notorious Hacking Group Disbands

For the past few months the notorious hacking group, LulzSec, has been wrecking havoc on hundreds of important websites around the internet. The group was allegedly committing these acts in order to bring online security flaws to the public eye but in the process they also brought multiple legal problems against themselves.

Just last week a single member of the LulzSec group was arrested and just today the group officially announced that they are disbanding and retiring from the hacking business. Obviously the quick announcement came as a surprise to many in the media, especially given the fact that little was known about any of the members.

As always the LulzSec group has stated that they are simply trying to show the public how unsecure many large company websites really are. At this point it is unknown what sort of legal proceedings will be brought against the member that was arrested but officials say the investigations surrounding other hacking incidents are still continuing as well.

Of course there are also plenty of questions surrounding the resignation of the LulzSec group. Primarily people are asking whether or not the group is actually resigning or if they are simply trying to get out of the spotlight. Group members claim that they are done, but at this point many security analysts feel that they are likely just going to continue with their current work under more cover or possibly with another name for their hacking organization. As always only more time will give the answers we need.

Research In Motion Sees Drops Following Earnings Report

This week Research in Motion released their second quarter earnings report and the report was not nearly as good as many had anticipated. Research in Motion had originally been anticipating significant growth in many sectors but unfortunately these goals were not met, despite the release of RIM’s first tablet PC device.

Part of the reason for RIM’s lack of success can be attributed to the fact that Android and iOS devices are still taking away much of the market share. In general critics say RIM simply doesn’t have enough cutting edge Blackberry devices available right now to keep consumers interested.

RIM originally forecasted the current decline in revenue earlier this year and despite their revised estimates the revenue drop was even more significant than predicted. RIM stock shared dropped around 25% following the revenue announcement and since the beginning of the year RIM stock has dropped over 50% thanks to two unsuccessful quarters.

Financial analysts say that unless RIM makes some serious changes to their business plan things are going to continue declining for the once king of the smartphone world. RIM executives are still hopeful that revenue will begin to recover soon with the release of new devices but due to current drops RIM has been forced to lay off some employees in various parts of the company. Only time will tell what is in store for RIM in the coming months but unless things turn around RIM is likely in store for more declines.

iPhone Going To Space

Today an interesting announcement came from NASA regarding the upcoming Space Shuttle Atlantis mission; the crew will be conducting a variety of experiments using two iPhone 4 devices they are taking with them. The two iPhones will be going up on the final Space Shuttle mission as part of a research program which will utilize the iPhone’s built in gyroscopes, cameras and sensors to monitor and test numerous things.

The iPhones being used are reportedly being specially prepped by NanoRacks, which is the company responsible for much of the research conducted on the space station. The exact details of what is being tested have not been announced though they have confirmed 4 different experiments that will be conducted using the iPhone 4.

Among the experiments is one that will allow astronauts to take a picture of the edge of the earth; based upon the curvature of the earth the iPhone should be able to calculate the iPhone’s approximate altitude. Astronauts will also be testing a calibration system which will use cameras to reset and configure the iPhone’s built in sensors. The third experiment is based upon image approximation and will be testing if the iPhone is able to overlay latitude and longitude lines using visual image processing.

The final test, and perhaps most useful, is a general memory and computer functions test. The iPhone 4 will reportedly be the most advanced computer system to undergo specific testing in space and as a result they will be monitoring all aspects of the phone to make sure nothing strange is going on.