Microsoft to Change Vista's Inbuilt Search After Google Complains

In response to a complaint by Google claiming that Vista’s inbuilt search functionality competed unfairly with Google Desktop Search, Microsoft has agreed to make changes to its latest version operating system, Windows Vista.

Google has made a confidential complaint against Microsoft to the Justice department over Microsoft’s indexing software. Google complained that the default indexing software in Vista named "Instant Search" could not be easily turned off by users which causes the computer to significantly slow down if installed Google Desktop, a similar desktop search product from Google.

So far, the changes Microsoft will make to Vista have not yet been made public.

YouTube Launches 9 Local Language Sites

YouTube has launched in 9 more countries including, Brazil, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, United Kingdom. You could switch between countries by clicking on the national flags at the top right corner.

In the homepage of different countries, you will see localized selected, most viewed, top rated videos. I suppose the statistics are categorized into different countries by following the country you chose when signing up for a YouTube account.

Some of the features such as TestTube and sponsored campaigns are not available in countries outside the US, though it is very likely that YouTube will be launching similar localized campaigns in other countries.

Official announcement should be made during the Google Press Day 2007 when the YouTube founders, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, will speak for an hour.

YouTube Remixer

You would get excited if you are fed up with editing your YouTube videos with Windows Media Player and would like to try something new as the YouTube lab (a.k.a TestTube) where they "incubate" their ideas has launched a new experiment they call Remixer which is basically an online movie editor. Since the project is powered by Adobe Premiere Express, you can expect the quality of the edited video to look professional. With the remixer, you are able to edit your videos with text, audio, graphics, overlays, effects, and transitions without any installation.

Screenshot from TechCrunch

Currently, I am stuck and keep on seeing the message 'Connecting to editing server. Please wait ...'. Does it work for you?

Related: YouTube Blog

YouTube Tests New Interface

After rolling out the controversial new embedded video player, YouTube continues to test around with new interfaces. First spotted by Google Operating System, the new design places the search box in the center (and clearing indicating that the search is Powered by Google), removes the promotional banner at the top, moves the metadata below the video, makes it easier to rate the video and to find other related videos. There's also an option to embed a video using the old player.
For the homepage, the most obvious change is that five random 'videos being watched now' are displayed at the very top of the page using flash (which is pretty eye-catching) and refreshes every 7 seconds. You are also encouraged to log in with your Google Account where you can choose either to link an existing YouTube account to a Google account or create a new one. This is clearly another move for Google to track your online activities in one single account aiming to deliver more personalized and thus relevant results.
The search results also had a make up by replacing the leaderboard with a medium rectangle alongside with the results. The sorting functions have also been moved to the top giving more space available for search results.
What do you think about the new interface? Is it more user friendly or the opposite?

AdSense in China Take Initiatives to Protect Publishers

According to the Official Google China Blog, AdSense China has announced a new feature in hopes to protect publishers' account from being sabotaged which they call it Allowed Sites. Publishers can enter a list of allowed domains (in which they own) and only impressions, clicks and earnings generated from that list of sites would be reported in the publishers' AdSense account.

The main aim of this feature is to prevent publisher IDs from being placed in spammy sites that do not below to those publishers. Currently, you can enter up to 100 sites in to the allowed list and would take up to 4 hours before the list is activated.

What is interesting is that ads would still show up in sites out of the list though any clicks wouldn't generate earnings for the publisher and there is no mention whether advertisers are charged for these clicks.

It seems that this feature is has not yet gone international. AdSense publisher, would you welcome this new feature?

Blogger in Draft

The Blogger Team created a new place for them to experiment with new features before releasing it to everyone just like Google Labs. To try these experiments, you just have to visit http://draft.blogger.com instead of the normal http://www.blogger.com. Similar to Google Labs, features in Blogger in Draft might be a bit fickle. According to the newly established official Blogger in Draft blog:

Features on Blogger in draft may be updated, changed, re-imagined, transmogrified, or removed at any time. Draft gives us the freedom to see what works and what doesn’t before we turn a feature on for everyone, so expect us to make changes — hopefully you’ll think they’re for the better!

The first experimental feature is video upload.You will see a new button to the post editor that pops up a dialog you can use to upload a video right into your blog post. While your video is processing, you will see this:
You will then be able to post once your video is finished. While you video is hosted in Google Video, they are kept private and will not be included in Google Video search (just like your initially unlisted Blogger tied Picasa Web Album).

Note: Comment is enable in their blog and suggestions are very welcomed. Join the party!

Related: Subscribe | Blogger in Daft FAQ | Video Upload FAQ

Russia Day Doodle

Google today celebrates Russia Day on Google Russia where the 'L' in Google is replaced by the Spasskaya Tower, “the main tower with a through-passage on the eastern wall of the Moscow Kremlin, which overlooks the Red Sqaure.”

[Via Googlified]

YouTube to Test Copyright Screening Technology

YouTube has long been accused for helping Internet users to distribute copyrighted materials which resulted in $1billion claimed in multiple law suits from various copyright holders so far. To tackle this, YouTube will start its initiative to solve the problem by testing new video identification technology with Time Warner and the Walt Disney Company that will identify copyrighted material as it is uploaded in one months time.

The technology behind is basically to scan for unique attributes in video clips that identify them as being copyrighted material. Media companies are then notified of the infringing material and are given the choice between having the video removed or keep it up as part of a revenue-sharing deal with YouTube.

[Via TechCrunch]

Gmail Adds 'View as Slideshow' Function

Gmail currently allows users to preview attached documents (.doc) and spreadsheets (.xls) in emails as HTML so that users do not have to download anything to open these files. Now you can even preview PowerPoint attachments by clicking on the 'View as slideshow' link below every .ppt attachments:
On click, you will be brought to a new window where you can preview slides by slides by clicking on the left / right arrows (A) or jump back and fro using the drop down list (B):However, like most ofsthe new features, it is pretty buggy. I have experienced a 'Conversion failed' error and was told that the 'document is unreadable and possibly corrupted'. And a few of my PowerPoint with Chinese characters are corrupted, showing boxes rather than characters. I suppose they will be fixed very soon. ;)

Google Beats Baidu in Blind Test

According to a blind test conduct by Beijing-based China IntelliConsulting shows that Google’s Chinese search surpasses local competitor Baidu.com in terms of search results quality.

Google achieved an overall satisfactory rating from 48.2% of the 2,740 Web surfers who participated, beating Baidu’s 39.8%. Participants in the test accessed the search engines through pages that disguised the companies' identities.

The quality of their search results were rated for the eight most common types of searches in China: news, Internet and technology, finance and business, entertainment, shopping and dining, travel and transportation, science and education, and government services and public information. Google is ahead of Baidu in all categories but entertainment, suggesting Baidu has a better understanding of the music and movie tastes of Chinese Internet users.

The survey also find out that users were most dissatisfied (scoring a 30.3% disapproval rate) with the connections to Google.cn have been highly unstable, particularly during the test period, when it was periodically blocked by Chinese censors, resulting in blank pages and slow speeds.

Google was also complaint about its failure to provide page-caching in China, the absence of a search function for free downloads of music in the MP3 format and for not providing a popular chat-room like message posting board called post bar.

I suppose Google China is trying very hard to catch up with in entertainment and other local search services by launching Life Search (the Chinese version of Google Base) in China.

Related: Copy of Report Chinese | English