All About Working

What is your preferred search engine for inquiries?  Yahoo or Google?

Google has been sweeping the market up the last few years.  In fact, the term for searching, “googling” has now become a part of our lingo.   “I need to google that” is often heard.  So the brand has become the item now.

I continue to prefer Yahoo over Google for several reasons.  So imagine my surprise when I found an article by Gina Trapani on Lifehacker.com on this topic.  In “Break Google’s Monopoly on Your Data: Switch to Yahoo Search, the author points out the major feature that keeps me coming back to Yahoo.  That feature is Search Assist.

Search Assist: Google’s got Google Suggest and Yahoo’s got “Search Assist”—that helpful drop-down of words you’re likely to be looking for based on what you’ve typed already. Google Suggest has one thing that Search Assist doesn’t—the number of results each suggestion will yield—but Search Assist offers an “Explore related concepts” area that shows other searches related to the one you’re doing.

I find this feature to be a tremendous time saver.

To see more of the article, go here to read it.

This was just too amazing not to post on this blog. It seems as though Joe Paradiso and Yasuhiro Ono of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have just patented a system for a roving cone of silence, so that you can walk around your office building without anyone ever eavesdropping on you.

Sound like something out of a future shock movie? Well it’s real and it’s here now!

The problem the inventors worked on was how to stop the sound of conversations in an office from being heard. For example, if you are talking on the telephone, how can you prevent everyone within a certain range from hearing your conversation?

The solution they came up with is a sound-damping sensor, comprised of an infra-red motion-detector, a speaker and a microphone. These would be scattered around the walls of an office. Employees can then activate a personal mute button from their computer. The system locks onto you, identifies anyone close enough to eavesdrop, and hits them with a murmur of white noise so they can’t hear you.

Wow – that is amazing.

Sound masking systems have been on the rise in popularity lately. Babble and Accumask already are on the market. They shroud voices by mixing them with randomized noise. But this one allows it be controlled on demand by a single system.

Initial word is that the downside that the system required a lot of infrastructure.

From today’s New York Times online:

Spam, that annoying but ignorable scourge of the Web, has finally recovered from the jolt it received last November, when Internet backbone providers cut off McColo Corp., a California Web-hosting service that spammers were using to coordinate e-mail attacks.

The average seven-day spam volume during the latter half of March is now at roughly the same levels as October of last year—around 94 percent of all e-mail—according to anti-spam company Postini, a division of Google.

Read the entire article Spam Back to 94% of All E-Mail for more details.

There is a terrific article this morning on the New York Times online entitled LinkedIn Privacy Settings: What You Need to Know .

Since LinkedIn doesn’t require you to share the same types of personal information as you do on Facebook, the service’s privacy settings appear to be much more straightforward than its less business-oriented competitor. But if you leave the default settings in place, you might be surprised to know what information you make public on LinkedIn.

If you are a LinkedIn user, be sure to take a couple of minutes and read this. You can find it right here.

Microsoft Corp is set to publicly launch Internet Explorer 8 sometime around noon, today, Thursday, March 19th.

The application, an integral part of Microsoft’s eagerly awaited Windows 7 operating system, can be downloaded from Microsoft’s website from 9 a.m. Pacific time, free for people using licensed Microsoft operating systems.

Microsoft said IE8 – Internet Explorer 8 – will run with Windows Vista, its latest operating system, and also Windows XP.

New features include:

• Right-clicking on addresses or other Web features to go straight to a map or put into a blog or other website.

• The ability to put in keywords in the address bar to recall sites visited related to that word.

• Enhanced security protection, for example, a warning to users if they are about to download something from a site known to be a source of malicious software, or “malware”.

Google Voice could revolutionize telephones. It unifies your phone numbers, transcribes your voice mail, blocks telemarketers and elevates text messages to first-class communication citizens.

Currently is open only to GrandCentral users. GrandCentral was the company that Google purchased in 2007 that set up these systems.

What can it do for you?

According the the google blog:

The new application improves the way you use your phone. You can get transcripts of your voicemail (see the video below) and archive and search all of the SMS text messages you send and receive. You can also use the service to make low-priced international calls and easily access Goog-411 directory assistance.

As you may know, GrandCentral offers many great features, including a single number to ring your home, work, and mobile phones, a central voicemail inbox that you could access on the web, and the ability to screen calls by listening in live as callers leave a voicemail. You’ll find these features, and more, in the Google Voice preview.

That’s what they are saying on Contxts.com. Why use business cards when you text message your credentials?

The site says they offer this:

By using SMS, built into every mobile phone, you can easily and rapidly distribute your credentials.

- Exchange all of your professional information with a single text message
- Keep all of your professional contacts organized in one place
- It’s eco-friendly (txt messages don’t kill polar bears)
- Rid yourself of “old school” business cards
- Link with other professionals

Check the site out and see if it works for you. It just might be the next big thing in a professional network.

Apple Inc. plans to preview a new version of its software for the iPhone next week. There is speculation that the company is also preparing to launch a new model of the cellphone later this year.

In an email invitation Thursday, Apple said that it would provide a “sneak peek” of a new operating system for the iPhone at a media event on March 17. It also said it would show a new software kit that developers can use to make programs to distribute through the company’s App Store.

Rumors about other products are afoot – stay tuned.

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Twitter is adding a search feature to its site. According to e-Week.com:

The company has had a search function for some time at search.twitter.com, but only began putting a search box on a growing number of users’ pages starting March 6. Twitter has also included a “Trends” menu where users can see the subjects currently generating the most online traffic (such as “Watchmen movie”).

The move promises to increase competition with Facebook and Google, which have been trying to strengthen their search and social networking capabilities.

This article is being added not only to the Technology category here on this blog, but also to Working Smarter. Why? Because the ability to search from a center where messaging is occurring is good time saver and a concise way to work.

According to Steven Williams at The New York Times,

It’s not been quite a month since Sony, with some heavy-duty fanfare at the Consumer Electronics Show, unwrapped its $900 “Lifestyle” P series Vaio portable. Bullet-proof it wasn’t, in terms of performance and features, and I carped about its display, but the P held promise.

You don’t expect rebates on products that new–and that high-profile–but the rebate has arrived. It’s borderline shocking.

Of course, there’s a catch. It’s available only to Verizon Wireless mobile-broadband subscribers who activate or renew a two-year contract for 3G network access (the Vaio P only works with the Verizon network). The rebate comes in the form of a debit card, Verizon says. The offer is now in place and activation is required by March 31.

There’s been enough gasoline spilled on the Sony fire in recent weeks. Disastrous financials, disturbing rumors about changes at the top and “early retirement” packages in the middle management, speculation that the company may revamp PlayStation3 and its Blu-ray strategy to cut costs. Tough times in Tokyo indeed.

From $900 to $200 in one month is an amazing drop. But on the other hand, it’s quite a deal for consumers. According to the Sony website, the Vaio is:

The world’s lightest1 8″ notebook, the 1.4-pound2 VAIO® P Series Lifestyle PC does more than you could imagine–with impeccable style. Email at the airport, IM from the park, or just show it off when you want some attention. Traveling to a new city? Turn-by-turn GPS navigation will get you there faster. Best of all, it fits right in your purse or jacket pocket.

That’s quite a nice package; plus for people like myself who want to see a wider screen than say a blackberry provides for reading, this could be very good.

And $200 for a system that includes GPS, that’s a good deal in itself.