Social Media Writing for Smart People » search features http://www.ivanwalsh.com Get smart with better social media writing skills Sat, 05 Nov 2011 17:15:50 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Google targets Microsoft with new Chrome-based operating system http://www.ivanwalsh.com/business-development/google-targets-microsoft-with-new-chrome-based-operating-system/ http://www.ivanwalsh.com/business-development/google-targets-microsoft-with-new-chrome-based-operating-system/#comments Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:08:57 +0000 Ivan http://www.ivanwalsh.com/2009/07/google-targets-microsoft-with-new-chrome-based-operating-system/ Google is set to lock horns with Microsoft as it has announced plans to create a new operating system, based on the Chrome web browser, aimed at laptop and netbook users. "It's our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be," it said on its Official Google Blog.]]>

Google is set to lock horns with Microsoft as it has announced plans to create a new operating system, based on the Chrome web browser, aimed at laptop and netbook users.
“It’s our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be,”  it said on its Official Google Blog.
The first  release of the operating system, which will be targeted at netbook computers, is due  for the second half of 2010.
“Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web.”
Special attention was given to security and virus protection.
“As we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates.”
According to figures from Net Applications, Windows has around 90% of computers worldwide, with Apple’s OSX trailing in second with 8%.
Google has already developed web-based office applications targeted at Microsoft’s Word and Excel products,  which have received positive media support but appear to have had  little impact on Microsoft’s office dominance.

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]]> http://www.ivanwalsh.com/business-development/google-targets-microsoft-with-new-chrome-based-operating-system/feed/ 0 Fire closes down Authorize.net, US payment gateway service provider http://www.ivanwalsh.com/business-development/fire-closes-down-authorize-net-us-payment-gateway-service-provider/ http://www.ivanwalsh.com/business-development/fire-closes-down-authorize-net-us-payment-gateway-service-provider/#comments Sat, 04 Jul 2009 02:50:50 +0000 Ivan http://www.ivanwalsh.com/2009/07/fire-closes-down-authorize-net-us-payment-gateway-service-provider/ Fire closes down Authorize.net, US payment gateway service providerAuthorize.net has been down for several hours, which will have negative implications for its customers. : Authorize.net is used by tens of thousands of e-commerce vendors to accept credit card and electronic checks payments on their websites. PayPal and Google Checkout are still up and running.]]>

Fire closes down Authorize.net, US payment gateway service provider

Techcrunch reports that Payment gateway service provider
Authorize.net has been down for several hours, which will have negative implications for its customers.
Authorize.net is used by tens of thousands of e-commerce vendors to accept credit card and electronic checks payments on their websites. PayPal and Google Checkout are still up and running.
According to some forums, there was a fire at a Seattle datacenter which caused a massive technical failure.
Techcrunch also add that nobody is picking up the phone at the U.S. offices of CyberSource, the holding company of Authorize.net.
Some Twitter tweets say that ‘A fire in Fisher Plaza, Seattle has cause a massive power outage causing leading IP-based payment gateway solution
Authorize.Net to go down around approximately 11:15pm PST (last night).”
Authorize.net set up a new Twitter account to keep everyone updated, confirming the cause of the failure was a fire but also stating an ETA for resolution is not available at this time.
Update: Authorize.net reports that full transaction processing has now been
restored with Concord EFS.
Ivan Walsh is a technology writer based in Dublin, Ireland.
Learn how to save time, make money and develop digital products.

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]]> http://www.ivanwalsh.com/business-development/fire-closes-down-authorize-net-us-payment-gateway-service-provider/feed/ 0 Google Documents backup utility – Use Gdocbackup to keep a local copy of your Google Docs files http://www.ivanwalsh.com/business-development/google-documents-backup-utility-use-gdocbackup-to-keep-a-local-copy-of-your-google-docs-files/ http://www.ivanwalsh.com/business-development/google-documents-backup-utility-use-gdocbackup-to-keep-a-local-copy-of-your-google-docs-files/#comments Sat, 04 Jul 2009 02:40:47 +0000 Ivan http://www.ivanwalsh.com/2009/07/google-documents-backup-utility-use-gdocbackup-to-keep-a-local-copy-of-your-google-docs-files/ Google Documents backup utility - Use Gdocbackup to keep a local copy of your Google Docs files ]]>

Gdocbackup is a freeware application that lets you keep a local copy of your Google Docs. The advantage of this is that you can access your files even if you are not connected to the internet. It also keeps them safe if there were to be any problems with Google Docs.

GDocBackup lets you backup (export) your documents from Google Documents to your PC.

The application is smart enough to simple each document in Google Docs and check if this has a different date, i.e. multiple version of the same document.

No password if required to use this backup utility in case you’re concerned about security issues.

  • Open source
  • Freeware
  • Licensed under the apache license version 2.0
  • Uses official Google data APIs (.net version).
  • Platform include Windows XP, Windows Vista, Linux

You can download it from here: http://gs.fhtino.it/gdocbackup

Ivan Walsh is a technology writer based in Dublin, Ireland.

Learn how to save time, make money and develop digital products.

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]]> http://www.ivanwalsh.com/business-development/google-documents-backup-utility-use-gdocbackup-to-keep-a-local-copy-of-your-google-docs-files/feed/ 1 Internet Explorer 8 V Firefox – Browser Comparison Chart http://www.ivanwalsh.com/how-to/internet-explorer-8-v-firefox-browser-comparison-chart/ http://www.ivanwalsh.com/how-to/internet-explorer-8-v-firefox-browser-comparison-chart/#comments Thu, 25 Jun 2009 07:16:59 +0000 Ivan http://www.ivanwalsh.com/?p=1863 Internet Explorer 8 V Firefox - Browser Comparison Chart]]>

Last week I took the plunge and downloaded Internet Explorer 8. I have to admit, it’s a lot better than I expected. I now have three browsers on my PC: Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome. Microsoft had put together a comparison chart of Internet Explorer 8 v FireFox and Chrome. Not sure I agree with everything but it made me re-think IE as a browser.

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Security

Internet Explorer 8 claims to have better phishing and malware protection.

Privacy

InPrivate Browsing and InPrivate Filtering help Internet Explorer 8 claim privacy victory.

Ease of Use

Features like Accelerators, Web Slices and Visual Search Suggestions make Internet Explorer 8 easier to use.

Web Standards

It’s a tie. Internet Explorer 8 passes more of the World Wide Web Consortium’s CSS 2.1 test cases than any other browser, but Firefox 3 has more support for some evolving standards.

Developer Tools

Debatable. With Internet Explorer 8, there’s no need to install tools separately, and it offers better features like JavaScript profiling.

Reliability

Internet Explorer 8 has both tab isolation and crash recovery features; Firefox and Chrome have one or the other.

Customizability

Sure, Firefox may win in sheer number of add-ons, but many of the customizations you’d want to download for Firefox are already part of Internet Explorer 8.

Compatibility

Internet Explorer 8 is more compatible with more sites on the Internet than any other browser.

Manageability

Neither Firefox nor Chrome provide guidance or enterprise tools.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer

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Ivan

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]]> http://www.ivanwalsh.com/how-to/internet-explorer-8-v-firefox-browser-comparison-chart/feed/ 0 New Google feature – direct links from search results to Stumbleupon http://www.ivanwalsh.com/business-development/new-google-feature-direct-links-from-search-results-to-stumbleupon/ http://www.ivanwalsh.com/business-development/new-google-feature-direct-links-from-search-results-to-stumbleupon/#comments Mon, 22 Jun 2009 07:00:22 +0000 Ivan http://www.ivanwalsh.com/?p=1960 Google to StumbleuponNew Google feature - direct links from search results to Stumbleupon]]>

It’s hard to keep up with Google these days. One of the new features is the new text link to the right of the search results URL.
You can see in this example, that when we search for ‘technical writing’, it displays ‘writing’ to the right of each link.

Google to Stumbleupon

And where does this link take you?

Over to StumbleUpon.com

Which then shows results its users have tagged for ‘writing’.

New Google Trick - Go to Stumbleupon

Not sure what the point of all this is.

I would suggest that if your into SEO type activities, you could do worse than focus on StumbleUpon and see how this effects your ranking on Google.

There must be some connection, surely?

Let me know what you think?

PS – the text link only appears on the first page of the search results. The poor devils on the second pages don’t make the cut.

Regards,

Ivan

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