Google has rolled out a version of its AdSense online advertising platform for mobile devices.
AdSense for Mobile will allow online publishers to sell AdSense ads specifically formatted for the mobile web, such as pages in the WML, XHTML or CHTML formats. Advertisers can either provide one slot inside the page, or two slots at the bottom.
The service operates in a similar way to AdSense for the web. Publishers place AdSense code in their pages to open up ad space, which is then auctioned off to advertisers looking to reach targeted audiences in a certain location or industry.
The publisher is then paid a fee for every user that clicks on the message.
Google is offering the mobile AdSense programme in 11 countries including the UK, the US, France and Germany.
The announcement comes just one day after handset maker Nokia jumped into the mobile advertising market with the purchase of ad firm Enpocket.
The two companies will contend for a slice of a mobile advertising market that is expected to balloon to $11.35bn over the next four years.
Advertising platform cleared for mobile pages
Shaun Nichols in California, vnunet.com 19 Sep 2007
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Microsoft cleans up Live Search
Microsoft has unveiled major changes to its Live Search service intended to give it a better foothold in its ongoing battle with Google.
The Redmond giant has concentrated its improvements on the nuts and bolts of the search engine, enhancing its core search technology and strengthening the vertical search areas of entertainment, shopping, local and health.
"With this update, our engineering focus is on the areas that matter most to the 185 million consumers who use our service every month," said Satya Nadella, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Search and Advertising Platform Group.
"We know what kinds of things consumers are searching for, and we have invested in those key high-interest verticals, including entertainment, shopping, health and local search.
"With the core platform in place we intend to win customers and earn their loyalty one query at a time."
Up to 40 per cent of searches fall into the categories of entertainment, shopping, health and local search, and the enhanced Live Search is geared towards delivering relevant content in a compelling way across these key vertical search areas.
A new video search feature offers smart motion previews, facts and news on celebrities and a new xRank celebrity ranking tool.
The shopping and health searches have also been refreshed to derive the most relevant content from trusted sources, allowing consumers to refine searches faster and with more accuracy.
Microsoft has increased its index size more than fourfold as almost 20 per cent of customer challenges came from the 'long tail' of the web, indicating a need for broader coverage.
Live Search now claims to do a much better job in predicting the intention of the query to return the best results possible, despite common problems such as spelling errors, stop words, punctuation and synonyms.
The search engine is even capable of making proactive changes to the query in cases where the engine is confident of the customer's intention.
Additional improvements include a cleaner user interface that makes the results pages easier to read and use, and a more robust Answers platform that provides instant access to information from trusted sources while increasing relevancy.
The Redmond giant has concentrated its improvements on the nuts and bolts of the search engine, enhancing its core search technology and strengthening the vertical search areas of entertainment, shopping, local and health.
"With this update, our engineering focus is on the areas that matter most to the 185 million consumers who use our service every month," said Satya Nadella, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Search and Advertising Platform Group.
"We know what kinds of things consumers are searching for, and we have invested in those key high-interest verticals, including entertainment, shopping, health and local search.
"With the core platform in place we intend to win customers and earn their loyalty one query at a time."
Up to 40 per cent of searches fall into the categories of entertainment, shopping, health and local search, and the enhanced Live Search is geared towards delivering relevant content in a compelling way across these key vertical search areas.
A new video search feature offers smart motion previews, facts and news on celebrities and a new xRank celebrity ranking tool.
The shopping and health searches have also been refreshed to derive the most relevant content from trusted sources, allowing consumers to refine searches faster and with more accuracy.
Microsoft has increased its index size more than fourfold as almost 20 per cent of customer challenges came from the 'long tail' of the web, indicating a need for broader coverage.
Live Search now claims to do a much better job in predicting the intention of the query to return the best results possible, despite common problems such as spelling errors, stop words, punctuation and synonyms.
The search engine is even capable of making proactive changes to the query in cases where the engine is confident of the customer's intention.
Additional improvements include a cleaner user interface that makes the results pages easier to read and use, and a more robust Answers platform that provides instant access to information from trusted sources while increasing relevancy.
Dell vows to save the planet
Dell has announced plans to neutralise the carbon impact of its worldwide operations.
"Never before in the history of business have we seen such a critical need to build a worldwide community dedicated to improving the environment," said chairman Michael Dell at a policy forum organised by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
"Leadership starts at home, which is why we are going carbon neutral, but this should only be the beginning of building long-term partnerships with customers, stakeholders and suppliers to make a difference for the Earth we all share."
Dell also issued a challenge to its rivals to join in "a long-term, carbon-neutral commitment to our shared Earth".
The company unveiled a programme called 'Plant a Forest for Me' that enables global organisations to join with Dell in planting millions of trees in managed reforestation schemes.
This initiative is an extension of Dell's 'Plant a Tree for Me' programme for consumers.
However, some analysts have questioned Dell's motives behind the announcement.
"It would be so easy to be cynical about this: 'arch-capitalist Michael Dell sees the error of his ways and turns hippy'," said senior Ovum analyst Ian Brown.
"But while we are sure that Dell is very sincere in his belief that carbon offsetting is needed to slow down climate change, this is all about marketing. Dell is battling with HP, IBM, Sun Microsystems and others to prove how green it is."
Dell is committed to becoming carbon neutral and doing its bit for the planet, according to Brown, and has to show that it is ready to stand up and be counted.
"But what we'd prefer to see is practical assistance for customers on how to reduce energy wastage and improve resource efficiency in their data centres," he said.
"Dell may be ahead on the offsetting, but it needs to catch up on services and its ability to help customers reuse and share resources, reduce costs and maybe help the planet a little too."
Dell is implementing a company-wide power management programme that automatically powers off machines at night and during periods of inactivity.
The company estimates that this will result in annual savings of about 13 million kilowatt hours of electricity, equivalent to 8,500 tons of CO2 and savings of $1.8m.
The firm has also replaced office lighting in its central Texas offices, resulting in a nine per cent reduction in electricity demand at the campuses. Similar programmes will be implemented on other Dell campuses within the coming year.
Approximately 10 per cent of the energy needs of the company's Austin, Texas operations come from renewable sources.
PC maker commits to green future
Ian Williams, vnunet.com 27 Sep 2007
"Never before in the history of business have we seen such a critical need to build a worldwide community dedicated to improving the environment," said chairman Michael Dell at a policy forum organised by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
"Leadership starts at home, which is why we are going carbon neutral, but this should only be the beginning of building long-term partnerships with customers, stakeholders and suppliers to make a difference for the Earth we all share."
Dell also issued a challenge to its rivals to join in "a long-term, carbon-neutral commitment to our shared Earth".
The company unveiled a programme called 'Plant a Forest for Me' that enables global organisations to join with Dell in planting millions of trees in managed reforestation schemes.
This initiative is an extension of Dell's 'Plant a Tree for Me' programme for consumers.
However, some analysts have questioned Dell's motives behind the announcement.
"It would be so easy to be cynical about this: 'arch-capitalist Michael Dell sees the error of his ways and turns hippy'," said senior Ovum analyst Ian Brown.
"But while we are sure that Dell is very sincere in his belief that carbon offsetting is needed to slow down climate change, this is all about marketing. Dell is battling with HP, IBM, Sun Microsystems and others to prove how green it is."
Dell is committed to becoming carbon neutral and doing its bit for the planet, according to Brown, and has to show that it is ready to stand up and be counted.
"But what we'd prefer to see is practical assistance for customers on how to reduce energy wastage and improve resource efficiency in their data centres," he said.
"Dell may be ahead on the offsetting, but it needs to catch up on services and its ability to help customers reuse and share resources, reduce costs and maybe help the planet a little too."
Dell is implementing a company-wide power management programme that automatically powers off machines at night and during periods of inactivity.
The company estimates that this will result in annual savings of about 13 million kilowatt hours of electricity, equivalent to 8,500 tons of CO2 and savings of $1.8m.
The firm has also replaced office lighting in its central Texas offices, resulting in a nine per cent reduction in electricity demand at the campuses. Similar programmes will be implemented on other Dell campuses within the coming year.
Approximately 10 per cent of the energy needs of the company's Austin, Texas operations come from renewable sources.
PC maker commits to green future
Ian Williams, vnunet.com 27 Sep 2007
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Microsoft shows off Windows Server 2008 advances
Microsoft has highlighted advances in the stability and security of its forthcoming Windows Server 2008 at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference.
Mark Russinovich, a technical fellow for the platform and services division at Microsoft, showed off an Automatic Space Load Randomization (ASLR) feature that changes the memory address used by applications.
The current software often assigns fixed memory ranges to applications. An attacker could overflow that memory range to crash the application or gain control over a system.
ASLR prevents such issues by assigning random memory areas. The feature is also built into Windows Vista, but Russinovich said that ASLR was designed mainly for the server operating system.
Windows Server 2008 also offers better ways to collect crash data and report it back to Microsoft. The software giant uses the information to tackle common problems and improve overall system performance.
Currently each individual application is responsible for collecting and reporting crash data. But a serious application crash can overwhelm the reporting components, causing it to discard all error data.
Instead, Windows Server 2008 has built the crash-reporting components directly into the operating kernel. This allows administrators to see what happened with every application crash and report the data to Microsoft.
Microsoft also confirmed that Windows Server 2008 will be the company's last server software that supports 32-bit and 64-bit applications.
Any future releases, including the upcoming Small Business Server codenamed Cougar and Windows Midmarket Server codenamed Centro, will be exclusive 64-bit releases.
Both 'servers' provide bundles of operating systems and middleware such as a database and are slated for release in 2008.
Intel and AMD have been shipping 64-bit capable chips since 2004, ensuring that most current-generation systems are able to run the operating system.
Even though older servers will not be able to upgrade to the new operating system, Bill Laing, general manager of Microsoft's Windows Server division, stressed that the advances of a 64-bit-only server operating system will be worth it.
"Once we get through it and look back, we will realise all the benefits and realise it is the right thing for the industry," he said.
2008 will also see the release of Longhorn Storage Server. The R2 release of Windows Server 2008 is due to out in 2009.
Along with the roadmap, Microsoft provided attendees with an in-depth look at what can be expected in the latest version of Windows Server.
The company highlighted technical advances in security, stability and reliability with the updated OS.
"We believe that, due to the increase in consolidation and scale of servers and workloads running on individual servers, the automatic detection and recovery of hardware errors is essential," said Laing.
Mark Russinovich, a technical fellow for the platform and services division at Microsoft, showed off an Automatic Space Load Randomization (ASLR) feature that changes the memory address used by applications.
The current software often assigns fixed memory ranges to applications. An attacker could overflow that memory range to crash the application or gain control over a system.
ASLR prevents such issues by assigning random memory areas. The feature is also built into Windows Vista, but Russinovich said that ASLR was designed mainly for the server operating system.
Windows Server 2008 also offers better ways to collect crash data and report it back to Microsoft. The software giant uses the information to tackle common problems and improve overall system performance.
Currently each individual application is responsible for collecting and reporting crash data. But a serious application crash can overwhelm the reporting components, causing it to discard all error data.
Instead, Windows Server 2008 has built the crash-reporting components directly into the operating kernel. This allows administrators to see what happened with every application crash and report the data to Microsoft.
Microsoft also confirmed that Windows Server 2008 will be the company's last server software that supports 32-bit and 64-bit applications.
Any future releases, including the upcoming Small Business Server codenamed Cougar and Windows Midmarket Server codenamed Centro, will be exclusive 64-bit releases.
Both 'servers' provide bundles of operating systems and middleware such as a database and are slated for release in 2008.
Intel and AMD have been shipping 64-bit capable chips since 2004, ensuring that most current-generation systems are able to run the operating system.
Even though older servers will not be able to upgrade to the new operating system, Bill Laing, general manager of Microsoft's Windows Server division, stressed that the advances of a 64-bit-only server operating system will be worth it.
"Once we get through it and look back, we will realise all the benefits and realise it is the right thing for the industry," he said.
2008 will also see the release of Longhorn Storage Server. The R2 release of Windows Server 2008 is due to out in 2009.
Along with the roadmap, Microsoft provided attendees with an in-depth look at what can be expected in the latest version of Windows Server.
The company highlighted technical advances in security, stability and reliability with the updated OS.
"We believe that, due to the increase in consolidation and scale of servers and workloads running on individual servers, the automatic detection and recovery of hardware errors is essential," said Laing.
Hands on: Vista revisited
I’ve recently acquired a couple of Vista PCs with the object of working my way around the networking features and sharing those experiences in my Networks Hands On column.
Last time, I started the ball rolling with file-sharing. This time it’s a more eclectic collection of hints and tips, with a look at the new Vista network map feature.
Mapping the Lan Network maps are to be found in the Network and Sharing Center which, if you’re new to Vista, is one of the tools you’ll quickly become familiar with, mainly because it provides a one-stop shop from which you can access most of the other common networking utilities included as part of the new operating system.
The Network and Sharing Center can be found in the Control Panel, although that’s far from the quickest or easiest way of running it. Indeed, it’s better to click the network status icon in the system tray and select it from the pop-up menu displayed, or right-click the Network entry in the Start menu and choose Properties. Alternatively, if you need to run this tool on a regular basis, drag its icon from the Control Panel and create a shortcut on the desktop.
Whichever way you start it, open the Network and Sharing Center. At the top you’ll see a graphical map illustrating just where your PC sits on the network and how it connects to the internet. It’s not particularly informative, especially if you’ve only got the one PC. However, click the View full map link alongside and, on a larger network, Vista will attempt to identify as many devices as it can and draw a map showing how these all connect together, which can be very useful when it comes to troubleshooting or locating resources. Double-click the icon of a PC or server on the map, for example, and you’ll be given access to its file and printer shares.
In order to build this map Microsoft has introduced a new protocol called Link Layer Topology Discovery (LLTD), support for which is built into Vista and will also be in Windows Server 2008 when it ships. However, although devices that don’t have LTTD can still be found and identified they won’t be mapped, just listed underneath the map as connected to the network, where you’ll see that a Buffalo Linkstation appliance has been discovered but can’t be placed in the topology. The same also applies to PCs running older versions of Windows, such as the XP Pro PC also listed, although an LLTD Responder is available for Windows XP, which will allow such systems to be included in the Vista maps.
The LLTD Responder for XP is available for download from the Microsoft website look for Knowledge base article KB922120. It’s very easy to install and can be used on either Windows XP Professional or Home Edition to enable the host PC to be included in the Vista maps.
Unfortunately, there’s no responder for earlier versions of Windows, or for non-Windows platforms and devices, such as the Linkstation Nas appliance shown in the screenshots. However, Microsoft has made its source code available along with a reference Linux implementation, with the aim of encouraging third-party developers to provide LLTD support.
Non-broadcasting wireless As can be seen from the screenshots, wireless networks can also be included in the Vista maps, with wireless management tools available via the Network and Sharing Center. There are also a number of behind-the-scenes wireless networking enhancements, one of which is improved support for non-broadcasting access points and routers, although problems can still arise if you want to connect to this type of network.
On a non-broadcasting wireless network, the access point or router is configured so it doesn’t broadcast the wireless SSID in effect, the network name or identifier. This is done to hide the wireless network from unauthorised users, although it’s not foolproof and can cause problems for those wanting to connect legitimately especially in Windows XP, where you’re not allowed to choose a non-broadcasting wireless network as a preferred connection. Rather, the XP auto configuration service will attempt to connect to broadcasting access points before trying hidden networks.
A tour round some network map features of Windows Vista
Alan Stevens, Personal Computer World, 20 Sep 2007
Last time, I started the ball rolling with file-sharing. This time it’s a more eclectic collection of hints and tips, with a look at the new Vista network map feature.
Mapping the Lan Network maps are to be found in the Network and Sharing Center which, if you’re new to Vista, is one of the tools you’ll quickly become familiar with, mainly because it provides a one-stop shop from which you can access most of the other common networking utilities included as part of the new operating system.
The Network and Sharing Center can be found in the Control Panel, although that’s far from the quickest or easiest way of running it. Indeed, it’s better to click the network status icon in the system tray and select it from the pop-up menu displayed, or right-click the Network entry in the Start menu and choose Properties. Alternatively, if you need to run this tool on a regular basis, drag its icon from the Control Panel and create a shortcut on the desktop.
Whichever way you start it, open the Network and Sharing Center. At the top you’ll see a graphical map illustrating just where your PC sits on the network and how it connects to the internet. It’s not particularly informative, especially if you’ve only got the one PC. However, click the View full map link alongside and, on a larger network, Vista will attempt to identify as many devices as it can and draw a map showing how these all connect together, which can be very useful when it comes to troubleshooting or locating resources. Double-click the icon of a PC or server on the map, for example, and you’ll be given access to its file and printer shares.
In order to build this map Microsoft has introduced a new protocol called Link Layer Topology Discovery (LLTD), support for which is built into Vista and will also be in Windows Server 2008 when it ships. However, although devices that don’t have LTTD can still be found and identified they won’t be mapped, just listed underneath the map as connected to the network, where you’ll see that a Buffalo Linkstation appliance has been discovered but can’t be placed in the topology. The same also applies to PCs running older versions of Windows, such as the XP Pro PC also listed, although an LLTD Responder is available for Windows XP, which will allow such systems to be included in the Vista maps.
The LLTD Responder for XP is available for download from the Microsoft website look for Knowledge base article KB922120. It’s very easy to install and can be used on either Windows XP Professional or Home Edition to enable the host PC to be included in the Vista maps.
Unfortunately, there’s no responder for earlier versions of Windows, or for non-Windows platforms and devices, such as the Linkstation Nas appliance shown in the screenshots. However, Microsoft has made its source code available along with a reference Linux implementation, with the aim of encouraging third-party developers to provide LLTD support.
Non-broadcasting wireless As can be seen from the screenshots, wireless networks can also be included in the Vista maps, with wireless management tools available via the Network and Sharing Center. There are also a number of behind-the-scenes wireless networking enhancements, one of which is improved support for non-broadcasting access points and routers, although problems can still arise if you want to connect to this type of network.
On a non-broadcasting wireless network, the access point or router is configured so it doesn’t broadcast the wireless SSID in effect, the network name or identifier. This is done to hide the wireless network from unauthorised users, although it’s not foolproof and can cause problems for those wanting to connect legitimately especially in Windows XP, where you’re not allowed to choose a non-broadcasting wireless network as a preferred connection. Rather, the XP auto configuration service will attempt to connect to broadcasting access points before trying hidden networks.
A tour round some network map features of Windows Vista
Alan Stevens, Personal Computer World, 20 Sep 2007
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