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- Adobe has updated and released its Creative Suite 4 for professional media production (aff). This latest version is Adobe’s largest software release to date and contains six application bundles.
A new feature that I particularly keyed in on is Creative Suite’s ability to recognize human speech contained in a video. That is awesome! This means that if you create a video, you can compile the spoken words in that video into searchable metadata. How long before the Search Engines are able to crawl videos and pull out speech for use in indexing? Cool stuff.
Another new tool is the Rotate View tool which will allow the user to view images at any angle with no distortion. More cool stuff.
Yahoo! Rolls Out Web Analytics Beta »
Five months after acquiring web analytics company Index Tools, Yahoo! has announced that they are launching Web Analytics Beta. That is actually a pretty quick turnaround, I think. There is quite a bit of work involved in platform modification. Maybe the threatened mutiny by Yahoo! shareholders fanned the flames 
.
Currently, the Beta version is only released for use by a targeted group:
- Yahoo! Store
- Yahoo! Developers (Y!OS)
- Yahoo! Head Advertisers (Microsites)
If you do not fall into at least one of those categories, “No soup for you”. You will have to be patient and wait your turn.
You can, however, visit the Yahoo! Web Analytics website and signup to receive updates and get a sneak peek at some screenshots of the dashboard.
Dennis Mortenson explains on his blog:
…this is not a free-for-all-come-and-get-it launch, but a carefully planned controlled access launch, which will keep all of our functionality in place and even enhance it. There is no dumbing down of the tool in any of the engagements above - and we will be working hard to add to the list of customers who can get access. So expect the above list to grow rapidly over the course of 2008.
Michael Stebbins also reported on this on his web analytics blog, which is a must read.
Until everything is released to the masses, we will just have to wait and keep using Google Analytics and ClickTracks.
Microsoft Opening European Search Centers »
Steve Balmer of Microsoft announced Thursday that they were opening 3 R&D centers in Europe as part of their ongoing efforts to catch up to Google in Search Engine market share. The search center locations would be in Munich, Paris and London.
Microsoft also announced that it was going to be increasing its $600 million/yr European research and development budget. They are also anticipating employing several hundred including software developers.
The center in Paris is expected to be open in March 2009 and they are getting some pretty nice tax breaks too. Microsoft will get 30 euros back for every 100 euros it invests.
Speaking in Paris, Balmer said:
We are the challenger, not the leader, in search, but we believe strongly that search is in its infancy and there is so much room for innovation. For companies like Microsoft search is the key for unlocking huge new opportunities in advertising.
In the US, Microsoft barely has 8% of the search market share, compared to Google’s 62%. But in Europe, Microsoft’s share is even less at 2 percent.
New Microsoft Pay to Search Program »
Microsoft started an initiative back in May called Live Search Cashback which provides rebates to users of its search engine who search for and purchase products through Microsoft Live.
It was a novel approach to attempt to increase search engine market share. Currently, Google has a commanding lead at about 63%. Yahoo! is second with just under 20% and Microsoft is third at just over 8 percent.
The latest “pay to search” program from Microsoft is called SearchPerks and it works pretty simply:
- Visit the site using Internet Explorer 6 or higher and sign up for SearchPerks.
- Download and install the tracking program to a Windows PC.
- Use Microsoft Live Search and earn “search tickets” every time you search - up to 25 per day.
- Redeem those tickets for prizes.
The first time you signup, you are credited with 500 tickets and the first prize point is 5 music downloads for 525 tickets. You can even get things like airline miles.
It could be worth a check because it is sort of like Microsoft giving you $5 to use Live Search. If you download music, typically each song costs about $1 (5 songs = 5 bucks). So, signup for SearchPerks, use Microsoft Live Search for a few days and redeem your 525 tickets for 5 music downloads .
Wikia Search Update »
Wikia Search was launched in Alpha earlier this year and we have been watching it out of the corner of our eye to gauge its progress. At first, wow, it was bad. The search results were slow and chocked full of irrelevant sites. But, hey, it was only an alpha release and creating a new search engine is a HUGE undertaking.
Then in June ‘08, the alpha was re-launched. They knew the results were bad and needed to improve before they could become a real player in the search engine market and they expected the results to begin to show improvement within a few weeks.
So, what do we think now that about 2 months have passed since Alpha relaunch? Well, wow, it is bad.
Here is what a search for “buy computer online” will show:
- An article about Best Buy from Wikipedia. Ok, fair enough if you want to give props to Wikipedia first above all else, even though that does not help me buy a computer online. Maybe a link to Dell or HP or something like that would be more helpful.
- A link to ebay’s main search page where I have to retype my search query “buy computer online”. Well, at least it is possible to actually buy a computer from the site you directed me to. But could you not at least direct me to the Electronics category or even, *cough* the Computers category?
- A link to about.com where I can download computer games. But wait, I have not even bought my computer yet - I am trying to make a purchase first and then I can download and install games. Proverbial “cart before the horse” I think.
- A link to Apple’s home page where I can at least see a computer, eventually, after I first wade through the gaudy iPhone pitch and then stumble on the little button at the top that says, “Mac” - assuming I know what a Mac is and am not a complete computer novice.
- A link to a site that will tell me how to make money online (refer to comments on #3 listing).
- A link to oreilly.com where I can download PDF files and a bunch of other stuff that is no help because I still do not have a computer yet.
- A link to the Scottsdale Public Library, which is possibly where I am physically located because I still do not have my own computer and am using one of theirs.
- I give up…
What’s is more, at the top of my search page is a small graphic that prompts me to see results from Google and Yahoo. Wait, I thought that was one of the points behind WikiaSearch - to take market share away from Google and Yahoo.
Anyway, I would not hold your breath on a Beta launch of Wikia Search anytime soon. They are way behind nearly every other search engine in the Internet and the main way the intend on improving is by having you and I edit their search results telling them when we find something irrelevant. I think the concept is good, but I don’t have time to do that. A search engine is not a destination; it is a waypoint. I want to type in my query and move on.
Faststone Screen Capture is an absolute "can't do without" piece of software. Capture screenshots in a fixed window or with the scrolling window feature. It even has a screen color-picker that will tell you the code for any color that is displayed on your screen. Love it. Oh, its free too! 
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