Microsoft’s Outlook approaching Google in security

According to a Official blog post of Outlook team, Microsoft has upgraded the security of Outlook Hotmail Connector, a move which is a follow-up of adding an all–HTTPS option in November 2010.

The new Outlook Hotmail Connector encrypts traffic between email client and Windows live Hotmail service.

According to Outlook team when we are connected via HTTPS we should be confident enough that our account is safe from Hijackers. The new Outlook Hotmail Connector encrypts email, calendar and contact services between Outlook and Windows live.

Gmail users were having option of encrypting Gmail traffic from 2008, but in January 2008 when Chinese Hackers tried to access Gmail accounts of human rights activists of that country, Gmail enabled HTTPS to default.

Outlook Hotmail Connector is available for download at Microsoft website in 32-bit (or by clicking on 32 bit link) and 64-bit (or by clicking on 64 bit link) version for Outlook 2003, 2007 and 2010 but Outlook Hotmail Connector is not available for Outlook 2011. 

You can also download Windows Live essential update which also include HTTPS enabled Windows Live Mail from Microsoft website or by clicking on this link.

Facebook in a defensive mode against Google+

After the launch of Google+ project by Google and seeing the growing enthusiasm among masses for Google+ project. Facebook is trying to protect itself from Google+ wave by announcing several features in Facebook.

Last week only Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg announced that today’s announcement will be “awesome”. Now Facebook has entered into a partnership with Skype to bring video chat to Facebook. The news was accompanied by a new group chat feature for the site.

Google+ project also has a similar feature called “Hangouts” which supports online group conference calls. Now Facebook will work with Skype for its own group call feature.

According to Michael Gartenberg, an analyst with Gartner “the Skype deal isn’t something that has happened in a week  but Google’s announcements has accelerated it”.

Facebook launch of video conferencing feature clearly states that they are not going to stand still and watch Google+ coming on. While Google and Facebook were competitiors and also Microsoft and Google are competitiors.

In May Microsoft acquired Skype for $8.5 billion and now Microsoft and Facebook have joined hands to fight the common competitior.

Baidu to use Microsoft’s Bing search result

According to IDG News service Baidu, China’s largest search engine will use Microsoft’s Bing search result for English language. Deal in financial term is not disclosed yet.

Last year Google has pulled its search engine from China over a dispute over censorship with Chinese government. Now Google.cn page redirects user to Google’s Hong Kong site.

Baidu holds nearly 80% search engine market in China. Now its English language results through Bing will boost its share even higher. Last month Baidu had a deal with Qunar, a Chinese travel search engine of $306 million to make Baidu a majority share holder in Qunar.

Microsoft is also eager to gain better access to Chinese 480 million internet users to decrease the vast lead in Global search engine market by Google(91.07%) whereas bing has market share of 3.21%. Figures generated on Monday by Statcounter’s GlobalStats website

Google launches Google+: Facebook killer

According to Google blog post today Google launched a new social networking site which will rival Facebook. This social networking site was known as Google+ project. It looks identical to Facebook and it works in the same way as that of Facebook.
This new social networking site of Google is now available to a small group of invitees and will allow people to post status updates, share links and upload photos.
But according to Google what will set apart Google+ from Facebook is that users will be able to make separate “circles” or groups of online friends and will be able to communicate within these groups or circles such as users can have various circles of college friends, work colleagues and family members.
A user can communicate separately with each circle or group.
According to an analyst of Technology Business Research “Ezra Gottheil”, the circles idea makes a lot of sense. It’s smart, and while you can do something similar to Facebook, it is not exactly Facebook.   
It will take some time before we will know whether these feature will be able to convince Facebook users or to use a second social network and leave the popular Facebook for a brand new service.
Bloggers have long talked about whether Google will be able to come out with a Facebook killer.
The one certainty is that Google is facing an uphill battle in taking on Facebook. While the social network has officially said that it has more than 500 million users, other sources recently have reported that the number now is more than 750 million.
With Google+, the company is giving users a way to get a rolling scroll of content from across the Internet on any topic of they're interested in. Really into fashion, gardening or restoring old cars? Google+ will stream a feed of content into your page so you can stay up to date on your favorite topics.
And with a feature called "Hangouts," Google+ enables users to meet up with their friends online, using multiperson video.

Mozilla releases Firefox 5

Today Mozilla released the final version of Firefox 5, in its new faster release regime under which it will release new Firefox  version in six weeks. Mozilla also patched 10 bugs in Firefox 5  out of which seven were rated critical, two moderate and one as low threat.
The 10 bugs which were patched also include one in browser’s handling of the Web GL 3-D which was called unsafe by rival Microsoft.
By releasing Firefox 5 today, they have met the self imposed deadline of June 21, notable because company has slipped deadline of browser upgrades on time.
Firefox 5 looks identical to Firefox 4 but according to company it has added more than 1000 improvements. Among the most significant changes are enhanced support for HTML 5 and support for CSS (cascading style sheet) animations.
Firefox 5 can be downloaded from here:


Desktop version for windows

Mobile version

Your Firefox 5 for other operating system can be downloaded from here:


Firefox 5 download (13 mb)

Google’s new features harming Bing

This week Google has released new image and voice features, this was done so as to stop its market share from declining. Earlier it was said that Bing’s search result were far more accurate than Google and Google was slowly losing share market to Bing and Yahoo.
With these new features Google has tried not only to stop its search market share from declining but to increase search market share. According to analysts now Microsoft will need to up Bing’s game or risk falling behind.
Google laid these new search features at Inside Search event which was held on Tuesday, unveiling voice, image search and Instant pages which will load the top search result on user’s computer.
 According to an analyst with IDC Hadley Reynolds, speed and imagery is addictive to users and that’s was Google has offered its users. He further added that Bing should be working furiously to make new features because Google has just changed the game  
According to industry analysts Google’s announcements has given the dominant search engine several features that Bing doesn’t have. And that is not going to help Bing to decrease the distant ground between it and Google.
While Bing and Yahoo are focused on ‘decision engine’ capabilities of search and delivering more meat and fewer links.
However some analysts like Rob Enderle and Dan olds of Enderle Group and The Gabriel Consulting Group said that the Google will have to make sure that these features work well or users will get annoyed and will leave Google for Bing or Yahoo.