Tuesday, June 16, 2009

New crawler for Yahoo - Yahoo! Slurp 3.0

Over the past few weeks, Yahoo have been preparing for the latest version of the Yahoo! Search crawler with some infrastructure updates, which recently caused a variance in our crawl behavior.

With everything now in place, the rollout has officially begun. The new Yahoo! Slurp 3.0 recognizes the same user-agent and all robots.txt directives for ‘Yahoo! Slurp,’ though it’ll identify itself as Slurp 3.0 in your web logs.

As the new software undergoes a phased rollout to our production crawlers over the next several weeks, you’ll see the following changes:

a) The crawlers will start crawling from a different and much smaller set of IP addresses, but it’ll still be from the crawl.yahoo.net domain. Any reverse DNS checks to identify our crawler will continue to work. Please note that if you’re using IP-based recognition of our crawlers, you might see a drop in crawl/coverage from Yahoo! We strongly recommend that you move to reverse DNS-based identification of Yahoo! Slurp if you’re using any other method to avoid this problem. The current set of IPs will disappear from your web logs in the next several weeks.

b) The crawlers will also publish a new user-agent, ‘Yahoo! Slurp/3.0.’ Existing robots.txt directives for ‘Slurp’ or ‘Yahoo! Slurp’ will continue to work, but if you have directives specific to ‘Slurp/2.0,’ they won’t be recognized by the new crawler (though usage of the ‘Slurp/2.0′ user-agent is very rare on the web, so you won’t likely be affected). We recommend specifying the shorter version of: User-agent: Slurp. Check out “How do I prevent my site or certain subdirectories from being crawled?” on our Help page for more details.

These changes will affect the main Yahoo! Web Search crawlers. Crawlers that similarly respect the Yahoo! Slurp directive but identify themselves more specifically, such as Yahoo! Slurp China and others, will not be impacted.

Dell Latitude Z Series laptop

The Dell Latitude Z Series laptop (Dell Latitude Z600) will be a 15-inch matte display screen notebook powered by the Intel core 2 duo processor.It will be a ultra-thin notebook ,like that of Dell Adamo, and will come with a removable battery.The Dell Latitude Z Series laptop also features facial recognition,Webcam,Intel graphics,biometric fingerprint scanner and a display port.It has a wierd placed LAN port on the back

Price: The new Dell Latitude Z Series laptop price will start from around US$1,999.

128GB Kingston DataTraveler 200 USB Pen drive

Kingston has announced the DataTraveler 200 (DT200) pendrive series including the world’s first 128GB USB Pendrive.The Kingston DataTraveler 200 is capless pendrive(for better protection when not in use) and is enhanced for Windows ReadyBoost™. It is available in 32GB, 64GB and 128GB capacities.

"The new DT200’s robust storage capability lets consumers store complete libraries of music, photos and videos. It is also a great tool for business users who carry around large databases or files,” said Andrew Ewing, USB business manager, Kingston(R). “The password protection helps safeguard data and requires no admin rights, making the DT200 a terrific solution for the home or office."

Kingston DataTraveler 200 Pendrive Specifications are :

* Capacities: 32GB, 64GB, 128GB
* Dimensions: 2.77″ x 0.49″ x 0.89″ (70.39mm x 12.52mm x 22.78mm)
* Operating Temperature: 32 F to 140 F (0 C to 60 C)
* Storage Temperature: -4 F to 185 F (-20 C to 85 C)
* Simple: just plug into a USB port
* Practical: durable, capless design
* Guaranteed: five-year warranty
* Safeguarded: includes Password Traveler security software for Windows
* Enhanced: for Windows ReadyBoost(TM) on Vista-based systems
* Price: The Kingston 128GB DataTraveler 200 USB flash drive will cost around Rs.27,000 (US$546) ,Kingston 64GB DataTraveler 200 USB Pendrive will cost around Rs.10,000 (US$213) and the Kingston 32GB DataTraveler 200 USB flash drive will cost around Rs.6,000 (US$120).

Windows SideShow

Wouldn't it be great if you could read an e-mail message, confirm a meeting location, or check a flight reservation without turning on your computer? What if you could check the program guide in Windows Media Center by using a display that's built into your remote control? Windows SideShow puts this information literally at your fingertips on a wide variety of devices that can retrieve information from your mobile PC or desktop computer.

Windows SideShow is a new technology that delivers information from your PC to a secondary display on two kinds of devices: those that are integrated into a computer, such as a small color display in a laptop lid; and those that are separate from a computer, such as a remote control or mobile phone. With this additional display you can view important information whether your laptop is on, off, or in sleep mode. Windows SideShow is available in Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Enterprise, and Windows Vista Ultimate.

Windows SideShow uses gadgets, convenient mini programs, to extend information from your computer to other devices. Gadgets can run on a Windows SideShow–compatible device and update that device with information from your computer. Using a gadget, you can view information from your computer regardless of whether your mobile PC is on, off, or in the sleep power state—which can save you both time and battery life.

Choose gadgets and customize settings in Control Panel

Windows Vista contains a central location in Control Panel called Windows SideShow where you can turn gadgets on or off for each of your devices.

From Control Panel, you can also set your computer to wake periodically (such as every hour) so that all gadgets that are turned on can update your devices with the latest information.

Windows SideShow–compatible devices can take many forms. Hardware manufacturers are already including secondary displays in their designs for mobile PCs and devices such as keyboards, mobile phones, and remote controls. The following are a few examples:

Integrated devices on computers. If your mobile PC has an integrated Windows SideShow–compatible device, you can view your Windows Mail inbox without so much as opening the lid or turning on the computer so you can quickly access your recent e-mail messages virtually whenever and wherever you want.

Mobile phones. With Windows SideShow, you can configure a compatible mobile phone to show you your contacts and calendar, the latest updates from your favorite websites, your favorite pictures, and other information.
Download the Windows SideShow for Windows Mobile developer preview and use your Windows Mobile device as a Bluetooth SideShow device. (Available for Windows Mobile 5 and 6 PocketPCs and Smartphones.)

Media remote control. While you watch TV with your family on Windows Media Center, you can find out what programs are showing next or schedule a recording for the next day. You can also browse through your Windows Media Center music collection from the display on the remote control without turning on the TV.

Artist Themes for Google Chrome

After adding themes to iGoogle and Gmail, Google intends to skin Chrome and some of the initial themes will be created by famous artists. New York Times reports that not all of the illustrators and designers contacted by Google were happy to license their works for free.

"While we don't typically offer monetary compensation for these projects, through the positive feedback that we have heard thus far we believe these projects provide a unique and exciting opportunity for artists to display their work in front of millions of people," explained a Google representative.

Some recent Chrome builds include the option to "reset to default theme", but Google doesn't offer a gallery of themes or some guidelines for creating your own theme.

Immediately after Chrome's launch, many people started to create themes for the browser by editing the default.dll file, but the file is overwritten by the automatic updater and the format was changed in the latest releases.

Set Gmail as Default Email Client in Firefox

Last year, Firefox 3 added the option to associate protocols with web applications. A common way to link to mail addresses is using the mailto: protocol, so you'll often find links like security@google.com.

When Firefox 3 was released, Yahoo Mail was the only webmail service that could be selected directly and the instructions for adding Gmail were complicated. Gmail has been added to the list of mail applications and it's easy to set it as the default email client in Firefox and open all the mailto: links in Gmail, without installing extensions:

* go to Tools > Options
* select the Applications tab
* search for mail
* select Use Gmail from the list of actions associated with the mailto protocol
* click OK to save the settings.

If you want to set Gmail as the default mail client for your computer and not just for Firefox, install Google Talk, Gmail Notifier for Windows or Google Notifier for Mac.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Bing - a new search engine from Microsoft

Microsoft has recently released a new search engine Bing, which has very nice features exactly like Google. Looks like Microsoft has the plans to overtake Google.

With Bing™, you don't have to leave what you're doing and open another browser window. Your search experience just got better, whether you're searching from MSN®, Windows® Internet Explorer® 8, Messenger, Windows Live™ Hotmail®, or many of your other favorite places online. It's a new search experience that lets you find what you're looking for right from where you are.

www.bing.com

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