Ciao.co.uk a company owned by Microsoft, was one of the worst affected.  Speculation has arisen about Google’s motivation for rolling out the global changes, following Microsoft’s decision to file a competition case against Google, through the European Commission.  Microsoft claim that Google use their search market dominance in order to limit Microsoft services growth, identifying their practice of: “using technical measures to stop Microsoft’s search engine Bing from indexing content on Google-owned YouTube” as a key point of contention for the company.

The Panda update was implemented by Google specifically to prevent ‘content farms’ from replicating what they classify as “shallow” or “low quality” information.  Generally the data is copied from other sites in a bid to up their number of hits, but with the changes made to their ranking algorithm, Google sought to illiminate the possibility of irrelevant content in search results being listed high up in the rankings.  According to Google’s Scott Huffman:

“People are not just expecting a search engine to return every document that has most of the words typed in a query box.  They want the context understood; there are a lot of nuances hidden within that.”

Prior to the update, a keyword search may have returned a site on page one of Google’s results; but with changes to the ranking algorithm, some sites found they were moved further down in the listings, making them far less likely to be viewed by Google search engine users.  Ciao.co.uk suffered at the hands of the changes implemented globally by Google in early April (following an initial, and successful Stateside trial), due to the fact that they publish comments and reviews that are propagated on other internet sites.

Some experts however have indicated their surprise that a legitimate website such as Ciao, has been affected so drastically by the update.  In an interview with AFP, Huffman went on to dispel the grievances advanced by the likes of Microsoft, citing the fact that on a daily basis, Google will handle more than one billion searches, and identified the notion of limiting a rivals growth by rigging their position in Google’s search results as ridiculous: “If you think of the scale of what we are talking about, it is almost absurd to say we could rig results”.

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The corporate vice president of Internet Explorer has commented: “This release is one that is playing catch up [on past releases], but it leapfrogs everything and now you see the other folks on the back foot trying to catch up with us. With this release you are seeing innovation after innovation that other folks are catching up to. Hardware acceleration was something no one was talking about until we did it. No one else was talking about privacy and tracking until we did it.”

The new product comes after web analytics demonstrate that IE is losing market share rapidly, accounting for just over half of all users online. The software will enable tracking protection, safeguarding the way in which information is collated on users online. The browser will have the capability to shield users from inadvertently sharing their information with websites online. This measure has been implemented in order to prevent marketers from contacting users as a result of their online browsing habits.

Andy Zeigler, privacy programme manager for Microsoft has commented: “The most exciting thing is this is a technology that is ready to use today and can provide a meaningful level of protection as you browse around the web. For example, the lists can block companies that collect data about you without your consent, which could be information like your browsing history, the sites you visit, the things you buy online and the videos you watch.”

IE9 promises to be the fastest browser on the market, and also features improved support for HTML5, geolocation feature and HTML5 semantic tags. Available as a free download. IE9 will be used for customers with Windows Vista and Windows 7.

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The twenty-six-year-old gamer Josh Moore was banned from playing Xbox Live following an accusation by officials which stated that he’d broken Xbox’s code of conduct by saying he lived in Fort Gay, West Virginia, which is a name that officials of the organisation have branded as offensive.  

Despite the fact that Moore subsequently contacts officials at Microsoft and the enforcement team to state that he lived in a real place and was hailing from a genuine location, officials refused to accept his explanation and upheld the ban. Instead of checking the validity of his statement.

The gamer commented following his ban from the system: “At first I thought, ‘Wow, somebody’s thinking I live in the gayest town in West Virginia or something. I’m not even gay and it makes me feel like they were discriminating.”

The director of policy and enforcement for Xbox commented: “Xbox said the town’s name didn’t matter and that the word gay was inappropriate in any context. The suspension occurred as a result of a mistake caused by miscommunication. Some took the phrase ‘fort gay WV’ and believed that the individual who had that was trying to offend. Unfortunately one of my people agreed with that. When it was brought to my attention we revoked the suspension. Staying ahead of slang and policing Xbox for offensive content is a constant challenge.”

Microsoft have now withdrawn the ban following acceptance of the validity of Josh Moore’s location details. They have a strong policy against the use of inflammatory language, drug use, hate incitement, racial prejudice and ethnic or religious issues. The policy for Xbox Live states: “Users cannot “create a gamertag, avatar or use text in other profile fields that may offend other members”.

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Microsoft are the latest victim of an illegal launch of their most hotly-anticipated Xbox game, three weeks ahead of its official release. The game was scheduled to be launched in mid-September, but instead appeared on files including The Pirate Bay recently. Halo Reach, a shooting game, has now been downloaded hundreds of times despite not being released yet.

According to reports, the game was offered before launch to a number of reviewers and journalists, on the Microsoft Xbox store online. A spokesperson from Microsoft has commented: “We are still investigating details surrounding a claimed leak of Halo Reach and have nothing further to share.”

Shots of the new game were uploaded to YouTube just hours after being made available on the Microsoft site.

Within hours of being available, videos of the game began to appear on YouTube. The director of policy and enforcement for Xbox commented: “People attempting to play unauthorised copies of Halo Reach could face similar sanctions. As with all unauthorised play on Xbox Live, anyone playing any unauthorised title runs the risk of account permaban. Remember, legit store-bought copy runs no risk of ban. Key word: unauthorised. We have ways of knowing.”

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As a result of the glitch, Microsoft has been forced to issue a critical patch for their software, to prevent further attacks on unsuspecting users. Shortcuts are used by many people to make regularly-used programmes and applications easy to access, by placing an icon on the desktop. This prevents people from having to scroll through the programme application list to locate what they need.

The glitch, which was identified last month, enables cyber criminals to embed commands within the shortcut capability, these commands are then activated when users click on the shortcut to reach their application. It seems that every single version of Windows is susceptible to being attacked in this way, without the patch.

Since the flaw has been widely publicised, more and more hackers have been taking advantage of it. Initially, companies such as power stations were targeted, to destabilise the central control systems. Now, however, attacks are becoming widespread as more people become aware of the potential for hacking.

The patch has been developed to mitigate the number of attacks made through the shortcut system, which Microsoft state they have seen rise recently, ads hackers cotton on to the weakness. It will be issued to people as they download updates for their machines, and is also available for free download from the Windows Update resource site.

Microsoft issued a comment: “We’re able to confirm that, in the past few days, we’ve seen an increase in attempts to exploit the vulnerability.”

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Following the successful reception of version 1.0, Microsoft have now released a new version of Security Essentials in beta. The free software has been enhanced to improve its antimalware capabilities. It sports a new engine for antimalware, which is more effective at seeking out and eradicating threats to security. Microsoft reports that the software is more efficient, and better performing than its predecessor.

Another development is the way in which Security Essentials can now integrate with Windows Firewall, enabling consumers to choose whether or not to leave the firewall running, depending upon activities being performed.

Security Essentials integrates with IE, and checks for threats via the web. It can locate potential attacks which are sent over networks, as long as it is installed on Vista or Windows 7. Microsoft have pledged to maintain the software to keep it updated in line with any new malware of viruses which are launched, to integrate it with spyware definitions. The firm have also promised to provide ongoing updates and improvements to the software. All users have to do to keep the software updated is subscribe to the Microsoft updates service, and they will automatically send updates and install them.

Security Essentials is available for free download from Microsoft’s Connect web page. If users have a Live account, they can use their log in to access the software. Currently, the beta version is only available to US, Chinese, Brazilian and Israeli customers until the finalised version has been rolled out globally.

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Following the departure of Robbie Bach (Microsoft’s former head of mobile), the company has switched focus to their latest product – Windows Phone 7 mobile software. The Kin represents Microsoft’s first foray in to the world of bespoke phone manufacture, and was intended to provide a gadget designed to support young people in social networking, on the go. The team who have been working on Kin sales and development will now be integrated within the wider gaming and mobile team at Microsoft.

The Kin met with criticism for a number of reasons, including its inability to integrate with third-party applications, and its expense in relation to other smartphones available from different suppliers. The target market for the Kin was younger users, and it is thought that Microsoft priced the gadget out of the market.

Forrester Research analyst Ian Fogg commented on the Microsoft decision: “The social networking model is a strong concept, but even the largest firms like Microsoft or Apple have to focus. The question is whether Microsoft was spreading itself too thin in mobile. Given there are all these established players, when they launch Windows Phone 7 it has to be striking and different from the competition.

“The Windows Phone 7 interface is different from the other smartphones out there; it has a concept of hubs rather than applications, so similar activities are grouped together, but they need to ship a product that is bug free, compelling, and responsive. Like Kin, there is a risk they’re coming to market too late, but they can’t do anything about that.”

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Choosing to release the new system one day before the E3 Expo 2010, Microsoft demonstrated the new console to potential customers, explaining features such as a smaller design which increases portability, and Wi-Fi 802.11n support. Those of us who are old enough to remember the old days of Pac Man and the Atari will still feel a flurry of astonishment that the gaming world has advanced to this extent! The slim, compact design and sleek new look show a distinct enhancement on previous consoles.

With five live USB ports and an AUX port for connecting accessories, the latest Xbox promises to yield much higher functionality and interactivity for connected gaming. The new design is more angular than its predecessors, and is similar to the first generation Playstation 3, with an all-black design. The new Xbox 360 250GB comes with a much smaller power brick compared to the older model.

Touch sensitive buttons, one single large fan and quieter operation during gaming all add to the overall design features. Previous models of the Xbox have been criticized for high levels of noise, so this shift to reduce it will please current gamers who use the console.

As the world of gaming technology becomes more competitive and capabilities advance, it remains to be seen whether Microsoft’s latest offering will be enough to satisfy savvy gamers and keep it at the forefront of the gaming market. Watch this space!

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Google appear to be making the most progress as they are planning brand new initiatives that will enhance content such as news sites and e-commerce in developing countries.

Despite a rapid growth in internet usage in the Arab world since the turn of the century the level of Arab language content is still surprisingly low.

Arab speakers make up 5% of the worlds population but the Arab language accounts for less than 1% of the web but this has been mainly down to high access costs in the region which are now beginning to fall triggering this interest from Google and Microsoft.

Google have announced their intent as they look to create more structured Arab content on the web. They are prioritising the growth of e-commerce in the region and are planning to help create more news sites and publishers according to regional marketing manager Wael Ghonim.

Exact plans were not revealed by Google but they did say that they have an ambitious plan for the next few months that should help push forward the growth of the Arabic web.

Microsoft have also placed Arab language web at the top of their priority list (along with making sure Google does not out do them). They have not made as much progress as Google as of yet but they claim that it has been in their plans for some time and they will be making advancements soon. With the backing of these two internet giants the Arab web is sure to experience a major and well needed growth by the end of the year at the very least.

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The obvious patches and fixes will of course be present in the update along with some helpful new features. Some of the main features of the update include the capacity for better archiving, better management capabilities and big improvements to Outlook Web Access such as the ability to move the reading pane and the introduction of customisable themes.

The update will also entail the creation of ‘retention policy tags’, these will serve the purpose of better automating the archiving and deletion of data whilst the multi mailbox search should prove to be very handy.

A few general improvement enhancements will be present too such as the ability to do other things within the program if a time consuming task like attaching a large file is still be completed.

Microsoft will be rolling out a beta service pack sometime in June of this year whilst the final version of it is expected to be out by the end of the year, we expect even more improvements to have been announced by then.

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The new patch will fix a critical vulnerability that seems to have been consistently exploited by hackers, most notably at the recent Pwn2Own browser hacking competition in the US.

The cumulative update, which was rolled out to users on Tuesday will apparently resolve 9 flaws that have been reported to Microsoft privately and 1 flaw that has been publicly disclosed.

This is evidently a big issue for Microsoft as some of the more severe vulnerabilities present in the Internet Explorer browser could have disastrous consequences if they were hacked. An intrusion could lead to a remote code execution and a complete and utter takeover of the computer being hacked if the user were to accidentally view a malicious or harmful website using Internet Explorer.

Users of Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8 in tandem with each other are apparently not vulnerable to the flaw according to Microsoft, but this is not to say that this combination of operating system and browser cannot be hacked at all.

Software effected by the Internet Explorer vulnerability includes pretty much all Windows operating systems from the last decade including Windows 2000, Windows XP, Vista and even Windows 7.

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Along with the announcement of the browser, Microsoft have promised a plethora of new technology with the browser that will apparently make it one of the most advanced browsers around (surely a claim that is made by the competition too.)

Microsoft have been touting some interesting and, as promised, advanced features. Among these are: background compiled java-script, which will give the browser a much needed boost in speed. SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) capabilities will be incorporated, and perhaps most significantly HTML5 integration which will allow such features as YouTube videos without the use of flash, further adding to the buzz that flash may be on its way out.

This mass integration of new technology is quite a statement from Microsoft as they appear to be doing their utmost to keep their spot as the world’s most popular browser by catching up with their rivals.

The browser ballot screen will inevitably give Safari, Chrome and Firefox much more exposure and must be firmly behind this big update as Microsoft now realise that it is about time they put out a browser that incorporates emerging web standards or they will risk losing their crown once and for all.

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The key seems to lie in cloud based computing services which Ballmer claims that he will “bet the company” on its success. He also stated that a massive 70% of Microsoft’s employees are currently working on cloud based project’s, a figure that he is certain will rise to 90% by the end of the year. So it would it seem that Microsoft really are putting all their eggs in one basket, Mr Gates must evidently share Ballmer’s idea that there is a lot “unrealised potential” in the sector.

“The cloud fuels Microsoft, and Microsoft fuels the crowd,” he said. “We’re all in.”

The idea of cloud computing is something that has been floating about for quite sometime, and it does seem the logical progression from what we already have. It refers to the notion that any files, services or software found on a computer are not solely restricted to that one machine but are available and can be accessed anywhere and everywhere on any other machine with the use of the internet.

It is a service that I am sure we will see become increasingly important to most computer technology companies from now on as constant accessibility and connection to ones computer is becoming more and more important and necessary in some cases.

Microsoft simply want to adapt their already highly successful model of operating system (Windows) to the ever expanding, fast moving age of the internet.

As a representation of their intention to really push cloud computing Microsoft have already released Windows Azure which is a platform that allows developers to create applications based on the idea of cloud computing, they have also made online versions of some of their more popular programs such as Microsoft Office.

It is evident from Ballmer’s bullish attitude that Microsoft really do see cloud computing as the future and that they are more than willing to risk it all in the knowledge that they are right, for their sake I hope they are.

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On Monday the European Commission (EC) announced that Microsoft where to allow its users a choice of web browsers when surfing the internet through its Windows operating system. Currently, any new PC purchased anywhere around the world that comes with Windows will have a pre-installed version of Microsoft’s web browser Internet Explorer. This has been deemed to be unfair by the EC as it allows Microsoft to dominate the market.

Originally the complaint that led to action being taken against Microsoft was made by ‘Opera’ a Norwegian company that offers its own operating system. The complaint was lodged back in 2007 where they insisted that bundled Internet Explorer software with Windows gives Microsoft an unfair advantage. They are of the belief that if users are given a choice of operating systems then they are most likely to try and quite often settle on another browser.

As a result, this week, users of Windows XP, Vista or 7, that have Internet Explorer will whisked off to a ‘ballot screen’ page that will offer them the choice of 12 different browsers (who knew there were that many?)

The main five: Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Apple’s Safari, Mozilla’s Firefox and Opera will inevitably be positioned at the top in random orders allowing people to choose which browser they fancy.

It is great news for especially, Apple, Google and Mozilla as they evidently will be the main beneficiaries of this action. Microsoft, however, must be smarting from the announcement as they stand to loose a fair chunk of their 62% domination of the browser market. So it would seem that surfing the web will come with a brand new conundrum, which browser to choose?

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