Microsoft push Vista RTM back to Nov. 8 following critical bug find

PC manufacturers that expected to get their hands on the final version of Windows Vista on Wednesday have to wait a couple more weeks for the OS, according to sources familiar with the company's plans.

Microsoft Corp. originally targeted Wednesday for Vista's release to manufacturing, but a last-minute bug that "took most of the Vista team by surprise," caused an unexpected delay, said Ethan Allen, a quality assurance lead at a Seattle high-tech company that tests its products for Vista. Allen also oversees TheHotFix.net.

Allen said the Vista team discovered the bug, which "would totally crash the system, requiring a complete reinstall," in Vista Build 5824 on Friday, Oct. 13. The team fixed the bug a week later in Vista Build 5840, he said, but it delayed the delivery of the OS to PC makers.

Source: Infoworld

Yahoo announces upport for NOODP meta tag

Yahoo will now recognize the following META tags:
META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOODP"

or

META NAME="Slurp" CONTENT="NOODP"

If these are found on your pages Yahoo will not consider ODP titles or abstracts as candidates for your URL in search results.

So, if you want to use this tag, get those changes uploaded quickly as Yahoo has stated it is "reindexing content on the web" to adopt this capability.

Google Q3 Profit Nearly Doubles

Google's third-quarter profit nearly doubled from a year ago as sales of keyword-related advertising continued to grow for the world's top Web search engine.

"Business is very, very good here at Google. We had an excellent quarter in all respects, especially in international," Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said in a conference call Thursday after the results were released. During the quarter, Google saw strong user growth and improvements in search quality and ad sales, Schmidt said.

The news sent Google's stock up shares rising nearly 8 percent to $459.51 in after-hours trade, after closing at $426.06. The earnings announcement was made right after the market closed.

Source: ZD Net

IE 7 Fails Its First Security Test

It seems that Microsoft's brand-new Internet Explorer 7 browser, which was just released Oct. 18 for Windows XP, has already failed a security test.

An advisory from Secunia, released Oct. 19, says the gold version of IE 7 was shipped with an information disclosure flaw that could be used in spoofing attacks.

The vulnerability is caused by an error in the handling of redirections for URLs with the "mhtml:" URI handler. "This can be exploited to access documents served from another web site," Secunia warned.

Source: Microsoft Watch

Google to buy YouTube for $1.65 billion

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Web search leader Google Inc. (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Monday it agreed to acquire top video entertainment site YouTube Inc. for $1.65 billion in stock, the highest price yet paid for a consumer-generated media site.

The first deal to value one of the new generation of user-participation Web sites at more than $1 billion combines two of the most popular Internet brands: Google, synonymous with Web search and rapid innovation, and YouTube, a Silicon Valley upstart that has spearheaded the video-sharing craze.

YouTube, which grew in 19 months from a start-up in a garage to now serve 100 million videos daily, has drawn scrutiny from major media companies for copyrighted television and music videos that users post without owner consent.

Source: Reuters

Times Reader Beta Launches

The Times Reader beta is now open to everyone. To participate, go to the Times Reader page on First Look and click the “Download” button. You will be asked to register for Times Reader and then invited to download the software.

Times Reader runs on Microsoft’s new Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), which is built into the new Vista operating system and is included in the .Net 3.0 Framework service pack for Windows XP. If you are using Windows XP, the installer application will first install Net 3.0 Framework, a process that takes about ten minutes, and then install Times Reader, a process that takes about two minutes.

What is Times Reader?
Times Reader is a new, downloadable software application that lets Windows XP and Vista users read The New York Times electronically, online or offline, in a paginated format as opposed to scrolling down a Web page. Times Reader lets users retrieve all the latest news and photos (a process that takes about a minute) and read the content offline. It also let’s you check to see how much of the paper you have read and easily navigate to articles of interest that you may have missed.

Microsoft Releases Vista Release Candidate 2

Microsoft released the second version of its Vista Release Candidate on Friday, called Windows Vista Release Candidate 2 (RC2).

RC1 was released in early September and RC2 was developed according to feedback the company has received over the last few weeks.

"RC2 reflects that feedback and includes important improvements in performance, application compatibility, and fit and finish work," said a statement released by Microsoft on Friday afternoon. A Microsoft representative was not available for comment to discuss the specific changes.

Source: ABC News

Google code search launched

Google Code Search helps you find function definitions and sample code by giving you one place to search publicly accessible source code hosted on the Internet. With Google Code Search, you can:

* Use regular expressions to search more precisely
* Restrict your search by language, license or filename
* View the source file with links back to the entire package and the webpage where it came from

Source: Google

Try it out:
http://www.google.com/codesearch

Microsoft to lock pirates out of Vista PCs

Windows Vista will have new antipiracy technology that locks people out their PCs if the operating system isn't activated within 30 days after installation.

If Vista is not activated with a legitimate product registration key in time, the system will run in "reduced functionality mode" until it is activated, said Thomas Lindeman, a senior product manager at Microsoft. In this mode, people will be able to use a Web browser for up to an hour, after which time the system will log them out, he said.

Source: Cnet

Google Gadgets on your website

Google Inc. said on Tuesday it is making it easier to add hundreds of miniature programs to independent Web sites, in a move that brings handy features to users instead of making users rely on Google.com.

The Web search leader has jumped ahead of rivals -- such as Apple Computer Inc., Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. -- who offer mini-applets or "gadgets" when the user has installed special software on individual computer desktops.

Google Gadgets, which have previously been available for users to add to a Web user's personalised Google homepage or their own computers via Google Desktop software, are now available for Web page owners to add to their own sites.

Source: Reuters

Try it out:
http://www.google.com/ig/directory?synd=open

Google's launches test site - SearchMash

Google's gained a new unbranded site called SearchMash where it plans to test user interface ideas without Google's brand somehow skewing the tests. Below, more about the site and comments from Google about it.

Currently, SearchMash allows you to perform a search and get web and image results presented side-by-side. It's similar to how A9 has long allowed side-by-side results, ironically a feature that A9 has made much harder to implement after a recent redesign over there.

Web results are presented in the main left-hand column after a search and seem ranked the same as at Google. Unlike Google, presentation is different. Results are numbered. Clicking on the URL line makes a box pop-up with options to:

* open the listing in the current window
* a new window
* to see more pages from that web site
* to find similar pages.

After the first ten results, there's a "more web pages" link at the bottom. Click on this, and you get another 10 results magically appearing on the same page, inserted below the first 10. You can keep going, adding 10 more results at a time.

Source: SearchEngineWatch

Try it out for yourself: http://www.searchmash.com/