Google has released Chrome 27 to the stable channel according to the official Chrome Releases blog on Wednesday, with slew of improvements which includes the ability to engage in a conversation with the iconic search engine, Google on desktop computers.
Google had earlier made its voice search feature available for mobile, Google Now, on Android and iOS devices, which has greatly improved general search experience on smartphones and tablet devices.
Now, Google voice search can be experienced right on your desktop computer once you've got Chrome 27 installed. The feature allows you to engage in a direct conversation with Google instead of typing search queries, simply speak your search terms and Google will respond with the answer.
The new search innovation rides on its Knowledge Graph technology to arrive at a more accurate answers to your search queries. Unlike conventional search pattern that relies on keywords, the Knowledge Graph brings semantic understanding to search experience, an intelligent model that relates to real-world events and entities.
The feature adds to already growing voice technologies coming to the web, and also recently, the Web Speech API was demonstrated with stunning results signaling the beginning of more intelligent voice applications coming to the web soon.
Cloud Computing has indeed become a really popular topic in I.T circles lately, and as such, has generated a lot of obscured facts along the line. Its front-page news status has been accelerated by Amazon, Google and Microsoft among others, aggressively vying for leadership in the cloud infrastructure service space.
The race for leadership in cloud computing infrastructure services has contributed to the haze surrounding cloud computing facts.
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The web marketing approach in modern times have greatly shifted to the social media, and the strategies to position your enterprise or business on the platform continues to evolve.
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Google's obsession for speed and faster deployment of images on the web led to the development of WebP, an open-source image format which is an improvement on the compression that JPEG and PNG provides. WebP was officially announced in September 2010, as an alternative image format, with significant bytes savings of about 30% - 80% compared to JPEG and PNG.
The open-source image format, WebP took a center stage at the just concluded developers' conference Google I/O, with session covering the latest features, news and future roadmap of the WebP format.
Google has effectively implemented the new image format on its social networking platform, Google+ Android App and a host of other web service companies including Facebook have joined the WebP bandwagon. WebP's unique features includes ability to render transparent sections of an image with lossless compression as in the case of PNG and lossy as in JPEG (Lossy compression is shrinking of file with data losses, while Lossless compression retains original image).
Albeit, PNG supports image transparency, JPEG not supported; WebP can offer both transparent and more beautiful smaller fill size of lossy compression.
The encoding is based on Google VP8 codec, applied through the infra frame coding to push the envelope in still image coding. And runs on the WebM technology, which means any hardware that supports WebM will also support WebP.
The company hopes to push WebP into replacing current image formats, JPEG and PNG on the pros of increased efficiency and rendering speed recorded in the new format.
Google at its ongoing developers' conference Google I/O, announced the integration of Google Wallet (the company's online payment system) with Gmail, allowing users to send money directly within emails. The innovative feature, "payment-via-email" is aimed to boost the reach of Google Wallet service among other things.
Google Wallet availability via Gmail means users can now securely send money to friends and family without the hassles of leaving their inbox.
The service is free to send money if your bank account is linked to Google Wallet or you're using your Google Wallet Balance, according to the company's blog. While sending money using your linked credit or debit card attracts low charges.
The feature will be rolling-out to Gmail users ages 18+ in United States in the next few months. And to activate, simply look for the $ icon in your attachment options.
However, if your friends have early access and send money to you, you'll automatically get access to use the service.Whereas, without getting a payment from someone with early access to the service, you'll have to wait until the service have been rolled-out to everyone to activate.
The company is hoping to drive more users to its payment service by this new feature and intend to make it go viral in the coming months.
Adobe's Creative Suite CS6 launch about a year ago created a unique new way for the company to license it's product offering: introducing the Creative Cloud service, which affords users access to Adobe's software library for a monthly or annual fee.
Creative Cloud makes Adobe's applications available in an entirely unique way not before thought possible, via a subscription model for the very first time. What this means for users is that instead of coughing-out a whopping Adobe Software license fee, they can have complete access to Adobe's Software library at a more tenable monthly or yearly fee as the case may be.
The line of argument, however, is on the fact that a Master Collection license is forever, while on the Creative Cloud service, constant subscription charges are applied.
On individual usage calculation, if you require Adobe's application for a brief spell, then the Creative Cloud option seems a better bargain. But for those professionals who are always on the job, a Master Collection license is best.
Also, non power users are at a more disadvantage with Creative Cloud option, as the same charges apply even when fewer applications are actually used. While, on the Master Suite you can purchase license on only selectable applications you require.
The pros of Creative Cloud hinges on features like cloud storage and syncing options available on the service. Perhaps, software as a service (SaaS) offerings will take a clue here, given that Adobe's business model, Creative Cloud is gaining more and more attention, lately.
Microsoft web-mail service, Outlook.com is indeed building up to challenge the Gmail advances with slew of innovative features coming to the messaging platform. The new web-mail service already boast of the best social integration with Skype, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn connections and now, has added Google chat integration according to the Outlook blog.
Microsoft's openness to users demand is becoming more evidence, hence the endless pool of features to improve users experience across its service offerings.
Google chat integration means users can connect with friends using Google services without leaving the messaging platform. The feature is currently rolling out and so may take some more days to get across all users.
Microsoft recently launched two-factor authentication system to beef of security across its services, and the good part, it's open to all locations unlike Google's 2-Step Verification which omitted some really heavy users' country like Nigeria in the supported country list.
Outlook.com also support core security standards like DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance) making the platform impregnable to phishing attacks.
Perhaps, going by the tempo of innovative additions, Outlook.com may eventually become the Gmail Killer analysts have dubbed it.
Mozilla Foundation has been at the forefront of innovations coming to the web, promoting openness and opportunity, currently advancing the web as a platform for gaming with its latest experiments on JavaScript. The company through its "extremely restricted" subset of JavaScript is now wooing developers and publishers to take advantage of the fast performance that rivals native applications without the additional costs.
Mozilla's ASM.js project is perhaps the greatest bet on the proliferation of web application, with the ability to supercharge developers' gaming program on the browser, visually compelling, and fast 3D gaming experience.
Epic Games is among the early birds in the Mozilla project, teaming up with the open source giant to leverage the scale of the web to distribute stunning and performance intensive games to billions of web users without the additional costs associated with third-party plugins.
Mozilla demonstrated how it was unlocking the web as a platform for gaming in the announcement of a port of Unreal Engine 3 running on Firefox compiled from C++ source with Emscripten, running efficiently without the need for plugins.
And in conjunction with Epic Games has gone ahead to demo "Epic Citadel", so that users can try it out themselves. However, it's recommended that you use the newest version of Firefox Nightly (Firefox 23 and above) for better experience.
Game developers have been called upon to explore the possibilities of the web as a platform for gaming by visiting Mozilla's Developers Gaming Network. Also, those wishing to port their already existing games can find useful information through the Emscripten Project page.
