Recent Web Browser usage statistics suggest that Microsoft is loosing big time in times to come due to onslaught from Mozilla Firefox and Apple's Safari browser. Recent numbers suggest that from more than 91% in 2004 to around 65% in 2009 Q2, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is struggling to keep pace with the onslaught of Mozilla’s Firefox with the latter moving swiftly from around 4% to 23% in the same period.

Tags: Firefox | Internet Explorer

Microsoft is expected to demonstrate its new search engine at the Wall Street Journal's D: All Things Digital conference in Calif. The new search engine is 'currently' named Kumo.

Will keep posted on the updates.

http://blogs.msdn.com/livesearch/archive/2009/03/03/testing-one-two-three.aspx

An Update: Microsoft has launched a new search engine called Bing at: http://www.bing.com

Tags: Bing

Picasa for Mac is available for free download in US English at: http://picasa.google.com/mac/.

Picasa for Mac makes it easy to manage large photo collections and helps users make professional-looking edits without any technical knowledge, including:

• A drag-and-drop photo collage tool that gives users control over layout and content
• A retouching brush to wipe out scratches and blemishes - and repair old photos
• A slideshow movie maker that uploads users photo montage videos to YouTube with a click
• Smart auto-cropping that guides users on how to zoom in on their subject
• And, auto red-eye removal.

Facebook connect allows any developer to let users login to their websites using Facebook credentials. Developers can also integrate 'your friends list' into third-party applications, which in turn can send data back into Facebook and the News feed.

Facebook connect enables users to:

• Seamlessly "connect" their Facebook account and information with your site
• Connect and find their friends who also use your site
• Share information and actions on your site with their friends on Facebook

 YouTube has expanded the width of the page to 960 pixels to better reflect the quality of the videos being created and the screens that  are being used to watch them. The new, wider player is in a widescreen aspect ratio which will provide with a cleaner, more powerful viewing experience.

All 4:3 aspect ratio videos will play fine in the new player. Want to give feedback to YouTube? Click here.

Microsoft Corp. yesterday announced a search distribution deal with Sun Microsystems Inc. to offer the MSN Toolbar, powered by Microsoft Live Search, to U.S.-based Internet Explorer users when they download the Java™ Runtime Environment (JRE™), effective as of Nov.10, 2008.

Google' Visualization API now support server-side data requests.

More about Google's Visualization API:

The Google Visualization API lets you access multiple sources of structured data that you can display, choosing from a large selection of visualizations. Google Visualization API enables you to expose your own data, stored on any data-store that is connected to the web, as a Visualization compliant data source. Thus you can create reports and dashboards as well as analyze and display your data through the wealth of available visualization applications. The Google Visualization API also provides a platform that can be used to create, share and reuse visualizations written by the developer community at large.

URL: Google Visualization API

On Monday, at PDC 2008 Microsoft announced it’s new Cloud OS named Windows Azure. Windows Azure provides a highly scalable virtualization fabric for server-side application execution, deployment, automatic management, and simple storage. Windows Azure provides the base infrastructure for services in the cloud.
The Windows Azure SDK provides developers with the tools and APIs needed to develop, deploy, and manage scalable services in Windows Azure.

Gartners Magic Quadrant for Information Access Technology is out! Thanks to the acquisition of FAST Search and Transfer; Microsoft is leading the pack for the first time. Autonomy has slipped to the second place. Google is still in the challegers zone.

For further reading, please click here.

The 1.2 billion dollar purchase of "FAST Search and Transfer ASA" will form a strategic base for Microsoft in the enterpsire search domain.

Fast offers Microsoft high-end enterprise search technology, complementing Microsoft's existing enterprise search tools aimed at the lower end of the market, including its Search Server products. Microsoft has said that it plans to integrate Fast's technology with SharePoint, the enterprise collaboration software product.