Another 3 years in the love shack.

That’s right, you can expect to see Google as the default search option inside Firefox for another 3 years or so. The original deal was originally supposed to expire in 2006 but the two internet darlings tied up for another two years. The latest deal should run until 2011.

The Mozilla foundation does well out of this deal - to the tune of $57 million in 2006. That’s in the region of 85% of Mozillas total revenue! Don’t jump the gun; this money allows Mozilla to pay for further development of the Firefox browser, bandwidth and infrastructure services. There is one downside - Mozilla is almost totally reliant on Googles money. Without it we might now see the polished product that Firefox currently is.

Makes me wonder why Goolge haven’t bought Mozilla yet, just think of the potential - a Firefox derivative to replace the traditional OS.

Popularity: 6% [?]

…again!

Yahoo isn’t doing well in its attempt to build a social network; Yahoo Mash is closing down. When you sign into the Mash you’re presented with a splash page that’s basically says, come the 29th September 2008 it’s lights out for Yahoo Mash!

The closure of Mash is Yahoo’s fourth attempt at building a social network; 360, which was launched in 2005 was closed down earlier this year. Back in 2006 Yahoo attempted to tie up a deal with Facebook - that fell flat on its face despite Yahoo throwing up to £1.62 billion on the table. Then there was Bebo - a billion dollar that deal that never was. Think: racehorse, paddock, shot!

Let’s face it, social networks offer potentially huge rewards for the company that get’s it right so you can’t blame Yahoo if they try again and again and again…. Looks like they’ve taken the story of Robert the Bruce and the spider to heart.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Gunning for Apple?

Based on the answer given at the Android Fireside, I’d say ‘Yes’. During the discussion, one of the audience members threw up this quesition; ‘Will there be technology provided to support content distribution?’.

The answer…

“We’ve thought about it. It would be a great benefit to the Android community if there’s a place people can go to safely and securely download their content and have a billing system so that developers can get paid for their effort, and I have nothing to announce today, we’ve thought of it…We wouldn’t have done our job if we didn’t provide something that helps developers get distribution.” –Andy Rubin

There you have it. Looks like Googles Android shotgun has both barrels aimed squarely at Apple!

Is it just me, or can you feel a Google monopoly growing here?

Popularity: 7% [?]

6 million units sold

Sometime this week, the sales of iPhone 3G will hit the 6 million figure. So, only 7 weeks after being launched, the new Apple mobile phone has outsold the first generation iPhone. That’s a pretty impressive achievement even though the battery isn’t great and their have been a lot of owners complaining about 3G.

The original iPhone took about a year before they sold 6 million units - looks like Apples marketing department went into overdrive on the 3G. Even more impressive is the point at which iPhone sales hit the one million mark - about twodays for the 3G and 74 days for the first generation handset. I’m sure this is only the starting point for Apple; Businessweek has suggested that Foxconn will be building 150,000 handsets per day.Add the figures up and you can see that Apple is aiming to sell 40 million iPhones over the next year. There’s a lot of animosity in the mobile phone market with Open Source fans eagerly awaiting the launch of Android but Apple may have an edge here as well; by throwing open the iPhone Apps code Apple has already made significant headway into the ‘grow your own applications’ market.

Let’s see what Android has to offer.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Watch out for the Apple imitators

At the recent IDF, Intel stated that their second-generation dual-core mobile processors for … ultra thin and light notebook PCs” are soon to made available to all hardware manufacturers. This effectively means that any PC builder can create a MacBook clone.

I’m not entirely sure of the reasoning behind this announcement (apart from the money factor). Let’s face it, if any of these othere companies were half as innovative as Apple we’d have seen a waifer thin laptop a long time ago.

I don’t expect to see this go unanswered by Apple either. Knowing Jobs and Co. I’d expect to see an Air replacement hitting the market soon after the launch of a Far Eastern copycat.

Popularity: 8% [?]

…after 4 years

Firstly, Google Suggest is an auto-complete tool for searches on Googles homepage. The service will allow users to see the most commonly searched phrases after they’ve typed in the first few letters of query. A little like Firefox does when you use the Google builtin search bar.

The service isn’t live just yet but should be with us in a week or so. If you’re interested in trying it out now here’s the link - Google Suggest.

Although the Suggest feature was started back in 2004 it’s already been incorporated into Google Labs, Toolbar, Firefox, Maps and web based search (for a select group of countries) and YouTube.

This should make searching simpler and cut down on the number of spelling mistakes made by searchers (is this the end of making bank on adsense using typos?) but is by no means original. Yahoo have had this feature for some as has Cuil. Let’s see if Microsoft joing the party?

Popularity: 6% [?]

Access blocked to Chinese users.

The Chinese government has a history of blocking websites that are deemed sensitive but is iTunes a hotbed of anti-Chinese propaganda?

The reason behind the Chinese decision was the availability of a pro-Tibet album which has become a hit on the online music store.

Over the past week, many Chinese users have been unable to access iTunes although Apple’s Beijing-based spokeswoman Huang Yuna said she did not know why music fans were unable to log on.

“We’ve noticed the problem. It’s true that users may fail to log in to iTunes store right now,” she told AFP.

Investigations are still ongoing.

The restrictions started after a pro-Tibet album, “Songs for Tibet”, was launched on iTunes on August 8. The album soon become a hugely popular download all around. It seems the albums review page became the epicentre of a huge pie slinging contest between pro-Tibet web users and Chinese nationalists. The page registered over 400 posts before it was eventually taken down by Apple. Amongst the less complimentary comments was this blinder: “The Tibetan culture has been massacred by the oppressive Chinese government.” Rumours suggest that the review page comments were the reason the site was blocked in China.

Historical note: China has ruled Tibet since 1951, a year after sending troops in to “liberate” it - I’m not entirely sure what they needed to liberated from. Facist Yetis, maybe?

Popularity: 8% [?]

…defying scarey economic predictions

Recently, Mervyn King, the head of the Bank of England, pretty much said “we’re stuffed” ! Ok, those aren’t his exact words but over the next few years we should all expect some pretty hard times.

So it would seem that we’re going to slow down on buying, business will dry up, unemployment will rise… It may well happen but I don’t think many consumers (that’s you and me) are listening according to a report released by IMRG and Crapgemini. The figures show UK internet sales reached £4.8bn in July - that’s a massive 11.3 per cent rise  over June. This figure is equivalent to £79 spent for every person in the UK.

‘Hooray, the economy is going to be fine’ - not exactly! Online spending went up, high street sale went down by 0.9%. So, do we finally trust technology to help do our shopping or are we just lazy? Look at is this way, why go to town when you have it delivered?

The largest sales increases were seen in clothing, footwear and accessories, which rose by 22.8 per cent. Call me a sceptic, but a lot of this could be parents getting ready for their kids going back to school!

Popularity: 7% [?]

4.5% growth, according to Gartner

Doom and gloom in the world economy, unless you work in IT. Gartner has suggested that Worldwide IT spending could increase by nearly five per cent from last year’s figures.

Two of reasons for this predicted growth centre around emerging regions of world prosperity and the shelving of obsolete systems.

According to Gartner analyst Jim Tully, “Organisations are switching from company-owned hardware and software assets to per-use service-based models,” - now you can see why SaaS is such a big thing.

Software and IT services will probably account for the largest amount of IT spend. Hardware sales growth is highest in the PC market,  representing around 60 per cent of the total hardware spend.Guess it’s time to get your learning cap on and buy into the whole IT thing!

Popularity: 8% [?]

Microsoft are getting ready to release technical details surrounding the Windows 7 operating system, according to a new blog about the OS.

Engineering managers Jon DeVaan and Steven Sinofsky have written in their blog, Engineering Windows 7, “in-depth technical information…” will be released at the Professional Developers Conference on October 27 and the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) the following week.

Some reporters are suggesting that, by pushing Windows 7 into the public gaze Microsoft is signalling the demise of Vista! I must point out at this stage that I’ve been using Vista for some time now and, as far as I’m concerned, it was dead from the start. Poor responses from users and the slow uptake among enterprises would suggest that I’m right.

Apparently, the Engineering Windows 7 blog will allow a two-way disussion to take place based on comments and input from the engineering team.

It would appear that some commenters simply won’t let Vista fade away as some some have used the blog to highlight flaws in Vista - just let it die!

“Less is more. Really, it is. Microsoft went completely in the wrong direction with Vista,” wrote one commenter. “I personally think that, if you want a real hit on your hands, strip down the Vista OS to bare bones, optimise the heck out of the code, and tune the baby for speed.” - hmm, no shit!

Windows 7 has been slated for release in early 2010. Microsoft better pray that it doesn’t suck like Vista!

Popularity: 12% [?]