Windows desktop search business version

To keep pace with rivals, Microsoft plans to announce a business version of its Windows Desktop Search application at the IT Forum currently being held in Barcelona.

According to CNet in The New York Tinmes (15 November), similar to the present version designed for consumers, Microsoft's new tool will allow businesses to decide just what gets indexed and searched on their corporate networks, as well as make it easier for IT managers to deploy the tool.

When it released the Windows Desktop Search program, Microsoft promised to release an enterprise version. Rival Google launched an enterprise version of its Google Desktop program earlier this month, says CNet.

The report says that Microsoft released a beta version of its desktop search tool last December. The final version was released in May. Microsoft said the product will be available in 15 languages.

Desktop search has emerged as a key battleground for all of the internet search players, including Microsoft, Google and Yahoo, according to CNet in the NYT report.

According to the report, while largely comparable to the current version, Microsoft's business-oriented desktop search program will enable users to also search their corporate intranet. Windows Desktop Search, though, will not index or crawl through corporate data. Instead, it will provide a gateway to a company's existing portal tools, whether that's Microsoft's SharePoint Server or a third-party product.

{mospagebreaktitle=Microsoft creating supercomputer software}Microsoft creating supercomputer software

Microsoft is developing software for high-performance computers often used in engineering and science research, in a move that puts the company in another head-to-head battle with open-source developers.

The Associated Press reports in The New York Times (15 November) that Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates plans to announce the release of another test version of the company's software at a supercomputing industry conference in Seattle.

The AP  report says that Craig Mundie, one of Microsoft's chief technical officers, said the company is entering the market as high-powered computers are becoming more affordable, allowing the market to expand to a point where it makes sense for Microsoft to get into it. Such computers are used for computing, storing and sharing data for a wide variety of uses, ranging from creating better medications to engineering automobiles.

While such computers used to easily cost as much as US$1 million, Mundie said some are now available for as little as US$4,000 or US$5,000.

AP says in the NYT report that the Microsoft product, called Windows Server 2003 Compute Cluster Edition, is due out in the first few months of 2006. The company has not yet set pricing.

{mospagebreaktitle=Vital data often stored on unsecured devices-survey}Vital data often stored on unsecured devices-survey

One in three mobile computers and smartphones is not protected with a password or security lock, even though they contain PIN codes and sensitive information, a survey showed on Monday.

The Associated Press reports in The New York Times (14 November) that three out of 10 of these sloppy handheld happy users store their PIN numbers, passwords and other corporate information on them, according to the annual Mobile Usage Survey from security software firm Pointsec.

AP reports that smartphones are handsets mainly used by business users offering limited PC-type functionality, including e-mail.

According to the global survey, corporate personnel now store huge amounts of corporate data on their mobile devices, including customer contacts, email details, passwords and bank account details as well as personal and private information.

The reports says that more people than ever admit to having lost their mobile device. This year, 22 percent of interviewees said they had lost their device against 16 percent in 2004. Of those who lost their smartphone or handheld computer, 81 percent had not encrypted the information on it.

AP reports that the survey found that traveling with a mobile device was the most likely way to lose it, with the majority not being stolen, but rather forgotten in the back of a taxi, left in an airport or on the train. Only 40 percent of losses were reported to the police.

A total 13 million smart mobile devices were sold in the third quarter alone, 75 percent more than the year-ago period, according to Canalys market research in Britain. Nokia expects 100 million smartphones to be sold next year.

With its new software, the company is aiming for small-to mid-sized versions of the powerful computers, mainly the type that are used by academic researchers and businesses. Mundie said the company also is hoping that its software will make it easier for less technically savvy people to set up such systems.

According to AP., currently, most such computers are run on custom-rigged software using Unix or open-source Linux technology. Unlike Microsoft, which believes that software blueprints should be closely guarded, people who develop using open-source technology hold that the underlying code and any developments should be freely shared.

{mospagebreaktitle=Gartner warns business on Vista}Gartner warns business on Vista

Business users should stay away from Microsoft's upcoming Vista OS until 2008 at the earliest, say analysts Gartner.

The Register reports (14 November) that the researchers note that most of the security improvements offered by Vista, due in 2006, are already available as third party add-ons to Windows XP.

According to The Regster, the note, titled: "Ten reasons you should and shouldn't care about Microsoft's Windows Vista client", says Vista offers the business user only incremental improvements. They recomend only putting it on new machines, and then not until it's had a two year bedding-in period.

Gartner says Internet Explorer 7 will have better security - to cut defections to Firefox. It also offers a personal firewall which was welcomed by Gartner but the analysts said laptop users should have at least a decent firewall protecting their machines already.

The Register also reports that Gartner also note that promised search function improvements in Vista are already available from firms like Google.

{mospagebreaktitle=US govt. plea in BlackBerry case}US govt. plea in BlackBerry case

The US Justice Department has stepped into the ongoing patent infringement suit against BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion (RIM), asking the court to ensure that any injunction on the use of US BlackBerrys will not affect Government workers.

The Register reports (15 November) that the Justice Department has filed a 'statement of interest' with the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, seeking a 90-day delay so that government agencies can compile a list of workers who would be affected by a BlackBerry shutdown, the Washington Post reports. These workers, says the Department, should then be exempted from any service cut-off imposed by the court.

According to The Register, the Department has also expressed concern that "there may be a substantial public interest that may be impaired" if the BlackBerry service is closed down, reports the newspaper.

The District Court is due to consider arguments on the merits of some of the patent claims brought by holding company NTP, following last month's refusal by the Supreme Court to rehear an appeal by RIM against a Court of Appeal ruling.

The District Court will also decide whether to impose an injunction prohibiting RIM from selling the BlackBerry and any other products, software or services using the disputed technology, in the US, reports The Register.

{mospagebreaktitle=Consumers punish firms over data security breaches}Consumers punish firms over data security breaches

Consumer data security breaches are leading to customer revolt and an average cost per incident of US$14m, according to a brace of surveys out this week.

The Register reports (15 November) that one in five US consumers quizzed by Ponemon Institute said they immediately terminated their accounts with vendors that lost their information. An additional 40 per cent polled by the organisation's National Survey on Data Security Breach Notification considered taking their business elsewhere after receiving notifications of information mishandling. The survey polled 9,000 consumers, 12 per cent of whom had received notices of information security breaches.

The Register also says that a parallel study conducted by Ponemon estimates an average cost of US$14 million per security breach incident, with costs ranging as high as US$50 million. The survey, Lost Customer Information: What Does a Data Breach Cost Companies?, is among the first to look at data from actual cases of lost customer data, the publication reports.

Covering 14 separate incidents, the research encompasses 1.4 million compromised data records and an estimated total of US$200 million in resulting losses. Total cost estimates include the actual cost of internal investigations, outside legal defense fees, notification and call center costs, PR and investor relations efforts, discounted services offered, lost employee productivity, and the effect of lost customers.

The Register says that both studies show customers are punishing companies that lose their confidential and private information. However the second corporate study suggests a lower number of consumers take their business elsewhere following consumer data security breaches, says the publication, adding that "this study suggests an average loss of 2.5 per cent of all customers, ranging as high as 11 per cent, as compared to 20 per cent defection after security screw-ups suggested by the consumer survey."

{mospagebreaktitle=Microsoft seeks allies in EU antitrust fight}Microsoft seeks allies in EU antitrust fight

Microsoft is pulling out all the stops in a bid to get the US government and US businesses to support it in its anti-trust battle with the European Union.

The Register reports (14 November) that, according to a leaked memo, seen by the Financial Times newspaper, Microsoft has asked several businesses, including one big pharmaceuticals company, to lobby government officials on its behalf.

The memo suggests businesses contact two specific officials, one in the DoJ, the other a special advisor to the Whitehouse. It helpfully outlines four topics the business concerned might like to raise, such as asking for the US government to "intervene directly" in the anti-trust case, says the report.

The Register says that the FT also reports that the company has itself had meetings with staff from the Department of Justice and the Whitehouse, asking for their backing against the EU.

Microsoft is currently appealing an EU ruling that it had violated Europe's anti-trust laws. The company was fined €497m, and ordered to share details of its server APIs.

The Register says that Microsoft has challenged the latter part of this ruling on the grounds that it could allow other companies to distribute its technology. It has asked the US government to intervene and join it in court against the EU's competition commission, and is lobbying other US businesses.

{mospagebreaktitle=Linux phones get standardised}Linux phones get standardised

Orange and PalmSource are among a group of companies working to standardise Linux so it can be used on a variety of mobile phones without the need to check applications will run effectively. Ten companies are backing the formation of a new standards group.

The Register reports (14 November) that the Linux Phone Standards Forum (LIPS) hopes to offer an alternative to Symbian and Microsoft's mobile operating systems. The group wants to set a standard profile for low-end phones by the end of the first quarter of 2006 followed by higher-end handsets in 2007.

It hopes to complement the work of the Mobile Linux Initiative, from the Open Source Development Labs, which is also working to encourage use of Linux on mobile devices.

The Register says Lips will work to provide APIs so programmers can make applications work more easily with the operating system.

{mospagebreaktitle=Amazon to join S.& P. 500 Index}Amazon to join S.& P. 500 Index

Standard & Poor's has said that Amazon.com, the Internet retailer, would join its flagship 500-stock index after the close of trading on Friday.

The New York Times reports (15 November) that Amazon will replace the AT&T Corporation, which is being acquired by SBC Communications, in the index. SBC, which plans to take AT&T's name, is also an S.& P. 500 component.

The newspaper says that share prices of companies joining the S.& P. 500 index often rise because many portfolio managers try to track the index, and are required by charter to buy stocks that enter the index.

Amazon, which began as an online bookseller, is the second most popular internet commerce site, after eBay.

{mospagebreaktitle=Study finds TiVo losing ground among DVR users}Study finds TiVo losing ground among DVR users

TiVo has created a digital video recorder with a name that has worked its way into the American lexicon, but its reputation among users and would-be users is beginning to erode amid generic competitors, according to a new study that relies on internet buzz to study consumers' opinion.

Reuters reports in The New York Times (15 November) that Brandimensions, the research firm that conducted the study, said that TiVo's standalone set-top box is failing in two areas: its inability to record two shows simultaneously and to play back shows in high-definition TV quality.

According to Reuters, Brandimensions used its technology to gather such comments from internet forums, discussion boards, blogs, chat rooms and other online sources. The firm searched more than 80,000 web sites where digital video recorders were critiqued and used relevancy algorithms and other techniques to boil results down to 1,300 consumer mentions.

According to Brandimensions, digital video recorderusers who use phrases like ``I TiVo'ed it last night'' outnumber the more generic ``I recorded it'' or ``I watched it on DVR'' by a relatively small margin of just above 10 percent.

Reuters says that Brandimensions said that consumers engaged in a discussion of the DVR industry mention TiVo just 60 percent of the time, indicating that awareness of generic DVRs -- mentioned in 40 percent of the cases -- is growing rapidly.

{mospagebreaktitle=Google gives away analytic tools}Google gives away analytic tools

Google plans to give away a set of analytic tools allowing web developers, administrators and advertisers to fine-tune their sites including advertising, the web search leader has said.

Reuters reports in The New York Times (14 November) that the tools are intended to address a key aspect of successful web sites, which is the ability to track user behavior to determine which features keep visitors on the site and which ones make them click away.

Google Analytics can be used by web site builders to figure out what keywords attract visitors, which promotions hold on to customers and how to design web pages that draw attention.

According to Reuters, Google, which derived virtually all of its US$1.58 billion in revenue from advertising sales during the last quarter, is betting that by giving away sophisticated web measurement tools it can also drive increased use of its search marketing services.

The report says that Google's offering is based on Urchin Web Analytics, which it acquired in March for undisclosed terms and then cut the price to US$199 a month for the service from US$400 previously.