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New Media News Every Morning

MSN Launches its New Homepage with Bing Search in the Forefront

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You know MSN, right? It’s Microsoft’s equivalent of the Yahoo content network. If you’re a Microsoft fan and an Internet Explorer user, this must be your browser’s start-up page.  For the past couple of months, MSN announced that it was redesigning its homepage and so the site is finally being rolled out to U.S. MSN users.

And what does the new MSN homepage brings to the table? Here’s a quick rundown of its new features:

  • It’s all about Bing – the Bing search box is now larger and is located front and center of your MSN homepage to let you search as quickly as possible. The new homepage also gives you popular topics and an increased prominence of Popular searches. There’s also a new TrendWatch feature which highlights the day’s top movers on Twitter. And finally, an increased focus on editorial programming of search-related content such as videos and images.
  • MSN Local Edition – MSN also has a localized version which gives you specific information depending on your local area. The new homepage now lets you personalize MSN Local and save up to 3 cities to follow.  The new feauture also brings in HyperLocal tweets which uses Bing search to power up local tweets. And MSN Local Edition now offers 3,000 news video clips a week across 36 local markets.
  • More HD videos on the homepage – in-line HD video is now being offered on the MSN homepage with minimal buffering.
  • Social networking on the homepage – Check your Hotmail, Messenger, Facebook, Twitter and Windows Live accounts on the MSN homepage.

Originally posted on May 24, 2010 @ 5:53 pm

Google Earth Makes Hiking Geek Friendly (Again)

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The search engine giant has released another update for Google Earth users that should please those who enjoy hiking, biking and running in the out doors (especially over long distances).

With Google Earth 5.2, you can now import existing GPS data as a new kind of “track.” With a track, you can move the time-slider to animate time and retrace your journey. Google Earth will draw an icon so that it is properly positioned for the given time that you are viewing. As you move through time, the icon will animate along your path. You can also select a window of time which will highlight the corresponding section of your trip.

In Google Earth 5.0, we introduced Tours: cinematic, narrated flights around Google Earth. With one click you can make a tour based on your track, which will fly you along your journey from a bird’s-eye view. You can play back the tour like a video and share it with friends. (Official Google LatLong Blog)

By integrating tracks with their 3D software, Google Earth will once again become a highlight among bikers, runners and hikers (who often like to brag how far and fast they have traveled on a particular route or trail, this author included). [Read more…]

Originally posted on June 14, 2010 @ 7:14 pm

Google Gives YouTube Channels a Moderator

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If you want to transform an otherwise “one-way” content site to a “tw0-way” community site, you have to do it one step at a time. And that’s what Google is trying to achieve with its priceless possession – YouTube. After rolling out some social sharing features, Google now deems it just about the right time to encourage more social participation not only to the YouTube site as a whole but to individual content channels created by its users. Hence, to facilitate real-time feedback and discussion on YouTube channels, Google Moderator has just been made available to everyone.

Google Moderator is a versatile, social platform that allows any YouTube user to collect comments, questions or ideas on their channels.  What’s fun about this feature is that your channel viewers can watch a particular rise to the top via this Google Moderator commenting/voting feature. Google has been using Moderator as part of its previous interviews with President Obama as well as Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

In case you’re interested in using Google Moderator on your YouTube channels, here’s how Google describes how Google Moderator works:

” You set the parameters for the dialogue, including the topic, the type of submissions, and the length of the conversation. Watch as submissions get voted up or down by your audience, and then respond to the top-voted submissions by posting a video on your channel. The platform operates in real-time, and you can remove any content that you or your audience flag as inappropriate. You can also embed the platform on your own website or blog.”

To find out some more examples of how people used Google Moderator on YouTube, watch 11 more videos from users who were asked by Google to try out the Google Moderator. It’s kind of fun, actually.

Originally posted on May 27, 2010 @ 4:52 pm

Video: Windows 7 Smartphone Copies iPhone (Still Ugly)

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Despite being late to the smartphone game, it looks like Microsoft’s Windows 7 smartphone could make a strong entrance into the smartphone arena, despite the crowded field.

While the mobile OS looks highly functional (in some ways more than Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android, especially in the social networking department), the overall layout of the OS remains an eye sore as one can tell from the video below. [Read more…]

Originally posted on June 23, 2010 @ 10:58 am

Is Dell Creating A Google Chrome Laptop?

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Known mostly for creating PC’s powered by Windows, it looks like Dell could be pondering a laptop powered by the search engine giant’s official operating system (aka Chrome OS).

“There are going to be unique innovations coming up in the marketplace in two, three years, with a new form of computing, we want to be on that forefront … So with Chrome or Android or anything like that we want to be one of the leaders,” [Dell’s president for Greater China and South Asia] Midha said, adding that there were no firm announcements to be made but talks were underway. (Reuters) [Read more…]

Originally posted on June 21, 2010 @ 3:30 pm