Better Faster PC

If you have been using the internet for a long time you will remember Ask Jeeves (read about Ask at Wikipedia here) which was one of the competitors to Google, Yahoo!, AltaVista, WebCrawler and other search engines that have slowly fallen by the wayside as the omni-present Google has slowly (but comprehensively gained control of the Search Engine market).

Ask Jeeves was based on the concept and image of a butler that you asked a question to, but eventually it was re-branded as Ask.com and the butler fell away. Some research has apparently established that 3 years since the reb-randing the ‘Ask Jeeves’ identity is still more well known that the newer ‘Ask.com’. Hence (though currently only in the UK) the Ask Jeeves logo, branding and website is back. It is doubtful whether this will establish Ask as a major competitor in search engine world but you never know.

The Ask Jeeves UK website is here and the other Ask.com homepage is here.

OutWit Docs for Firefox does only one thing, but it simplifies a process that can often be very difficult, finding the right documents you want online. OutWit Docs will do just that for you, finding text documents, datasheets, PDF files, presentations and more from multiple online sources. Check out the website right here.

Yahoo! has just launched a new music service, which incorporates content from other sites like Pandora, Last.fm, YouTube and more.

Check out the Yahoo! Music site HERE

A couple of things happening in the world of Google you might be interested in:

• Google has FINALLY introduced themes for users that use Gmail with their own domain (like companies). That means if you are in an office and have been stuck with the plain, old boring standard Gmail theme for too long now you can change that (though apparently it has not been rolled out to every single domain, though this will occur shortly) by clicking on ‘Settings’ in the right hand corner. There should now be a tab called Themes from which you can select a Theme. Read more about it at Download Squad HERE
• If you use one Gmail account to manage more than one address you will have encountered the on behalf of phrase that is added to your emails, revealing the fact that the email was sent from a different email address. This was one of the reasons I personally stopped using Gmail for this purpose as I felt it negated the entire concept of anonymously managing multiple addresses (apart from the worry of your email address falling into the hands of the spammers you were trying to avoid in the first place!). This little phrase is NO MORE, thank goodness. Read more about it HERE
• If you love Autocomplete (the feature that makes suggestions when type in a search box) you will want to check out the new Gmail Labs feature that does just that - when you type in a search in Gmail it will offer suggestions with some extra features throw in as well. Worth checking out (and enabling) - go HERE
• Lifehacker did an interview with Senior Product Manager of Gmail, Keith Coleman, on the 5th Birthday of the ’still-in-beta’ free email service. Read it HERE

The guys from Mozilla (the same people that give us software like Firefox, Songbird, Thunderbird and others) have been busy lately. Here is a short update of what is going on:

• Personas (Firefox ’skins’ that change the appearance of the browser) has reached the 1.0 release. Check it out HERE. Though I will be honest I prefer the themes (which you can get from Mozilla HERE) myself
• Firefox 3 is officially more popular than Internet Explorer 7 in Europe and this is the first time in years that Microsoft is not top dog! Read more about it at Reuters right HERE
• Mozilla Labs has released Version 0.3 of Weave which is in essence similar to XMarks (or Foxmarks as it was called) meaning it enable synchronization of Foxmarks settings across multiple computers. Though not yet at 1.0 Weave already has a few extra features which XMarks does not, like Browsing History and Open Tab synchronization. It also works with Fennec, the version of Firefox for portable devices (also still in development). Check out Weave right HERE
• Lifehacker has a great post detailing four new expermintal extensions which you would probably want to read. The extensions are CacheSearch, FindList, Firefox 3.5 New Tab Prototype, tweecious. Check out the post HERE

If you are a user of Outlook 2007 you will be interested to know that there is a new hotfix available from Microsoft that, “will improve hard disk usage, startup and shutdown times, and help those with smaller, cached mailbox storage”.

This cumulative update will apparently be included in Service Pack 2 but as this is not available at the moment and if you are a regular user of Outlook 2007 then you might want to install it.

The post at Lifehacker is HERE and the Microsoft download page is HERE.

Two Google related topics you should be aware of:

• A bunch of holes have been discovered in the security of the web application Google Docs. If you are a user of Google Docs and keep any sensitive information stored there you would want to read this. The article at TechCrunch is HERE. If you don’t know what a web application (webapp) is, then you might want to read the Wikipedia entry which is HERE
• Gmail is celebrating it’s fifth birthday soon and with that they have announced “Google is celebrating with the launch of an exciting new product”. What it is I am not sure, but come April 7 we will find out. Read more about it HERE and HERE

If you use Google Image Search then you will be interested to know that it is now possible to search by color! That means if you are specifically looking for “red” images then you can now do it.

The basic search query is structured like this: “http://images.google.com/images?q=frog&imgcolor=green” and then you just change the color to “blue”, “red”, “teal”, “purple”, “yellow”, “orange”, “pink”, “white”, “gray”, “black” and “brown” depending on what you are looking for.

Read this post at Google Operating System (an Unofficial Google Blog) right HERE.

There is a lot of buzz going around regarding Facebook and the redesign which was recently implemented. According to polls it is not liked (at ALL) by most of the users! According to a recent poll only just over 5% of the repsondents LIKE the redesign with the rest of the users indicating they DID NOT like the redesign. There is even a Facebook group called “MEMBERS WANT THE OLD FACEBOOK BACK” amongst others, which are all petitioning to get Facebook to revert to the old design.

Whether this will mean going back to the old design is debatable but if you want to read more about it check out these posts:

• Welcome to Your New Home Page - The official Facebook blog post regarding the redesign is HERE
• Cast your vote officially on Facebook regarding the new layout HERE
• AllFacebook (an Unofficial Facebook Blog) has an extensive and interesting article HERE
• VentureBeat has a comprehensive article on the issue, read it HERE
• The DownloadSquad post regarding the issue is HERE

Read more about Facebook at Wikipedia right HERE if you want.

Microsoft has just released Internet Explorer 8 and for many it may be a good idea to upgrade. Newer browsers generally mean better security, apart from any new features or speed increases they may incorporate. Tighter security measures mean a safer browsing experience and are just plain a better idea. So, let’s get into the good stuff, the software.

• The official Microsoft Download Page for Internet Explorer 8 is HERE
• If you DON’T want Internet Explorer delivered via Windows Update then you will need the Official Internet Explorer 8 Blocker Toolkit from Microsoft which will prevent the Automatic Delivery of Internet Explorer 8 via Windows Upate. You can get it HERE
• Download Squad has two great posts detailing how to “Pimp” Internet Explorer 8 which basically give a good run down of add-ons and other goodies for Internet Explorer 8. Really worth checking out. Pimp Internet Explorer 8 Part 1 is HERE and Part 2 is HERE
• Microsoft has it’s own add-ons gallery which has a large number of add-ons which you can sort by category etc. Also worth checking out - right HERE
• Want to find out a bit more about Internet Explorer 8 before installing it, then you can check out the Wikipedia entry right HERE. Also check out the official Internet Explorer 8 Blog which is HERE
• PCMag.com has a list of their favourite add-ons for Internet Explorer 8 which you can check out HERE. Simple Thoughts has their list of 20 Internet Explorer 8 add-ons which you can check out HERE
• If you have not installed Microsoft Silverlight yet, then you might want to do that as well, to enhance your browsing experience, though it is not essential. The Official Silverlight Site is HERE
• You will also need .NET (as far as I know) though you should have it. If you don’t, which is unlikely, you can get it HERE