Google has sent an instant message to its rivals with the launch of its Talk service.

At first glance, a combined instant messaging/net phone system is a strange service to launch mainly because Google’s rivals are so far ahead in terms of users and experience.

According to figures gathered by ComScore Media Metrix, America Online has more than 40 million users on its AIM and ICQ instant messaging networks. Yahoo has 20 million users and MSN Messenger has 14 million. Some of these services have been operating for more than a decade.

On net telephony, too, Google has a mountain to climb. The biggest net telephone (or voice over IP) service is run by Skype which currently claims to have 51 million users.

One of the ways that Yahoo Broadband in Japan won customers was by bundling net telephony with the net access service.

Google may have a leading share of the search market but it is a minnow when it comes to these two technologies.

What it hopes will help attract users to its instant messaging system is its offer of compatibility with the relatively closed networks of its rivals.

We are going to try to be the first in the world to connect everyone to everyone.
-Georges Harik, Google

AOL, MSN and Yahoo try to ensure that their users talk to no others simply because they fear that opening up their networks will dilute their hold and reduce the amount of cash they can generate from all these people.

So does google right? Time and popularity should buy things for google now.

What it hopes will help attract users to its instant messaging system is its offer of compatibility with the relatively closed networks of its rivals.

AOL, MSN and Yahoo try to ensure that their users talk to no others simply because they fear that opening up their networks will dilute their hold and reduce the amount of cash they can generate from all these people.

Although users can connect to other networks via more open clients, they typically lose some of the features, such as webcams and audio, that work on pure IM networks.

By contrast, Google Talk is based on an open technology called Jabber which was created to help different networks talk to each other.

Georges Harik, director of new products at Google, hinted that this was its aim when the Talk service was unveiled.

“We are going to try to be the first in the world to connect everyone to everyone,” he said.

However, Google Talk does not yet use these features of Jabber and, for the moment, is as closed as any other network. Similarly, its net telephone service currently works only for GMail account holders.

On net telephony services, it also has a long way to go to catch up with rivals not least because managing a system that can provide good quality phone calls is very different to letting people scour a database with search queries.

But there is method to Google’s seeming madness. It is clear that Google is trying to build a cluster of programs that effectively turns the net into an operating system – just like Windows does for personal computers.

Google wants to turn its collection of services and add-on programs such as the Desktop Search sidebar into a helper that users can turn to no matter what they want to do.

Google’s Desktop Search has mutated from simple search software into a holder for lots of small applications that users can access as long as they have access to a web browser.

Both the instant messaging and net telephony services work via the floating Sidebar of Google Desktop Search.

These developments also make sense of all the rumours floating around about the creation of a Google browser.

As web watcher Jason Kottke points out, it is clear that this ability to get at your stuff and use it where ever you are is becoming increasingly important to more people. It is portability rather than being tied to a particular computer that is important.

As he also points out, it is clear that Google rivals such as Microsoft, Yahoo and Apple are pushing toward the same goal.

The reason they want to get people using their system rather than a rival’s is simply because that control means they can get more advertising cash from them.

Yahoo recently bought Konfabulator which specialises in making software that can be used in lots of different web browsers.

Also, both Google and Yahoo are keen to open up the coding interfaces to their core systems and services so that the others can create useful ways to use them.

Net telephony service Skype has announced its intention to open up its network in a similar way, too.

The time for talk is over, now we have to watch the action.

In one line, its one of the cool firefox extentions for webmasters.

Created by Allen Holman, its one of the most popular and useful plugins among the blogging plugins for Firefox.

If you are using Firefox browser and have adsense ads running on your websites, whitout this plugin, I say you are missing a lot.

Look at these screenshots:
1. Firefox status bar earnings display:

2. Firefox adsense extension settings window:

I’m going to watch the numbers changing now

You can check out Allen Holman’s website for the extension here:
Google Adsense Earnings Notifier

Its been a while now that we in the Search Engine Industry are hearing about Google Talk.

Finally today, Google has released Google Talk Beta and it can be downloaded here: Download Google Talk Beta
The release went a day early than rumoured.

Google has been dominating the search engines for a long while now. And now that they are into instant messaging to compete with Yahoo! IM, MSN Messenger and may be VOIP software Spyke too? We just have to wait and see the critics and reviews. who knows if they are targeting just the IMs or VOIP tools too? May be thats their ultimate idea!

Now that Google is into every thing that other search engines / portals offer.

I’m just wondering whats next!

Authored by Arne Brachhold in the early days of the Google SiteMaps release by Google. This plugin is so famous that almost everyone who is aware of the importance of the Search Engine Registration, listings and rankings uses it these days.

I feel this is one of those plugins which makes wordpress the best among the blogging tools.
I have just started using it. But I was using Google SiteMaps since its lauch in the first week of june 2005 for many of the sites that I work on

You can download the latest version of this plugin here: download 2.7
You can view the complete log of the development here: final release
Take a look at the Screenshot.

Being a wordpress plugin and giving 100% support to the wordpress blog, the coolest thing about this plugin is that we can also add pages that are not generated by wordpress. That means if you have a page like http://www.mydomain.com/flash/index.html which is not generated by wordpress(http://www.mydomain.com/blog/), you can add this page too in the plugin’s admin panel and the plugin pings google via google-pings telling the changes in the site.

Cool isnt’it?

It feels great to talk good things about India. I always believe numbers wont lie. So, read on….

* The number of companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange, at more than 6,000, is second only to NYSE.

* Four out of 10 Silicon Valley startups are run by Indians.

* With 800 movies per year, India’s film industry overshadows Hollywood.

* The organized lottery market in India is US$7bn (2% of GDP).

* India consumes a fifth of the world’s gold output.

* Indians account for 45% of H1-B visas issued by the US every year.

* Growing at 6%, in 25 years Indian GDP (on a PPP basis) will be at the same level the US is at today.

* Six Indian ladies have won Miss Universe/Miss World titles over the past 10 years. No other country has won more than twice.

* Bank deposits in India roughly equal 50% of its GDP OE again, among the highest in the world.

* Indian Railways is the largest railway network in the world under single management.

* India has the third-largest army in the world, nearly 1.5 million strong and growing.

* India is the largest producer and consumer of tea in the world, accounting for more than 30% of global production and 25% of consumption.

* India is the world’s premier center for diamond cutting and polishing. Nine out of every 10 stones sold in the world pass through India.

* India has the highest number of annual bulk drugs filings (77) with USFDA.

* India is home to the largest number of pharmaceutical plants (61) approved by USFDA outside the US.

* India’s Hero Honda is the world’s largest motorcycle manufacturer, with 2002 production of 1.7m units.

* Other than US and Japan, India is the only country to have built a super computer indigenously.

* Indian Railways is the largest employer in the world, with a staff of 1.6 million people.

* It is the second-largest cement-producing country in the world, producing more than 110m tonnes.

* Of the Fortune 500 companies, 220 outsource their software-related work to India.

* There are 8,500 Indian restaurants in the UK, 15% of the country’s total dining-out establishments.

* India is the largest democracy in the world, with nearly 400m voting in the last national elections.

* India has the second-largest pool of scientists and engineers in the world.

* India has the third-largest investor base in the world.

* According to the Gemological Institute of America, up until 1896, India was the only source of diamonds.

* The Kumbh Mela festival, held every 12 years in the city of Allahabad, attracts 25 million people OE more than the population of 185 of the 227 countries in the world.

* The Indian city of Varanasi, also known as Benares, is the oldest, continuously inhabited city in the world today.

* There are 3.22 million Indians in the US.

* Indians are the richest immigrant class in the US, with nearly 200,000 millionaires.

* India is ranked the sixth country in the world in terms of satellite launches.

* There are over 70,000 bank branches in India – among the highest in the world.

Intrested in buying a book? Little Known Facts About India

Wondering where your .htaccess is gone in the wordpress root directory you recently installed ? Well, I was wondering too when I installed wordpress. I did’nt know about remote masks. Its very simple actually.You just need to set a remote mask value. If you are using WS_FTP software as your FTP tool, then this can be done by going to the Startup tab in the Connect dialog box. In the create site or Edit site box, you will find a menu item called ‘startup’, in startup, find Remote Mask and fill its field with -la and save the settings and you are done. Re-connect to the ftp and you will find your .htaccess file.

Some useful links:
http://www.efficienthosting.co.uk/support/wsftp.html
http://www.nexusportal.net/support/general-hosting/ftp/win/wsftple.html
http://www.nexusportal.net/support/general-hosting/ftp/win/wsftppro.html

As I am writing this, my Nation and my fellow Indians Celebrate the 58th Independence on 15th Aug. Its good to be Independent.
But where are we after 58 independent years? Trying the top place in corruption?
I hate to say that at the time we are celebrating independence, but this is the only thing which comes to my mind when I think of what we have achieved. Where are we now and where should we actually be without corruption? Ever thought of it? Many times I hate myself for doing nothing about it.

Here are some articles that I was reading today about corruption in India:
Article from India-reform.org
Article from IndianChild.com
Article from pucl.org

I love my Nation and its people, but I hate the politics and corruption here which has ruined India’s potential. I wish I have special powers and do something for my adorable India. But I have no such powers.
May God bless India and its future.

This is for my fellow Indians: [click on the image to download the independence day desktop image]
[slink img=independence_day_india_desktop_background.jpg]

I recieved it from my friend Ramesh who works for Siemens India.
I thought to share it here.

Happy Independence Day!

I was watching this movie yesterday night and felt so many things.
You know, things like why these little ones have to live life so hard.
If you think you have all the bad things happenning to you, watch this movie and you will feel much better than ever. I want nominate this movie makers/directors for the Oscars.
You have to watch it. I hope you will watch the English version, unlike me who watched a french or german, i dont even know which language it is, could be french probably. There were actually 2 other voices dubbing the story at the same time.

Other Reviews on The March of the Penguins:

Critics have found The March of the Penguins to be as wondrous as word-of-mouth has it. Jami Bernard in the New York Daily News concludes: “It will make you want to bill and coo with your mate, cuddle your young and maybe even go for a swim.” Nancy Churnin in the Dallas Morning News calls director Luc Jacquet’s description of the emperor penguins of Antarctica “stirring profiles in courage.” Michael Booth in the Denver Post remarks that the emperors will leave audiences “energized, mesmerized and stupefied by the possibilities of life.” The Baltimore Sun’s Michael Sragow describes the movie as “eloquent and stirring.” Eleanor Ringel Gillespie in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution calls it “an often-miraculous movie.” Although the film is attracting families, the Los Angeles Times warns that it may be too intense for small children.

But Wesley Morris comments in the Boston Globe: “Kids might blanch at some of the more upsetting images, but ultimately the movie will delight and uplift more families than it will scare.”

Movie information from IMBD:

A look at the annual journey of Emperor penguins as they march — single file — to their traditional breeding ground.

Directed by
Luc Jacquet

Genres
Documentary

Cast
Charles Berling, Romane Bohringer, Morgan Freeman, Jules Sitruk

This is the place where I test wordpress plugins….
Currently testing the IMBD plug-in.

As Earth is invaded by alien tripod fighting machines, one family fights for survival.

Directed by
Steven Spielberg

Genres
Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Cast
Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Justin Chatwin, Miranda Otto, Tim Robbins, Rick Gonzalez, Yul Vazquez, Lenny Venito, Lisa Ann Walter, Ann Robinson, Gene Barry, David Alan Basche, Roz Abrams, Michael Brownlee, Camillia Sanes

The wp-amazon test:

I love spending time listening to Monkey Business Album.

Testing Amazon for book:

Search Engine Visibility
Author: Shari Thurow
Rating: 5

Testing AdSense-Deluxe WordPress Plugin
This is how your google adsense in your blog will look like :
You can change the color of the text and the border in your adsense account.
This is a Large Rectangle (336×280) – View sample placements

You can see more formats here: https://www.google.com/adsense/adformats.

I will be soon posting here my list of the top 10 firefox plugins.
If you are not using Firefox yet, then I guess you will start using it after reading this post.

To download the latest version of Firefox browser, Click here.

Total no. of times that firefox is downloaded: