Harsh J

First, Microsoft realizes it has been living the life of an underdog in the major online market and plans its revenge the old style - Monopo.. err to buy what it needs to grow - Yahoo. Yahoo cleanly states “DO NOT WANT!” [Link]

Google gets worried about it, issues statements out, offers to help Yahoo by partnering it to avoid a monopoly by Microsoft. [Link]

Microsoft is not stopped by Yahoo’s refusal of their offer of some 40 “undervalued” billion dollars and gives Yahoo a death sentence of 3 weeks. Like “boot up or shut up” from Hackers (1995). [Link]

Yahoo rejects once more, and now, has partnered with Google Adsense to show Google ads on Yahoo search pages. [Link]

Oh my, what’s gonna happen to the Yahoo’s advertising feature I wonder …

Microsoft finally grumbles - Calls this a monopoly. [Link]

More action as the month progresses!

I don’t remember reading any news about the restart of GMail’s storage counter post April 1st when it stopped counting anymore. But now, surprisingly (Logging out from my account for the first time was the surprising part, to myself) I noticed that its yet counting! Or maybe that’s just my -Never-Sign-Out- ignorance that made me notice it now ..

Anyway, head to GMail’s site to learn counting with Google.

Google launched its new Desktop Search software for Linux and it looks like the widget below.

It searches only a few kind of files as of now, but then, Google Desktop never was the best in searching. But it sure gives a handy application to search the web quickly.

Download as [ DEB ] or [ RPM ]

Or if you wish to add Google’s Linux Software repository to your OS, look here.

But the thing with me is, I never really needed a search in my daily OS use. Over the past five years I’ve learned how to manage your files side by side as I work. Sure it was difficult at first, but when some friend of yours dumps about 500 songs on your HDD, you realize how painful tagging is. Yeah, I tagged them all manually (Right Click - Properties, Google for info) on Windows and then after I finished the 3 day work and arranged them well, with Album Art and all, I discovered that MusicBrainz did the same. Only, automatically. Haha, I felt like deleting the entire collection after I discovered the software.

It might be that I don’t really keep a lot of files, like documents and all. And even if I do, not for a long time. The only thing I start the Search applet or software of an OS is to find a system file or something hidden deep under the User Profile folders. But otherwise, I always know where my files are and never really have hassles searching them out.

Sorting music is now much easier, thanks to both Amarok and Windows Media Player 11 coming with automatic file tagging and Album Art downloads. My music folder is arranged in the Artist - Album - Files and Art way. Like the breadcrumb view below:

And though its arranged in such a way, its still obsolete cause these modern player libraries are beautifully sorted and very easy to use if your files are well tagged.

I don’t think anyone these days actually goes through the File Explorer and selects something to play. Its way easier in a library or a manager, can be sorted in a hundred different ways and all your files are accessible from your player itself, thus making playlists from them a cake.

So what am I getting at? Nothing, just saying that once tagged and categorized, your files are way easier to navigate through. But don’t categorize like /home/name/Documents/Office/June1 and /home/name/Documents/Office/June2 and so on. That’s just stupid and makes it more difficult to browse through. Instead just stop at the Office sub category and dump all files with proper descriptive names in it.

No one really listens to all this crap but if you actually keep categorizing and spending that extra few seconds in placing the saved file in the right folder with the right name, it makes retrieval way easier, and completely reduces your need on the search module of the OS which usually gives you a hard and dumb time searching. I mean, how innovative can a search get and be helpful to you when you simply don’t know what and where you seek.

And after the long off-topic blabber, I just wanna say that this GDS tool is quite heavy, just like Beagle is.

Of course, you must have heard about the recent anti-trust complaint by Google on Microsoft Windows Vista’s search issues, and about the eventual victory of Google in that too. This surely makes things better for us.

First off, its resulted into a much earlier Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1), in which Microsoft had promised to address Google’s worries. Google here isn’t a clear victor, cause to get rid of its issues with Windows Vista’s Desktop Search, its got to face the time till the SP1. But anyway, it’s made Microsoft speed up things, and thats good. Though I don’t expect them to complete it on time, cause they have a sort of affinity towards lawsuits and paying fines. The money has to go somewhere hasn’t it?

Second, this action is a good and a very quick reply to both Microsoft’s request of an anti-trust probe in the Google-DoubleClick deal worth 3.1 million and the as usual lame Steve Ballmer’s words against Google, which also appeared in this Desktop Search case.

And now what have we got? That’s right, dissatisfaction. Way to go Google! I just hope they make Microsoft fix the entire search up, so that the software world can be a more peaceful and easier place, to search in, of course.

Its funny, this is. I mention the wrong l33t time to Anomit @ 11:37 AM a week or more ago (Stupid stuff, don’t ask) , and what happens is I notice that 11:37 for every single day somehow after that. I mean, I see the clock strike (Wall clock once, wrist thrice, computer rest of the times) 11:37 everyday since then, even today morning! Its very very spooky

I tried asking Google what 11:37 meant to it and it only disturbed me more.

Maybe am destined to do something at 11:37, but what?

Off topic: A Google account being hacked is the worst thing that could happen to you. The Google Web History can reveal so much about a person really, that it makes your jaw drop down, and perhaps take off up laughing too. Web History trends are a cool thing, and surprisingly my most Google searches appear on Fridays, and average per day is around 170