Social Items

The latest project on Google's portfolio, Google+, has promised a more connected and realtime social experience, invariably intensifying its footprint on the social circle. Albeit, some early reviewers have termed it, a take-on on Facebook, its rather more a collaborative platform, intending to bring realtime sharing across the social networking platforms.

Google Plus is designed along what it calls plus circles, a realtime social interaction circle, that will allow users to selectively share information with specific groups, rather than all social connections. It also features a web conferencing option, in which up to 10 people can join.

It will incorporate web content on various topics, allowing users to subscribe through a feature known as Spark. And users can create custom categories, also share contents with friends.

Google Plus, 'Huddle' feature will automatically turn conversations into group chat. Amidst the cluster of information, however, will be the Cloud storage facility available for users photos and group chats, with an instant upload capability.

Google definitely is not a newcomer in the social circle, as its Buzz service has been briskly successful. But, how it will implement this new platform, against the ever increasing privacy issues remains to be seen. The company have commenced a total revamp on its page looks and feel, which will continue over the next few months, as it introduce a 'What Do You Love?' (www.wdyl.com) page.

Google Plus (Google+): Realtime Social?

Microsoft's radical shift in Windows 8 programming foundation has perhaps heralded the much awaited next generation of web applications development, albeit, presenting a credible challenge to the Google initiated WebGL project, an open-source cross-platform API intended to provide support for hardware graphics acceleration on the web.

Chrome requires hardware graphics acceleration to compete effectively with Internet Explorer, which introduced same in IE9 through Windows DirectX Graphics API.

The introduction of WebGL in Google Chrome 9 enabled the experience of high quality 3D direct on the browser. Microsoft dismissed the new technology citing its open vulnerability to attacks, given instance being the report posted on its Security Research & Defense Blog.

The next-gen Windows will allow developers build native apps with the same technologies employed for web application development, a possibility Microsoft has termed, 'Tailored Apps'. The Windows 8 'tailored apps' will employ: HTML (for describing web pages), CSS (for formatting) and JavaScript (for executing programs), all browser interfaces that run web programming.

Tailored Apps, unlike desktop apps, will make use of browser engines - higher level interface, possible reason for the change is to make room for the mobile web convergence as the new Windows code best support processor independence. However, the immediate challenge will be on how developers falls into the plan, how programmer can quickly churn-out tailored apps.

Next-Gen Apps: Windows 8 Challenge

Internet search technology invariably means instant information, hence the search giant, Google has enabled 'Instant' on all its search products: Instant Search, Instant Pages, Instant Image Search and Instant Availability in 32 languages. The latest addition being the introduction of Instant Pages, whose announcement follows at the Google Inside Search Event holding today in San Francisco.

Instant pages, automates query to open results nearly instantly, allowing a pop up to the given search page. The average time taken normally to launch a page under Google search is 5 seconds, whereas, the new feature takes only 3.2 seconds at most.

Google Instant has also been extended to Image Search, enabling instant change of images as your enter search queries.  

Google's lead in the search technology front is one that can never be questioned, with incessant churning of search innovations. Albeit, that Microsoft and Yahoo have combined their search technologies to challenge the Google advances, no tangible headway has been achieved.

The new features will be available starting this week on the Chrome beta, however, Mobile search version will follow soon.

Instant Search Everywhere - Google

The fact that Microsoft has shifted its tent in favor of the new coding tool, HTML5 is no longer news.The evidence even now more pronounce as it demos the next version of its operating system Windows 8 at the recent D9 conference, signaling its intent to switching Windows coding to HTML5 and JavaScript.

The signal observed through an app in Windows 8 written exclusively with the new developer standard HTML5, pin-points to the trend. Windows 8 will run a new API, that will not require writing web-pages to use.Given an instance in which Windows developers, already used to the traditional programming tools of Visual basic, .Net, among others, will have to employ HTML5 and JavaScript, portends a horrid reaction from such turn.

Albeit, that the specification of the emerging coding tool, HTML5 are still awaiting finalization. How developers would embrace tools termed less capable, renouncing their current platforms, may well put Windows developers at lurch.

Microsoft, earlier made available the F12 HTML tools in Internet Explorer, but until generally accepted a tooling for HTML5 on that platform, the traditional tools remains indispensable.

Definitely, Microsoft's ultimate aim of weaning developers off traditional Windows tools, perhaps will have to wait, at least for now. Microsoft's support for Silverlight will continue, and not just as a browser plug-in, among other things.

Traditional Programming Tools Exit?

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