Apple makes stronger showing among internet users

There is boost in Apple’s market share of internet usage. Its Mac operating system witnessed increased access among users, as revealed in preliminary data from Net Applications for December 2009.

For December 2009, Mac OS accounted for 9.63% of market share of internet usage, clinching second position. iPhone market share logged 0.44%, at fourth place, ahead of Sony’s PlayStation. The overall Apple market share accounted for just over 10%. Read more

New release of Google Chrome will be without beta

Google’s browser, Chrome, is leaving beta. The company disclosed its plan at the Le Web 08 conference held in Paris. Vice President Marissa Mayer, while talking to TechCrunch’s Mike Arrington, revealed that Chrome is officially leaving beta status, but did not disclose likely date of its implementation. The change of status has since then been confirmed by Google’s representatives. Read more

Google admits breaking Apple’s iPhone App Store rules

Google has admitted that it violated Apple’s official rules of iPhone software-development kit while creating the Google Mobile application version for iPhone. It however denied a more serious charge levelled by Apple.
A Google spokesman acknowledged that undocumented application programming interfaces (APIs) have been used by Google Mobile for prompting a verbal search using iPhone’s proximity sensor. As per the rules iPhone developers while creating their applications are permitted to use only those APIs which are published in Apple’s software-development kit (SDK).

Google refuted a serious charge levelled by Apple that it was linking to dynamic or private frameworks in the Google Mobile application. Use of undocumented APIs could break application code when Apple updates its software. However, many developers have probably taken this risk for delivering a feature like Google’s verbal search prompt.

Under the terms of SDK, applications in which such techniques are used are not meant to make it through App Store. There are apprehensions whether Apple’s ability to keep with heavy flow of applications into App Store has reached the breaking point. It is also unclear whether Apple had prior knowledge about use of undocumented APIs by Google when it approved Google Mobile, or whether it missed that code inadvertently.

If Apple enforces its SDK terms, Google will have to modify the method of using proximity sensor or rewrite Google Mobile code.

Google SearchWiki now offers more control over results

Google users that had no control over search results can customise those results now.

Google’s SearchWiki feature allows users to elevate, annotate, add and delete search results. It remembers changes made to results and the repeat searches show the same notes and customisation.

SearcWiki was offered as an experimental feature by Google to selected users for months. It is now made available to all those who would be searching after logging in Google account.

There is another collaborative feature; people can click a link ‘See all notes for this SearchWiki’ at the bottom of results page. It indicates how pages were promoted or deleted in aggregate by different users.

Apart from Google, others are also working on customisation. Microsoft is testing user-tuned search results under project ‘U Rank’. Wikia Search is open to suggestions from users; while user created solutions are presented by Mahalo.

People’s voting behaviour would be used by Google as an input search algorithm which determines ranking of search results. Google uses human judgement by PageRank technique, which decides website’s merit on the basis of other websites’ links to it.

With SearchWiki, Google produces “customised search results” in granular manner, adjusting specific web addresses.