Raj Agrawal – Page 50

If Bing is copying Google, then Yahoo is copying Google too!

February 6, 2011 by Raj Agrawal 2 Comments

Lets not forget the recent revelation of yet another idea stealing attempt by Microsoft also applies to Yahoo.

Not very recently, Yahoo! and Microsoft entered into a deal where Microsoft’s Bing will be the search engine for all Yahoo! websites. This deal has been agreed to continue for 10 years from the date. Now, very recently Google accused Bing of copying their search results, Microsoft rubbished this claim and in response, Google backed their claim with valid statements. Bing was busted. Google thinks of one possibility being that Microsoft has been monitoring the user behaviour and modifying it’s search results accordingly with it’s toolbar on the user’s computer. Google finds this unethical because they spend a significant amount of money, time on R&D to construct and improve their search engine’s capability.

So, what does this point to? This means Yahoo! search may also be consciously or unconsciously copying the search results from Google because of the fact that it’s search algorithm is primarily being powered by Bing.

google-vs-microsoft-bing-vs-yahoo — A comical illustration

The following statement from Yahoo! – Microsoft deal’s press release has a lot to say about this,
Microsoft’s Bing will be the exclusive algorithmic search and paid search platform for Yahoo! sites. Yahoo! will continue to use its technology and data in other areas of its business such as enhancing online advertising technology.

SearchEngineJournal posted an article stating how Google backed up it’s claims, Amit Singhal, the Google Fellow who’s backing up the accusations, runs us through the entire story. It starts with the term “tarsorrhaphy,” a surgical procedure that almost no one knows about — and that Google was the first to find the common misspellings for. While Google queries for the misspelled word returned the typical smug “didn’t you mean” suggestion, Bing seemed to be lifting the top Google result without bothering to give the corrected spelling.

However, this was just the start. Google reps started looking at the query results from Bing, focusing on both common and bizarre terms to get a sense of the field. The definite trend was that the top Google result, even when it was “something [Google] would consider mistakes of our algorithms,” was displayed as the top Bing result.

Things really start to point toward one of the reasons behind Yahoo! – Bing’s search deal. Does this mean both giants had a meticulous plan to fight against Google Search’s success by striking such deal in the name of research and innovation?

Jetlev Flyer – The Water Powered JetPack

February 6, 2011 by Raj Agrawal Leave a Comment

The water powered jet pack is ready for sale. It has the performance capability of upto 2 straight hours on a single tank. Sadly, it’s not built to fly around the city, but you can still have fun on and hovering above the water.

Raymond Li, a Canadian inventor has ingeniously came up with a new type of jet pack that runs on water and can be sold commercially and very well used for adventure oriented fun. Jetlev can successfully hover 28ft above the water level speeding upto 22 miles/ 35 km per hour.

Jetlev is actually a combination of a jet pack connected to a speed boat like unit loaded with a 250 horse power motor and a pump that constantly supplies water to the jetpack. The official website for Jetlev has mentioned some pointers the wannabe users need to be aware of:

You must be a good swimmer, and should not feel uncomfortable having your face in the water from time to time.
You should not have a fear of heights.
You should be in good health and physical condition.
You should have no history of any heart conditions and flying is not advised for women who are pregnant.
You must also have good vision and be able to understand the instructor.
You must be atleast 18 years old.

These limitations seem fair and what you would usually find tagged with almost all kinds of adventure sports. And yes, it’s an expensive machine. The website mentions the water powered propeller being available for 129.000,00 €/ $100,000 exclusively on a waiting list of orders and can be rented on ‘certain’ resorts.

2014, A Year of Futuristic Touch Screen Technology?

January 29, 2011 by Raj Agrawal 5 Comments

UPCOMING TECHNOLOGY – When it happens, it’s brilliance will significantly enhance the way we interact and lead our lives, making our routine and even complex activities more interactive and easier to accomplish.

tat future touch screen — A screen capture from TAT’s experience video

If you watch the video below, you will witness some cutting edge and really interesting technological enhancements you would want to apply to your daily life. This is an Open Innovation experiment video from TAT (The Astonishing Tribe) depicting how the the screen technology whether mobile or immobile, would and should be few years from now.

With dual and flexible electronic paper style screens, electronic ink screens, mirrors with Wi-Fi powered screens, screens with great contrast under sunlight and knowing their position, are the delicious recipes needed to get us high on touch controlling everything we see, *ahem* not really everything!

Though it sounds all goody goody, there are some pointers that make me wonder about the implementation of this conceptual marvel. The idea focuses on the “touch screen” interactivity of almost every object we use on a daily basis which would really need more power. Unless there is an alternative and eco-friendly source of energy available by the time the technology may completely replace the current physical infrastructure in our daily environment, it probably may not prove to be environmentally feasible.

There are several research projects been worked on globally to develop alternative and environment friendly energy sources. We all know that. The availability of products powered with such screen technologies just be in sync with the presence of cheap and feasible energy sources to allow the more safer and futuristic world a reality with swiftness. This would also involve a stable wireless connectivity among the various devices using this technology which may again prove to be a hurdle in some less technologically advanced countries.

Some of the technologies visualized in the video are already in production and will soon hit the market. One of them is seen in the first section of the video where the person stretches the tablet for a wider view is a similar concept of dual screens which is a first of it’s kind created by Toshiba.