Filed under: Design, Browsers

There's a piece over at The Guardian today about the most searched for terms on Microsoft's Live Search. The top two: Google and Yahoo. They, combined with Google.com and Yahoo.com, account for 2.7% of all searches performed on Live.

The numbers would probably be much different if Live Search was considered a decent search engine. Right now, not so much. People would rather use Live to search for a better place to search than to perform their actual queries.

Does the same thing happen on Google? Not quite. Yahoo appears at #20 on Trends, and it's the only search engine in the top 100 results.

Apart from the fact that Live isn't the first name people think of when it comes to search, I'm willing to bet that a large volume of the searches are coming from Windows users who don't know where to type web addresses in Internet Explorer.

The support call usually goes something like this:

"Do you see the big white bar at the top of your Internet Explorer window?"

"Yes."

"Type Google.com in there, and press your enter key."

"I did that. All it does is show me this Live Search thing with a bunch of writing under it."

"No, type in the wide bar. The not-wide bar is for searching."

"I did. I must have a virus, it just keeps showing me this Live Search thing."

No, that's not a virus. It's just a search engine you never knew about even though you were looking right at it.

Live Search, where people search for better search options originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: OS Updates, Windows, Microsoft, Beta, Windows x64

With the Windows 7 RC now available to TechNet and MSDN subscribers and the public release just days away (May 5th), there's news out of the UK that may indicate when we'll start seeing the new operating system on retail PCs.

Pocket Lint has had discussions with Acer's director of UK Marketing, Bobby Watkins, who informed the site that "October 23rd is the date that Windows 7 will be available."

Of course, there's no official confirmation from Microsoft about the date as yet, so this may be wishful thinking on Acer's part. Still, as one of the world's largest manufacturers of Windows computers, there's certainly reason to believe Watkins knows what he's talking about.

Don't want to wait until October 23rd to buy your new system, but you still want Windows 7? No problem. In the article, Watkins also states that Acer will allow users who purchase Vista systems during a 30-day window will be able to upgrade for free.

Acer UK: Windows 7 to drop on October 23 originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Windows, Social Software

Digsby is a multi-protocol chat and social networking client that lets you update your Facebook, MySpace and Twitter status or chat with your AIM, Windows Live, Google Talk, or Yahoo! Messenger. Overall, it's a pretty awesome little utility if you'd rather use one application to track all of your accounts at once. But it's historically been a bit of a resource hog.

Now there's a new alpha version that reduces the CPU use by about 30 percent, improves file transfers for AIM and Windows Live users, and lets you set the status updates on MySpace accounts. There are also new emoticon boxes.

Probably the best part is that it just feels a bit faster. In the past, Digsby had a tendency to make my computer lock up for a second or two before displaying incoming IM messages. Now it doesn't.

You can find out how to join Digsby's group of Alpha testers at the Digsby blog. Bear in mind, once you become an Alpha tester you're signing up to receive less stable versions of the software and you could experience some bugs.

[via WebWare]

Digsby Alpha reduces CPU usage, offers smoother performance originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Internet, Video

The rumors have been swirling around for a few weeks, but today the Walt Disney Company officially announced that it is becoming an equity partner in Hulu. Disney, through a subsidiary of ABC Enterprises Inc., will join NBC Universal and News Corp. as an investor and content provider. Full-length episodes from ABC primetime, ABC Family and SOAPnet will be added to Hulu's content library, as well as classic ABC shows and select shows and movies from The Disney Channel. Essentially, ABC.com's streaming content will be coming to Hulu.

With the addition of ABC, three of the four major US television networks are now partners in Hulu. This leaves CBS and its TV.com venture all by its lonesome. As for YouTube, which is trying to get into the commercial content game, let's just say this move won't help the already anemic offering.

Despite the boxee nastiness (which has been mitigated, for now), Hulu continues to take off and is positioning itself as the defacto destination for online television viewing, provided of course, you live in the US. Having one robust platform is not only easier for viewers to navigate, it is easier to sell to advertisers.

The financial terms of the agreement weren't released, though I expect those details to emerge.

[via Mashable]

Disney joins Hulu originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 30 Apr 2009 12:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Text, Social Software, web 2.0, Web

Most desktop Twitter clients have a decent built-in way to monitor search topics, but they'll all cut into your API allowance. While I've never run into that problem myself, I know that it does happen to some people I follow. One way to free up some calls? Use Tweet Grid to monitor search terms.

When you land on their site, you'll first select a grid layout. You can choose anything from 1x1 to 3x3 on the main page, though once you're inside you can switch to experimental layouts like 2x5 and 1x10 to keep tabs. Pro tip: 1x10 doesn't work so well on a smaller display. Four columns is about as much as I could squeeze out of my laptop's 1280 horizontal pixels.

To limit the textual overload, you can choose to display only updates in a certain language and number of updates to store in each box (last 5, 10, 20, etc.).

Continue reading Tweet Grid is a no-login way to monitor multiple Twitter searches in realtime

Tweet Grid is a no-login way to monitor multiple Twitter searches in realtime originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 30 Apr 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Design, Text, Web

Looking for a fast, easy way to preview the fonts you have installed on your computer? It doesn't get much easier than visiting Flipping Typical.

Head over to the site and within seconds it will render a table of all your typefaces. Initially the preview text will read "flipping typical," but you can delete it and enter whatever you like. To swap the primary font at the top of the page, simply click on the one you'd like to view full size. You can also switch the previews to bold and italics via hotkeys (control-b and control-i respectively).

Flipping Typical should work just fine on Windows and OSX with just about any browser except IE6.

Quickly preview all your installed fonts online originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 30 Apr 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Productivity, Search, Web

Feedmil is a search engine for RSS and Atom feeds based on the concept of the "Long Tail." Basically, the idea is that small, obscure feeds have an audience as long as the interested people have a way to find them via search technology. So, instead of just entering search terms into Feedmil, you also select a popularity range, anywhere from the obscure to the well-known.

By filtering your results by popularity, you'll be able to pare down a bunch of results that are presumably all relevant into the top sites on your topic, or some surprising ones you might not have heard of. Feedmil really does seem to be an effective way to fill up your RSS with new content. I'm not sure what kind of search algorithm they use, or how they index feeds, but the results are certainly high-quality.

Feedmil: a long tail search engine for RSS feeds originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 30 Apr 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Design, E-mail

It seems like Gmail users are always hungry for new ways to tweak Gmail's appearance. One trick that will save some space in your sidebar is the Gmail Compactor script. If you have Greasemonkey or a similar userscript engine installed, just download Gmail Compactor to turn the text links in your sidebar into space-saving icons.

The icons aren't the only space-saving feature of Gmail compactor, though. It alos shrinks Gmail's built-in search bar down into the sidebar, and eliminates the Gmail logo. It's up to you whether you think this look feels less cluttered. It does offer the same functions in a smaller space, but the icons also feel a bit a crowded to me compared to the text links, and they take some getting used to.

[via Lifehacker]

Shrink your Gmail layout with Gmail Compactor originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 30 Apr 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Audio, web 2.0, Web

HypeTape is a new site that combines the simple streaming-playlist abilities of the old MuxTape with the music discovery powers of The Hype Machine. In case you're not familiar, The Hype Machine indexes posts from top music blogs, allowing you to find and read about new music with ease. Although HypeTape doesn't actually use Hype Machine search results, and isn't affiliated with either Muxtape or Hype Machine, the name is a convenient shorthand to describe what it does: it lets you make playlists out of songs uploaded by Mp3 bloggers.

Most of the basic features you'd expect are there: you can rereorder your playlists, add songs from other people's list, and rename your lists and tracks. What you won't find is the ability to download any of the audio files in your playlist. That's no big deal if you're used to the original Muxtape and its various offspring, though, and it also covers the developers' butts (to some extent) in case of takedown notices.

Hype Machine + Muxtape = HypeTape originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Fun, Internet

There are dozens (if not hundreds) of ways to take an overly-lengthy URL and cut it down to size. There are even services that do the exact opposite, turning nice, short links into gigantic, bandwidth-wasting behemoths.

But suppose you really, really need to convert your URLs into, say, quotes from works of classic literature? I can't count the number of times I've wanted to - possibly because I never have yet.

Nevertheless, DickensURL is certainly an interesting take on URL modification. Submit your link, and the service returns a brief quote (punctuation included) from one of the author's numerous works like Great Expectations or Bleak House.

It won't actually make sharing your links any easier and it's certainly not a good fit for use on Twitter, but it's a little less boring (a more confusing) than including a direct link in your next email message.

Now if someone would just put together a Lenny Bruce based "How to talk dirty and share your links" service...

[via Addictive Tips]

Ever wanted to convert long urls to Dickens quotes? originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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