Archive for the 'Technology' Category

Will new search engine Cuil win against Google?

Published at August 5, 2008 in Technology and featured. 1 Comment

Will new search engine Cuil win against Google?

When we think of search on the internet, the one search engine that comes instantly to mind is Google. The search engine has maintained a clear lead over Yahoo and Microsoft, the number two and three players, respectively, A team of former Google engineers and others who worked at eBay, IBM and AltaVista have come up with an alternative search engine called Cuil (pronounced cool).

The main aim of Cuil.com is to break the monopoly of Google, but also change the surfing culture among users. Cuil is a start-up by husband-wife team Tom Costello (CEO of Cuil) and Anna Patterson, president, along with former colleagues Russell Power, vice-president of engineering, and Louis Monier, vice-president of products. Cuil has got venture funding of about $30 million from Tugboat Ventures, Greylock Partners and Madrone Capital Partners.

At Cuil, search index spans over 120 billion web pages, which is much larger than any existing search engine including Google (almost thrice its index span). The results are based on content and relevance. Popularity and audience traffic take a backseat. Though Cuil claims the largest web-page index, for most queries it displayed fewer total results than competitors. Google and Yahoo let the user page through all of the results while Cuil significantly limits what one can see, offering about 23 pages of results in total.

Another interesting aspect of Cuil is the safe search option which filters all possible ‘obscene’ results. Of course, the definition being relative. Also, there is no tab on user search pattern and history. Cuil does not fix spellings and provide results as you type the key words, unlike Google. So, chances are if one types ‘Now Delhi’ instead of ‘New Delhi’, Cuil will still get quite a few desired results without any spelling suggestions!

Indexing more pages, providing relevant results and slicker presentation are the features which Cuil is banking on to attract users. It remains to be seen whether it’s able to strike the right chord among users.

Despite early problems suffered by the newly-launched search engine Cuil last week, it has performed better than Google in a relevance test. The test by web monitoring firm NetApplications times how long a surfer spends on a website that it has been redirected to by a search engine. In the tests, people using Cuil spent 9.65 minutes on a site, whereas those using Google spent 9.37 minutes. Yahoo’s average was 8.57 minutes.

Google may be the de facto leader in search today, but will its lead last forever? With services like Mahalo and Cuil gaining attention and Microsoft willing to pour continued billions into its quest for online dominance, Google’s rivals are legion, and they’re hungry.



Yahoo sets up tech lab in Bangalore

Published at March 7, 2008 in IT and Technology. 0 Comments

Yahoo! Inc. on Tuesday announced that it has set up a laboratory in this tech hub to roll out next-generation search and multimedia retrieval products for its global customers. This new laboratory—with an initial team of 100 scientists and engineers—will be part of the expansion of its R&D operations in the country.

Yahoo Labs Bangalore will be a centre of excellence for next-generation search and advertising technologies, focussed on making the Web more relevant and simple for users and advertisers. Rajeev Rastogi, a fromer Bell Labs director, has been appointed as vice-president and head of the new lab.

“Yahoo Labs Bangalore intends to build a world-class team focused on delivering the most valuable insights and leading-edge technologies to delight all of our customers worldwide,” according to Prabhakar Raghavan, senior vice-president and head of Yahoo! Research.

He told a news conference in Bangalore, “As an extension of our research and development (R&D) operations here, Yahoo! India Lab will initially have a 100-member team of scientists and engineers. They will work on multiple projects to make the Web more relevant and simple for users and advertisers worldwide. The India lab will work in tandem with the other labs in the US for deriving new algorithms to enhance the performance of our search and retrieval tools. While the R&D centre will write software codes for various functions, the lab will develop products for databases,” he said. Source: hindustantimes



CORRECTION STATEMENT on Cisco increase of head count

Published at February 8, 2008 in General, News and Technology. 0 Comments

Correction on the news on Cisco to increase India headcount to 360,000

As per the request of Cisco Press Contact Mr Varghese M Thomas, Bangalore365 team wishes to clarify that 360000 people is not the hire count of Cisco but instead Cisco aims to offer networking curriculum to NIIT, IIHT and Global Knowledge in India to train and expand India’s networking industry’s workforce capacity to 360000 in the next five years.

Here is the letter from Cisco press contact:

CORRECTION STATEMENT

Clarification on ‘Cisco India to hire 360000 people’

As per our press release sent out on February 4, 2008 on ‘Cisco’s Talent Development Strategy’, Cisco aims to offer networking curriculum to NIIT, IIHT and Global Knowledge in India to train and expand India’s networking industry’s workforce capacity to 360000 in the next five years.

The 360000 number does not refer to the number of employees Cisco wishes to hire!

360000 is the number of networking industry professionals that Cisco will, work with partners like IIHT and NIIT, to train and develop in India.

Please refer to our press release for details on our announcement. For any clarifications, kindly contact us at.

Press Contacts:

Varghese M Thomas

Cisco

Cisco Launches Talent-Development Strategy for India

Dell says it’s not shutting down

Published at January 23, 2008 in IT and Technology. 0 Comments

Dell says it’s not shutting down its R&D centre in Bangalore, contrary to recent media reports. The company is merely shifting focus from hardware to software R&D, said Mr Pallab Talukdar, Enterprise Strategy Group, Dell India.

Earlier, Dell’s focus at the R&D centre was primarily on hardware. Gradually, it is phasing out hardware R&D from Bangalore and moving it to its other centres worldwide. “It’s more of a reorientation of focus. The Bangalore R&D centre will now focus on management software and testing,” said Mr Talukdar.

The R&D centre in Bangalore currently employs around 500 people. On whether there have been any job cuts as a result of this shift in focus, the company said there have been “minor changes and reorganisation” and no major firing. In fact, the company will be recruiting more people, said Mr Talukdar, at the sidelines of a press conference to announce the launch of Dell’s new PowerEdge M-Series blade solution.

New server

Dell hopes to set a “new standard for date centre energy efficiency and flexibility” with the PowerEdge M Series blade.

Targeted at the mid to large enterprises, the M Series enables businesses to save on power and cooling costs while increasing server capacity. It provides lead-free configurations, thus delivering a green IT solution that helps customers minimise environmental impact. The M1000e blade enclosure in now available worldwide at a starting price of Rs 3,11,948, along with blades at Rs 96,148. The M1000e supports 16 blade servers. Source:thehindubusinessline.in

Dell shifting hardware design unit out of Bangalore

Published at January 23, 2008 in IT and Technology. 0 Comments

Top computer maker Dell is shifting its hardware design unit from its R&D centre in Bangalore to Austin and Taiwan, a top company official said.

“Hardware design is being slowly phased out from the centre here to our centres in Austin and Taiwan”, Pallab Talukdar, enterprise strategy group director of Dell India, said.

Dell’s R&D centre in Bangalore has shifted focus from hardware design to software, management and testing, he said, adding, Dell plans to ramp up the R&D centre, which has a current strength of over 500.

The company also launched a new server – Poweredge M-series – which it claims consume up to 19 per cent less power and achieve about 25 per cent better performance per unit.

The M-series also provided lead-free configurations, delivering a “green” solution that further helps customers minimise their environmental impact, he said.

Dell reported $600 million in revenue from its business in India in 2007. Source: domain-b.com

Google.org doles out more than $26 million

Published at January 17, 2008 in IT and Technology. 0 Comments

Search giant funds global health threats and other causes

Google executives today announced the areas where it will focus its charitable giving over the next five to 10 years.

The initiatives include $26 million in funds to several institutions including a think tank in India, Clark University and a Pasadena-based company specializing in solar thermal power and five other organizations and corporations.

The Pasadena firm eSolar received $10 million, the largest portion of the money.

“e-Solar’s technology has great potential to produce utility-scale power cheaper than coal,” according to the prepared statement released Thursday by Google.org, the search engine’s philanthropic arm.

Five million dollars is going to a group called InSTEDD, which aims to improve early detection and response capabilities for global health threats.

It creates technology for governments and others to respond and prepare for global health emergencies.

Some of the other beneficiaries include:

-$4.7 million to TechnoServe, which will in part support entrepreneurs in Ghana and Tanzania.

-$2.5 million to Global Health and Security Initiative, which prevents, detects and responds to biological threats.

-$2 million to Pratham, a non-governmental organization in India for the creation of an independent institute to conduct a nationwide annual status of education report.

-$765,000 to Bangalore-based analysis group Centre for Budget and Policy Studies, designed to help local governments facilitate better local planning in India.

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