FairSearch.org, a consortium of companies that has members including Tavelocity, Microsoft and TripAdvisor among others, launched a new anti Google print advertising campaign entitled "Good to Know."The print ads aims to expose "truths" about Google that the search company unfairly promotes its own products, delivers search results that aren't objective or in the best interests of users and doesn't respect user privacy."Recently, Google launched an advertising campaign "to empower users" to "make more informed decisions about their internet use." FairSearch.org would like to expand on that effort to help consumers understand just how much control Google has over what they see online," stated Fairsearch site."You see, Google controls 79%

Following, New York Times' detailed report titled "In China, Human Costs Are Built Into an iPad," about the harsh conditions of working in the factories of an Apple parts supplier or Apple product manufacturer:"The explosion ripped through Building A5 on a Friday evening last May, an eruption of fire and noise that twisted metal pipes as if they were discarded straws.When workers in the cafeteria ran outside, they saw black smoke pouring from shattered windows. It came from the area where employees polished thousands of iPad cases a day."The article continues;"Two people were killed immediately, and over a dozen others hurt. As the injured were rushed into ambulances, one in particular

As some countries have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression, and, with Twitter's influence and presence continues to grow internationally, the microblogging company in an effort to make its service more agreeable to countries where certain messages might be considered offensive or even against the law, now providing usea with the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country.Until now, the only way to take account of those countries' limits was to remove content globally. But no more, as in a blog post Twitter announced:"Starting today, we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country

Yandex, Russian search engine added "facial recognition" technology to its Yandex.Fotki photo hosting service, and will let users tag other people in photos.Yandex.Fotki is a free photo hosting service with unlimited storage space for users.Once a person on Yandex.Fotki is tagged a few times, the Yandex system will start to "learn" the person. As the service learns to "know" this person and starts suggesting familiar tags when the user needs to tag new photos of this person. All the user has to do is confirm the tag for it to appear on the photos. People in photos uploaded to the service can be tagged with their Yandex.Fotki account name or with any

SQL Azure Data Sync Preview available in the Windows Azure portal today revceived the third update and contains the following updates.This release also brings the General Availability a stel closer."SQL Azure Data Sync allows organizations to easily synchronize between multiple on-premises databases and SQL Azure cloud databases--a key hybrid IT scenario.""Data Sync servers can now be created in all Windows Azure data centers, enabling Data Sync servers to be created close to the SQL Azure databases for the best possible performance.The Data Sync section of the Windows Azure portal is now localized in ten languages.Miscellaneous fixes and numerous usability improvements including," informs Azure team: Progress indicators are now available in the log

Following, this week's, Google CEO Larry Pages's statement to Googlers at a Friday staff event after the Search Plus Your World launch: "This is the path we're headed down - a single unified, 'beautiful' product across everything. If you don't get that, then you should probably work somewhere else." -- which followed Google's revising its rivacy policies making it easier to share on Google+, an Inside Windows Live blog posted 3 easy steps to switch from Gmail to Hotmail. In the January 26, blog post, Dharmesh Mehta writes there are now many reasons why you may want to consider leaving Gmail and giving Hotmail a try. Mehta starts with listing some of the top reasons

Mobile developers in the Denmark, Hong Kong, Japan, India, Mexico, Sweden, and Switzerland now have an opportunity to make money using the Microsoft Advertising Solution -- Starting February 1, 2012, Microsoft Advertsing expanding its solution into seven new countries.Now, "developers from nineteen countries (full list below) can make money by taking advantage of Microsoft's Advertising solution for mobile developers," Microsoft Advertising team stated."Our solution includes ad controls that are built right into the Windows Phone SDK; combined with pubCenter's self-serve sign-up, reporting and automated payouts, we ensure a

Microsoft Manual of Style 4th edition, essentially the English Style Guide for Microsoft products - has now been released and is available in ebook versions (PDF, ePub, Mobi/Kindle) and a hard copy."It's designed to help communicate clearly, consistently, and accurately about technical topics. It's aimed at content creators, journalists, technical writers, editors, and everyone else who writes about computer technology. It also features a comprehensive glossary of both general technology terms and those specific to Microsoft as well as usage and style guidelines and guidance on grammar, tone, and voice," Microsoft states.This Microsoft Press edition includes the new guidance on voice, web content, global content, NUI, and other guidelines for creating content in English. Here're a few content

System Center Advisor (formerly Microsoft codename "Atlanta") is now available to general public. Initially, Advisor provides support for Windows Server and SQL Server workloads, and Microsoft plans to extend support to additional server products in the near future.Microsoft revelaed that during the Advisor beta program "6,000 customers registered for the service and Advisor sent 80,000 alerts. Customers are monitoring anything from a single server to over 120 servers within their organizations.""System Center Advisor is a cloud service hosted on Windows Azure that regularly analyzes your servers' configuration, drawing on the wisdom and experience of Microsoft support staff and its countless interactions with IT professionals to automatically highlight server

Google recently added new features to Sitemaps section in Webmaster Tools -- in addition to exisiting feedback, such as "how many Sitemap URLs have been indexed, or whether your Sitemaps have any errors." Also, the new Sitemaps page would replace the Video Sitemaps Labs feature, which will be retired.In a January 26, blog post, a software engineer with webmaster tools revealed that with the new Sitemap "statistics from Web, Videos, Images and News are featured prominently. This lets you see how many items of each type were submitted (if any), and for some content types."

Google's AdMob team rolled out a new feature "automatic app conversion tracking for Android campaigns.""All AdMob Android app download campaigns will now automatically report conversion data from the Android Market. This means that you'll be able to see conversions from your app download campaign without configuring any special code," informed Morgan Hallmon, Product Manager, Mobile Ads.Adding, "To see conversion data for your Android download campaigns, simply go to the App Conversion Tracking section of your account. You'll be able to see the number of downloads driven by your AdMob advertising campaign. In addition, you'll be able to keep tabs on the cost per

"Google in Education: A New & Open World for Learning" launched today is a booklet that provides more information on how Google and its users are impacting education. "This booklet is not your typical annual report; it is a living document for educators to use year-round," blogged Google.Adding, "We have also revamped our website, google.com/edu, to be a one-stop shop for teachers, students, parents and organizations to explore all of our offerings," the company writes.Google also launched a Google+ page, where everyone can stay updated on its educational tools, products and programs, and join the conversation.Jordan Lloyd Bookey, Head of Global K-12 Education Outreach, said, "to develop

Google's YouTube team in a "January 26 blog post highlighted some of the most recent updates to YouTube:New look for BrowseBrowse page revceived a new fresh look-and-feel, that would help find Channels on YouTube. Alongside the "top lists like Most Viewed Today, you can now discover and subscribe to more YouTube Channels on browse pages, which'll then regularly update on your homepage," informed David Wang. You can also discover more content under categories including Entertainment, People & Blogs, Science & Technology and more.Video Editor with new featuresAlong side, YouTube homepage update, Video Editor also reveived a visual overhaul, as well as a

Google Earth 6.2 brings along with more seamless imagery and a new search interface an d more. Here is what's new in this release:Seamless globeBecuase, Google Earth globe is made from a mosaic of satellite and aerial photographs taken on different dates and under different lighting and weather conditions, views of the Earth from high altitude can sometimes appear patchy.To end this, Google introduced a new way of rendering imagery that smoothes out this quilt effect of images. This change is available on both mobile and desktop versions of Earth.Grand Canyon before and after:Share your explorations with Google+Earth 6.2, also added

Google introduces a new complementary initiative dubbed "Trusted Photographers" to the Business Photos pilot program, that give business owners an easy way to get customers in the door online using interactive, high-quality, 360-degree images of places on Google Maps and on Google Search results.Trusted Photographers currently available in 14 U.S. cities, as well as in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and France.How it works? Just "visit this website, search for a Google Trusted Photographer in your area. Either email or call a photographer in your area to schedule a time and agree on a price that you'll pay the photographer for a