Microsoft's Kumo Just Another Search Imitator

With by some estimates a 73 percent share of search traffic, Google is driving the industry. Yahoo is still a player, but Microsoft as always been an also-ran and not a very successful one at that.
The revenue generated by search engines is too large for Microsoft to ignore, but what's been leaked about Kumo suggests Microsoft's game of catch-up will already have been leapfrogged by competitors when Kumo goes live, reportedly on June 3.
Simply put: With three large companies in the game, anything one can do is easily copied by the others. Users search habits are hard to change, allowing time for catch-up and making it difficult to convince users to switch or even to start using a second search engine to improve results.
Kumo reportedly improves search results by suggesting more targeted searches capable of bringing users closer to the information they seek. Yahoo and Google have both recently demonstrated similar functionality.

Microsoft releases

After arriving first on torrent sites and then last week showing up on Microsoft's developer program Web sites, the release candidate of Windows 7 operating system arrived on the main Microsoft.com late on Monday night. The software was slated to be made publicly available on Tuesday.

The release candidate version, officially build 7100, is expected to be the last major public test of the product before it is finalized. The company will only officially confirm it plans to release Windows 7 before Windows Vista hits its third anniversary of broad availability in January. However, the software maker is widely seen as aiming to finish it soon enough for it to be on PCs that ship during this year's holiday shopping season.

See what's new in Windows 7 RC--photos
The latest official update to what some are calling the largest shareware trial period ever introduces more than mere bug fixes as the operating system upgrades from beta to release candidate. The Windows 7 release candidate does contain several major and minor changes, but the overall experience remains largely unchanged.

What's most important to you about the release candidate will depend on your perspective. Certainly, one of the biggest new features makes Windows Media Player useful again: you can now stream media files from one Windows 7 computer to another, across the Internet and out of network. Even better, the setup procedure is dead simple.

However, Microsoft has failed to remove a long-recognized Windows Explorer security risk from Windows 7, according to security company F-Secure. The "hide extensions" feature, which was present in Windows NT, 2000, XP, and Vista, is also included in the Windows 7 release candidate, The feature could allow virus writers to trick users into opening and running malicious files, he added.

A small brouhaha is erupting over Windows 7 and Intel processors. The hubbub is centered on which Intel processors will not support "XP mode" in Windows 7 and, by extension, which PCs will not support XP mode. Retail laptops may be one of the most prominent segments affected.

The other major release from the software maker came in the form of layoffs--Microsoft on Tuesday notified more than 3,000 workers that it is eliminating their jobs. The software maker said in January that it would cut up to 5,000 jobs over the next 18 months. It made 1,400 cuts at the time. With the second wave, Microsoft has cut nearly all 5,000 jobs already.

McAfee blasted for having holes in its Web sites

Security vulnerabilities on McAfee sites, including one designed to scan customers' sites for flaws, expose certain customer accounts and could be used for phishing attacks in which malware disguised as McAfee software could be distributed, security experts say.
The McAfee sites are vulnerable to cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks and cross-site request forgery attacks that could lead to phishing attacks on customers who think they are visiting the security vendor's site, according to an article on ReadWriteWeb.
Ironically, one of the vulnerable sites is McAfee Secure, which scans customer sites to determine if they are vulnerable to such attacks. The problem would signal that either McAfee doesn't run McAfee Secure across all of its own sites or the product doesn't work well, the report said.
To fall victim to a cross-site request forgery attack on that site, targets would have to be logged into their McAfee accounts and browse to a malicious Web site that exploits the vulnerability, according to the Risky.biz site.
Such attacks on sites of antivirus vendors are particularly dangerous because they enable attackers to create fake versions of security products that install Trojans or other malware and customers will trust it, Lance James, co-founder of Secure Science Corporation, told ReadWriteWeb.
The hole on the McAfee Secure site would indicate that the company failed to comply with PCI requirements for Approved Scanning Vendors, didn't use a secure software development lifecycle in building the application, and neglected to do an in-depth penetration test of the site, security researcher Mike Bailey wrote on his Skeptikal.org blog on Monday.
A McAfee spokesman said on Tuesday that the company was aware of reports of the vulnerabilities and was "working to remediate the issues with the highest urgency."
"It is important to note that these vulnerabilities did not expose any of McAfee's corporate information. Additionally, we have not seen any malicious exploitation of the vulnerabilities," the spokesman wrote in an e-mail. "McAfee has strict policies in place for its own Web sites and for services provided by third parties. We are investigating how these particular vulnerabilities were not identified in our screening process and will adjust our processes if necessary."
McAfee isn't the only security company to have security problems on its site. Last month, The Register reported on a cross-site scripting vulnerability on Symantec's site. And in February, a Romanian hacker site claimed to have used cross-site scripting and SQL injection attacks to breach the sites of F-Secure, Kaspersky, and BitDefender.

Windows 7 Release Candidate debuts early

SOMEWHERE OVER COLORADO--As I wind my way back to San Francisco, the release candidate of Windows 7 has made its public debut.

After arriving first on torrent sites and then last week showing up on Microsoft's developer program Web sites, the operating system arrived on the main Microsoft.com late on Monday night. The software was slated to be made publicly available on Tuesday.
The release candidate version, officially build 7100, is expected to be the last major public test of the product before it is finalized. The company will only officially confirm it plans to release Windows 7 before Windows Vista hits its third anniversary of broad availability in January. However, the software maker is widely seen as aiming to finish it soon enough for it to be on PCs that ship during this year's holiday shopping season.
When it hit the MSDN and TechNet sites last week, Microsoft faced a crush of demand and encountered glitches. We'll try to keep track of how things go this time around. Let us know if it works for you.
A Microsoft representative was not immediately available for comment.
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft.

Now closing: GeoCities, a relic of Web's early days

Yahoo is closing its GeoCities personal home page service, and with it will go an era of self-expression on the Web that's largely been replaced by social networks and blogs.
GeoCities rose to power during an era when publishing on the Internet meant setting up your own Web site. GeoCities simplified the process by helping people sidestep the complications of registering a domain and learning how to program HTML, the language that describes Web pages.
Yahoo is closing it GeoCities site this year.
(Credit: Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)Yahoo bought GeoCities for more than $2.9 billion in dot-com-priced stock in 1999, when GeoCities had more than 1.1 million users. However, while the idea of having a personal presence on the Internet has caught on, GeoCities turned out to be a backwater, not the mainstream.
"We will be closing GeoCities later this year," Yahoo said in a note on the site. "We'll provide more details about closing GeoCities and how to save your site data this summer."
Goodbye Geocities, hello FacebookToday, the way people choose to express themselves on the Internet is shifting away from isolated Web pages. Instead they use social-networking sites such as Facebook, with built-in features for creating a profile, staying in touch with contacts, and maintaining at least a little privacy; WordPress, where it's easy to post updates to a blog; or Flickr, where the photographically inclined can meet, share, and comment.
What these services and others including Twitter, YouTube, MySpace, and Blogger possess is a mechanism to notify interested parties of new activity, helping to keep social links pulsing with new information in a way that just can't be replicated by depending on a person to swing by a personal Web site.
That's not to say personal home pages are extinct. Google Sites is still around, and Yola, formerly SynthaSite, bought out search ads related to GeoCities searches on Thursday. But for most folks, it's easier to rely on more sophisticated pre-built services than to roll their own sites.
It's no surprise GeoCities is on the chopping block. Yahoo has its hands full trying to integrate its successful properties with the socially active parts of the Internet. The company hardly has resources to spare on last decade's trend.
Part of GeoCities' closure is related to Yahoo's circumstances. The company already was under financial pressure before the recession arrived in full force, but now things are even tighter, and new Chief Executive Carol Bartz is focusing on the company's core, successful properties--laying off about 675 employees in areas that don't pass muster.
GeoCities' vanishing sites?Still unclear is what exactly will become of GeoCities pages. New sign-ups are already no longer permitted, but what about existing sites?
Here's how Yahoo put it: "You can continue to enjoy your Web site and GeoCities services until later this year. You don't need to change a thing right now--we just wanted you to let you know about the closure as soon as possible. We'll provide more details about closing GeoCities and how to save your site data this summer, and we will update the help center with more details at that time."
That leaves open the possibility that Yahoo will make it possible to move a site to another service, as it did when shutting down Yahoo Photos, but in the current climate, it's probably best not to expect such a graceful transition option. Yahoo wouldn't comment on its plans.
Another option is to upgrade to a separate paid Yahoo service: "You don't need to change your service today, but we encourage anyone interested in a full-featured Web hosting plan to consider upgrading to our award-winning Yahoo Web Hosting service."
But given how many GeoCities users weren't technical experts, it seems likely that a lot of amateur Web sites soon will vanish without a trace, a casualty of business priorities and the Internet's rapid changes.

Microsoft profits sink for the first time in 23 years

In a not totally surprising -- yet still kind of striking -- turn of events, Microsoft is reporting that its sales have fallen for the first time in 23 years. You read that right, 23 years. According to numbers that the company has just released, sales fell 6 percent year-over-year, while overall net income dropped a staggering 32 percent. Those numbers are significant, but what's more telling is where those losses are coming from. Namely? Netbooks. Apparently, in the midst of a global downturn consumers really are buying cheaper, especially when it comes to tech, which puts a fairly significant crunch on Redmond's bottom line. A CNN reports suggests that the presence of Linux on those devices has contributed to the hurt here, but it's more likely that the combo of a market still unwelcoming to Vista and the wide popularity of XP on the low-power systems has more to do with these dipping profit margins. Oh, and that general, awful market depression. Still, it should serve as some kind of wake up call to Microsoft that just being the biggest doesn't guarantee that the money will keep rolling in the way it has in years past -- clearly the big picture isn't as sharp as it's always been. Hey Windows 7 -- no pressure, right?Update: We've tweaked some language in the post that made the situation sound more dire than intended. Don't worry everyone, we know Microsoft isn't going anywhere.

Apple soars during economic gloom

The iPod lineup appeared to get a clear boost from the launch of the new iPod Shuffle, with Apple selling about 1 million more iPods than analysts had expected. iPod shipments were up 3 percent compared to last year, as revenue fell 16 percent, suggesting that sales of the $79 iPod Shuffle made up a greater amount of Apple's iPod mix than usual.
iPod Touch sales doubled compared to last year, Cook said, and Apple has now sold 37 million iPhones and iPod Touches combined. In March, Apple said it had sold 30 million of those two devices since their introduction.
And as had been foreshadowed earlier on Tuesday, Apple sold 3.79 million iPhones, which Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster predicted based on AT&T's activation numbers for the quarter. iPhone shipments were up sharply compared to last year, but they fell coming off the holiday quarter.