‘Microsoft’

If you are not a fan of Microsoft you will be disappointed with the news of Skype now being another Microsoft product. However, if you love Microsoft you will be glad to know that Skype has been bought for a whopping $8.6 billion.

For those of you who thought that Skype will immediately form part of Windows 8, the news is not good. One can, however, expect Microsoft to use subtle moves to incorporate the application ensuring more income for them and more services for their users.

Live Messenger will certainly be complemented with the integration of Skype and one can expect to see it on the mobile marketplace. The application is already used for video chatting on Facebook and a few more places are expected to use it in future for add-on functionality.

Most Internet savvy users are familiar with Skype and the many cost savings it offers in terms of international video conferencing and normal calls. The company has done well in self promotion and up to now, the mere functionality of the application has been enough to ensure effective viral marketing.

Tony Bates, the CEO of the company, will become the president of the new division at Microsoft for now to help with the introduction of the application across board. He will report to Steve Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft. Communication across platforms is expected to increase rather than decrease. The idea is to provide revolutionary new services and experiences for the users world-wide.

User Concerns Are Addressed

Users have aired their concerns about the possibility of fee based services for which Microsoft is known since millions of users worldwide already make use of the free features offered by Skype. Microsoft has assured all users that current free services will not be changed – albeit for now.

Will There Be A Change In Direction?

One can expect a few changes along the way, but according to the two companies the focus will stay on communication in real time across the globe. It is certainly not a hostile take-over and as such the two companies are looking forward to working together. The Skype employees will not be sacked, but will rather stay in their positions at the various offices around the world including:

• USA
• Japan
• Russia
• Estonia
• Luxembourg
• Czech Republic

Skype has a goal of reaching one billion users daily and Microsoft plans to help the company realise the goal. The acquisition is still in the process in the various countries so immediate changes should not be expected.

Effects on Apple iPad

Skype has recently announced the launching of an application specifically for Apple’s tablet. With it being available for iPad from the iTunes application store, users can have video calling in a two way format as well as SMS and instant messaging features. The interface has been developed specifically for ten inch displays. One only needs 3G connectivity or Wi-Fi to connect. How the purchasing of the company by Microsoft will affect the Apple tablet market remains to be seen.

Effects on Android

Skype has also recently added video calling for Android phones. Connectivity is gained through 3G and Wi-Fi. The quality of the calls is slightly lower than in the case of one to one video chatting. This is another area of uncertainty for users. It is not certain what Microsoft plans regarding these applications.

Current Competitors

Other instant messaging networks competing with Skype that also offer instant messaging in addition to video conference and one to one video chatting include that of Google Voice & Talk, AOL, Yahoo!, iChat and Windows Life Messenger. From the above, only one competitor falls away – that of Live Messenger.

Controversy Surrounding Usage

Not all companies welcome the use of the service as employees have misused the networks and have over used bandwidth in the process. Some companies, however, make extensive use of the service in order to save costs.

Background on Skype

It is a software based application allowing for one to one calls whether video or voice based and instant messaging through the use of the Internet. Calls to other users of the software are free while calls to mobile and landlines are cheaper than with normal calls. One simply loads money for credit onto the account and can then make the calls. There is a log of calls made and notification of how much is left ensuring adequate user control over their own spending.

User Totals

The company had more than 660 million users as counted in September earlier this year and Microsoft thus gains a tremendous user base. What sets it apart from other VoIP competitors is the fact that it operates as a peer to peer application. Most of the other services are client server based.

Why Users Love the Application

Once a user is registered on the network, they obtain a Skype Name that can be listed in the directory. Other users can search and find existing users and communicate free of charge. It also allows for chatting, group chatting, history keeping, message editing and furthermore usage of emoticons.

Excellent Cost Saving Features

The users can receive calls to their personal computers or mobile computers in various countries. One can have local numbers in numerous countries and save on telephone costs. The company has offered video conferencing since the start of 2006 also for Window and Mac. The program can furthermore operate on the Linux platform with the same functionality. Currently, free video conferencing is allowed for Windows, provided the group is smaller than six persons. HQ video is supported for certain platforms.

No doubt, Microsoft has gained a lot through the purchasing of Skype and will use the program to the maximum benefit. Hopefully it will not mean the disappearance of Skype from platforms other than Windows, but with a promise by both companies to expand the market rather than making it smaller, there may not be ground for concern.

Google has introduced the Google+ on a limited scale at present. Before you jump on a search to join, it is at present open on an invite only basis. It may be because Google first wants to test the market and avoid unnecessary publicity and questions regarding Google Buzz or perhaps to create suspense. What is more important though, is whether Google+ can outperform Facebook or will be, yet another one of Google’s less successful social media network rollouts.

No doubt, Google is the best when it comes to search engines and many Facebook users don’t appreciate Facebook’s lack of concern about their privacy. Whether Google+ will replace Facebook completely will depend on the features offered, marketing of the social network, and of course integration with other applications. At this stage it is just another platform for social communication, but it can grow into a Google Giant.

There are positives and negatives as with all applications. The Google Plus, written as Google+ is perhaps not the best of names to select. For one, it definitely creates confusion with the Google +1 Button. Upon request to post about Google+ and Facebook, the original post was written about the Google+1 Button and Facebook Like, simply because of confusion. To further add to the confusion, the Google +1 feature in Google Plus differs from the Google +1 Button used for searches in Google. With all the plusses one can almost get into a state of total puzzlement and leave everything altogether out of fear of making a mistake when talking to people.

Google has named it a project rather than one of their new products with the idea that it would be seen as one of their features rather than a product taking on the social network giant Facebook. According to Google it is not intended as competition for Facebook, but rather another way of connecting and sharing, although it certainly comes across as a social network just as Facebook.

Similarities And Differences Between Google+ And Facebook

Facebook allows users to create specific groups and lists of contacts. The Google+ version is the Circles where the user drags and drops contacts into various Circles, allowing for sharing of information with specific groups only. If you are thus not comfortable sharing information about your cat that just died with the whole bunch of contacts, you will be able to select a Circle with contacts who will give the required sympathy. It will enable the user to split social and office life gossip. It is better than the friend lists in Facebook in the sense that the Facebook lists don’t give you the opportunity to selectively share information with a few friends. You can make group posts though with Facebook Groups. You normally end up making groups to share specific information with and it doesn’t have the easy drop and drag feature of Google+.

On the negative side for the Circles – it is still a lot of work, especially if you have the 100 closest friends in a circle and another 900 contacts to organise. Apparently not the easiest to use in the beginning, it becomes a rather useful feature once you get the hang of it.

Newsfeed & Stream

Facebook has the newsfeeds which enable users to see what their friends have posted. One can stream updates, the most recent posts or everything.  Google+ has Stream, located at the top of the box where you post your status updates, photos and other content you want to share. You will select a Circle from which you want to get a stream unlike the Facebook newsfeed option that shares information about everything posted recently, updates or all.

Making It Easier To Share Information With Non-Google Plus Users

Google+ has a feature that enables you to still share information with users that only have email addresses and have not joined the network formerly by adding them to one of your circles. They will be able to see what you have shared with the particular circle of friends. You can also follow a person that has not added you as a friend, provided they share information publicly. What they share with their particular circles will still be a mystery. The only negative about sharing with people who have not befriended you is that you can easily fill their email inboxes since they will be notified when you post for a circle where their details appear.

Importing Contacts

At present you will not be able to import friends from Facebook. You will be able to use all the emails, but for understandable reasons, Facebook at present doesn’t allow for exporting of friend details to Google+. As such you will have to create your contact base in Google from scratch, but can use present Google contacts to get it jump started. The upside is that one can export details from Facebook to Microsoft and Yahoo!. Using the two you can then get your friend details to Google+. One should note that although contact information can be obtained, the contacts will not include their friends. This little glitch can make it difficult to get Google Plus to grow fast, especially because Google Buzz is not included in the picture as it will at first be kept separate and may never be integrated with the Plus project.

Plus & Like

Facebook has the Like option allowing one to show others what you think is worth considering or when you generally just like something. Google+ has the +1 button. You will +1 for the same reason. Just a note on the plus one buttons on the search and those offered in Google Plus. The two are not related. Nothing you +1 in the Google search feature will be related to your +1 in the social network. It is confusing. As such there is a +1 for the search which is not related to Google+ the social network. Facebook has a definite advantage here. At present the only way to see what a person has +1’d in the Google search feature is to view their Google Profile. Apparently the +1 of the social network and +1 button in the search will eventually be integrated, but not for now.

Hangouts & Huddles

Hangout is the one feature that may get Google+ off the ground and get Facebook users to join in the network. Hangout is the video chatting option where up to ten persons can at the same time chat by means of video. It is definitely something to consider for work meetings or friends who for instance, play Paintball together. Everyone in the particular circle can contribute to the conversation and it is done video based. As soon as a user launches a Hangout, the friends in the circle get a notification. Pretty soon everyone can join in and have a video chat. This is better than the Facebook chat at present and also a bit more private. It is for instance, possible to share a video to a whole group of people. The Huddles feature is the Google non-SMS chat feature for mobile applications. Information about the feature is still a bit limited and as such keep an eye on this spot for more about it in future.

In Summary

Google+ offers more privacy than Facebook and better organisation of contacts. It has the Hangouts and Huddle features. In addition, it also offers Stream allowing for high quality picture feeds. There are other smaller features such as Sparks (sparking conversation on a topic and allowing to follow a specific topic), and then the ability of mobile users to add their location. Facebook is extremely popular, not so private, yet, familiar to users. Facebook is rather easy to use and doesn’t have a confusing name. The Like is already integrated with searches whereas Google+ has kept the +1 for social and the +1 for search separate for their launch. Google has it made it possible to integrate various Google products such as the Google Profiles, the Chrome search toolbar and Gmail as well.

Facebook, however, still wins on the topic of user-friendliness and simplification. You need a Google Profile that will have some information displayed publically. The Circles feature is great, but with one user being able to have more than one email account, you may end up with a user in two circles receiving two notifications every time. It still has some glitches and for people familiar with Facebook there may not be enough incentive to make use of another social network. If Google+ focuses a lot of attention on the Hangouts feature, they may be able to get more Facebook users. Other video chat applications such as Skype may get the boot in the long run and Facebook will have to bring something better to the table to keep their users at home.

The online war between the giant Google and Microsoft with their Bing search engine is heating up with accusations of copying flying from left to right. Google has gone public with their allegations by stating at their official blog in no uncertain terms that Bing is guilty of recycling the Google results.

Say what you want, but picking sides in this online war becomes easy when considering the evidence as stated at the Google blog, and of course, the fact that Google has always been in the lead when it comes to the generation of accurate search results.

Amit Singhal, the Google engineer explained in exact detail how Google engineers created phony search results as bait and how Bing then displayed the same results on their search pages not too long after. The conclusion can only be that Bing is guilty, but Microsoft responded with a not-guilty plea, stating that results indicate how Bing uses opt-in customer data for better search experiences for customers.

The tech community has come out with fierce criticism for both sides, but according to Google all they want is for Microsoft to stop with their practice of recycling Google results at their Bing search engine.

How does Microsoft Recycle Google Results?

Microsoft uses opt-in online customer data and their Bing toolbar to get a feel for what the users search for and which links are followed. Users who do searches using Google and have the Bing toolbar installed will subsequently find that every time they click on a Google result that Bing records it and then ads the results to their own search results. If one look at it in this way, it seems that Google has a point; recycling of Google search results is not too original on the part of Microsoft and it does seem to be an underhanded technique while the Google engineers have to work hard in ensuring that search results are highly accurate. The Google versus Bing war promises to get even more exciting and the outcome should set a president for future recycling efforts by search engine companies.