Google's new Ångströ

Google has added yet another firm to its growing list of acquisitions in the social networking space, with the purchase of Palo Alto start-up Ångströ.

Ångströ makes apps designed to enhance social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter by “unlocking the power of your social graph”. One such example is Noteworthy News, which was launched in beta earlier this month. The app “delivers news about people and companies in your professional network”, according to the firm. Co-founder of the firm, Rohit Khare, announced the acquisition in a blog post entitled ‘Our work here is done…’

“Almost four years ago I set out to solve a deceptively simple problem: 95 per cent of the Google Alerts I received about the entrepreneur Adam Rifkin were about the Hollywood movie director instead,” he said. “With the help of investors like CommerceNet and advisors such as Avery Lyford, our team shipped apps to discover hot new photos on Facebook, improve Caller ID by using LinkedIn profiles, adding style and links to Twitter, create a real-time social address book, and a slew of other services (some of which are open source).”

The purchase will be the fourth acquisition in the social networking and e-commerce space by Google this month. First up was social networking app maker Slide, then came virtual currency firm Jambool and finally visual search engine Like.com. However, Google has struggled to find success with its social networking services in the past, most notably with Buzz, which Google Buzz, the company's first foray into social networking, was widely criticized for violating user privacy.

 

Google Chrome

Google is offering security researchers a cash reward for finding flaws in its Chrome web browser. The company said that it would be doling out payments ranging from $500 to $1337 to developers who find and directly report security holes in the browser. The $1337 amount is an apparent homage to the hacker term '1337' (pronounced "elite").

The payment system will apply to flaws in the Chromium open source project along with the Chrome browser and bundled components such as Google Gears. In unveiling the campaign on the official Chromium blog, Google Chrome security team member Chris Evans said that the company was looking to bring more third party researchers into its midst.

"Some of the most interesting security bugs we've fixed have been reported by researchers external to the Chromium project," he wrote. "Thanks to the collaborative efforts of these people and others, Chromium security is stronger and our users are safer."

Paying vendors for disclosure of flaws has been a tactic used by both developers and security vendors to encourage not only research, but responsible disclosure. Firms hope that by offering cash rewards, researchers will report flaws to those who will patch them rather than malware writers who pay for new vulnerabilities to exploit.

Oracle and Rimini Street

Enterprise software giant Oracle has filed a lawsuit against Rimini Street, alleging that the little known software support firm stole huge amounts of copyrighted Oracle software and support material. The case has drawn parallels with Oracle's fight with SAP's TomorrowNow business unit, which it also alleges used Oracle customer log-ins to steal copyrighted material. 

Rimini Street has vowed to fight the allegations, arguing that the legal action is an attempt by Oracle to limit competition and "market choice for its software licenses". "Rimini Street offers valuable support options at more than a 50 per cent saving compared to Oracle," said chief executive Seth Ravin in a statement. 

"Rimini Street's services are enjoyed by hundreds of clients around the world, including Global and Fortune 500 organizations, many government agencies, and small businesses trying to grow and hire new employees in these difficult economic times." Oracle spokeswoman Deborah Hellinger said in a statement: "We are committed to enforcing our intellectual property rights against those who steal or infringe upon them."

The news comes at the end of a busy week for Oracle, in which the firm finally announced the completion of its acquisition of Sun Microsystems and revealed its roadmap for Sun products.

Windows 7 is not “Vista service pack."

Windows 7 is not “Vista service pack." Though both of them vista and win 7 share the same core technology but windows 7 is way different than vista. What that means is that Windows 7 is what Vista should have been in the public eye—a solid OS with plenty of modern eye candy that mostly succeeds in taking Windows usability into the 21st century—but it doesn't daringly innovate or push boundaries or smash down walls or whatever verb meets solid object metaphor you want to use, because it had a specific set of obligations to meet, courtesy of its forebear.

If you haven’t tried or used vista before and coming from XP then, Windows 7 will totally feel like a revelation from the glossy future. If you're coming from Vista, you'll definitely say “where are all those bugs”. The first time you touch Aero Peek or use integrated voice recognition or aero shake like features you are bound to be mesmerized. To read more go to www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7 and download 90 days trial of the windows 7 enterprise version.