Idée's image search engine TinEye would be launched today

Local tech startup Idée Inc. will publicly launch a search engine named TinEye that will function the same with images as what Google Inc. does with text.

"This is the early days of multimedia searching," said chief executive Leila Boujnane. "It feels like we're at the same place Google was at years ago."

With a small number of dedicated staff and their several years of R&D work, Idée has managed to develop a set of algorithms that takes an image, compares it to about a half-billion indexed pictures, and generates relevant images and their url within milliseconds.

"Anyone who actually sells content wants to know where it is," said Idée co-founder and chief technology officer Paul Bloore. "No one else can do this, especially on the scale that we're doing."

TinEye will be helpful for publishers, online retailers, brand marketers and copyright compliance officers who want to track how products are being distributed on the Web.

The release of TinEye is Idée's another step at becoming a king in the image recognition industry. Its existing service is to tracks down publishers who use their copyrighted pictures and bills them as per value.

"It has lots of business applications and I don't even think they've scratched the surface," said Rick Segal, a partner with private equity firm JLA Ventures. "It's the kind of stuff that gets greedy little suits like me excited."

"For this kind of technology, there's a lot deep pockets already," said George Goodall, a senior research analyst with Info-Tech Research Group.

"I think [Idée] has a one-year window of opportunity to build the technology. If they fail to execute on that strategy in the next eight months, they could get swallowed up."

99 Million Euro for Quaero Project: Can Google Survive it?

Checking a data or fact? Planning a tourist vacation? Want information on a disease, a hotel or restaurant, a business event, pet care? What Internet users normally do? They Google the information. With around 85 percent of the search-engine market, including that of Germany, Google has become the market leader.

Now European Union is concerned about US hegemony in the worldwide search engine market. They aim to develop an Eurocentric alternative to the dominant Google.
European Union have launched a project under the name Quaero (Latin for ‘I seek’) to compete with the American behemoth. The project is headed by an Internet information company called exalead.com. The Quaero project is a coalition of 23 companies led by French technology giant Thomson.

Now, the European Union's competition watchdog has approved €99 million (£76 million) of French state aid for the consortium. This is also a fact that Google spent $7.5 million (6.3 million euros) on one lab with 10 students in its development stages. Can Quaero project become that tough? Also, the US search engine behemoth continues to spend $400 million annually on research and development. Can Quaero compete with the Google competency?

Anyway, the endeavour of EU is worth watching and the consortium plans to make the Quaero engine available for personal computers, mobile phones, televisions and other media platforms.

Google give Microsoft a shock: Double Click Acquired for $3.1 Billion

It seems that online advertising is the most revenue generating business in the Internet marketing. Perhaps that is why Internet giants are grabbing online advertising tools like hot cake.

According to the BBC news Time Warner's AOL internet division is buying the social networking site Bebo for $850 million (£417million) in cash. And now news is that Google is going to acquire DoubleClick for $3.1 Billion.

The outcome of the combination of Google and DoubleClick would be worth watching as both are the biggest players in online advertising. Their advertising styles are different. Google's AdSense business is algorithm-driven and is based on clickable links, whereas DoubleClick places targeted banner ads on sites like MySpace, The Wall Street Journal and America Online.

The move is also a big setback for Microsoft and other potential suitors like Yahoo and AOL. The DoubleClick acquisition may result in one of the significant deals because it was the pioneer in online advertising.

Using DoubleClick's services Google would extend the reach of its AdSense network, which now includes DoubleClick's DART for Publishers product.

Internet Explorer 8: Review

For the web developers, Microsoft MIX08 event was very significant. In this event, the Microsoft has released a web-browser which is very online marketing friendly. The name of this browser is Internet Explorer 8 or (IE 8).

On the first instance the IE 8 doesn’t seem much different from version 7. Most of the base features are the same and it looks like an Internet Explorer. However, this is packed with some new features. Let’s look at what these features are.

IE8 has some new and improved features which can be beneficial for the end-user. Some of these features are…

1. Activities: Previously, if you needed to get the address and map a route to a holiday spot, you would go to their website, copy the address and paste it into a map website such as Live Maps.

Now, with Activities, you simply highlight your selection and the activities button appears. This button gives you the option to map an address (a preview of activities is available without launching a whole new tab or page).

2. WebSlices: in IE8 some of the websites are enabled for WebSlices, like eBay and Facebook. You can simply click on the WebSlice button and add it to your favorites bar and from any webpage your updated content will appear with bold type.

3. Favorites bar: The Favorites bar replaces the links bar from IE 7 which provided one-click access to favorite sites.

4. Automatic Crash Recovery: this feature is designed to recover your web pages in case of a crash or hang in your web browser. ACR might help in minimizing disruptions and it can improve your productivity.

5. Improved Phishing Filter: IE 8 have a safety filter that does more than block sites that are used for phishing. It blocks sites that are known to contain malicious software that may harm your computer.

There are speculations that these improvements may make Internet browsing easier and more productive. With IE8, Microsoft may change the Web browsing experience.

Microsoft MIX08: Announcement of Internet Marketing-Friendly Products

The date, the place and the event are of much importance for the web developers and web technocrats. It was a period from March 5-7, 2008, the place was The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino, Las Vegas and the occasion was the unveiling of the Microsoft’s latest web-oriented products and technologies. Now, let me tell you the name of the event which is Microsoft MIX08 or we can call it simply mix08.

This event was of much significance, firstly for the Microsoft, then for various web developers and lastly for the technologies that would emerge after this event of the Microsoft.

Mix08 was not a product launch as such. What Microsoft has chosen to show at this event are not finished products, but the first wave of new products that will become generally available over the next six months.

The event shows that the Internet is going to become the core functional area of Microsoft and it will continue to develop web-based software. According to chief technology officer of Microsoft, Ray Ozzie, "We are placing the internet at the centre of our strategy." This shows that world would see more major Internet developments in the coming times and it would be beneficial for the Internet marketing as a whole.

Furthermore, internet aware devices are becoming more commonplace with us these days. We are carrying mobile gadgets which are totally Internet-based. So, the consistent research of the Microsoft is very useful for us, I think!

Also, in the event MS has announced some of its latest technologies among which the key release was beta version of Internet Explorer 8 (IE8). This is the latest web browser from the Microsoft. Through this web browser, Microsoft has made it easy for websites that provide services to be used from any other website.

For example, if you highlight a street address in IE8, the right click menu will allow you to bring up the location on through the Live Maps service. Online buying and selling is a common process these days. Now, just find an interesting item you're looking to buy? Right click and be taken directly to the search results for that product. These innovations are going to make a difference in the online marketing.

Moreover, Microsoft's Silverlight technology is yet another tool which was demonstrated at the event. This is a set of tools that plugs into your web browser and allows websites to display rich media content and applications. Here, with a heavy focus on media, especially video, Silverlight can deliver very complicated and detailed web pages.

There are speculations that Nokia would make Silverlight available for the majority of their handsets and internet tablets.

Thus, Microsoft is keeping on striving for the excellence. Perhaps the company is also influenced by the advent of the Internet marketing that is why it is emphasizing on the online marketing friendly Internet browser. This is definitely a good news for all those people who are involved in affiliate marketing, search engine marketing or any kind of Internet marketing.

War for Capturing Internet Based Office Tools Market

Sometimes I get amazed that who is going to win in the war among software giants to get the biggest piece from the huge Internet marketing cake. I have been listening about brand India emerging in the field of software. I also have been listening about the monopoly of some of the giants in this field. I have been listening about the new developments in the software and applications domain.

One thing I am realizing that all software giants like Microsoft, Google, Dell, Yahoo! and other software hunks like these, are undergoing a war with each other. The war is on for supremacy.

Here you would ask me some concrete data to prove the above statement. So let’s start...

To provide competition to Google Apps, that allows users to create and store documents online, Microsoft has recently launched Office Live WorkSpace. This application allows people to create and store Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations online.

Again, for giving competition to Microsoft’s Outlook, Google has launched Google Sites, which allows people to create websites on which they can present documents as well as videos and other material.

Now, other companies are also not lagging behind. Dell has invested $155 million for buying MessageOne which is a provider of online e-mail archiving and management services. Furthermore, Yahoo! has spent $350 million for buying Zimbra, a web-based competitor to Microsoft Exchange.

The list can go on and on and here you can see how. Google has spent 625 million dollar to buy the e-mail filtering and security firm, Postini. Cisco bought WebEx, a supplier of online conferencing software, for 3.2 billion dollar.

Really, the war is on. Now, you would have been well convinced that really the war has begun. As a user of the software applications, I can say only one thing that let them fight with each other; ultimately the winner is me, i.e., the customer and the billions of active Internet users worldwide.