Firefox's Hello

Firefox Hello | A Browser comes with its own Instant Messaging

Firefox Hello

   In the latest update of Firefox 41, it is now the first browser to have built-in instant messaging.

Firefox's Hello, developed and built directly into a browser which will let us to send and receive instant messages when we are in a video call in Firefox for Windows, Mac and Linux.

Hello is WebRTC (Web Real Time Communication) powered which enable us todo video chating. This can all be done without the need for setting up an account or giving up any of our personal information. Hello icon in the menu bar or customization panel, simply click the ‘Start a conversation’ button to create your first conversation. Now when you start a conversation, a window opens showing a self-view until the person you have invited clicks on the link and joins you. While you’re waiting for them to join, you can navigate away from this call window to a website. Hello will then notify you when another party joins the room. The Hello icon will turn blue and you’ll get an audio alert.

Firefox Hello Chat Window

Every conversation uses a unique URL for two people to communicate more easily over video or audio. You can create multiple conversations (Groups) and name them for different occasions, making it easier to go back to the people you speak to regularly without having to create a new link each time. We can label the conversation as ‘Team’ for weekly check-in with a co-worker and another ‘Family’ for our regular family catch-up. All the conversation are saved and can be retrieved whenever required.

To contact someone directly, you just need to make sure both parties have Firefox Accounts. If your contacts have a Firefox Account and are online, then you can call these contacts directly from Firefox. We can easily import contacts to your Hello address book from Google Account. Just select ‘Import Contacts’ from the address book and then sign into your Google account to give permission.

Firefox Hello as a comprehensive tool for communicating over the Web, will be testing new features like screen sharing and online collaboration so people can be more productive and get the most out of their video calls in the near future.

Project Nilgiri

Indian Railways + Google Fibre | Free Hi-Speed WiFi in Railway Stations

Project Nilgiri

  Indian Railways and Google Fibre has joined to create India’s largest network of free WiFi across railway stations. This partnership has been named as ‘Project Nilgiri’. Google Fiber, the cutting edge technology to provide high speed Internet service. The masterstroke which Google has played to partner with RailTel, which provides infrastructure and platform.

The pilot project of ‘Project Nilgiri’ will be setting up Wi-Fi hotspots at approximately 400 stations across India over a span of 4 months from now.

RailTel, a public sector unit has already laid optical fiber cable across 32,500 kms and work is in progress for rest of 29,500 kms. As per Wikipedia, RailTel has “state of the art multimedia telecom network using SDH/DWDM-based transmission systems and high end routers for MPLS-IP network.” And the best part is that, Department of Telecommunications has already allocated 2.7 GHz band to RailTel for launching broadband and other Internet based services.

Google Fiber, famous among tech lovers who loves speed for browsing, streaming or downloading content on the internet. Google Fibre currently provides speeds up to 1 Gbps in USA. Google has already started this at its Hyderabad campus, which is the biggest outside USA.

Google is working closely with Railtel, where fiber network running along railway tracks in rural and urban regions covering 70% of India’s population.

Wi-Fi connectivity will be free to passengers after mobile number verification through (OTP) One-Time Password sent over SMS. First 30 minutes will be high speed after which speed will be reduced but connectivity will still continue. Now, Indian railways provides Wi-Fi connectivity in moving trains for selected routes like Rajdhani Express using satellite communication technology. Project Nilgiri in phase 2 expansion plans to provide Wi-Fi on board moving trains using its cutting edge technology.

Currently, the download speeds are somewhere in the 7 Mbps, while upload speeds are in 5 Mbps range. In near future (WLC) Wireless Lan Controller will be set up in Mumbai and Chennai after which latency will fall to 1-2 ms and speed will be increased. So everyone is looking forward to this welcome move.

Internet Service Providers in India like Airtel, Idea, Tata DoCoMo, Aircel and Reliance may find this news as disturbing. As Google and RailTel can make some serious inroads with such a huge infrastructure coverage and technology.

Bugzilla Hacked

Mozilla says Hackers Stole Information from Bugzilla

   Mozilla, creator of the Firefox web browser, said hackers had stolen security-sensitive information from Bugzilla, its bug tracker, and used it to attack Firefox users.

The account that the hackers broke into was shut down shortly after the company discovered it had been compromised.

Mozilla said, that the hackers may have used information from Bugzilla to exploit a vulnerability which allowed them to search for sensitive files and upload them to a server.

A version of Firefox, the world’s second-largest browser by users, released on Aug. 27 fixed all the vulnerabilities.

Bugzilla is an open-source tool used for tracking bugs or flaws in software that result in incorrect or unexpected results. While Bugzilla is mostly public, access to security sensitive information is restricted to certain trusted users.

Mozilla said it had conducted an investigation on the breach and notified relevant law enforcement authorities.

Rise in cybersecurity threats and a jump in the number of reported incidents have led companies and governments to beef up their security platforms and software.

Google Street View Goes Alone

Google launches Street View as a standalone App

Google Street View

     Google has launched its Street View application - that enables users to get a 360-degree.

The app uses Google’s Photo Sphere technology, but the app also now supports dedicated 360-degree cameras.

Users will now be able to upload their photo spheres (360-degree panoramas) to the app, while separately exploring Google Maps standard content. Notably, Street View is replacing iPhone's Photo Sphere Camera application. Users can easily look around using a finger to navigate.

Also, a new ‘Explore’ section allows the users to see explore both official content from Google, and images contributed by the public.

The new app is available on the iOS App Store and Google Play.

'For all the Street View fans out there: exploring the world just got even easier'

Flash Finale

Farewell to Flash | What It means for Digital Video Publishers

Adobe Flash

  It’s been more than five years since Steve Jobs wrote his infamous “Thoughts on Flash” letter citing the high level of energy consumption, lack of performance on mobile and poor security as the reasons his company’s products would not support Adobe Flash technology. Finally, it appears we’re getting closer to the curtain closing on Flash.

Not too long ago, Flash powered a high percentage of the Internet’s vast array of video content. Today, that number is lower. But make no mistake, there are still many Flash-powered multimedia items on the web, including graphics, videos, games and animations, like GIFs, a preferred method of expression for millennials and adults alike.

We’ve been watching HTML5 impede on Flash for a while, and it’s now taking center stage, establishing itself as a predominant creative format, validated by the recent moves by Google and Mozilla that are only helping to accelerate that transition.

Over the years, Flash has become famous for a few less-than flattering features that can all play a role in hindering user experience, including intrusive experiences, increasing page-load times, lowering a site’s search engine optimization (SEO) and security flaws.

"It’s important to remember that Flash was developed in a time where the desktop was king."

Despite all these grievances, the digital-video advertising industry has been forced to use Flash because of VPAID (Video Player-Ad Interface Definition), a standard that allows a video ad and a video player to communicate with each other. VPAID provides a way to dynamically swap or customize video-ad creative based on ad decisions, and has long been used for Flash-based video ads on desktops.

When you consider the fact that Flash needs to be installed (as opposed to HTML5, which requires no installation), it’s easy to see why in the long term, it didn’t stand a chance. Some would argue that Apple’s refusal to ever support it should have been a sign of things to come.

However, it’s important to remember that Flash was developed in a time where the desktop was king. The long load times it commands simply aren’t conducive to mobile environments — a deal-breaker for today’s mobile-first world.

What Does The Change Mean For Publishers?

In spite of all this, for digital-video publishers, excitement may not be the initial emotion evoked by Flash‘s funeral. With the goal of increasing browsing speed and reducing power consumption for users, Google’s Chrome desktop browser announced their formerly opt-in setting that pauses plug-in content that isn’t considered essential to the webpage will become a default setting by early September.

This means that if publishers don’t upgrade their format specification, some or all of their video content may no longer be available for people to view; this will certainly affect viewer loyalty and monetization efforts.

For example, Flash video ads served in a desktop Chrome browser will load in a paused state, then the user will have to click the ad for it to play. These ads will still register as impressions. However, it won’t take long for programmatic buyers to scale back their bids on video ad inventory garnering a high number of impressions with no quartiles.

Publishers need to urge their buyers to prepare for the upcoming Flash-pocalypse because, despite the publishers‘ level of preparation, if their buyers don’t have the proper HTML5 creative assets, it will impact their ability to transact, having an impact on publisher revenue and the ability to successfully implement advertiser campaigns.

How Publishers Can Prepare ?

The most crucial thing for publishers is going to be ensuring that their advertisers and demand partners (ad networks, ad exchanges and advertisers) are providing and hosting HTML5 ad creatives moving forward.

Publishers themselves will also need to migrate their tech stack. Not having a complete HTML5 advertising technology stack can potentially impact their ad revenue as buyer bids will eventually subside for non-compatible inventory.

"Publishers need to urge their buyers to prepare for the upcoming Flash-pocalypse." 

Any change that has the potential to have a significant, long-term impact on a publisher’s business is going to be a bit scary. However, in the long run, this change will be better for the digital ecosystem as a whole.

In fact, some advertising technology companies have already begun to automatically convert Flash ads to HTML5 to help make the transition for publishers less painful.

The Impact :

For publishers, one of the biggest wins of Flash‘s depreciation comes in the form of engineering resources saved. Historically, video publishers have always wanted to pick a standard, but the reality is, they haven’t been able to because of the aforementioned VPAID issue.

They’ve essentially been forced to use Flash to keep their ads business running — but also support an HTML5 code base. This means that any software management, maintenance and updates they make, like bug fixes, must be addressed in both code bases, which is very time-consuming from an engineering standpoint.

By switching their platform to HTML5, companies can improve supportability, development time will decrease and the duplicative efforts of supporting two code bases will be eliminated. It will also result in lower operating costs and a consistent user experience between desktop and mobile web.

A major concern for publishers today is the amount of media consumption that’s occurring in mobile environments. They need to prioritize providing the best possible experience on mobile, and the decline of Flash and movement to HTML5 will do just that, as Flash has never worked well on mobile.

Time spent on mobile devices is still climbing steadily; according to eMarketer, U.S. adults will spend more than 5.5 hours per day with digital media in 2015, the majority (2:51) of which will be spent on a mobile device.

Popular desktop browsers, like Chrome, revoking their support for Flash, is a catalyst for HTML5 becoming digital-video advertising’s format for the future.

A Win-Win-Win :

I believe that a Flash-free world will be better for everyone. HTML5 is conducive to the direction media consumption is heading and will positively affect people’s digital-video viewing (a primary concern for today’s digital publishers), creating a better overall Internet experience. It also takes less bandwidth than Flash to run, making it much more efficient for battery life on consumer’s devices.

There will be some initial challenges for digital-video publishers and broadcasters. For example, HTML5 creative is heavier, so they’ll need to be diligent about updating their specs and acceptance. But in the long run, they will be able to provide a better user experience, which in turn will help drives results for their advertisers.

News with such big implications for the digital-ad world can often warrant mixed reactions and spark discussions over who will benefit the most. But this is one change that I think both publishers and advertisers can appreciate and recognize as a huge step forward for the ecosystem.

"Take a bow, Flash; your grand finale is here — and everyone in the audience should be clapping."

Courtesy : Techcrunch

Google vs Facebook

More people read news on Facebook than Google

  Facebook now accounts for more of the traffic to news sites than Google, according to latest results.

Links shared on Facebook and Twitter have become a crucial source of incoming traffic, and have been vying with search as a source of new readers for some time, said results from the analytics firm Parse.Ly.

"The company's latest estimates show that social-media sources accounted for 43% of the traffic to the Parse.Ly network of media sites, while Google accounted for just 38%," Fortune magazine quoted Parse.Ly's chief technical officer Andrew Montalenti as saying.

Google vs Facebook

This is not the first time that Facebook has edged past Google in the traffic-referral race.

"The social network took the top spot by a small amount last October, but this month's lead is far more dramatic.

It is clear that search has hit a kind of plateau and is not really growing any more as a referral source for media.

"There's a lot of effort among media companies being placed on specific social channels like Twitter, but our data shows that Twitter is basically a distant traffic source".

"Facebook is more like a black box in terms of how it operates. And yet it's this huge and growing traffic source".

Traffic analytics firm Parse.ly says its latest figures show the giant social network now accounts for more of the traffic to news sites than Google.

Anyone who works for a major news website or publisher knows that social referrals—that is, links that are shared on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter—have become a crucial source of incoming traffic, and have been vying with search as a source of new readers for some time. Now, according to new numbers from the traffic-analytics service Parse.ly, Facebook is no longer just vying with Google but has overtaken it by a significant amount.

Courtesy : TOI

47% more accurate than Google Search

Indian-origin 16 year old claims his search engine is 47% more accurate than Google

Anmol Tukrel

Watch out Sundar Pichai. There's a high school project that tops Google's main cash cow, the search engine.

Sixteen-year-old Anmol Tukrel, an Indian-origin Canadian citizen has designed a personalized search engine that claims to be as high as 47% more accurate than Google, and about 21% more accurate on an average.

Tukrel, who just completed his tenth grade, said he took a couple of months to design it, and about 60 hours to code the engine, as part of his submission into Google Science Fair, a global online competition that is open to students aged 13 to 18 years.

"I thought I would do something in the personalized search space. It was the most genius thing ever. But when I realized Google already does it, I tried taking it to the next level," said Tukrel, who was in India for a two-week internship programme at Bengaluru-based adtech firm IceCream Labs.

Tukrel's tinkering kit: A computer with at least 1 gigabyte of free storage space, a python-language development environment, a spreadsheet program and access to Google and New York Times.

To test the accuracy of each search engine, he limited his search query to this year's news articles from The New York Times. He created several fictitious users with different interests and corresponding web histories. Tukrel then fed this information to both Google and his interest-based search engine. Finally, the results from each search engine were compared. 

Anmol Tukrel & Sundar Pichai

Today, personalization is dependent on factors like one's location, browsing history, and the affinity to the kind of apps they install on their phone. That's just one part of the equation. Tukrel claims his algorithm solves the other side of the equation: It understands what a user would like before it serves up the results by dwelling deep into the content of the text, understanding the underlying meaning, before matching it to a user's personality, and throwing up the result.

"For someone to look at a successful Google product and attempt to go one level up, it's astonishing," said Sanjay Ramakrishnan, co-founder of Ice-Cream Labs, and former marketing manager of Myntra. Tukrel, the student of Holy Trinity School in Toronto, said he learnt to code in his third grade, and subsequently picked up on mathematics and coding.

"My computer teacher was pretty impressed with the project. I skipped a year in computer science, so they knew I was good, but may be not so good," said Tukrel, who has put up a link to the test cases online for anyone to view.

Tukrel submitted his paper to the International High School Journal of Science last month, and hopes to study computer science at Stanford University. But before that, he wants to develop a news aggregator based on this technology, and licence it to a few digital marketing agencies as well. Would he become a fellow at Paypal founder Peter Theil's foundation, where one is required to drop out of college to try an idea?

"To be honest, it's incredibly stupid to drop out," said Tukrel. "It's very arrogant to think that your idea is so good, that you don't need to learn anything."

But, Tukrel also runs a company, which has a palindromic name: Tacocat Computers. But, is he legally allowed to?

"Yes. You just need parental consent."

And, what next?

"Eleventh grade."

Courtesy : TOI