Google has finally brought in certain elements of semantic search into its search engine that brings about better search results by linking and associating different concepts.

The new technology will offer more useful related searches (the terms found at the bottom, and sometimes at the top, of the search results page), said Google.

For example, if you search for principles of physics, the Google algorithms will also associate concepts like “angular momentum,” “special relativity,” “big bang”, and “quantum mechanic” to your search.

Google said the new related searches would be available in 37 languages globally starting today. The Internet giant also said that information snippets that accompany every search result will also be increased in case of longer queries

The latest version of Internet Explorer IE 8, will be available for download, starting 9.30 p.m (IST) tonight, said the software giant. The software biggie said IE8 will feature faster navigation (through Accelerators), enhanced security and privacy, Visual Search & Web Slices.

Accelerators speed up online tasks like search, email, social networking etc. within the active web page; Web Slices appear in the browser s Favorites bar and provide access to updated information from their most visited websites, without physically going there; and Visual Search provides image-based search results

In India, Microsoft has partnered with the 12 most visited websites, across consumer interest genres, including bharatmatrimony.com, economictimes.com, games2win.com, in.com, indiatimes.com, naukri.com, msnindia.com, rediff.com, sify.com, timesofindia.com, webdunia.com and zapak.com to make web browsing with Internet Explorer more fun. Globally, 15 of the top 20 worldwide sites have partnered with Microsoft to deliver this level of functionality to customers.

Some other features include:

* InPrivate Browsing

Provides consumers the choice of going private on the internet, and ensuring that browsing history and related data is not retained locally on the PC they are using

* Compatibility View

IE8 provides people with an easy way to fix display problems such as out-of-place menus, images and text with a Compatibility View button that displays those pages as they were designed to be viewed

* Crash recovery

In Internet Explorer 8, if a tab does crash, it is automatically restored and reloaded, and any information the user may have already entered on the page (such as when writing an e-mail or filling out a form) is restored

IE 8 can be downloaded from www.microsoft.com/ie8, starting 9.30 p.m tonight. A RC1 is however available for download before that.

It has been 20 years since Sir Tim Berners-Lee submitted his “Information Management: A Proposal” for CERN funding. This proposal, of course, ended up providing the framework for today’s World Wide Web. If you are interested in considering where technology is leading, I recommend studying his work. Oddly enough, his vision for the Semantic Web is largely unchanged and his patience explaining this proposal is remarkable.

Happy Birthday to the World Wide Web - and sincere thanks and respect to Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

The economic slowdown has resulted in increasing number of US-based companies now outsourcing their offshore R&D related work to third-party service providers in China, who charge lower billing rates. This has impacted the Indian outsourcing market adversely.

While the Indian R&D offshore outsourcing market is projected to grow at 14-16% in 2009, the Chinese market is expected to outshine India with a 30-35% during the recession period.

Even though China is only about 1/3rd of the total Indian R&D offshore outsourcing market in size, it has a relatively faster growth ratio than India. This is basically due to the capabilities of China in the manufacturing R&D and also lower billing rates.

In fact, India’s R&D offshore outsourcing market, which is estimated at $43.5 billion, experienced a 21% growth in 2008, while the China market, estimated at $9.5 billion, grew at a phenomenal 46% during the same period. It is primarily due the rupee fluctuations; the appreciation, followed by the depreciation, has largely impacted this market.

Talking to CXOtoday, Praveen Bhadada, engagement manager at Zinnov Management Consultancy, said, “The upswing in the number of US-based companies trying to offshore their R&D related work to third party service providers in China, among other factors, has resulted in this trend.”

The billing rates of the service providers in China are relatively lower compared to India. While Indian IT firms charge $24 per hour for new product development, Chinese firms charge $21 per hour for the same work. The billing rates for Indian IT firms are higher owing to factors such as better quality, IP protection and timely delivery. “But in the present economic recession scenario, both vendors and customers are looking to optimize on the billing rates,” said Bhadada.

In 2005, outsourced work to China amounted to $408 million, of which US had a 52% share. In 2008, China outsourcing R&D related work amounted to $1,287 million and US share amounted to 64%.  Similarly, Europe and Japan have also contributed to the major share of outsourcing work to China.
Another reason is Indian service providers do not offer a broad array of R&D services as opposed to their Chinese competitors and their focus is primarily on IT services. In fact, the total Indian service providers R&D headcount numbers to 110,000 with about 130 pure Indian players while the number in China is estimated at 39,000 to 45,000 with about 250-plus local service provider companies.

As per a Zinnov report, Indian service providers in China have not been able to scale up their R&D operations in spite of having ambitious ramp-up plans since inception. Also, all the major Indian IT players like TCS, Infosys, Satyam and Wipro have failed to reach the targets and also failed to make any inroads in China. Indian firms were to grow their headcount by 25% annually, but none have managed to do so.

The corporate sector expects the period of downturn in the Indian economy to continue till May 2010 before bouncing back in response to the fiscal and monetary policy stimulus and abatement of recession in the international economy.

This was revealed by Assocham Business Barometer (ABB) Survey of CEOs.

In the ABB Survey, 84 percent of the CEOs polled across various business segments were unanimous about the view that poor business confidence in India may extend till the middle of the next year.

Around 77 percent of the industry heads believed that the growth rebound would be faster and sooner in India than the developed economies of US and Europe, said Assocham President Sajjan Jindal.
The key driving factors for end of slowdown in India, cited by the ABB respondents, included reduction of repo rate and reverse repo rates infusing liquidity in the markets, government in terms of improved fiscal spending and fall in inflation providing cushion to the industry in terms of reduced cost.

The industry expects the economic activity to pick momentum after the elections as the stalled projects would resume and fresh budgetary allocations would further boost the economy. The combined impact of these factors would be felt after the end of the fiscal 2009-10.

About 60 percent of the Indian GDP is domestic consumption and the percentage contribution of exports is 23 percent. Hence, even as it would be difficult for the export sector to revive by the end of this year, the Indian economy may regain its lost momentum in response to government investments and domestic consumption.

The investment scenario in the Indian economy has taken the hit as both domestic as well as foreign investment dipped due to credit crunch and declining demand. As many as 73 percent of the CEOs expect the investments to recoup by the end of the year 2009 as domestic consumption potential would pull the investors to the economy.

The ABB Survey, Economic Outlook for India, was based on the responses from 237 CEOs and managing directors across 15 sectors at small, medium- and large-scale level companies. The survey was done during the month of February.

It may be recalled that Samir Barua, director, Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) had however, said last month that the Indian economy could witness an upsurge, and be back on growth trajectory by end of third quarter this year as compared to the  expected upturn in developed economies of the world by second quarter of 2010.

“We might witness an upturn and restoration of normal GDP growth say of 8% against the projected sub six per cent presently, as early as in third or fourth quarter of 2009, but will be subjected to fulfillment of few pre-conditions,” Barua said while addressing a gathering on Central Excise Day in Ahmedabad.

Facebook has announced a new partnership with online classifieds ad vendor Oodle, which revamped its social classifieds Marketplace. The new Facebook application uses an Oodle-developed interface that lets Facebook users sell, give-away, buy, ask or search for anything they want.

The Oodle Facebook Marketplace currently has 656,460 monthly active members. You can use the application to see what your Facebook friends have posted for sale and what items are available in your local area. You can also use Marketplace to support charities by selling for a cause.

The Marketplace discussion topics and user reviews have not been overly positive since recent changes to the application.  Annoying existing Marketplace users, Oodle was unable to move existing listings over from the old Marketplace.

Also, the new Oodle-driven Marketplace supports only locations in the United States, which has also led to several negative reviews and discussion on the app’s Facebook page.

In a recent update addressing Marketplace users, Oodle posted, “Frankly, we goofed by not launching full international support right off the bat.”

Marketplace is expected to launch support for the UK and Canada within the next week with global support to follow.

Kyozou Integrates with Bidtopia

Toronto-based online auction and e-commerce management solution, Kyozou, recently announced plans for full integration of its online auction technology with Bidtopia.Currently, Kyozou’s tool works with eBay, Amazon and Overstock, as well as with other popular online marketplaces.  Using Kyozou’s technology, you can control over their product sales on several marketplaces from one application, including the capability to sell items in you own private marketplace or Web site.

The tool will support all three of the current Bidtopia formats — traditional auctions, inverted auctions and fixed price.

Google has begun accepting paid applications into its Android Market mobile app store — a move that lays the groundwork for potentially following Apple’s lead in turning smartphone applications into a sizable moneymaker.

Initially, the Android Market offered only free applications. Now, however, the search giant confirmed plans to next week begin selling applications through Android Market after rumors began circulating earlier this week.

Users of the Android-based T-Mobile G1 smartphone can expect to see the paid apps available starting in the middle of next week, according to a Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) post on a blog for Android developers. The search giant said Google Checkout will serve as the payment and billing mechanism for the service.

The company started accepting paid applications from developers today, though it is limiting the program to U.S. and U.K. developers for the time being. Germany, Austria, Netherlands, France and Spain are slated to be added by the end of March.

The move puts Google more closely into competition for developers with Apple, and in particular, the PC maker’s popular App Store for its iPhone and iPod Touch.

Part of that motivation may stem from the fact that downloads at Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) App Store are off the chart. During last month’s earning’s call, Apple’s CFO, Peter Oppenheimer, said there are 15,000 apps on the iPhone App Store, and downloads have surpassed 500 million.

App Store frenzy

The App Store concept has caught the attention of all the big mobile providers. In October, BlackBerry maker RIM unveiled plans for an App Store of its own, starting in March.

In mid-December, Palm launched its own mobile storefront, the Palm Software Store. The company’s storefront opened with 5,000 applications for over 25 existing Palm (NASDAQ: PALM) devices, with about 1,000 of the applications available for free.

The next month, the Treo manufacturer gave a first look at its upcoming smartphone, the Pre, which will hinge heavily on a sleek design, an iPhone-like touchscreen — and downloadable apps.

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is also thought to be weighing an Apple-like storefront for mobile downloads. In fall, it began dropping hints about launching an App Store-like effort.

The software colossus is expected to detail some of its upcoming mobile efforts — including, potentially, a mobile storefront — during next week’s GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Google this week said it’s preparing to launch new services for mobile users, offering free U.S. calls, unified text messages and voicemail across numbers and integrated speech-to-text and search functionality.

But the new only available to existing customers of GrandCentral Communications, a telecommunications firm Google bought in July 2007.

The Google Voice service will automatically transcribe your voicemail to text — though it can be shut off in the settings page of the service — and you can search through past voicemails as well as archived SMS messages.

“Users can access their voicemail and SMS messages by phone, e-mail, or the Web. From the Google Voice inbox, a user can search for a specific voicemail message or SMS message,” a Google spokesperson said.

While Google has long baked advertising into its core products — running ads in tandem with search queries and within services like Gmail — it’s still not clear whether Google Voice run ads alongside these transcripts or elsewhere in the new service.

“We don’t have specific plans to share at this time regarding advertising within Google Voice,” the spokesperson told InternetNews.com.

But industry analyst and consultant Greg Sterling speculated that Google may introduce advertising if it needs to help offset costs for the free calls and if the service becomes popular.

He also said the specter of advertising in the interface is what rankles privacy advocates.

“There are possibilities, though sometimes you expect Google to introduce ads at some point with a new service and they don’t,” he said. “But they could scan the content of voicemail transcripts and insert text ads.”

“I can envision a situation where the interface has ads ties into it, they could even be behaviorally targeted ads, based on their announcement yesterday, and this is what goes right at the heart of what privacy advocates are concerned about,” he said.

Sterling also raised the possibility of audio ads, given that Google recently shuttered its radio ad unit but didn’t scrap the infrastructure and said it would still look for distribution channels.

“Audio ads could be inserted, whether branded or contextually relevant, into voicemail,” Sterling said.

In terms of privacy issues, he said that Google is smart to take a wait-and-see approach before monetizing Google Voice, avoiding interference with the user experience until its widely adopted and politically prudent.

“The key is integration with other services like Gmail, that’s the appeal for the user is everything is all working together in a centralized way,” Sterling said. “But that’s also what raises concerns with privacy groups. The political part is Google doesn’t want to confirm fears of data mining.”

It’s too early to tell how Google Voice will impact the VoIP market in the long-term, and in particular how it will affect big players in the sector such as Skype.

The Google Voice news comes as eBay is betting on growing Skype well beyond its chief current focus as a PC-based voice chat and videoconferencing application, yesterday describing plans that could see Skype doubling revenue by 2011.

Meanwhile, though, Skype just last week began its own voicemail-to-text service using U.K.-based SpinVox, though it’s a paid offering.

Sterling said that Google’s competing release is impressive, and depending on how much the search leader promotes it, could have a big effect on the industry. On the other hand, initiatives such as Google Checkout, which was touted as a “PayPal Killer,” never gained wide adoption despite big marketing campaigns.

The launch comes just days after inventor Judah Klausner said he had settled a lawsuit with Google over Klausner’s patents covering “visual voicemail,” which gives users e-mail like controls for managing voicemail.

Klausner’s company had previously sued and settled with Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), which includes visual voicemail in its iPhone.

Effective May 5, Google Checkout is moving to a tiered fee structure and is eliminating its AdWords discounts for sellers who use the search giant’s online payment processing system.

The new pricing effectively raises rates for most online merchants, and puts the online payment system more in line with PayPal’s rates.

The new rates will range from 1.9 percent plus 30 cents per transaction for monthly sales of $100,000 or more, to 2.9 percent plus 30 cents per transaction for monthly sales of less than $3,000. And, any transactions with buyers outside your home country will incur an additional 1 percent fee.

Currently, e-commerce site owners pay 2 percent plus 20 cents per transaction, with no monthly, setup, or payment gateway service fees.

Google also said it would discontinue the AdWords credit promotion that’s tied to Checkout. The way it works now, merchants who advertise with Google AdWords are eligible for free transaction processing for some or all of their Google Checkout sales each month. For every $1 spent on AdWords each month, merchants were allowed to process $10 in sales the following month for free through Google Checkout.

Google did say any AdWords transaction processing credits accrued during April 2009 will be applied towards transactions that occur on May 1 to 4, 2009, and Google Grants recipients will still be eligible for free donation processing until 2010.

When Google released Checkout in June 2006, there was speculation that it might overtake PayPal as the primary online payment processor, even though the two differ. Checkout provides another gateway for Google users to make credit card purchases online, while PayPal primarily acts as a replacement to using a credit card to complete an online transaction.

But Checkout never really became widely adopted in the marketplace, though some studies have shown it to be popular with males ages 18 to 34, and recently it’s being promoted for the mobile Android platform. Because Google never reveals the number of users who use Checkout, it’s hard to discern what impact the new pricing will have, and whether the change is due to its failure or success.

Regardless of numbers, it’s bound to be good news for PayPal, which now offers more merchant services for about the same cost, and just mapped out an agenda to double its revenue by 2011.

Google did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

Citi s new mobile banking solution will offer its customers convenient, on-the-go banking. Its advanced mobile technology will be compatible with popular mobile devices across most GSM operators

Citi Mobile customers can check account balances, send money, issue drafts, pay bills, make credit card payments, register for services like e-Statements, request for a cheque book, stop payments and much more, said a company release.

Citi Mobile will address customers emerging lifestyle needs and support them in accessing their money in a fast, convenient and secure manner through something they always have with them - their mobile phones, said N. Rajashekaran, country business manager of Citi India, Access through mobile service will require the mobile number to be registered with the bank, and a Java-enabled mobile phone with a GPRS connection.