Search: Google still leading, Microsoft began

The market research institute comScore recently released a benchmark report on the market for Internet search in December 2009. It covers both conventional search engines and other online services offering research, such as portals or sites of e-commerce.

It is clear that once again Google has clearly dominated the industry with 87.8 billion queries conducted in the world, representing a market share of 66.8% and an annual growth of 58%. Yahoo! remains confined to the second place ranking with 9.4 billion queries (13%), followed by Baidu China with 8.5 billion queries (7%).

Microsoft last December was the fourth player in research on the net, with 4.1 billion queries on its engines and an annual growth of no less than 70%, launch Bing forces. Finally, note the rapid growth (+91% yoy) of Russian search engine Yandex, which now has 1.9 billion queries, ahead Facebook, Ask or Alibaba.

comScore indicates that the last country where research on the Internet is more developed are not surprised the United States, with 22.7 billion in total requests made in December 2009, China (13.2 billion queries) and Japan (9.1 billion). France appears only the sixth place ranking with 5.42 billion queries, a figure up still 61% compared to December 2008.

Controversy around the SourceForge open source directory

The directory of open source software at SourceForge.net is the heart of a controversy. Indeed, on its official blog, the team tries to clarify its terms and conditions and said that the law of the United States requires the site to filter the content from certain regions and downloads. Specifically, developers residing in Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Sudan or Syria have no right of access to SourceForge.net.

Returning to his motivation to play a major role in the distribution of free software or open source, SourceForge team explains: "However, in addition to participating in the life of the open source community, we also live in a real world and are governed by the laws of our country. Our duty to obey them far exceeds all our dreams of creating a united community. "

The U.S. agency financial control OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) has in effect created a list of people and countries that have no access whatsoever to U.S. products. For this reason "last week, SourceForge.net began to automatically block certain IP addresses to force these conditions of use.

This initiative raises many questions, starting with whether the content posted on SourceForge.net may truly be considered American products. In addition, many general conditions SourceForge simply does not meet the definition of the term itself open source that no descrimination should be practiced.

Ironically the situation a few days after the secretary of state Hillary Clinton spoke about cyber-attacks on Google and denied by China. It stated: "The country does not respect free access to information or violating the rights of Internet users are likely to close the doors of the progress of the next century." She added: "Last year, we observed a peak of threats targeting the free exchange of information. China, Tunisia and Uzbekistan took steps to censor the Internet.

SourceForge.net then seems caught between two fires and the filtering of IP addresses to force these terms seem to have cooled rather the developer community.

Intel retains 80.5% of the market for x86 processors

Crisis or no crisis, the x86 processor market is booming, if one believes the figures released by IDC for the last quarter of the year. After several periods of famine, he would sign even a return to "normal seasonal" with an increase of 31.3% over one year. On the full year, the market rose 2.5% in volume, but lost 7.1% in value, representing a total turnover of 28.6 billion dollars.

"For the third quarter, the modest increase recorded in the fourth quarter indicates that the market recovers its normal seasonal variations," said Shane Rau, an analyst in charge of semiconductors at IDC. "The significant increase over fourth quarter 2008 shows that the market has exceeded the recession."

Intel is still very far ahead, with 80.5% of deliveries made in the last quarter of 2009. AMD followed with 19.4%, an increase of 0.7% over the previous quarter, while VIA represents 0.2% of deliveries.

In the market called "mobile x86 processors for notebooks, Intel's shares rise to 86.8%, against 12.8% for AMD. The server side, the advance is more marked, with 89.9% to 10.1% against Intel for AMD. It is on the market of processors for desktop and workstations as the challenger proved the most aggressive. Over the period studied, it would have made 28.8% of shipments, up 2.3%, against 71% for Intel.

The battle could intensify during 2010, boosted by encouraging prospects. IDC states and expect an increase of about 15% over the year. To establish his leadership, Intel will rely on its latest range of processors to 32 nanometers engraved and fitted with integrated graphics controller. Pending the arrival of its first six-core chip, scheduled for the second quarter (II X6 Phenom), AMD is projected to expand its product lines, focusing on entry and mid-range segments in which the offer is likely to rival that of Intel.

Red Hat launches community site Opensource.com

Heavyweight world of free software publisher Red Hat has this week opened the doors of opensource.com site, presented as a forum dedicated to the community. The latter was invited to speak on various aspects of open source, starting with the impact that this model might have outside of the software world. The site, in preparation since last October, called on the content manager (CMS) open source Drupal.

It's Jim Whitehurst, CEO of Red Hat, who leads with a note in which he outlines the objectives being pursued by the publisher. "This site is one of the ways in which Red Hat wants to give something back to the open source community. We want to create a connection point between all the conversations related to the potential impact - and has - the open source beyond the software world, "it says it, taking care to add that it is neither a site "for Red Hat, or a site" about Red Hat. "

Just launched, the site already has many contents, however, the majority of employees from Red Hat. According to the initial comments left on the site, the initiative seems rather well received.

Ubuntu: Canonical announced a partnership with Yahoo!

In a message posted on the official mailing list of Canonical, Rick Spencer, head of development operating system Ubuntu, has announced three changes to come.

Specifically, these amendments concern the Firefox browser the next version of Ubuntu (10.04 LTS - Lucid Lynx), scheduled for April. The start page should thus be associated with the search defaults configured by the user. Thus, if users' changing for Yahoo, the homepage will also be modified with a Yahoo search box, "says Spencer.

Yahoo! will move elsewhere as a search engine by default, an initiative that does nothing to change this setting in the program options. Specifically, "Canonical has negotiated a contract to share revenue with Yahoo!. For the company founded by Mark Shuttleworth, it is diversifying its financial strategy to ensure greater pace of system development.

Remember that Google and Mozilla maintain a similar partnership. Advertising revenues remitted by Google up almost 85% of total income of the foundation ($ 57 million in 2006). Note also the irony of the situation as if some advocates of free system Ubuntu will choose to keep Yahoo! as a search engine by default, results returned may soon be calculated by Microsoft technology.

Google wants to extend the DNS protocol

In December, we learned that Google had launched its own resolution service areas. Called Google Public DNS latter promises an Internet faster, safer and respecting the principles of net neutrality. Remember that the DNS server will translate a domain name (eg google.com) and IP address of the server on which this website is hosted.

"We believe that a faster DNS infrastructure could improve the browsing experience for all users significantly," said Google had then. Today we know a little more. Indeed, the firm in Mountain View, accompanied by several DNS service providers, has sent a proposal to the Working DNSext to amend the protocol in question.

When communication is established between the machine and the server, Google hopes that many devices will be sent information including the location of the user. This measure is based on the IP address of the latter. However to ensure the privacy of the user, and Carlo Contavalli Wilmer van der Gaast explains: "Our proposal for the protocol DNS servers allow recursive name (Ed: for example that of an ISP) to include some Your IP address during a request from a root server. " They add that only the first three bytes or the first 24 bits are sent and thus prove sufficient to determine the location of the user while maintaining his anonymity. There then follows a process of communication much faster.

If she were to be accepted by the group DNSext, this proposal could then shape the future of the DNS standard.

Oracle filed a complaint against Rimini Street

The giant Oracle, which specializes in professional solutions, has filed a complaint against Rimini Street. The company offers support services and updates to Oracle products at bargain prices.

Oracle accuses the company of stealing content protected by intellectual property rights by connecting to its online services using identifiers of one of Oracle customers. In turn Seth Ravin, CEO of Rimini Street, denies and says "we will fight in this battle (...) we will respond vigorously and aggressive when the time is right."

Recall that in July 2007, SAP admitted that some employees of its subsidiary TomorrowNow had downloaded inappropriate content on the site of Oracle, adding that SAP employees had not had access. Henning Kagermann, head of SAP, said then: "Even a single inappropriate download is unacceptable. We sincerely regret what happened. "

It is interesting to note Seth Ravin is not only the founder of Rimini Street, but also co-founder of TomorrowNow.

Microsoft has sold 60 million licenses of Windows 7

Yesterday Microsoft released its financial results for the fourth quarter of last year. Over this period the company has a turnover totaling 19.02 billion, an increase of 14% over the last three months of 2008 (16.629 billion). Also note a profit of 6.6 billion dollars for a 60% increase over one year. The CA of the first semester amounted to 31.94 billion dollars.

Peter Klein, responsible for financial operations of the group said: "The exceptional demand for Windows 7 has drawn a positive growth for the company." Indeed, Microsoft has sold 60 million licenses for its latest operating system released last October 22.

It is therefore not surprising to learn that the Windows division and Windows Live services is one that has recorded the highest turnover (6.9 billion against $ 4 billion the previous year). The year 2009 also marked the release of Windows Server 2008 R2. The group "Server and Tools," then shows a slight increase (3.88 billion against 3.75 billion). For its part the Business Department has registered a small decline (4.74 billion against 4.88 billion). Same thing for the entertainment and electronics (2.9 billion against 3.2 billion).