The most recent News from Incisive Media

Google enhances search to see off Bing

Phil Muncaster — 2009-07-11T12:24:00.000Z

Phil Muncaster, V3.co.uk, Saturday 11 July 2009 at 12:24:00

New features added to Google's image and mobile search functionality

In a bid to see off the increasingly strong challenge from Microsoft’s new Bing web search offering, Google has made several enhancements to its own capabilities in an effort to make web search more useful.

In a blog posting yesterday, Google software engineer Lingyun Liu revealed that Google now places images next to maps and links when searching for locations in Google Search.

Clicking on any of the images will then take the user to the photos layer on Google Maps where they can browse more geo-tagged photos, he said.

“Knowing the geographical location of a place is only part of the story,” wrote Liu.

“It's often just as valuable to get a sense of what the place is like, and there's no better way to do that than by looking at images of some of its most important sights.”

Google also announced users can now filter their image searches in advanced image search by Creative Commons license – a useful tool for bloggers who want to make sure they use non-copyrighted works .

Google has also extended its Product Search tool for mobile devices to “all devices with an internet connection in the US, UK, Germany and South Korea”.

“No matter what phone you use, just enter your product query on google.com and select the ‘Shopping results...’ link,” wrote software engineer Eiji Hirai on the Google Mobile blog.

“Or you can start your mobile product search directly by creating a bookmark to www.google.com/m/products.”

Microsoft’s rival search offering Bing has been gaining traction since it was launched. According to the latest stats from market research fiorm Net Applications, Google is still way ahead with a market share of 81 per cent, but Bing is gaining on second placed Yahoo, with 5.3 per cent.

Third wave of attacks hits South Korea

Phil Muncaster — 2009-07-11T12:17:00.000Z

Phil Muncaster, V3.co.uk, Saturday 11 July 2009 at 12:17:00

But North Korea not on the list of countries suspected of originating the attacks

As expected, South Korea suffered a third wave of attacks at the tail end of the week, as malware infected PCs were reactivated in a massive botnet that launched attacks on government banking and media sites, according to new reports.

The Washington Post said the distribued denial of service (DDOS) attacks, which struck on Thursday evening, were much more widespread than at first predicted, with around half a dozen government sites including those of parliament, the Defense Ministry and the Foreign Ministry, slowed down or temporarily stopped from working.

The MyDoom virus was once again the root cause of the attacks, turning PCs into zombie computers capable of launching a coordinated DDOS attack on any sites selected by the hackers.

Although there were no major security breaches as a result of the attacks, there could yet be a new phase which sees data on tens of thousands of PCs targeted, according to a Telegraph report.

Lee Byung-cheol of South Korean web security firm, Ahnlab is quoted as saying, "The affected computers will not be able to boot and their storage files will be disabled."

North Korea is not among the five countries listed by the Korean Communications Commission (KCC) where the attack could have originated, said the report.

The KCC said websites believed to be behind the attacks were actually hosted in Germany, Austria, Georgia, the US and South Korea, although the location of the hackers is unknown and North Koreans could still be responsible.

Internet is broken says original designer

Iain Thomson in San Francisco — 2009-07-11T11:03:00.000Z

Iain Thomson in San Francisco, V3.co.uk, Saturday 11 July 2009 at 11:03:00

But Larry Roberts has a plan

One of the founders of the modern day internet has said that the system as it stands is broken and needs replacing.

Lawrence (Larry) Roberts, who designed the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, or ARPANET, has said that the current system of packet data isn't suitable for the uses to which the internet is being used currently. Rather than viewing data as packet it needs to be seen as a flow, and this will require fundamental retooling.

“The Internet is broken. I should know: I designed it,” he writes in the IEEE's Spectrum.

“Directing traffic in terms of flows rather than individual packets improves the utilization of networks. By eliminating the excessive delays and random packet losses typical of traditional routers, flow management fills communication links with more data and protects voice and video streams. And it does all that without requiring changes to the time-tested TCP/IP protocol.”

Traditional routing technologies are unsuited to modern applications like VoIP or video transmission he says because the routing protocols were never designed to handle that kind of traffic.

At present the problems are not serious because telecommunications companies have massively overprovisioned their hardware requirements and can just about handle the data flows. But Roberts estimates that this situation cannot last.

Instead he suggests viewing data flows are a contiguous unit for some applications, so that data used in video or voice communications for example is identified as such and routers carrying it drop less of those packets.

At the same time data such as peer to peer traffic can be given a lower priority, without the need for deep packet inspection that might intrude on computer user's privacy.

Roberts has formed a start-up company Anagran to market the new technology.

SME tech sales tough despite projected success

Rosalie Marshall — 2009-07-11T02:51:00.000Z

Rosalie Marshall, V3.co.uk, Saturday 11 July 2009 at 02:51:00

Midmarket organisations still tend to rely on manual processes

EU Commissioner for Telecoms and Media, Viviane Reding, yesterday urged technology firms to concentrate growth in small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) in order to boost Europe’s digital economy.

But while tech giants such as SAP and IBM have intensified their mid-market sales strategies in past months, because of the segment’s large growth potential, vendors warn that SME sales strategies are often difficult because of their lack of technical awareness.

Reding spoke at the Lisbon Council in Brussels and pointed to the 23 million small and medium sized enterprises in Europe, which account for over 100 million jobs, saying they could be the “mainstream of Europe’s economic resurgence”.

The market’s potential for growth was also echoed by SAP chief executive Henning Kagermann who recently said midmarket companies, which the firm defines as those with fewer than 2,500 employees, will account for up to 45 per cent of total software sales by 2010, in contrast to the current level of 30 per cent.

Meanwhile, IBM has been less forward with its projections for growth in the market but the company’s General Business division, which includes its Midmarket unit, currently accounts for about 18 per cent of IBM’s revenue and has been one of IBM’s fastest growing divisions over the past five years.

IBM launched an initiative earlier this year to provide partners with rewards for growing business around IBM’s midmarket software.

However, according to the firm, the market poses a challenge to sales teams because mid-market organisations tend to be wary of buying new solutions and are anxious about leaving what they know behind.

“Generally they can’t afford to get hung up on technology,” said IBM General Business European marketing vice president, Caroline Taylor.

“Most organisations still store data in Excel spreadsheets,” she added. “The market is a Microsoft heartland”.

Taylor referred to a recent IBM survey of 100 board-level board level decision makers of mid-market organisations where 24 per cent still used email to share data and information among users. Additionally only seven per cent of those surveyed monitored key performance indicators.

James Bureau, a sales manager for IBM Cognos reseller partner Inca Software, said he had come up with certain strategies to try and overcome the difficulties in selling to medium size businesses.

For example when selling a solution Bureau uses different IT terms to those he uses with enterprise customers.

“Because often they just don’t know what terms like corporate performance management mean,” he said.

“Often I speak to a finance director with IT responsibilities because mid-market businesses don’t often have a central IT department,” he continued.

In her speech, Reding noted the lack of productivity-boosting ICT tools owned by small and medium sized businesses. She said only nine per cent of SMEs use electronic invoices and only 11 per cent have technology-based human resource management.

Analyst Clive Longbottom at Quocirca, said it was vital for SMEs to stop relying on error-prone manual processes to deal with data.

“The vast majority of mid-market organisations have yet to equip themselves with the necessary business intelligence tools, despite appearing to be better informed than their enterprise-size cousins about the value they bring,” said Longbottom.

“In a challenging economic climate, organisations need to have confidence in their business decisions and the data that underpins them,” he added.

Microsoft slides Bing search into Hotmail

Shaun Nichols in San Francisco — 2009-07-11T02:34:00.000Z

Shaun Nichols in San Francisco, V3.co.uk, Saturday 11 July 2009 at 02:34:00

Results to be displayed within emails

Microsoft has added the ability to send Bing search results through Hotmail.

The company said in a blog posting that it would be adding the feature to its webmail service, allowing users to run a Bing search from within a Hotmail message and then add those search results.

The new feature is based on Quick Add, a Hotmail component Microsoft first unveiled in February. The Quick Add feature allows users to insert various types of web content into the body of an e-mail.

"With Hotmail's quick add feature, now enhanced with Bing, you can easily search, find, and insert content from the web straight into your e-mail messages," wrote the Hotmail development team.

"With just one click you can add restaurant reviews, movie times, images, videos, maps and more."

Microsoft hopes that the feature will further user adoption for Bing. The search engine was launched to much fanfare last month and has been able to quickly pick up ground on rival search engines Google and Yahoo.

General Motors taps eBay for online sales

Shaun Nichols in San Francisco — 2009-07-11T02:29:00.000Z

Shaun Nichols in San Francisco, V3.co.uk, Saturday 11 July 2009 at 02:29:00

Automaker says it is pursuing deal with auction site

Embattled US automaker General Motors (GM) said that it is close to securing a deal to sell cars through auction site eBay.

The company said in a statement on Friday that it was working with eBay on a new programme which would allow the company to sell cars directly to customers through the auction service.

eBay said that it had been in talks with GM, but not deal had been finalized as of yet.

GM chief executive Fritz Henderson was hopeful that an online auction deal with eBay would drum up sales by offering newer and easier ways to purchase vehicles. The company is currently in the midst of a rebuilding effort after filing for bankruptcy earlier this year.

"We're also working on new ways to make car buying more convenient for our customers, including an innovative new partnership with eBay in California to revolutionize how people buy vehicles online," said Henderson.

"Customers will be able to bid on actual vehicles just like they do in an eBay auction, including the option of choosing a predetermined 'buy it now' price."

Dot com pioneers launch technology VC fund

Angelica Mari — 2009-07-10T18:13:00.000Z

Angelica Mari, Computing, Friday 10 July 2009 at 18:13:00

PROfounders Capital fund will invest in early-stage businesses in digital media and technology

A group of dot com pioneers have teamed up to provide venture capital funding for startup digital media and technology firms.

PROfounders Capital has been set up by, among others, Bebo founder Michael Birch and Lastminute.com and Mydeco creator Brent Hoberman.

The fund will be focused on innovative early-stage ventures, and has a £30m target.

The organisation will aim to fill the gap between angel and traditional venture funding, with the intention of “grouping together to help the next wave of European entrepreneurs”.

“This is an opportunity for us to help nurture new initiatives at an important time when digital is becoming part of the fabric of our daily lives yet profits are increasingly flowing out of Europe,” said Hoberman.

Additional backers will be announced over the next few months.

This follows last month’s creation of a £1bn government-backed venture capital fund which aims to invest in technology businesses with high growth potential.

Nortel loses London 2012 Olympics contract

Angelica Mari — 2009-07-10T17:55:00.000Z

Angelica Mari, Computing, Friday 10 July 2009 at 17:55:00

Canadian vendor shown the door after financial troubles as Cisco takes on network infrastructure deal

Supplier Nortel has lost its network infrastructure deal for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

According to The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (Locog), the termination was prompted by the vendor’s decision to sell some assets of its wireless portfolio and its intention to sell other businesses.

As the partnership between Locog and Nortel covered the supplier's entire operation, Nortel was no longer able to meet the contract’s requirements, so both parties decided to “amicably” end the relationship.

The Canadian telecommunications equipment giant filed for bankruptcy protection in the US and Canada earlier this year, as a consequence of the recession and declining demand for its products.

Locog has brought Cisco on board to replace Nortel as its infrastructure provider with immediate effect under a tier-two contract lasting for three years.

“We continue on a path to deliver the most connected Games possible. We part with Nortel on good terms,” said London 2012 chief executive Paul Deighton.

“Nortel acknowledges our fixed deadlines, and our desire to have a single supplier for our entire network infrastructure has been impacted by Nortel’s decision to move towards standalone businesses,” he said.

“This is in no way a reflection of their capabilities – this is all about meeting our fixed deadlines. We welcome Cisco to the London 2012 team, they will be a valued partner and will provide us with what we require to achieve our ambition of delivering a spectacular Games in 2012. We look forward to working with them over the next three years."

IBM brings in partners for ID card biometric database

Tom Young — 2009-07-10T17:24:00.000Z

Tom Young, Computing, Friday 10 July 2009 at 17:24:00

Atos Origin and Sagem Securitie to provide services as part of £265m deal

IBM has signed a £265m contract announced in May with the Identity and Passport Service to run the biometric database that will form part of the National Identity Register – and will sub-contract parts of the deal to Atos Origin and Sagem Securitie.

Atos Origin will provide integration and operations support for the conteact, while Sagem Securitie will provide biometric services and software.

"This contract will provide a secure database for storing facial and fingerprint images for the next generation of biometric passports and will support the delivery of the National Identity card," said James Hall, chief executive of the Identity and Passport Service.

The contract is for seven years, but contains an option to be extended to 10.

The database known as the National Biometric Identity Service (NBIS) will store photos and all 10 fingerprints of passport and identity card applicants from 2012.

The system will also replace the UK Border Agency's Immigration and Asylum Fingerprint Service, which holds similar data for visa applicants.

In a debate on ID cards earlier this week the Conservatives said they backed plans for biometric passports, though they believe the proposed National Identity Register holds too much information centrally.

OCF and Interface join forces in Landmark project

Kayleigh Bateman — 2009-07-10T17:22:00.000Z

Kayleigh Bateman, CRN, Friday 10 July 2009 at 17:22:00

HPC integrator OCF and distributor Interface (ISI) build a new IBM storage environment for Landmark Solutions

High performance computing and storage integrator OCF and distributor Interface (ISI) have implemented a new storage environment for Landmark Solutions, the geospatial services division of Landmark Information Group.

Landmark Solutions offers services, such as analysis and management of geospatial data, GIS application and software development, web mapping solutions and geocoding, data capture and digitisation of paper maps, for customers including the likes of Sport England, South West Water and Scottish Natural Heritage.

The new environment includes the IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller (IBM SVC), which is a single, hardware vendor-independent, management and virtualisation platform.

The IBM SVC allows Landmark to combine existing EMC disk-based storage and new IBM disk-based storage to create a virtual pool of storage, split between a prime office site and disaster recovery site. Vendor independent, the IBM SVC enables the customer to add storage from any other vendor in the future, making previously disparate storage easier to mange, thus reducing the admin burden on IT staff every time Landmark chooses to grow its business.

Vic Cornell, UNIX systems administrator at Landmark Solutions, said: “In the past we have installed disparate storage systems for each new service, but we really needed a storage environment which pools storage hardware – irrespective of which vendor manufactures it - to better cope with current storage demands.

“We also needed an agile environment which can scale to cope with future storage needs and an environment which reduces admin overheads and enables us to grow our business without requiring additional staff and resources.”

The new environment also uses a second management system, IBM General Parallel File System (GPFS), which Information Lifecycle Management in a unified store for files and documents for all systems and users.

In addition IBM’s Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) is included to enable protection and archival of data.

The combination and integration between SVC and GPFS and the TSM provides a secure and scalable storage infrastructure to support Landmark’s business.

Cornell added: “OCF designed a vendor-independent virtualised storage environment and, by working in partnership with ISI, ensured the entire environment was up and operational in just three months.

“Additional face-to-face training from OCF, ISI and IBM on one of the products, at IBM’s Hursley development centre, made a real difference to our storage knowledge and ensured we were fully competent using the storage components.”

Cisco grabs 2012 contract from Nortel

Ian Williams — 2009-07-10T17:19:00.000Z

Ian Williams, V3.co.uk, Friday 10 July 2009 at 17:19:00

Company breakup means it can no longer fulfil requirements

Cisco has revealed that it has nabbed the prestigious contract as Official Network Infrastructure Partner for the London 2012 Olympics from ailing rival Nortel.

With Nortel selling off parts of its business to the likes of Radware, the company can apparently no longer fulfil its tier one partnership with the London Organising Committee and amicably decided to bring the current agreement to an end.

"We continue on a path to deliver the most connected Games possible. We part with Nortel on good terms," said Paul Deighton, chief executive officer of London 2012.

"Nortel acknowledges our fixed deadlines and our desire to have a single supplier for our entire network infrastructure have been impacted by Nortel's decision to move towards standalone businesses. This is in no way a reflection of their capabilities – this is all about meeting our fixed deadlines," he added.

Following the decision for Nortel and the Committee to go their separate ways, Cisco was invited to bid for the infrastructure contract, which it then went on to win.

"We welcome Cisco to the London 2012 team, they will be a valued partner and will provide us with what we require to achieve our ambition of delivering a spectacular Games in 2012. We look forward to working with them over the next three years," said Deighton.

Cisco will join London 2012 as tier two partner alongside Adecco, Cadbury and Deloitte.

Wright to leave HP

Sara Yirrell — 2009-07-10T17:04:00.000Z

Sara Yirrell, CRN, Friday 10 July 2009 at 17:04:00

HP's Personal Systems Group (PSG) general manager has handed in his notice

A third high-profile industry executive will step down from his role this month - this time in vendor land.

David Wright, general manager of HP's PSG, will leave the company, CRN has learned.

This follows the news that Nick Gorringe, managing director of VAR BT EngageIT and Graham Jones, managing director of Integralis, were also set to leave their roles.

Wright has worked at HP and before that Compaq since 1989 and most recently spoke to CRN about HP simplifying its channel business further for partners (Channelweb 1 April).

It has not been revealed at this stage where Wright is going, or whether he is staying in the channel.

In a statement, HP said: “After a successful 20 years with HP David Wright has decided to leave to pursue his career outside of HP. The company would like to take this opportunity to thank David for his significant contribution to HP and wish David all the best for the future.”

EU calls for consumer-friendly approach to file sharing

Rosalie Marshall — 2009-07-10T16:12:00.000Z

Rosalie Marshall, V3.co.uk, Friday 10 July 2009 at 16:12:00

EU Commissioner says regulation of internet content requires fresh thinking

EU Commissioner for Telecoms and Media Viviane Reding has called on governments to be pragmatic and innovative in their approach to regulating internet content and piracy.

While the digital economy has the potential to help reverse the current economic downturn, this will only happen if Europe’s next generation feels included in the strategy and remains interested in the internet, said Reding.

The warning came during her Ludwig Erhard Lecture at the Lisbon Council in Brussels yesterday, where she outlined what she called The Digital Europe Strategy.

“Europe will need to create the right framework for ensuring effective competition and sound regulatory conditions in a well-functioning single market as well as incentives for innovation,” said Reding.

“We also need to make sure that in the end, consumers benefit from the digital economy. This is particularly important if we want to convince the digital natives to become the drivers of our digital economy,” she added.

Reding set out the need for a progressive approach to internet piracy.

“My first and most important priority for Digital Europe is to make it easier and more attractive to access digital content, wherever produced in Europe,” Reding said.

“In my view, growing internet piracy is a vote of no-confidence in existing business models and legal solutions. It should be a wake-up call for policy makers,” she added.

The issue has been hotly debated in the European Union in recent months.

The French tried to introduce a 'three strikes' measure that would kick file sharers and illegal downloaders off the internet for up to a year if they were third-time offenders, but the policy was aborted after the French Constitutional Council ruled against the legislation.

Meanwhile, last month’s Digital Britain report in the UK outlined plans to reduce illegal downloads by 80 per cent over the next two years by giving new powers to Ofcom that enable the body to work with internet service providers (ISPs) to target individuals sharing files with peers, and send them written warnings or help copyright holders take legal action.

The debate in Europe has been extremely polarised, with rights holders insisting every unauthorised download from the internet is a violation of intellectual property rights and therefore illegal, and others stressing that access to the internet should be viewed as a fundamental human right.

When Europe tried to reach a final conclusion on the matter in early May, the European Parliament voted against individuals' access to the internet being restricted.

Because the Parliament did not agree with the Council, the proposals recently entered the EU's conciliation procedure whereby the two bodies try to reach a compromise.

”I call on both sides of this debate to come to a very swift agreement,” said Reding in her speech.

Reding also called for a modern set of European rules that encourage the digitisation of books and the end of the ideological debate about Google Books.

“I do understand the fears of many publishers and libraries facing the market power of Google,” Reding said.

“But I also share the frustrations of many internet companies that would like to offer interesting business models in this field, but cannot do so because of the fragmented regulatory system in Europe,” she added.

“Let us be very clear: if we do not reform our European copyright rules on orphan works and libraries swiftly, digitisation and the development of attractive content offers will not take place in Europe, but on the other side of the Atlantic."

Ofcom consumer panel raises concerns over 'broadband tax'

Dinah Greek — 2009-07-10T16:08:00.000Z

Dinah Greek, Computeractive, Friday 10 July 2009 at 16:08:00

Care has to be taken to ensure the vulnerable and people on low income are not adversely affected says Ofcom

The Government must carefully assess the impact that the proposed broadband levy may have on people on low incomes, warned the head of Ofcom’s Communications Consumer Panel (CCP).

Anna Bradley said the Panel had already heard rumblings of discontent from consumers about the proposed charge and believed that, to avoid paying, some people may disconnect their landline phone.

Speaking at the Westminster Media Forum yesterday, Ms Bradley voiced her concerns about how well the levy had been thought out. She told Computeractive that: “We haven’t seen the Government’s assessment of this yet and want to examine it to understand how it reaches its figures.

"It may be the only way to raise the funds but there could be other means, so it has to be carefully investigated; especially with the current economic problems. Some people may be badly affected by such a charge; even though it is a small amount.”

The charge Ms Bradley was talking about was proposed in last month’s Digital Britain report headed by Stephen Carter. In the report Lord Carter suggested a £6 per year ‘tax’ on the phone lines to people’s homes.

The aim is to start a fund that would help pay for the infrastructure necessary to deliver next-generation broadband to areas of the country internet service providers (ISPs) feel are commercially unviable.

The report said it could raise about £150- £175m per year, for the Independent Next Generation Fund. This will be administered by Ofcom, the telecommunications regulator and operators could bid for to roll out super-fast broadband - with speeds of up to 100Mbits/sec.

Ms Bradley said that the CCP would be looking carefully at the proposal over the coming months.

BusinessGreen.com Most Read - 10 July

BusinessGreen.com Staff — 2009-07-10T16:02:00.000Z

BusinessGreen.com Staff, BusinessGreen, Friday 10 July 2009 at 16:02:00

From magnetic cars to rows over greenwashing, we run down the top stories from the past week

Ecotricity threatens legal action against EDF in green Union flag row

Spat over use of green Union flag advertising image could end up in court

New reports debunk wind energy myths

Two new studies show the grid can cope with wind variability and micro-wind turbines can deliver significant carbon savings

Environment Agency preps carbon police force

New team of auditors and investigators to keep tabs on firms covered by the Carbon Reduction Commitment

Pickens scraps plan for world's largest wind farm

But proposals for a series of smaller wind farms are moving forward

DoE swoops in with flywheel funding for Beacon Power

20MW flywheel energy storage plant on the cards after US government provides $43m in loan guarantees

McDonalds opens electric car charging restaurant

Would you like fries with that plug point?

Report warns reliance on wind will drive power price volatility

Study predicts major changes to the grid will be needed to accommodate intermittent wind energy

Sri Lankan village plugs into solar power

Around 300 rural homes to be powered using solar equipment, as government announces new wind farms and biomass plants

Blair and Obama call for G8 climate talk breakthrough

Ex-prime minister calls for increased focus on energy efficiency and forestry, while Obama works towards breakthrough in climate talks

Magnetic car wows web

Futuristic concept car powered by magnets promises quiet, emission-free driving - although parking could be tricky