A friend of mine, Emily, is moving to New York to learn, as she puts it, a practical skill. After working in the arts for a while, and majoring in the arts, she decided drop the harsh, struggling lifestyle to learn a more generally applicable skill. You know, in a more technical profession where the skills are often utilized in any part of the world! What what did she decide on?

She’s pulling a Julie and Julia. Emily’s going to culinary school (and says she’ll even be blogging the experience)! I, similar to Emily and Linda from Better Off Ted, have secured a position in the time-wasters hall of fame by studying the arts. Thus, I’ve acquired a slight sort of envy for Emily… I thought about culinary school once, twice, thrice before… maybe more often. I love to cook. I love food. Okay, mainly, I love to eat! And these are reasons why I love Bing’s new detailed recipe results feature (brilliant segue, eh?).

Continue reading about Bing’s new detailed recipe search >>

How are you saying good-bye to 2009 tonight? Sleeping like any other day? Dinner with friends? Clubbing with strangers? Counting down with Dick Clark (or is it Ryan Seacrest now)? Here at SoftwareNewsDaily, we wanted to say farewell by reminiscing our top 10 technology news stories of 2009. When I say “our” top 10 stories, I suppose it’s really more “my” top 10 stories. That’s okay, I don’t mind dominating the office opinion; they’ll agree with me. Counting down to the number one story, here are “our” picks.

Continue reading SoftwareNewsDaily’s Top 10 Tech news Stories of 2009 >>

Yahoo and Microsoft will couple against alpha-male search engine Google. After several years of negotiations, offers, withdrawals, and hesitations, the companies finally worked out a 10-year deal in July of this year. Google was required to pay no upfront dowry, and eventually have full access to Yahoo’s search power for use in new search engine Bing.

As expected, the proposition has been met with much scrutiny from the Justice Department and antitrust regulators. Microsoft and Yahoo together hold only about a quarter of the search market in Google’s great shadow. All eyes are on two companies now as they work out the details. And we can only hope their union will not be as rocky as their courtship.

Late last night, Google posted a new blog entry announcing their plans to develop a Google Chrome Operating System. A natural progression following their successful Chrome Browser, the Google Chrome OS will be their attempt to re-invent what an operating system should be. Their aim is to create a lightweight, open source OS that is designed around the web.

Just like the Chrome Browser, the Chrome OS will be focused on simplicity and speed. Google wants you to be able to start up your computer and be on the web in mere seconds. They want to re-structure the underlying architecture of the OS and go back to basics. Their goal is to keep the OS out of your way and to have it just work like it should. It will be safe from viruses and will perform updates automatically. They also want your data to live in the cloud, where it will be accessible from anywhere, no matter what happens to your computer.

Initially, Google’s focus will be on the netbook market. They have been quietly talking with manufacturers for the past few months to strike up OEM deals, and they already have netbook manufacturers on board. A completely different project from Android, which was designed for phones and mobile devices, the Chrome OS is being built for everything from netbooks to powerful desktops. Because it will be open source, this could dramatically lower the cost of buying a new computer.

Should Microsoft be worried about the Chrome OS gunning for Windows? Definitely. While it will take years for Chrome to gain any kind of major foothold in the OS arena, consumers definitely want more from their computers and are eager to try something new. Just look at all the hype surrounding the upcoming Windows 7 release. Vista was completely underwhelming, and it’s lukewarm reception left a huge hole in the OS market. Both Apple and Microsoft are releasing new operating systems this year, but neither one will deliver anything revolutionary. They are both just incremental improvements over prior versions. Google Chrome OS has a good chance of shaking things up and will generate plenty of buzz. Microsoft hasn’t ever really faced a serious threat to Windows. If anyone can change that, it’s Google.

Microsoft recently launched Bing, which was directly aimed at taking market share from Google search. It is only fitting that Google would immediately take a shot at the core of Microsoft’s business, Windows. I have a feeling these two companies will be battling on all fronts well into the next decade. As consumers, competition like this can only be beneficial, with new technology innovations and lower prices.

This announcement from Google was just a teaser of what is to come. They don’t expect to start shipping the Chrome OS on netbooks until the second half of 2010, but the open source code will be available well before then. This will give software developers lots of time to create new apps for the Chrome OS. Google’s goal is to have its applications based in the web, using the latest web technologies. This is the future of computing, and Google will be on the forefront.

For more details, check out the Official Google Blog. Stay tuned for more on the Google Chrome OS this fall.

Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing, has received lots of praise from all over the Internet in the past few weeks. Bing just may be better than Google on a few fronts, but that doesn’t mean people will switch their homepage to Bing anytime soon. Google is just too entrenched as THE way to search the web. This hilarious video shows us why:

“Say you want to Google “hotels in Dublin”. Bing can Google that, easy. With Bing you can Google anything you can think of.”

CollegeHumor has been putting out some great videos lately, and this one is no exception. Check it out:

As I wrote yesterday, Microsoft is attempting to re-invent its search platform in the form of a new website called Bing. The video below is your first official look at what Bing is bringing to the table.

Bing is directly competing with Google, but Microsoft is going to spend up to $100 million on advertising trying to convince people to switch search engines. The features shown in the video look great, and they are definitely a step in the right direction when it comes to smart search. However, Google already has many of these features, and you can bet it will be quick to catch up on the ones it doesn’t have.

From this video, it looks like Microsoft is partnering up with retailers and content providers, which may be a way they plan on making some of their money from Bing. It will also be interesting to see what Bing does to the search engine optimization industry, because they are bringing a whole new set of rules and strategies into the game.

Microsoft, in its attempt to control every aspect of your computing experience, is set to compete directly with Google and change the way you search. Its yet-to-be-unveiled new search engine is called Bing, and Microsoft is making a huge gamble on persuading users to switch from Google.

Advertising Age reports that Microsoft will be spending up to $100 million on a new ad campaign that includes online, print, TV, and radio spots that promote Bing. This is a huge advertising campaign, even by national brand standards. The average new product roll-out on a nationwide scale runs about $50 million. Google spent $25 million all of last year on advertising, with almost half of that on recruiting. Microsoft is betting big that users will love Bing.

Recent data has shown that 42% of searches require refinement and 25% of search clicks are on the back button. This may indicate that search needs improvement, thus justifying Microsoft’s large investment in a supposedly superior search engine. However, I don’t think this data proves that anything is wrong with search, or Google for that matter.

When most people use Google or any other search box, they are usually exploring a topic they need to know more about. Because of this, many first search terms are off the mark. If I don’t know anything about a topic, I probably won’t know the precise search string to get what I’m looking for either. My first search results on a vague term will usually guide me to a more appropriate search string. All of this happens in about 3 seconds, and it seems to be a natural way to learn.

How does Microsoft plan on improving upon this method? Google has satisfied every search need I have ever had, from text to video to images. And, it only keeps getting better. I’ve noticed many searches lately that have taken my current location into consideration when presenting results. Geo-location technology is a big part of the future of software (as I reported last week), and Google in on the forefront.

Google has absolutely dominated the search engine world for the last few years. So much so that Google has risen above just a brand name and become part of our language. Google is now a verb and part of the world vocabulary. Can Microsoft spend $100 million and convince the world to start saying, “I just Binged that restaurant and the reviews look great”? I don’t think so. Google is just too entrenched in the national subconscious.

Still, if anyone could go up against Google, Microsoft is the one. They already have an enormous following and a established network of popular websites. Replacing Live Search and MSN Search with Bing, and making Bing the default search engine of Internet Explorer would be a great first step.

The official launch of Bing will take place in June, and with $100 million in ads out there, I’m sure you will know when it happens. They are also set to give a demonstration this week at the All Things Digital Conference, and I am curious to see the technology that warrants such a large marketing effort on Microsoft’s part. Go ahead and Bing this blog in a month and let me know if the search results are superior enough to make you switch.