Bing Impressions
Microsoft’s most touted search engine finally made to the day light after key acquisitions and internal testing. There is a war going on in the search industry and it is both beautiful and hopefully ugly from the perspectives of each management (I like a good fight between two equally resource laden warriors). Microsoft need to catch up with Google on search and that is both because Google has been milking that space and has grown formidable in the process but also Google is increasingly turning its attention into areas that Microsoft would like to remain the most visible player. It is no secret that both companies covet each other’s markets though there are some who argue that Google is taking less defensive actions to fend Microsoft as Microsoft is doing with Google on search.
Bing is a result of internal Microsoft refinements on Live Search as well as the addition of technologies acquired through the actions of companies like Powerset. Microsoft’s purchase of powerset, gave Bing its ability to understand and process natural languages.
First Impressions
I am generally a quiet person or at the very least I am increasingly appreciative of silence. The name Bing reminds me of a piece of cutlery falling and hitting the floor (hard cold cement), more so unexpectedly. The name will probably grow on me but for now, I just get the impression of an irritating sound … a la the sound Windows Vista makes when showing an error (I hope that volume is not all the way up)!
The Good
Microsoft’s Bing does a great job of handling general queries. Queries about movies were most useful, with suggestions that I would definitely want to look at. A search for Star Trek returned results that are both useful and would lead to the discovery of new information and facts.
The user interface (UI) is pleasant though I am biased towards the Spartan look that Google has going on but alas we are not talking about Google’s search engine page. Here is an area where I definitely prefer how Bing’s way: image search! Bing’s image search results are well presented that it is a pleasure to interact with the results. The number of clicks are kept to the minimum with no need to open a new page. Bing’s image search result page is one of those things that make you wonder why hasn’t someone thought of this before?
Still on the UI, I like the search history: you are immediately aware of what you just typed. This is particularly handy for situations in which the search becomes a little bit too involving … for example, there are situations in which you only want search results which include a particular word or phrase and thus require the use of the + operator. Another way to refine a search would be to quote a phrase that you are looking for thus eliminating any results that only show the constituent words in varying number of occurrences. So, if your refinement does not yield the result, that you are expecting Bing’s search history allows to easily go back to one of the previous search queries that you entered.
The Bad
Aside from the suggestions of an irritating sound of a piece of cutlery hitting the floor, Bing does not seem to show a greater understanding for the internet as yet. While it is particularly good at handling general queries, it falls short when looking for specific information that may be technical in nature.
Here is an example: there are moments when I am writing code in Java that I get an inexplicable exception that I am not able to immediately identify the source. In such an instance, I would like to find instances of discussions on the internet that makes a mention of the exception in question (at least the standard part of the exception). The other day I was searching for an exception thrown up by JAXB (java.io.IOException: [failed to localize] error.marshalling.jaxb) and Bing returned 4 results – none of which was immediately useful and thus required further search inside a PDF. Trying the same query on Google returned 260 hits, with links to discussion forums featuring prominently.
I don’t have any rational explanation as to why Bing’s results were not particularly useful in this instant. Of course the technical nature of the query may have something to do with it – natural query processing may have been too overzealous in their attempt to find the most appropriate match for a query that essentially does not make sense in any natural language.
Conclusion
As with all web applications and more so even search engines, Bing is an on going project that will be refined as time passes and new issues are raised as more people interact with the search engine. The attention to details in the user interface makes it a user friendly search engine. These details may be small when looked at individually, but together they do contribute to a pleasant user interaction.
It’s presentation of image search results is particularly pleasant as it reduces the number of clicks that a user has to use in order to view a full size picture.
Firefox 3.5: Not yet a Release Candidate
The number of words used to described prerelease software is just staggering. Yes, we do have our favorite bearer of the perpetual beta moniker in the name of Gmail but that is a topic for another day. Mozilla has released a “Preview” of its popular Firefox browser whose next release is to be labeled Firefox 3.5. The preview release is being used for testing, before they finally release a release candidate (RC).
Firefox 3.5 has underwent heavy development that they had to change the version to 3.5. Like all the so called modern browsers, Firefox 3.5 will have a faster JavaScript engine and introduces support for some elements of the next version of HTML currently known as HTML5. A faster JavaScript engine makes it easier to have develop high performance JavaScript applications that run on the browser. The use of AJAX sparked an interest in JavaScript but the use of JavaScript has a long way to go in improving performance of web applications as well as enabling offline storage. For all the JavaScript code to work reliably, it is important to have a fast JavaScript and TraceMonkey is fast compared to earlier JavaScript engines used in Firefox.
Among the most commonly mentioned features of HTML5 in Firefox 3.5 is the support for audio and video tag. Native support for audio and video content is important because before HTML5, browsers have had to rely on plug-ins to play video and audio. You need to download and install plug-ins before you can view any videos on YouTube or any such video websites. If you happen to reach sites that use Microsoft codec, then you will also need to download a plug-in for Windows Media files. A consistent and out of the the box video and audio playback capability is a win for all web users.
Firefox 3.5 preview will help developers of the browser to gather feedback about the bug fixes that have implemented since the release of Firefox 3.5 beta 4. As of this writing, you can not download Firefox 3.5 preview from Mozilla but if you have Firefox 3.5 beta 4 installed you can do a manual update from the Help menu. Find the announcement of the release of the preview here.
Internet Explorer 8 RC1 Impressions & Web Slices
I have been following the development of the next version of IE closely but I have not had the chance to consistently run the beta releases. The IE 8 betas impaired my antivirus ability to connect to the internet and playing with the latest code from Microsoft can’t be more important than the security of the OS. Alas, RC1 seems to be working all right – I managed to check for updates (though there were none at the time).
Of interest is the fact that I have upgraded by anti virus; the previous version had me wondering: in an age of multiple browsers, why create a dependency on a particular version of IE?
So, what’s new with IE8 RC1? I have not had much time to explore this particular release but my first impressions are pleasant – it does feel polished, start up is noticeably fast though not Google Chrome fast. Here is a list of what to expect in IE 8.
Of interest is the web slices feature – takes the potential of AJAX to a new level though admittedly limited to IE 8 only at this time. While the Web Slices web site claims that there has not been any none-manual method of checking for rapidly changing information like email, stock quotes etc, AJAX has been used in many instances to check for new emails without any user intervention. Users of Gmail would typically take this for granted while users of the new version of Yahoo Mail would be aware of automatic check for new emails.
Integrating this automation into the browser makes for an interesting implementation though the most obvious reason would be to form some particular dependency on IE8 and later versions – I am not entirely sure how portable or open web slices is. Web slices builds on the ideas surrounding RSS feeds and an attempt to remove the need to publish a separate XML file for updates though web slices does introduce a format of its own.
Resources
Windows 7 Beta 1
Official announcement from Microsoft about the release of Windows 7 beta is still a week or so away but the beta seems to be available through unofficial channels. This review from Adrian Kingsley-Hughes over at ZDNet Hardware 2.0 gives a brief review of the beta. The ZDNet review includes a screen shot gallery that will give you an impression of what Windows 7 beta 1 looks like. The beta 1 has the build number build 6.1.7000.0.081212-1400.
A while back I read a blog entry by Mary Jo Foley that points out the similarity between Windows 7 (pre-beta at that time) and Apple’s Mac OS X. I must admit I have not spent much time with the Mac OS X and the little time I have had with the Mac tells me of an efficient and certainly functional user interface but it does have some rather puzzling characteristics. Most annoying is the Dock which Windows 7 seems to be emulating with the new Taskbar.
With the Dock on the Mac, it is difficult to tell which application is currently running and which one is not. Even if there is some way of distinguishing the running application from those that are not running, I prefer to have my screen real estate to do with as and when I please. The Dock quickly becomes user unfriendly (if there is such a thing) when you are running a couple of applications at the same time.
This new taskbar in Windows 7 is going to require some getting used to.
More Links:
Released: Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5
This day has been coming for a while and it is finally here: Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework version 3.5 have been shipped. You can’t buy from your nearest, favorite computer shop as yet since this is a release to MSDN subscribers though trial downloads and Visual Studio 2008 Express Editions can be gotten from here. I must admit, I have not been following up closely on the developments surrounding Visual Studio 2008 but the new stuff that are added to version 3.5 of the .NET framework are certainly worth noting. Chief among the new additions include LINQ (Language Integrated Query) which is an integral feature of C# 3.0 and Visual Basic.NET 9.0.
Here is an overview of the new additions to the .NET framework 3.5 from its download page:
.NET Framework 3.5 builds incrementally on the new features added in .NET Framework 3.0. For example, feature sets in Windows Workflow Foundation (WF), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Windows CardSpace. In addition, .NET Framework 3.5 contains a number of new features in several technology areas which have been added as new assemblies to avoid breaking changes. They include the following:
- Deep integration of Language Integrated Query (LINQ) and data awareness. This new feature will let you write code written in LINQ-enabled languages to filter, enumerate, and create projections of several types of SQL data, collections, XML, and DataSets by using the same syntax.
- ASP.NET AJAX lets you create more efficient, more interactive, and highly-personalized Web experiences that work across all the most popular browsers.
- New Web protocol support for building WCF services including AJAX, JSON, REST, POX, RSS, ATOM, and several new WS-* standards.
- Full tooling support in Visual Studio 2008 for WF, WCF, and WPF, including the new workflow-enabled services technology.
- New classes in .NET Framework 3.5 base class library (BCL) that address many common customer requests.
Also from the same page … a very important note that you may want to take a look at before you install the release version of Visual Studio 2008:
IMPORTANT:
- If you have installed earlier pre-release versions of .NET Framework 3.5, then you must uninstall them prior to running this installation by using Add or Remove Programs.
For more details on this release of the framework, see the following references:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa700830.aspx
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/netframework/default.aspx
Oh, a Channel 9 Video related to the release of Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 can be found here.
Somasegar’s WebLog : Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 shipped!
New version of Gmail Under the hood
It goes without saying that the launch of GMail made a lot more people aware of the potential of such technologies as AJAX. Launched on April 1, 2004 Gmail has been in beta testing for the whole of its life time to a point that you are getting a new version of it. I don’t understand the rationale behind the perpetual beta status but it seems to be unnecessary. In the latest update to Gmail Beta, we have a new version which ushers in a new contacts manager; this is perhaps the single most visible aspect of the new version of Gmail beta. The other improvements are mainly under the hood; the response is faster when you want to read an email in the current view. The quick response is a result of Gmail pre-fetching the emails showing in the current view.
The changes under the hood could also suggest a much better code base to allow further improvements on Gmail. What I would like to see is the integration of Google Gears with Gmail; this would make life much easier. Come to think of it, Gmail recently got IMAP support as a feature. I have been putting the IMAP support through its paces and it seemed fine to me though I didn’t get it to work with my Google Apps account. I hope that gets activated as time goes on. An integration of Google Gears with Gmail’s IMAP support would be awesome!
