Visual Search Engine, Quintura, Sells Their Patent Technology

Visual search engine, Quintura, announces that it has sold its patent technology to an unnamed buy for $600,000. According to CEO Yakov Sadchikov, the price is four times the amount they had initially invested in the company. He also says, "we invested the cash from the patent sale into developing mobile apps as well as improving our kids-friendly search at QuinturaKids." The children's search feature has since gone live in Nokia's Ovi store as a mobile app. The only thing that was said about the buyers is that they are a "newly registered, 'clean' company".

How to Change Your Default Search Engine in FireFox, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer What would make you want change your default search engine? I always have to change it because my browser may force me to use the local version of Google (as I am installing the browser from abroad) and thus I need to switch it to google.com. You can also switch off the personalization of search results or change it an alternative search engine. Change Default Search Engine in Firefox Change the default search engine of FireFox search bar Change the default search engine of FireFox address bar Change Default Search Engine in Google Chrome Change Default Search Engine in Internet Explorer 8 Change Default Search Engine in Firefox In FireFox you can search both using the search box and the address (URL) bar. Change the default search engine of FireFox search bar: FireFox search box doesn't have the default search engine as we understand it. What you need to do is the following: just click the drop down arrow next to the search engine icon and select a search engine (you can see your current default search engine in bold). Firefox will remember your choice and use the selected search engine from now on (until you change it again). Create a new search plugin for your search box: To create a new search engine for the FireFox follow these steps: Copy-paste the Google search query URL string; Use {searchTerms} as placeholder for your search term: Go to mycroft.mozdev.org and use the form (click "Show full instructions option?") to create a search plugin for your search box; Paste your search URL in the "URL" field and provide all the extra details (name, email, etc): Change the default search engine of FireFox address bar: With FireFox you can search simply by typing your search terms in the address bar (that's where you see your current URL). In this case, the default search engine will be used to search. Open about:config in Firefox (if you doing it for the first time, you may have to promise you are going to be careful) Search for keyword.url from the filter box. Double click on this entry. It will open a dialog where you can edit the 'keyword.url' string. Change this string to whatever you want it to be: Change Default Search Engine in Google Chrome Navigate: Settings (icon) -> Options and click "Manage" next to your "Default search engine" Select your preferred search engine from the list and click "Make Default" button. Create your own search provider and make it the default one: I the same dialog, click "Add" button and there fill in the details: Name: The name for your new (default) search engine Keyword: Allows you to access it direct from the address bar (ala Smart Keywords in FireFox); URL: Add the URL of a search result page here, and use the placeholder %s to show where the query should be. Change Default Search Engine in Internet Explorer 8 If you are using Internet Explorer 8, your default search engine is likely to be Bing. Here's how you can change that: In the search bar, there is a small arrow to the right of the search icon (magnifying glass). Click the arrow and then select "Manage search engines"; Select the Search Provider that you like to set as default here. Click on 'Set as default' button. Alternatively (If you are doing this after a fresh installation): Click the arrow and then select "Search for other search engines"; A page will be loaded that lists all available search engines; Install any of them and, if you want it to be default, check "Make it a default search provider" Create your own search provider and make it the default one: You can also create your own search provider which is quite easy: Copy-paste the Google search query URL string; Use TEST (capital letters) as placeholder for your search term: Happy searching!

Googles' Link Shortening Service, Goo.gl, Now Open to the Public Google's URL shortening service, Goo.gl, has added new features and launched it's open service and companion site today for public use. When the feature first went into action in December of last year, it was not a stand-alone one. It was only accessible through the Google Toolbar and FeedBurner. However, now is it openly available by visiting Goo.gl. New features added to Goo.gl include, breakdowns of link clickers, and QR codes for every link shortened. This service is very similar to Bit.ly and in response to ReadWriteWeb, John Borthwick (of Bit.ly) stated, "the took all the basic features and copied from bit.ly". With this service now open to the masses, it makes one think about the future of the competitors. Do you think people will convert to using Goo.gl over Bit.ly or TinyURL just because it is a Google product?

Google Street View Now Allows Users to Explore ALL Seven Continents Three years after its launch, Google announces that Street View is now available for all seven continents. This mapping layer was created to allow users the opportunity to "explore street-level imagery" and is incredibly useful for a number of things. I personally use it every time I am going somewhere new because I function much better when I have landmarks to go off of. I simply search an address and use Street View to look around and get acclimated with where I am going before I get there! Google also wanted to give people a way to do a little "armchair exploration", like a virtual vacation. You can visit the beaches of Saint Tropez with out the lofty expenses or need to wear sunscreen. Google Maps and Google Earth are using Street View to help bring the world a little closer together. I am sure that after exploring Antartica in the Street View gallery, it might now seem so far away.