Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates (L) shakes hands with Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer during a news conference at the company headquarters in Redmond, Washington, June 15. Gates said on Thursday that over the next two years he will ease out of a day-to-day role at the company he built into the worldÕs biggest software maker. - REUTERS
Sandor Panton of Top5Jamaica.Com, in association with The Gleaner Online, guides you through what's new, cool and interesting on the Internet. From Jamaica to the wider Caribbean and the rest of the world, this is the 'Week on the Web'.
BILL GATES TO RETIRE
Microsoft Corporation announ-ced recently that effective July 2008 Bill Gates (Microsoft chairman), will transition out of a day-to-day role in the company to spend more time on his non-profit global health and education work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. While Africa has been getting a lot of his charitable attention, one can only dream that he would donate a tiny percentage of his billions to Jamaica's health and education systems.
GOOGLE DOMINATES THE SEARCH WORLD
According to a recent analysis by a competitive intelligence company, Hitwise.Com, 59 per cent of all searches done by U.S. Internet users in May 2006 were done via Google.Com. Yahoo.Com came in second, with 22 per cent of overall queries, and MSN Search was third with 12.1 per cent. Combined therefore, these three engines alone control approximately 93 per cent of all search queries originating in the U.S.
GOOGLE CONTINUES TO ROLL OUT NEW PRODUCTS
As sure as night follows day, it's almost guaranteed that Google will launch at least one new product or feature every month. Below are some of the more recent additions to the Google catalogue:
" Google Co-op - http://www.google.com/coop - allows individuals with 'expert knowledge' of specific areas (e.g. health) to create special lists of links that relate to this area of expertise, and others who are seeking such 'expert knowledge' can then subscribe to be able to view these lists.
" Google Notebook - http://www.google.com/notebook - a browser tool that allows you to save clippings of text, images, and web pages to your own personal online notebook. You can also add your own notes, organise notebooks into sections, and make your notebooks public for others to view.
“ Google Trends - http://www.google.com/trends - allows you to see popularity trends (in terms of number of searches over time) for words or phrases that you input. It also facilitates geographic com-parisons of these trends.
“ Google Page Creator - http://pages.google.com - allows you to create web pages with no technical knowledge (of html programming etc.) required and no special software needed either (it functions within your web browser).
“ Google Spreadsheets - http://spreadsheets.google.com - basically Google's version of Microsoft Excel. It's free though, and still being tested.
A Google product that's on the radar but not yet launched - Gbuy (an online payment system said to be similar to what’s offered by Paypal).
Websites of the Week
http://www.nht.gov.jm - congrats to the National Housing Trust for having a Government website that actually works and doesn’t look archaic.
http://www.43things.com - see what other people plan to do in the future; share your own plans too.
Top 5 articles viewed on Jamaica Gleaner week ending June 17,2006
1. Policeman murdered at dance
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20060605/lead/lead2.html 10,840 views
2. PORTIA'S PLUNGE - Approval rating for PM declines - JLP leader gains slightly
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20060608/lead/lead1.html 9,607 views
3. Portia's 'colour' creating disunity, say colleagues
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20060609/lead/lead8.html 7,334 views
4. Jamaicans in their new world
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20060607/lead/lead10.html 6,855 views
5. 'Life without 'Zekes' tough'
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20060604/lead/lead11.html 6,386 views
Top 3 pages viewed on Jamaica Star week ending June 17,2006
1. Poster Girl
http://jamaica-star.com/poster_girl/pg_109.html 13,640 views
2. Hottie Hottie
http://jamaica-star.com/hottie-girls/783.html 6,588 views
3. Who created the 'Dutty Wine'?
http://jamaica-star.com/thestar/20060614/ent/ent1.html 5,625 views.
