HTNet - A Notepad of Tech, Business, Science and Self Improvement

Google has finally released Google Desktop for Linux, with binaries in RPM (for Red Hat/Fedora/Suse/Mandriva x86) as well as DEB (for Debian/Ubuntu x86) formats.

Obviously the target audience are those who are using Linux as a desktop OS and want a GUI tool to help them locate specific files on their system. I welcome this move by Google as it’ll indirectly encourage more people to hop on the Linux train now that the complications of using find and locate from the command line would be reduced.

More related news can be read from the Official Google Blog and Inside Google Desktop.

Google decided that at leveraging on this year’s eBay Live convention held in Boston, they’d like to invite attendees to join their own party; to promote Google Checkout, no less!

Needless to say, that move didn’t go down well with the folks at eBay, who owns PayPal, an established micro-payment instrument that Google Checkout is competing against:

That did not sit well with eBay, and early Wednesday the IDG News Service reported that eBay had decided to drop all the ads it places on Google’s search engine. EBay is the largest buyer of Google search ads, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.

“I won’t comment whether that was directly tied to Google’s plans to have that party,” said Hani Durzy, an eBay spokesman. He said that eBay was simply running a test — something it does frequently — by shifting marketing dollars to determine the best way to attract users.

I guess this test by eBay is more like a nuclear test… right in Google’s backyard no less

The BBC reports that Google and Intel have shown support for a scheme that aims to significantly reduce CO2 emissions:

The scheme is expected to cut emissions by 54 million tonnes a year - equal to 11 million cars or 20 coal-fired power plants, company officials say.

Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Microsoft have all signed up to the campaign.

Computers and other IT equipment have been blamed for causing as much global warming as the airline industry.

We too can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by adopting green computing. Some measures that you and I, as normal computer users, can adopt include:

1. Shutting down and powering off our computers when we’re not using it
2. Switching off the monitor when our workstations are unattended; leaving it on standby still consumes electricity
3. Enable power saving mode for desktops and laptops
4. If you’re looking to replace that old CRT monitor of yours, purchase an LCD monitor. It might be slightly more expensive, but it consumes much less electricity
5. Avoid overclocking your computer as this practice is not only potentially unsafe, it also makes your CPU work extra hard; thus consuming more power

Remember, taking care of the environment is everyone’s responsibility; not just big corporations like Google and Intel.

AdSense publishers are now required to comply with something similar to the AdWord program’s Page Quality Guidelines… shouldn’t be hard to do if you’re not running a splog and/or MFA web sites.

Another wonderful news from this update is that publishers can now place up to three link units on a page. Link units are wonderful income generators, and I’m pleased that we can now have more than one of them on a page.

You can get the full scoop from the Inside AdSense blog.

Angry over Google’s attempts to digitalise written publications, the CEO of Macmillan Publishers nicked two laptops from Google’s Book Search booth during the recent BookExpo America:

“There [was] no sign saying ‘please do not steal the computers,’” Richard Charkin wrote on his blog. “I confess that a colleague and I simply picked [them] up.”

Mr Charkin’s full blog entry can be read here.