Barkuda.NeT

More →

Nokia N82 - Front View

It definitely looks better than those leaked shots.

See them here or here.

18 more hours till the official announcement from this post time.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2_KcT2ob_8[/video]

Last week I mentioned about the Windows Live Tools for Visual Studio that came up for download on Connect, well this week, I will be mentioning the Windows Live Spaces Photos API (alpha), which has also just come up for download under the same Connection on Connect.Angus Logan briefly mentioned it on his blog last week in a video interview that he did, which certainly got my attention, and it appears it is now readily available.

The download itself is simply a CHM file with all the documentation and code examples in it, so expect my normal “How To” guide on how to use it. So get cracking, download the documentation and let us know if you plan to use it.

At Searchification back in September Microsoft demoed a Webmaster portal designed to run side-by-side with the new Live Search, and it is now available in beta. The SEO blogs I’ve seen posting on this have mentioned that it is a private beta as they received a specific email invite, however for those wanting to try it out I managed to log straight in at http://webmaster.live.com/.

The portal first asks you to setup a profile for the website you want to analyse, which unsurprisingly includes a verification step; you can either upload an xml file or insert a meta tag. The service seems to pick up the meta tag update immediately, which meant we could dive right in.

The summary page is basic but functional, showing when your site was last crawled (or if your site is blocked) and how many pages are included in the Live Search index. For webmasters experiencing problems with a site, this should be your first port of call. The domain rank graphic is a nice touch, though breaking it down into five levels seems insufficient for really being able to gauge performance. For comparison, Google Pagerank goes upto 10, and we’re rated 6, how this equates to a Live Search 5/5 we don’t know.

Additionally there is a keyword analysis tool, showing how you would perform on Live Search for certain search queries. Again the lack of granularity in the rating system hurts here, to improve your SEO you have to do badly at something! To wrap it all off there is an inbound and outbound link analysis, which if you run a proper website (ie not a blog) will help see where you site is being promoted.

Overall the beta of Live Search Webmaster portal does an ok job, offering nothing stellar if your website is being indexed regularly but offering a good starting location for those having problems.

The latest release of Live Maps also added a new portal for business owners that want to update their listings on the service You can check it out at http://llc.local.live.com.

(via Search Engine Roundtable)

Microsoft just enabled the @live.xx signup! Go grab yours now! http://get.live.com/getlive/overview for the local domains (eg @live.co.uk) or use the following link for @live.com - @live.com signup.

So far the list of confirmed available aliases is:

1. Country (Domain)
2. ARGENTINA (LIVE.COM.AR)
3. AUSTRALIA (LIVE.COM.AU)
4. AUSTRIA (LIVE.AT)
5. BELGIUM (LIVE.BE)
6. CANADA (LIVE.CA)
7. CHILE (LIVE.CL)
8. CHINA (LIVE.CN)
9. DENMARK (LIVE.DK)
10. FINLAND (WINDOWSLIVE.COM)
11. FRANCE (LIVE.FR)
12. GERMANY (LIVE.DE)
13. HONG KONG (LIVE.HK)
14. INDONESIA (WINDOWSLIVE.COM)
15. IRELAND (LIVE.IE)
16. ITALY (LIVE.IT)
17. JAPAN (LIVE.JP)
18. KOREA (LIVE.CO.KR)
19. MALAYSIA (LIVE.COM.MY)
20. MEXICO (LIVE.COM.MX)
21. NETHERLANDS (LIVE.NL)
22. NORWAY (LIVE.NO)
23. PAKISTAN (LVE.COM.PK)
24. PERU (LIVE.COM.PE)
25. PORTUGAL (LIVE.COM.PT)
26. RUSSIA (LIVE.RU)
27. SINGAPORE (LIVE.COM.SG)
28. SOUTH AFRICA (LIVE.CO.ZA)
29. SWEDEN (LIVE.SE)
30. SWITZERLAND (WINDOWSLIVE.COM)
31. THAILAND (WINDOWSLIVE.COM)
32. TURKEY (WINDOWSLIVE.COM)
33. UK (LIVE.CO.UK)
34. USA (LIVE.COM)
35. VIETNAM (WINDOWSLIVE.COM)

Signup is still somewhat buggy as it is being rolled out so just bear with it.

Regarding the transition from @hotmail.com to @live.com, a pretty straightforward process is given on the new Windows Live site at http://www.windowslive.com/freshstart. Although you can automatically migrate your Hotmail inbox using TrueSwitch, anything else tied to your Live ID such as your contacts, Space, Xbox Live Gamercard etc cannot be automatically moved across due to legal and privacy issues. You can manually move across your contacts by exporting and importing into Windows Live Messenger, but unfortunately that’s it. There’s some useful tips if you do want to migrate though.

Source: Register your @live.xx email now!

Mozilla Firefox is a fast, full-featured Web browser that makes browsing more efficient than ever before. Firefox includes pop-up blocking; a tab-browsing; integrated Google searching; simplified privacy controls that let you cover your tracks more effectively; a streamlined browser window that shows you more of the page than any other browser; and a number of additional features that work with you to help you get the most out of your time online.

Features:

• Improved Tabbed Browsing
• Spell Checking
• Search Suggestions
• Session Restore
• Web Feeds (RSS)
• Live Titles
• Live Bookmarks
• Pop-up Blocker
• Streamlined Interface
• Phishing Protection
• Automated Update
• Protection from Spyware and more….

Download: Firefox 3.0 Beta 1 (Win32) (en-US)

Source: Neowin.net - Mozilla Firefox 3.0 Beta 1

More →