Commentary/Article - Will Social Networking Made Google Search Irrelevant?

FaceBook sold 1.6% of its shares to Microsoft for $240 Million and a rumor says that Asian investor Lee Ka-Shing has purchased 0.4% of Facebook for $60 million.

Social Networks, like FaceBook, will change how we use, search, and think of the web. For example, traditionally searching for the phrase "best organic restaurants in San Francisco” means wading through 1,750,000 search results that may or may not be what you are looking for. Instead ask your social network “friends” that live in or visit the bay area and they'll recommend their favorite places, dishes to eat and dishes to avoid!

Google is a one trick pony. Its search engine is the industry’s best but is that enough? Microsoft recognized this and jumped at the chance to buy into FaceBook. Whenever a new technology or service launches Microsoft traditionally works from an underdog position. Microsoft had to buy DOS and Office and even its newer products, like the SharePoint server services were acquired through a purchase. Microsoft proceeds by hiring the best and brightest to develop their new baby into a proprietary technology. In search engine technology Microsoft has always been behind Google and still is today. So Microsoft does what it does best, buys into the next big thing, FaceBook, and leapfrogs Google. If Microsoft or FaceBook can develop a fast, non-spammy, deep-search search engine they would be in a position to crush Google.

Google can fight back and reclaim its leading position but they must do something innovative. Many of their popular services are based off their search tool and if the demand for that product diminishes, Google stock will take a tremendous dive. Google needs new innovation and new applications of its technologies or Microsoft/FaceBook is set to dominate come 2010 or 2011. Orkut, Google's social networking, won't cut it and I fear the company may have trouble developing new services because they have shown to be a single dimension company by just adding search marketing to new acquisitions or services (think Keyhole "Google Earth", Google News, Google maps, YouTube, and so on).

-Michael Pasatieri

PS: I do want or have a FaceBook account.

External Article: Why you should beware of Facebook

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Tip/Article - Icing Dell's Notebook Fan Problems

In the past couple of months I’ve come across two Dell notebooks that ran Windows XP and had fan failure. They were the newer Latitude D620 and the older Latitude D800 that lost the functioning of its fan. The fan mysteriously stopped working in Microsoft Windows XP and the laptop got extremely hot and would shut down after 1-2 hours of continuous usage. I was concerned that these notebooks might have a shortened life span and my client may have to purchase new ones. After installing a new fan in the D800 I was surprised that nothing had changed and the fan didn’t work. Windows XP was suspected to be the problem or the Dell bios communicating with XP. Thankfully I found a third party utility that fix these problems. To get the third party tool, visit computer consulting tools at www.computerconsultingnow.com.

If the notebook problems are not resolved by this utility then check your PC for spyware. Computerconsultingnow.com recommends the CounterSpy spyware removal tool. If the PC is clean from spyware then perhaps the notebook fan is truly dead. We found a great deal at parts-people.com on Dell spare parts. If this website does not carry the part then call Dell at 1-800-WWW-DELL and expect to be on hold around 20-50 minutes.

Heat shortens the life of computer components. Computer components can absorb a certain amount of thermal expansion before failure. The acronym, MTTF, stands for “mean time to failure” and all computer components are designed with a certain number of theoretical average life hours. Simply put, heat ages components and proper cooling can extend the component’s length of life.

Besides computer component failure, other problems have arisen from overheating laptops. This is not limited to Dell laptops but many of the higher clock speed CPUs run hotter and could be considered a danger to health. Recent research suggests male production of sperm is affected by resting hot notebooks on the lap. A few men have even suffered burns. In one case the doctor reported, "The patient recalled that, while sitting two days earlier with his computer on his lap, he occasionally had felt heat and a burning feeling on his lap and thigh." This patient later suffered blisters which got infected.

What can you do? Purchase the cooler notebook CPUs. For example, Intel’s Centrino platform uses mobile CPUs which run a bit slower and cooler. Avoid higher clock speed P4 laptops (which are outdated) and avoid resting hot notebooks on your lap. Also double check that the notebook has proper airflow and the CPU fan is functioning.

-Michael Pasatieri