Google’s Mobile-Friendly Update

Google is doing it again. Keeping everyone busy with updating their websites and following new Google rules so that their businesses and websites won’t lose SEO ranking on April 21st. That’s the day when Google will start to enforce their mobile-friendly rules by implementing a new search algorithm that will generate search results taking into consideration the mobile-friendliness of the site.

“The revised formula, scheduled to be released Tuesday, will favor websites that Google defines as “mobile-friendly.” Websites that don’t fit the description will be demoted in Google’s search results on smartphones and tablets while those meeting the criteria will be more likely to appear at the top of the rankings — a prized position that can translate into more visitors and money.”

After the first announcement about two months ago, Google has clarified that not all sites will be affected depending on their other Google affiliations, such as being on Google location results or Google News. Google states “Consequently, users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimized for their devices.” I don’t think most sites or businesses will really know how this new algorithm will affect them until it starts to do so, and it is recommended that you still try to “pass” Google’s mobile friendly test, but it may not be as dramatic as first thought. Some are saying it will have more of an effect than either Panda or Penguin updates, but many sites, particularly if they have been developed or updated in the past year or so should be mobile friendly already. It may just be older sites that see more issues and changes in their rankings.

More resources and info:

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/googles-mobile-friendly-algorithm-to-have-greater-impact-than-panda-or-penguin/130980/

http://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2015/04/17/google-embraces-mobile-friendly-sites-in-search-shake-up

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2015/02/finding-more-mobile-friendly-search.html

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/

http://www.businessinsider.com/brands-affected-by-googles-mobile-friendly-algorithm-search-update-2015-4

http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2015/04/how-googles-mobile-friendly-update-will-affect-you-and-what-you-can-do-about-it/

http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2015/04/how-googles-mobile-friendly-update-will-affect-you-and-what-you-can-do-about-it/

http://searchengineland.com/library/google/google-mobile-friendly-update

http://moz.com/blog/9-things-about-googles-mobile-friendly-update

 

Internet Explorer is on its way out…

Finally, after 19 years, Microsoft has decided to create a new browser to replace the one that has been their mainstay for the Windows operating system for so long.  IE, once the most popular among internet users, has fallen behind Google Chrome and has lost most of its market share.  It has caused security and privacy issues for some users, and has not been adapted by Mac and Linux users, though initially it did overshadowed the use of other browsers, particularly in the US and Europe with Windows users.   As a web developer, difference in the way IE renders websites compared to other browsers just makes me groan. The announcement by Microsoft yesterday said that the last stable version release will be IE 11.

From January 12, 2016, only the most recent version of Internet Explorer on each operating system will be supported, depending on operating system it will be IE 11 or could be down to IE 9 for older desktop/server Windows versions or down to IE 7 for older embedded Windows versions.

Spartan, will replace Internet Explorer as the default browser on its Windows 10 devices. Internet Explorer will, however, remain on some versions of Windows 10 primarily for enterprise purposes. According to Microsoft, Spartan will:

“Spartan” will serve as the default browser on both the PC and mobile device versions of Windows 10. “Spartan” uses a new “Edge” layout engine forked from Trident that is “designed for interoperability with the modern web”. The new “Edge” engine will be used by default across Windows 10, and pages can be rendered in the previous MSHTML engine for backwards compatibility with enterprise-specific websites and software.

“Spartan” does not support legacy technologies such as ActiveX and Browser Helper Objects, and will instead utilize an extension system.

“Spartan” will integrate with Microsoft’s online platforms: it integrates with the Cortana digital assistant to provide voice control, search functionality, and dynamic, personalized information related to searches within the address bar. Users can make annotations to web pages that can be stored to and shared with OneDrive. It also integrates with the “Reading List” function to sync content between devices, and provides a “Reading Mode” that strips unnecessary formatting from pages to improve their legibility.

http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/17/8230631/microsoft-is-killing-off-the-internet-explorer-brand

http://americasmarkets.usatoday.com/2015/03/17/microsoft-is-killing-off-the-internet-explorer-brand/

http://fox59.com/2015/03/18/even-with-microsofts-plans-to-replace-it-internet-explorer-just-wont-die/

http://www.dailynews.com/technology/20150317/internet-explorer-is-going-away-and-microsoft-is-more-than-ok-with-that

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Explorer

 

Microsoft This Week

The big news out of Redmond, Wash., Microsoft’s headquarters, this past Wednesday, included lots of new OS functionality and integrations with some of their other products, as well as some new products.  The following new enhancements and products will be released sometime later this year.

Free Upgrade– Windows 10 will be available as a free upgrade for Windows Phone 8.1, Windows 7, and Windows 8.1 license holders for the first year

Start Menu–The Start Menu, which is bigger and will be available in full screen, is back. The graphics have been improved, with Live Tiles and will include some of the Windows 7 items.

Cortana–the digital assistant from Microsoft, who hopes to compete with Google Now and Siri, will now be available on the  Windows tablet and PC.

Spartan—The new Internet browser from Microsoft is light-weight and packs in an easy-to-use UI. The browser will be available for the mobile devices as well as desktop versions of Windows 10. It is not clear what is happening to IE.

Universal Apps—Windows 10 also brings “universal apps” for tablet, smartphone, Xbox and desktop users. Basically, the OS is Microsoft’s attempt to make all apps seamless on any of these devices.

Continuum–This new feature will basically enable touchscreen device users to automatically swap smoothly to the Windows 10 tablet or desktop mode depending on the device and how you are using it.

Xbox–Windows 10 users have the ability to play Xbox games on their desktop with the Xbox app that comes with Windows 10. Players will be able to play with a companion who is using Xbox One even as the gamer uses a Windows 10 compliant desktop.

HoloLens– Microsoft says, “Holograms are the next evolution in computing,” and HoloLens is its entrance to this new, enhanced version of the world. HoloLens has a clear, tinted visor and projects images that integrate with what you see through the glass. A HoloLens image isn’t just floating in space, but actually is standing right next to you.

Reviews and more info:

http://www.techspot.com/news/59474-microsoft-windows-10-event-announcements.html

http://www.techtimes.com/articles/28321/20150123/windows-10-best-new-features-free-upgrade-start-menu-cortana-project-spartan-universal-apps-and-more.htm

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/the-questions-microsoft-didnt-answer-about-108943103294.html

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/hololens-hologram-making-reality-augmenting-mars-exploring-glasses-from-microsoft/

http://www.wired.com/2015/01/microsoft-hands-on/

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/21/microsoft-windows-idUSL1N0V01QA20150121

http://techcrunch.com/2015/01/23/this-week-on-the-tc-gadgets-podcast-microsoft-hololens/

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/01/24/apple-earnings-iphones-earnings-microsoft-hologram/22266715/

http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsofts-spartan-browser-whats-under-the-hood/

 

The 2015 Consumer Electronics Show

The CES for this year just ended Jan 9th and from the chatter online,  sounds like there were some mixed reviews about the products and announcements, but, as always, there are also some pretty cool new toys that were revealed. Some of the favorites chosen are highlighted below.

Sony’s Walkman is back. “Sony spent a portion of its press conference on the Walkman NW-ZX2. The company, which basically created the portable music market with the Walkman in 1979, is making a push behind this dedicated device focused on high-quality audio. “Sony has been offering the broadest lineup of high-res audio products in the industry,” Mike Fasulo, president and chief operating officer at Sony Electronics, said at the event.”

Polaroid’s updated camera and printer for pictures looks similar to the old cameras, as the company tries to stay alive in a market where lots of things take pictures now. “The company will try to sell Snapchat-addicted millennials on the promises of physical pictures. The Socialmatic resembles an old Polaroid instant film camera — or ask a kid, and she’ll tell you it looks like the Instagram logo — but it has a photo printer built-in.”

Mercedes-Benz F 015 self-driving sedan. “The German automaker’s CES contribution was a radical concept for a self-driving car. Outside, it looks a little bit like a space-age bar of soap. The interior is more intriguing. The front seats swivel 180 degrees, transforming the car’s center into a lounge-like communal space. It’s a bold rethinking of the driving (and riding) experience.”

Dell’s new sizes for tablets and laptops shows that after going private, the company is still actively working to stay in the game. “Its new XPS 13 laptop and Venue 8 7000 tablet. Both sport a very thin bezel, meaning that Dell was able to pack a lot of screen in a smaller footprint.”

Makerbot has a new printer that, unlike most 3-D printers, uses materials other than plastic, including wood, limestone, and metal. “Most home 3-D printers are printing solely in plastic. But Makerbot has introduced new filaments that, while still plastic at heart, contain tiny particles of wood, stone, or metal, resulting in products that can mimic the finish of limestone or bronze.” Recommended for crafts and jewelry.

The Beam is a new device by Suitable Technologies that allows a person to interact with others at a different location by driving the robot device around with their face displayed on the screen. It’s being marketed to companies as a way for remote employees to interact more with those at the main office location. “Using simple software developed by Suitable Tech, a person can tap into the Beam robot remotely and drive it around an office or factory thousands of miles away, allowing them to be there, without actually being physically present. The person’s face is shown on a large screen roving at eye level…”

Also on display were a lot of new smartphones from Asus, HTC, and Lenovo, among others; lots of new music devices and music focused technology; more gadgets for home technology such as for HVAC and security; fitness related technologies from companies such as FitGuard and GoPro; and new hardware like the newest Chromebook from Acer and the Intel Compute Stick.

http://www.gsmarena.com/consumer_electronics_show_2015_wrapup-news-10701.php

http://fortune.com/2015/01/09/consumer-electronics-show-best-gadgets/

http://www.fastcodesign.com/3040518/the-9-best-ideas-from-ces-2015

http://www.wired.com/2015/01/best-of-ces-2015/#slide-id-1699091

http://www.zdnet.com/article/best-trend-of-ces-2015-products-tackling-real-world-problems/

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-08/six-gadgets-you-thought-were-dead-are-new-again-at-ces-2015.html

http://www.cnet.com/pictures/all-the-cool-new-gadgets-at-ces-2015-pictures/27/

Airplane Tracking Technology

The second disappearance of an Asian airplane has re-opened the discussion of airplane tracking by many industry experts and has made it a concern for the general public who fly on commercial airlines. There is not an international industry standard regarding what airlines should provide for tracking on airplanes, and “the overarching problem with tracking planes is the vast expanse of earth devoid of radar coverage: Most of the oceans, polar regions, and areas of Africa, Asia, and South America—as much as 80 percent of the world—are “a blind spot to surveillance,” the director of Nav Canada, the company that runs the country’s air traffic control system, told the National Post last week. That means ubiquitous flight tracking via satellite is likely inevitable across the industry, and not just among major airlines with flights across the world.”

And, the business of developing an aircraft tracking system has grown. The infrastructure for a number of solutions is being put in place. Driving this is the decision by the industry, led by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which represents 240 of the world’s airlines, to set up a dedicated Aircraft Tracking Task Force (ATTF) which will identify the best aircraft tracking options for airlines, in collaboration with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The objective of the ATTF is to identify solutions which are viable and affordable to airlines, wherever possible using existing technologies and equipment, and make recommendations.

In the United States, “Representatives David Price, a Democrat from North Carolina, and John Duncan Jr., a Tennessee Republican, told Bloomberg Politics that the lengthy disappearance of AirAsia flight QZ8501 this weekend between Indonesia and Singapore is prompting them to reintroduce a pair of bills that would require multiple, ejectable black boxes mounted on the outside of commercial airplanes and that can float and would force the Federal Aviation Administration to require aircraft be tracked via GPS.

The black box technology the Price-Duncan measures refers to are used routinely by the U.S. Navy and Air Force, and the National Transportation Safety Board first urged Congress to mandate it on commercial planes in 1999. The bills, known together as the Safe Aviation and Flight Enhancement Act, have been introduced several times since 2003, including earlier this year after the disappearance of Malaysia Air Flight 370 over the South China Sea, only to languish amid opposition from the airline industry and plane manufacturers.”

Something needs to be done nationally and internationally, sooner rather than later, to allow for consistent and reliable tracking of all commericial aircraft the entire time they are in flight.

Resources:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/30/business/hurdle-in-hunt-for-missing-jet-tracking-system.html?emc=edit_tu_20141230&nl=technology&nlid=55382508

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/features/2014-12-31/the-real-reason-its-so-hard-to-find-disappeared-planes

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2014/12/airasia_8501_disappearance_what_it_has_in_common_with_malaysia_airlines.html

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/airasia-plane-crash/airasia-magazine-article-said-april-your-plane-will-never-get-n276526

http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/29/tech/airasia-missing-plane-conversation/

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-02/airasia-black-box-search-restarts-debate-on-tracking-technology.html

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/disappeared-flights-underscore-interest-in-flight-tracking-systems/

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/disappeared-flights-underscore-interest-in-flight-tracking-systems/

http://skift.com/2014/03/09/beyond-the-black-box-fixing-aviations-broken-communication-systems/

http://skift.com/2015/01/03/airasia-black-box-search-renews-debate-on-better-airplane-tracking/

 

Animal Robots

This week there was an announcement about the Navy successfully creating a new robot that looks like a shark.  GhostSwimmer is the Navy’s underwater drone designed to look and swim like a real fish. The development is part of the Navy’s efforts to explore the possibilities of using biomimetic, unmanned, underwater vehicles.

And GhostSwimmer is not alone under the water…there is also a robotic eel, developed by Swedes, that can be used for underwater searches. It was used a couple of months ago to hunt for a Russian submarine that was reported to be in Swedish waters. According to Science Daily “Work by the Russian and the Allied militaries to develop underwater devices for information gathering are currently underway. Their aim is to reach areas which are difficult or even impossible for divers to reach; to inspect and clear mines on the seafloor, or even combat enemy scuba divers. The existing effort undertaken trains guard-dolphins; however, animal-rights-activists have opined that using dolphins for military reasons is inhumane, and may harm the world’s ecology as rivals might seek to eliminate the threat by killing off the species. Hence, alternative strategies have been put in place to develop unmanned underwater systems as the replacement for military-trained dolphins.”

There are also four legged robots being developed, like the cheetah…who can run and jump on the treadmill like the stealthy cat it’s named for. “The key to the robotic cheetah’s stealth and agility is how hard its mechanical feet hit the ground, MIT researchers say in their latest video. The researchers working on the project, funded by DARPA, have developed an algorithm that enables them to control how much force the animal’s feet exert when they contact the ground, which any sprinter can tell you relates to how fast you go down the track. The higher the force, the faster your speed.”

There is also a kangaroo and a worm out there in the animal robotics world, but one of the cutest robots to be seen recently, is the penguin. In order to observe and study the birds more easily, scientists developed this fuzzy robot, to live amongst the real animals so that they would be able to get closer for their observations.”Emperor penguins…show signs of physical distress in the presence of humans. While scientists try their best to observe the birds from a distance, they sometimes have to get close to the Antarctic dwellers to obtain heart rate, temperature and movement pattern readings, from the data-detecting devices that have been implanted inside a select few. This makes the docile creatures so upset that they are often unable to successfully mate or lay eggs.” So now there are robots who are able to assist the scientists in their studies, and not upset the penguins in their natural habitat.

http://www.wired.com/2014/12/navy-ghostswimmer-robot-fish/

http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/11/08/362377186/watch-the-robotic-baby-penguin-that-spies-for-scientists

http://www.dogonews.com/2014/11/10/fuzzy-baby-robots-help-researchers-get-close-to-shy-emperor-penguins

http://www.businessinsider.com/silent-robot-cheetah-from-darpa-and-mit-2014-12

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/11/141126103903.htm

http://www.33rdsquare.com/2014/12/openworm-researchers-upload-animals.html

http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=69&doc_id=1321854

http://www.businessinsider.com/silent-robot-cheetah-from-darpa-and-mit-2014-12#ixzz3MUBLB8tE