Pirate Bay Shuts Down

Geez, I knew Pirate Bay, the Bit Torrent monster was on its last legs, but it has finally pulled the plug.

No more peer-to-peer 'free movies' and such.

They had tried as subscription model, but that went bust. So there you have it. No more Pirate Bay.

Mininova, another large torrent machine is just about done too by the looks of things.

Is this the end of torrents?  Maybe. While software companies complained about the loss of revenue from people downloading their expensive software, how else were students and the underemployed to learn new computer skills? Software with price tags of $500-800 or more meant a lot of folks just had to do without or use the torrents. When they got new skills, they could use them, create wealth and yes buy the software.

There are of course a number of work-arounds available. GIMP is a great free-source alternative to Photoshop. And there are a number of ways you can turn MS Word documents into PDF's.  Even Adobe has an offering allowing you to do so through its Photoshop page. Used it once, and it worked, but haven't been back. Mind you, they make it hard for you to find.

So ends an era, but the market being what it is...a new and 'improved' one will take its place.

Chrome OS is Coming!

Google continues its march against the Microsoft Monster.

Just yesterday, Google announced it is working on a new browser that is also a new Chrome OS operating system in one!

Even the most powerful computers take about 45 seconds to load up when first turned on. Google's new browser/OS will take only two seconds or so. Wow. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/releasing-chromium-os-open-source.html

Although the Chrome OS is still not ready for release (sometime next summer) boot-ups are already down to about 7 seconds. Google figures the peeps want fast fast fast access to the Net to do things that they do most: browse the Web and get E-mail.

How do they do this Rich?
The Operating system and browser will not be stored on your computer. They will be hosted in the 'cloud'. As long as it doesn't rain, you should be okay.

Twitter

Is now disponible en Francais.  Last month, Twitter was made disponible en Espaniol.

To get the French version, just push 'French' on your Twitter menu. Voila!.

Lotsa Google Items Today

Google Retailer Is Here!
Google has just come up with a Google retailer fast fast fast search engine that enables little as well as big peeps to sell their products and services online AND integrate it with Google Analytics. Pricing is dependent upon the number of items you sell.

The Analytics part of this means you can follow where your prospects and customers are going once they hit your site. So let's say, you have extra sweaters you are trying to sell, and getting no results, maybe putting them into the 75% off bin will move them? Either way,  you'll be able to track your sales, and presumably stock those items that are hot sellers too.

Included within the retail offering is the ability to up-sell. So if you sell say a red pair of shoes to a customer, you might also be able to entice them to buy a red pair of shoes.

Presumably, this same engine could be used by PR agencies or political candidates, who find someone is interested in healthcare, and may because of their age, also want to learn about diabetes management. Anyway, you get the idea. Kinda Kewl.

Google Dashboard
With all this information floating around, you may want to know just what Google knows about you. Okay fair enough! Just go to Google Dashboard, and be amazed/frightened!

Google Custom News
One of the reasons I use Netvibes is its ability to allow me to narrow in on subjects of interest including the use of widgets on topics.

Now Google News is moving in the same direction. As of today, you will be able to add your own categories on your personal Google News Page. So let's say you are interested in Marshall, WI Sports (and who isn't?) you will be able to add your own section and then have Google grab that information for you. It is I think rather like a News Alert system except better and perhaps broader in its scope.

Also, based on your results, you will be able to share your information with others who appreciate your interests and tastes.

Media Monitoring application? Maybe, but I'd want to see how it works before saying so.