Who would have imagined someone calling a Microsoft search engine, “Cool?” In the last couple of years, the answer would have been no one. The various incarnations of Microsoft’s efforts have been lame, slow and completely bereft of any savvy marketing. That has changed completely with Bing.com. Microsoft finally has a service that works well, is intelligently laid out and can make your search more meaningful and educational.

If you go to Bing.com, the first thing you notice is that the search engine is the anti-Google. It has a beautiful home page with images that change with each visit. These background images load quickly, are not obstructive and can help you learn facts. For example, in a recent Bing visit, I was presented with an image of the Bastei bridge in Saxon Switzerland. By moving my cursor over a small square in the image, I was told that the bridge was constructed of sandstone in 1851. I was also given an option to learn more. Clicking on the link, brought up search results for the bridge and included a Wikipedia entry as the top result. This distracted me from my main search, “Robert Alonso,” (just kidding) but I can assure you that it was far more instructive. It gave me the feeling I would get scanning through microfiche of old newspapers and discovering something new that I did not know before.

You perform your search just like you would on Google. For example, the image below shows the results for a search for “Democrats fishy activities program.” If you look at the image, you will also notice that under the “Bing” logo and orange colored band on the left, there is a “SEARCH HISTORY” listing. I have removed mine for this image, but that comes in handy if you need to go back to a previous search. You also have the option of turning that feature off completely.

Perhaps the most interesting feature is that you can move your mouse over any of the results and see a popup blurb of the content to be found on the site. This is very helpful for finding out if a result is what you are looking for without having to click through to the site. The third image below shows the popup blurb feature in action. To get it to appear, I placed the mouse over the second result and waited a few seconds. In some of these blurbs, you are also shown other links and prominent items that are found on the page. This gives you a very clear idea on whether to proceed or not.

These neat features aside, what really matters is finding what you are looking for. Bing compares very well with Google on relevance of results. In many tests that I have run, it actually does better. You can test this for yourself using this site: bing-vs-google.com. The site will give you a split view of the results from both engines side by side. This allows you to be the judge yourself.

Another feature that you are sure to like is that the left panel of the Bing results will show you meaningful links. The next image shows the results for a search on “Elisha Cuthbert,” an actress from the television drama “24” and from various films including, “The Gil Next Door.” You will notice that the results are very good and feature several images and the most likely sources of information including Wikipedia and IMDB. The left hand panel shows links to, “Images, Biography, Wallpaper, Posters, Fan Club, Interview and Videos.” These are the most typical results that people searching for her might want.

The next image shows what a search for “Bill Gates” delivers.

You will notice that the left hand panel is different and offers, “Images, Biography, Quotes, Books, Blog and Interview.” It is this kind of subject knowledge that makes Bing far superior and cooler. If you try entering a product name, like “Nikon D90” you are presented with a chart summarizing the camera, images and meaningful result listings. The left hand panel will give you relevant links that include the manual. This is very cool. There are many other features related to image and video searches, but I will recommend that you try them for yourself and let me know what you think in my comments section.

(I must also include a shameless plug. If you are needing help with search engine optimization (SEO), please contact Alonso Consulting. We will create a comprehensive plan for making your site appear higher in search results.)

“Fluent News” is a free iPhone application that works with all three versions of the iPhone OS. It is a news aggregator that gathers news from various reputable sources and presents it in an easy-to-use application. It is one of the fastest news applications that I have used for the iPhone. I have read New York Times, BBC and CNN articles on it complete with the full text and pictures and it is a joy to use.

It continually updates from the various news sources and stores news for offline reading. You can also share a good story with your friends by sending a link via email or posting a link to Facebook or Twitter directly from the application. You can download it for free from the Apple App Store. It is developed by Fluent Mobile.

Earlier today I wrote about my problems with the free upgrade to Internet Explorer 8. It is with a bit of caution that I am now writing about the Windows 7 upgrade process. Probably the only reason that I felt compelled to write about it is that beginning June 26, 2009 (today) you can preorder Windows 7 for half price through major on-line retailers. Two editions of the upgrade, Windows 7 Home Premium and Professional, are available. This discounted offer is available through July 11, 2009. Judging from the technical and marketing disaster that Vista has been, this may be a worthwhile upgrade. I doubt that even Microsoft can afford to screw up their cash cow twice.

If you want to order it from Amazon click below:

It is ironic that I wrote yesterday how Apple’s iPhone software upgrade added functionality that I had wanted for a long time. I have experienced the opposite with a Microsoft upgrade. I upgraded two computers that I work on regularly to Internet Explorer 8 and have found out that the new version of the browser does not support opening a web address as a folder. This is handy for people who have a Windows server configured to share files through WebDAV—a technology that Microsoft developed and has promoted for sharing files over the Internet. Even Linux servers now have code to support this and my iPhone allows transfers to and from it using the Air Sharing application which works by mimicking a WebDAV server. I used to connect to the iPhone by opening the address shown in the Air Sharing application screen using Internet Explorer 7. It was as simple as going to the File menu, selecting Open, entering the address and selecting the check box that said, “Open as Web Folder.”

To get this functionality now, in Vista you have to go to Start, Computer, select Map Network Drive and then click on the link that says: “Connect to a Web site that you can use to store your documents and pictures.” You are then taken to a wizard that walks you through a series of steps to connect to the WebDAV folder. This is not what I consider progress. Microsoft, how about a patch that fixes this downgrade to a real upgrade?

It is the end of an era; analog television broadcasts are now a thing of the past. As of this last Friday, the TV networks stopped broadcasting on the analog frequencies and are now only broadcasting in digital high definition on a different frequency. This has rendered millions of television sets useless. The deadline for this switch was delayed from February of this year to June 12th. It is now time to upgrade to a better set, pay for cable services (which will still support your television set through the cable input connector) or purchase a conversion box.

For the many who were probably caught unprepared for this, the FCC has established a hotline staffed by 4,000 operators to help you, You can call: 1-888-CALL-FCC. Alternatively, you can visit this government website: http://www.dtv.gov/

Does anyone remember analog cell phones, Betamax, VHS, LP record players, tape players, or heaven forbid, 8-Track players? If you do, you probably own a Sony Walkman tape player and need to upgrade to an iPod Touch. Get with it.

Many of you received wonderful Christmas gifts like digital cameras and computers. You may be wondering what to do with the thousands of pictures you plan on taking and storing for future generations. The laptop or desktop computer will allow you to store a couple thousand pictures before you run out of space. You should also have a plan in place for maintaining a backup of all those pictures. (A friend of mine lost several years worth of family pictures when his computer’s hard drive failed.)

The answer to ever growing storage needs is an external hard drive. Western Digital makes a very good 1 Terabyte drive, with USB 2.0 connections that typically sells for under $200. This drive has enough space for over 200,000 photographs, or 1,000 compressed movies. My recommendation is that you buy two identical drives and keep two copies of everything. You might even want to keep one drive at a remote location and only bring it home to keep it up-to-date.

Think about it–those pictures of your loved ones are definitely worth $400. If you are a patient shopper, you can even find the drives for about $149. The good news is that they work with both PCs and Apple computers.

I have not been one of those complainers that is always whining about Vista. The truth is that I have liked Vista with its glitzy Aero interface and search functionality from day one. I use it on a very high end laptop and desktop. Unfortunately, lately I have noticed how inefficient the operating system is at opening folders, copying or moving files and any other type of I/O (input or output) operation.

I have felt particularly disappointed lately in its performance because I purchased a mini-notebook with an Atom processor and 1GB of memory. It came with Windows XP Home SP3. I have to tell you that the little machine feels many times faster than my quad-core desktop or dual core notebook.

The latest disappointment that I have had with Vista is that it does not have a telnet client by default. I needed such a tool to test a POP3 and SMTP connection to a server that was giving me problems.

I discovered that Vista does come with a telnet client, but you have to choose to install it. It is not installed by default.

These are the steps that you need to follow:

1. Start the Control Panel from the Start Icon.
2. Click on "Programs"
3. Click on "Turn Windows features on or off"
4. Scroll through the list that is presented and check off the "Telnet Client" (see image above)
5. Click "OK"

After some disk activity, you should have the Telnet client installed and ready for use. You can access it by opening a Command Prompt and typing "telnet."

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting

With this subtitle: “How to Turn Everything You Know on Its Head–and Succeed Beyond Your Wildest Imaginings” how could you not buy this book? I certainly could not resist the urge to buy Peter Sheahan’s book. FL!P is an easy-to-read business book that encourages you to think of your business in a different way. If this happens, then the author has accomplished his goal and you have flipped.

The author chides the reader into thinking counterintuitively and into moving forward with action. He believes that today’s business environment requires that you do things Fast, Good, Cheap and then Add Something Extra. He warns readers of the dangers of complacency in the new global economy and also explains the dangers that the Internet has created for businesses that do not perform well. For example, if you did not satisfy a customer in the past, you could suffer from bad word of mouth that could affect ten or more people. With the Internet, the same dissatisfied customer could post information about his experience on a blog and affect the opinion of hundreds or thousands of people. I believe what Mr. Sheahan writes completely because I have posted comments on this blog about unsatisfactory experiences with preferredphoto.com and with the Maestro 4250 GPS and know that dozens of Google searches bring dozens of readers to those experiences every week.

Like most business books, some of the advice is obvious. For example, the book has a chapter on the fact that business is personal. This is obvious to anyone who has owned or managed a business. People do business with people they know and trust. Mr. Sheahan makes the point that one way to compete with the threat of cheaper global labor is to stress the fact that you are local and trustworthy. He uses as an example a laser eye surgery that he underwent. He had the choice of having it done for a fraction of the cost overseas, but chose a local doctor after the doctor explained to him that Sheahan’s condition meant something to the doctor and would affect him if he did not do it right. He told him that in a foreign country, the doctor would not be worried about his reputation or about any malpractice.

I recommend “FL!P” because it is a good and entertaining read, because it inspired me to action and because it is well researched. Buy a copy and read it, you won’t regret it.

You can get FL!P here.

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting, Inc.

I have been hearing about Skype for a couple of years now. However, I never felt inclined to try it out this wildly popular Internet phone service. I figured there were already so many ways to reach me that what I needed was one less way instead of one more. Recently, a very specific need made me become adventurous and try it. I’ll try to tell you about each step of my experience.

Downloading and Installation

The first thing I did was search for "Skype" on Google and found that the first listing is the web site for Skype. The Google listing is very well organized and has links to all the areas of the Skype web site that you might want to visit. I went right to the download page, but then decided to do some reading before actually downloading and installing the software. After a few page reads, I decided that it was alright to download this software. It took a few minutes to download. I chose to run it directly after the download. The install process was smooth and took only a few minutes.

Configuring Skype

After the install completed, the Skype software requires that you choose a user name and give it an e-mail account and password. This took me a little longer than is probably usual because I am very picky about user names and do not like names like "robertalonso56897." Since every variation of my name was taken, I settled for "alonso.consulting." (Now, readers of this blog have another way to reach me…)

Test Call and Contacts

Skype automatically loaded my contacts from my Outlook. This was something that I found a little disconcerting. I still don’t know if this information resides on my local machine only or if they uploaded it somewhere. I am very leery of cloud computing when it comes to my contacts and financial data. I then tried a test call to an automated system that Skype provides and discovered that my microphone was not working properly. Once that problem was fixed I was ready to call people.

Calling People

You can call people on Skype by finding their listing in the directory. You can search by name, Skype name or e-mail address. Once you have found someone you know, you add them to your contacts and that person is notified that you are attempting to add them. They can accept or decline you. Once they accept you, you can click on that person’s name in the Contacts tab and the Skype software literally rings on their end. When they answer, you can talk as if your were on a phone, you can watch each other if you have a web cam and you can also text message and send files to each other. If you become a big user of the service, you can buy a Skype certified headset that includes a microphone for about $29.

After my initial calls from my PC, I downloaded the software for my Smartphone and was pleasantly surprised to see it work through my phone’s data plan. That is what I call very cool.

Although I did not try it, you can also call contacts that are not on Skype. You need to pay to call land or cell lines, but the fee is very reasonable at $.021 per minute.

Final Thoughts

I recommend this service because it is unobtrusive, works reasonably well and is mostly free. I do have a warning for you if you decide to use it: Skype’s terms of use allows them to monitor your conversations, web video and text messages as well as your contact relationships for the purposes of improving the service and providing you with goods and services that you might want to purchase. I found that more than a little creepy–so think about it before using the service. You should also note that the service is owned by eBay.

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting, Inc.

I have always been a fan of Microsoft products, but the company has definitely lost its way. I have been using Windows Mobile and previously Windows CE for many years, but find that the software has not kept up with the competition. It has fallen so far behind the Apple iPhone and Touch that it is not even in the same league. It is difficult to understand how a company dedicated to creating software could deliver such a clumsy piece of software.

There are so many things wrong with it that I could write a very lengthy entry on all the items. Rather than bore you with every problem, I will concentrate on the two that really bother me. The reason that I have purchased Windows Mobile phones is to read e-mail and do light Internet browsing. Other than synchronizing with Exchange, the e-mail client and Internet Explorer version in Windows Mobile are absolute garbage. I am especially disappointed in the Windows Mobile 6 version because I expected so much more.

I purchased a new phone to “upgrade” from Windows Mobile 5. The reason I made this purchase was to get the extra functionality that I believed was in Windows Mobile 6. I naively believed the marketing hype that I could read my e-mail in HTML and that attachments that were in the newer Office 2007 format could be read with it. Neither one of these is really true out of the box. When you start using a Windows Mobile 6 phone you immediately realize that you need to have Exchange 2007 as the back-end server for your e-mail in order to see HTML e-mails. Otherwise, “HTML” is not available as a message format. I was using the previous Exchange version. Other features like searching through your messages on the server or marking them for follow up also require that you have Exchange 2007 server. I used a workaround to get my HTML messages. I created a separate e-mail account on the phone and used IMAP as the protocol. I set it to download a few times a day and was able to read messages in HTML this way. This proves that there was no real need for Exchange 2007, except for Microsoft’s desire to force you to purchase the server upgrade as well.

The reason I call Windows Mobile 6 lame is that any software that forces you to use a workaround to get something done is obviously seriously flawed. The magnitude of lameness is incredible. Once I upgraded to Exchange 2007, I could stop downloading my e-mail twice–once through the ActiveSynch method and once through IMAP to get HTML messages. After using HTML extensively, I realized that Windows Mobile does a horrible job of rendering the messages and also has problems with scrolling horizontally through a message. You first have to tell the program that you want to scroll horizontally rather than being taken to the next message in your inbox.

Windows Mobile 6 also does not support Office 2007 file formats. You first have to download a free upgrade to get this functionality. This takes up more memory on your device and is a feature that I was expecting to have the moment I turned on my device. The Office 2007 reader programs are part of what Microsoft calls Windows Mobile 6.1. You can download this upgrade here. The only positive thing I can say about this upgrade is that it is free. Apple would have probably charged $20–like they did with the iPod Touch recently.

Internet Explorer is also very weak on Windows Mobile 6. It is better than in previous versions, but it offers a tiny window into the web. In fact, when I first purchased my phone, my bank did not support my phone and I was not able to do on-line banking with my “upgrade”  to Windows Mobile 6–something that I was able to do with my Windows Mobile 5 phone.

The Safari browser on the Apple iPhone and Touch makes Microsoft’s attempt look feeble. I have both and can tell you that the Windows Mobile 6 browser feels like riding a tricycle–you can get there, but you better pedal like hell and hope for some down hills. Safari makes you feel like you are using a fast titanium-built racing bike. The Apple browser works exceptionally well and is ultra-fast. The marvelous touch based interface just makes it an exhilarating experience. Are you listening Microsoft?

It is time for Microsoft to give up on Windows Mobile altogether. It is too tied to other Microsoft products and the development mindset appears to be to create a mini-Windows. To really innovate, Microsoft needs to stop thinking about the “Start” menu and program menus and all other things that are Windows-like. Start fresh. Use inspiration. Hire new people and do extensive usability research. Otherwise, Microsoft’s mobile platform will become irrelevant.

Robert Alonso
Alonso Consulting