Daily Archives: February 13, 2006

Google gains ground in search

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Google’s share of search traffic rose nearly 6 percent in December from the prior year, giving the company 49 percent share of all U.S. Web searches, according to the latest statistics from Nielsen/NetRatings.

Yahoo and MSN experienced slight declines in their percentage of search share over the last year, although all three search engines had double-digit growth year-over-year. Google grew 75 percent to nearly 2.5 billion searches; Yahoo rose 53 percent to nearly 1.1 billion searches and MSN rose 20 percent to 553 million searches.

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Alonso: ‘It was my right to choose a new team’

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Fernando Alonso has defended his decision to join McLaren at the end of the season, saying he has no obligation to Renault other than to do his best during his final season with the team.

Alonso became the youngest ever Formula One World Champion last season with Renault. However, two months later he announced that he would be leaving the French outfit and joining rivals McLaren at the end of this season.

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When Mc Laren made the announcement late last year that they have signed up Alonso for the 2007 season, Mc Laren as well as Alonso was criticised. The aim is to win championship and I do not see there is anything wrong to sign Alonso at all. In F1, you need a good driver and a good car ( a good car designer ) to win. To me, Alonso is a very good driver that made little mistake. His result in 2005 where he did not win more races than Kimi and yet able to lift the championship largely due to his driving consistency. Mc Laren has secured the sponsorship of Vodafone for 2007 onwards and naturally, Ron Dennis need to find way to win the championship to bring more exposure to title sponsor.

Visit to Otaru, Hokkaido, Japan

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During our recent visit to Hokkaido, we drop by Otaru, a city popular for its glass ware and music box. We were there by noon and spent the whole afternoon visiting some stores selling glass ware and music boxes. It was snowing heavily with temperature in the range of -8 degree C. It was a fruitful afternoon as we managed to get some nice glasswares that are good for house decoration.


Otaru Hokkaido Japan
Otaru, Hokkaido, Japan

Otaru Hokkaido Japan
Long Leg Crab on display for sale. No freezer required. Afterall it is soo cold

Otaru Hokkaido Japan
Snowing heavily just shortly after lunch

Otaru Hokkaido Japan
Music boxes featuring many dog breeds

Otaru Hokkaido Japan
Music Boxes with Merry Go Round. All electric powered and able to play some 30 songs

Otaru Hokkaido Japan
Tons of Music Box on display

Otaru Hokkaido Japan
Forming the ice sculpture outside a restaurant

Otaru Hokkaido Japan
1000 Yen shop

Otaru Hokkaido Japan
Snowing getting worst.

Yahoo to offer incentives for using search engine

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In a time where Google is enjoying a much wider users base for its search engine, Yahoo is working to find way to attract more users to use its search services. Offering incentives to users who use its Yahoo search will be one possible way to increase user base, but not necessary an effective one. Most people have turned to Google for its ease to help users to find their require information and is extremely fast. Nevertheless, offering incentives to gain back some market share will be good move by Yahoo !!

Yahoo confirmed on Wednesday that it’s polling some Yahoo Mail users about what they would want in exchange for making Yahoo their primary search engine. The survey was sent to a random sampling representing about 5 percent of its Yahoo Mail users, a Yahoo representative said.

“Yahoo is considering launching a program to reward people who make Yahoo their primary search engine,” the survey says. “Yahoo Mail users will be given early access to this program. You will receive a monthly reward if you make Yahoo your primary search engine. This means that most of the searching you do each month must be on Yahoo Search.”

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