Mereja

Author: Serkadis

  • Wolf in sheep’s clothing: Uncovering how deadly bacteria trick the immune system

    An outbreak of tuberculosis in the skid row area of downtown Los Angeles may have exposed up to 4,500 individuals to the bacterium that causes the deadly disease and has left federal officials scrambling to intervene. 
     
    The outbreak is occurring during winter, when homeless individuals are driven to crowded shelters, when influenza is peaking and when people’s vitamin D levels, typically boosted by sunlight exposure, are low. A new UCLA study offers critical insight into how various bacteria may manipulate such factors to their advantage.
     
    In a study published online Feb. 28 in the journal Science, UCLA researchers demonstrate that certain cunning bacteria — including the type that causes tuberculosis — can pretend to be viruses when infecting humans, allowing them to hijack the body’s immune response so that they can hide out, unhindered, inside our cells. The findings may also help explain how viral infections like the flu make us more susceptible to subsequent bacterial infections such as pneumonia.
     
    The study is particularly relevant to tuberculosis, which kills 1.4 million people worldwide each year. In the case of the recent Los Angeles outbreak, the findings could provide clues as to how the flu and a lack of vitamin D may have given the tuberculosis bacterium an edge.
     
    “With 8.7 million in the world falling ill with tuberculosis each year, a better understanding of how these bacteria avoid our immune system could lead to new ways to fight them and to better, more targeted treatments,” said senior author Dr. Robert L. Modlin, chief of dermatology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a professor of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics in the UCLA Division of Life Sciences.
     
    The protection our immune system provides against bacteria-based diseases and infections depends on the critical response of T cells — white blood cells that play a central role in fighting infections — and in particular on the release of a protein called interferon-gamma. Interferon-gamma utilizes the vitamin D hormone to alert and activate cells to destroy invading bacteria.
     
    The research team found that bacteria can pretend to be viruses, triggering the immune system to launch an attack with a different protein, called interferon-beta, which is designed to fight viruses, not bacteria. Not only is interferon-beta ineffective against bacteria, but it can also block the action of interferon-gamma, to the advantage of bacteria. Further, if a real virus were to infect the body, triggering interferon-beta, it would divert the attention of the immune response, preventing an attack on the bacterial invader. The researchers say this may explain why the flu can lead to a more serious bacteria-based infection like pneumonia.
     
    “Like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, the bacteria can fool the immune system into launching an attack against the wrong type of infection, thus weakening the response against the bacteria,” said first author Rosane M. B. Teles, a researcher in the dermatology division at the Geffen School of Medicine.  
     
    For the study, the team examined the mechanisms by which the virus-fighting interferon-beta protein suppresses the interferon-gamma defense response to bacterial infections, tricking the immune system into make the wrong defense choices.
     
    The researchers studied leprosy as a model and then applied what they learned to understand tuberculosis, given that leprosy and tuberculosis are caused by related bacteria. Modlin noted that leprosy is an outstanding model for studying immune mechanisms in host defense since it presents as a clinical spectrum that correlates with the level and type of immune response of the pathogen.
     
    The scientists first compared the genetic expression of the virus-fighting interferon-beta protein and the bacteria-fighting interferon-gamma protein in skin lesions from leprosy patients. They found that interferon-gamma was expressed in patients with the milder form of the disease and that interferon-beta was significantly increased in those with the more serious, progressive form of leprosy.
     
    The researchers then compared the genes triggered by interferon-beta in these leprosy skin lesions with those found by two other groups of investigators in the blood of tuberculosis patients. Remarkably, there was a significant overlap. The interferon-beta genes were more frequent in both the skin lesions of leprosy patients with extensive disease and the blood of tuberculosis patients with more severe disease. 
     
    “We found this common interferon-beta gene pattern correlated with the greater extent of disease in both leprosy and tuberculosis, which are two very distinct diseases,” Teles said.  
     
    Previous work by the UCLA team demonstrated that the interferon-gamma defense pathway relies on a specific mechanism involving vitamin D, a natural hormone that plays an essential role in the body’s fight against infections. The current study found that interferon-beta suppressed elements involved in the interferon-gamma–triggered vitamin D pathway, preventing the immune system from killing the bacteria.
     
    “The study raises the possibility that a decrease or increase of one of these two interferon proteins could shift the balance from mild to more serious disease,” Modlin said. “We may find that therapeutic interventions to block or enhance specific interferon responses may be an effective strategy to alter the balance in favor of protection against bacterial diseases.”
     
    The new findings may indicate why, in winter, Los Angeles skid row residents are at an added disadvantage in dealing with tuberculosis — for at least three reasons. First, because of colder weather at night, indigent homeless people tend to stay in shelters, where they live in close proximity with others, facilitating the spread of the infection. Second, due to the seasonal rise in influenza, the body’s immune system could be diverted by the flu virus to produce interferon-beta, blocking an effective immune response to the tuberculosis bacteria. And finally, the drop in vitamin D levels associated with a decrease in exposure to sunlight during the winter months could diminish the ability of individuals’ immune systems to kill the tuberculosis bacteria.
     
    “With TB on the rise, this scenario could play out not only in cities in the United States but all over the world,” Modlin said. “We hope that our findings may provide insight into harnessing new methods to combat TB and other bacterial infections as well.”
     
    Modlin noted that 8.7 million people become ill with tuberculosis each year and 1.4 million die from the disease. He said that an increase or decrease in one of the two interferon proteins could help explain why some people may be more resilient against, or susceptible to, the infection or have a more serious course of the disease.
     
    The next step, according to Teles, is to further understand the mechanisms that bacterial pathogens use to activate interferon-beta and how bacteria can manipulate the immune system to block the potent interferon-gamma host antimicrobial responses in human infections.
     
    The study was funded by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Skin Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH P50; ARO63020; RO1s AI022553, AR040312 and AI047868; and CTSA Grant UL1TR000124).
     
    Additional authors are listed in the manuscript.
     
    For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.

  • Fujitsu’s Future Phones And Tablets Could Skip The Physical Keyboard And Watch Your Fingers Instead

    fujitsu-keyboard2

    For better or worse, the advent of smartphones and tablets mean that we’re rapidly moving away from the more tactile user experiences that were the hallmark of a bygone era in computing. As it turns out, the folks at Fujitsu are eager to close the book on the days of the physical keyboard if what they were showing off here at MWC was any indication.

    Tucked away in a corner of Fujitsu’s booth here in Barcelona’s Fira Gran Via was a gentleman typing out words onto a tablet via a keyboard for anyone who would watch him. It sounds like a completely mundane occurrence, except the keyboard he was typing on wasn’t actually there.

    Here’s the idea: thanks to some clever software and the front-facing camera on a tablet, Fujitsu has worked up a way for users to type on just about any flat surface. The software is purely a prototype at this point, but it doesn’t need anything in the way of exotic gadgetry to work properly — it appeared to be running just fine on a generic Fujitsu Windows 8 tablet, albeit with a lamp of sorts to keep the user’s hands nice and bright.

    Using the gesture keyboard seems so simple when you’re watching it live — a person calmly tapping on the surface of a table is actually typing out sentences — but the underlying tech is nothing to sneeze at. There’s some serious machine learning going on here, as the system gets a feel for the features and movements of a user’s hands to determine their placement on a keyboard that really isn’t there.

    Sadly, that means there’s a fair amount of optimization that needs to happen before someone could actually start using it. The Japanese gentleman pecking out missives on top of a table was kind enough to let me try it anyway, and while the camera clearly noticed my hand it wouldn’t track any of my finger inputs.

    Apparently, the software is capable of using skin color to figure who it should actually be accepting input from — at that moment the system was setup to only track his alabaster hands, so my brown mitts were promptly ignored. Certainly a bummer for me, but a still useful feature, especially since one can never tell how many alien hands they’ll encounter as they try to get some work done on the go.

    Fujitsu is considering turning this into a working product for inclusion on some of its tablets and smartphones and has been at it for a while now — company researchers published a paper on the concept back in 2011. Still, the gesture keyboard strikes me as one of those things that may be too clever for its own good in that it’s a very neat solution to a problem that doesn’t really exist. Trying to get some work done on a tray table on a plane? There’s plenty of room for a physical keyboard. Stuck slaving away in close quarters? Just pound out some text on the touchscreen.

    The gesture keyboard is clearly very cool (it hearkens back to those neat laser keyboards) and I’d certainly love to a take it for a long-term spin, but I doubt that Fujitsu’s keyboard-less keyboard approach is one that will take the world by storm — for now. Its value as a standalone typing solution is questionable, but if Fujitsu baked it into a tablet or a phone as a novel alternative? Or better yet, if Fujitsu found some willing, ambitious OEM to license it to? Sign me up.

  • Former Apple CEO: Apple needs another ‘creative leap’

    Apple Sculley Interview
    As Apple’s (AAPL) share price wavers following its tumble from the record-high hit last September, pundits and industry watchers happily continue to offer their takes on why Apple has fallen from grace amid soured investor sentiment. The latest explanation of Apple’s current predicament comes from a familiar face: John Sculley. The former Apple CEO, who is most widely known for being recruited by Steve Jobs and then firing Jobs two years later following a power struggle, says Apple’s woes have been brought on by a period of slowed creativity in the consumer electronics industry where followers are beginning to outpace leaders.

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  • Yes, Android 4.2 runs on the Chromepixel Pixel and other laptops

    When Google announced the Chromebook Pixel with high resolution touchscreen last week I noted that there was something missing. Namely, I think the device would greatly benefit from the ability to run Android apps, which are already touch-optimized. Sure you can navigate the web via touch — we do that with tablets and phones today — but I’m really not using the touchscreen for that on the Pixel unit I’m reviewing. Android app support would change that. However, it turns out you can run Android on the Pixel, or on practically any other device with an x86 chip inside.

    The software solution is called Android-x86 and I actually used it in 2009. Back then, I installed Android 1.6 in all of its ugliness on an Intel Core Solo Ultra Mobile PC with 7-inch display. The touchscreen on that device didn’t work for Android and sadly, even with the new build of Android-x86, the Pixel’s touchscreen isn’t yet working either. Brad Linder over at his Liliputing site gave it a go on the Pixel to confirm.

    Still, the touch capabilities could be implemented through updated driver support in the build, so I’ll be watching for further development. And I may give this a try anyway since the supported version of Android is 4.2 Jelly Bean. The difference between that and Android 1.6 is like the 2014 Chevrolet Corvette and the old Pinto we owned in the early 1970s, both in performance and looks.

    To run Android 4.2 on a laptop, you don’t have to remove your current operating system. Instead, if your computer can boot from a USB stick, you can run a live CD, which boots into and runs Android directly from the USB device. When you’re done tinkering with Android on your laptop, you simply shut down, pull the USB key and reboot back into your native operating system.

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  • Bing Maps Gets A Big Imagery Upgrade

    Bing announced some big upgrades to its Bing Maps imagery today. This includes the addition of new “top of the world” imagery, which includes bathymetry data from Scripps Institution fo Oceanography, as well as over 13 million square kilometers of updated satellite imagery.

    “We are pleased to present our new seamless base satellite imagery provided by TerraColor. This imagery has a resolution of 15 meters per pixel, providing coverage of the entire world!” says the Bing Maps team. “This new imagery will enhance overall viewer experience with Bing Maps and the Windows 8 Maps App. Experience it yourself by visiting the Windows 8 Maps App or Bing Maps. The new Top of the World imagery (pictured above) is visible from zoom levels 1-13. Zooming in deeper will reveal our high resolution satellite imagery.”

    Of the bathymetric imagery (that’s ocean floor imagery), Bing says, “The topography of the ocean floor is represented by color shading (dark blues to light blues) indicating changes in ocean depth. An ocean mask minimizes areas typically obscured by ice and clouds. The combination of the ocean mask and bathymetric imagery provides a more meaningful view of the world oceans.”

    Bing has also been able to reduce cloud cover in cloud-heavy areas in its base satellite layer. That’s in addition to the 13,799,276 square kilometers of new high-res satellite imagery, as well as 203,271 square kilometers of new Global Ortho imagery.

    More on all of these updates here.

  • Bing Fund Adds Sonar To Its Roster

    Bing announced today that it has added another company – Sonar – to its Bing Fund roster.

    Bing Fund was launched last year as an “angel investor with an incubator”. In August, Bing unveiled its initial startups. Now, after remaining quiet for the rest of the year, they seem to be picking up the pace a bit.

    Last month, Bing announced the addition of LikeBright to the Bing Fund fold. Today, it’s Sonar. Bing Fund program manager Aya Zook writes on the Bing blog:

    March is full of excitement and promise. Spring is just around the corner and people are beginning to get restless. As Austin readies itself for the geek-stampede that is SXSW Interactive, it seems a fitting time for this announcement. It will be an occasion for us to once again have the pleasure of hanging out with the Sonar crew led by founder, Brett Martin.

    Over the years, we have crossed paths with Sonar across the land of tech probably more than any other startup. Whether it was TC Disrupt NYC, PSFK NYC, at our own epic pop-up gallery, SMW, and most recently Xconomy NYC, wherever we went, it seemed that the cool little periscope was right there with us. We would bring each other up to speed, and talk about “hey, wouldn’t it be cool to work together?” And go our separate ways until the next serendipitous encounter.

    Sonar is a social discovery app that tells users when their friends and friends’ friends are nearby, and as the company puts it, “reveals the hidden connections and small world moments you might have otherwise missed.”

    The app takes advantage of social and location data from Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter and LinkedIn to give users context about the people they’re near.

  • Will Google’s Navigation Interface Look Like This Soon?

    Google is testing yet another redesign of its navigation interface.

    It doesn’t seem like that long ago that Google launched the current navigation interface, but that doesn’t mean they’re not exploring other options.

    Alex Chitu at Google Operating System was tipped on a new test Google is running, which includes a more visual style for accessing various Google services. He provides this screenshot:

    New test

    I’m not sure where the Google+ notification counter is hidden in this version of Google’s design. I can’t imagine they’d want to do away with that, considering it was one of the key motivating factors to get users to visit and engage with the Google+ social destination.

    As Chitu points out, the design is kind of similar to the Chrome app launcher Google has been previewing. Google put out a post about this last week. Here’s what that looks like:

    Chrome App Launcher

    Google tests stuff all the time, and much of it never sees the light of day, so don’t freak out just yet. Google runs 20,000 search experiments a year, according to Matt Cutts.

  • Lost in translation: HMO enrollees in poor health have hardest time communicating with doctors

    In the nation’s most diverse state, some of the sickest Californians often have the hardest time communicating with their doctors. So say the authors of a new study from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research that found that residents with limited English skills who reported the poorest health and were enrolled in commercial HMO plans were more likely to have difficulty understanding their doctors, placing this already vulnerable population at even greater risk.
     
    The findings are significant given that, in 2009, nearly one in eight HMO enrollees in California was considered “limited English proficient” (LEP) and approximately 842,000 LEP individuals were enrolled in commercial HMOs. And while roughly a third (36.4 percent) of LEP enrollees in commercial HMOs reported being in fair or poor health, this same group accounted for nearly two-thirds (63.5 percent) of those reporting communication troubles with their doctors.
     
    LEP individuals will make up a sizable portion — as much as 36 percent — of California’s newly insured population after the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, including those projected to be enrolled through the state’s health insurance exchange, Covered California.
     
    “The sickest people are having the hardest time talking to their doctors,” said Max Hadler, a research associate at the Center for Health Policy Research and the main analyst for the study. “If a patient can’t communicate, how can their doctor treat them effectively? Appropriate interpreter services and translated materials are a consumer right and key to providing high-quality care and reining in the growth in health care costs.”
     
    Approximately 1.3 million people between the ages of 18 to 64 who are enrolled in various HMO plans in California do not speak English well. Although recent regulations require commercial health plans to provide free, qualified interpretation and translation services to HMO enrollees, the study’s authors conclude that it is too soon to know if these laws have been effective in spurring HMOs to assess the language needs of their enrollees, develop plans for the provision of free language services, and require physicians, clinics and hospitals to provide the services necessary.
     
    There is data to suggest that many medical providers continue to rely on non-professionals, such as family members or untrained staff, to supply interpretation services. Despite the efforts of health plans to identify and plan for LEP patients and the potential for providers to use trained bilingual staff and outside interpreting agencies, more than 40 percent of LEP enrollees in commercial HMOs who needed help to understand their doctor reported receiving assistance from a non-professional.

    “One of the problems with planning for and providing effective interpreter services for our LEP population in California is the lack of consistent training of interpreters,” said Dylan Roby, lead investigator on the study and director of the Center’s Health Economics and Evaluation Research Program. “Although health plans are required to assess the language needs of their members and develop a plan to address them, there is quite a bit of variation in how they do so and who is expected to provide interpretation to patients at the bedside or during a visit.”

     
    The authors recommend that in addition to monitoring and aggressively targeting patients in poor health to enhance the level of communication, HMOs and providers should work with regulators to assess the changing language needs of their members, modify their plans and policies to more appropriately meeti these needs, and ensure that physicians, clinics and hospitals can deploy effective translation and interpreter services.

    The study used data from the 2009 California Health Interview Survey.

     
     
    The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research is one of the nation’s leading health policy research centers and the premier source of health-related information on Californians.
     
    For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.

  • Apple again named world’s most admired company by Fortune

    Apple Most Admired Company 2013
    For the sixth consecutive year, Apple (AAPL) has been named the world’s most admired company by Fortune. The decision comes as something of a surprise considering the $250 billion that has been shaved from Apple’s market cap over the past five months. IApple is still the world’s most profitable technology company by a huge margin though, and apparently it is also still the most admired. Fortune’s blurb on Apple follows below.

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  • Google No Longer Accepting Applications For #ifihadglass Contest

    If you go to the Google Glass page for “How To Get One,” Google now informs you that the contest is over, and applications are now closed.

    “But the conversation is just getting started,” Google says. That’s true, as further evidenced by words from Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley at Mobile World Congress and a recent sighting of Mark Zuckerberg talking to Sergey Brin about the device (not to mention this TMZ “interview”).

    Google says this on the page now:

    Thank you so much to everyone who applied to be a Glass Explorer.

    We have been overwhelmed, entertained and inspired by your responses. #ifihadglass is now closed and we will be notifying successful applicants soon. If you don’t hear from us, don’t despair! There will be more chances to get Glass at a later date.

    If you would like to stay informed about Glass, you can sign up here.

    There is a form on the page where you can sign up to stay informed.

    Google has said that Google Glass will be available to all by the end of the year, and that they will cost less than the $1,500 early contest winners have to pay.

  • Facebook Adds Third Parties To Custom Audiences Tool

    Last fall, Facebook released its custom audiences tool for marketers. Now, they’ve expanded it to allow businesses to use Datalogix, Epsilon, Acxiom, and BlueKai.

    Businesses that already work with these third parties can use the same info they have used elsewhere to create campaigns on Facebook. Facebook will work with these third parties to create pre-defined targeting categories on Facebook, so businesses will be able to target categories like “soda drinkers” or “auto-intenders”.

    “We know that many businesses also work with third party partners to enhance their online and offline marketing in order to show more relevant ads, and so today we’re announcing that we’re expanding custom audiences to allow businesses to work with these third parties,” Facebook says. “For example, an auto dealer may want to customize an offer to people who are likely to be in the market for a new car. To do this many businesses work with third party companies to better understand who might be in the market for a new car.”

    “As with the existing custom audiences tool, these select partners use a privacy and data-protective matching process,” the company says. “The process is specifically designed so that no personal information is exchanged between Facebook, marketers or third party partners. People will still have the same controls over what ads they see on Facebook.”

    The enhancements will be rolling out in the coming weeks to marketers in the U.S.

    Earlier this week, AOL announced that its Advertising.com customers can now access Facebook’s inventory.

    According to a report from Ad Age, Facebook is set to announce the acquisition of Microsoft’s Atlas ad platform as soon as today, following rumors that it would do so in recent months.

  • Baidu Deploys Marvell ARM-Based Cloud Server

    marvell-baidu

    A look at the new Baidu Cloud server, powered by ARM chipsets from Marvell. (Photo: Marvell)

    There’s been lots of buzz about adapting the ARM chips that power iPhones and iPads into servers, but few examples of these processors being used in production. Here’s one: Marvell (MRVL) said this week that its chipset is included in the first commercial deployment of ARM-based servers at Chinese search engine giant Baidu.

    Baidu, which is one of China’s largest Internet companies, will use Marvell’s implementation of ARM in its ARMADA XP CPU server SoC (System on Chip) in its Baidu Cloud storage application. The new servers will help slash power usage across Baidu’s growing server footprint, which has prompted the company to focus on energy efficiency and sustainability.

    “The world’s first large-scale deployment of ARM servers in the data center represents Baidu’s leadership in cloud computing system infrastructure,” said Wang Jing, vice president of engineering at Baidu. “In order to bring greater storage density to the data center, lower TCO (total cost of ownership) and deliver efficiency to a new level, Baidu integrated leading design capabilities with Marvell’s advanced chipset solutions. This project represents Baidu’s success in building cloud computing data centers.”

    Baidu has customized its ARM servers to work with its cloud storage requirements and is using the complete Marvell platform solution of quad core ARM-based ARMADA XP SoC products, including its CPU, storage controller, and a 10Gb Ethernet switch. In addition, Marvell has incorporated its low-power Ethernet physical layer (PHY) transceivers. The ARMADA XP chipset is at the core of Dell’s “Copper” ARM server as well.

    “Marvell is proud that both our passion to drive breakthrough technology and innovation and our vision to make an early investment in ARM more than a decade ago has led to this important milestone of becoming the first semiconductor company in the world to commercially launch an end-to-end SoC platform that supports a new era of server demands in the modern data center,” said Ramesh Sivakolundu, vice president, Cloud Services and Infrastructure Business Unit, Marvell.

    “Based on the ARM architecture and combined with our dedicated engineering, the Marvell server SoC is unique in its ability to deliver the low power consumption, high storage and computer density that can help companies cost-effectively support a new era of cloud- and Web-based services,” Sivakolundu continued. “The Baidu implementation brings Marvell’s vision for ARM architecture full circle.”

     

  • Pandora caps monthly free tunes on mobiles to 40 hours

    Pandora users streaming free tunes all month long may find that today is the day the music died: Pandora is limiting its free monthly service to 40 hours. Don’t worry though, the free tunes start up again the following month or you can choose to pay a small fee for to enjoy music for the remainder of the month. Why the cap and fee? Rising per-track royalty rates, Pandora said in a blog post from Wednesday evening:

    “Pandora’s per-track royalty rates have increased more than 25% over the last 3 years, including 9% in 2013 alone and are scheduled to increase an additional 16% over the next two years. After a close look at our overall listening, a 40-hour-per-month mobile listening limit allows us to manage these escalating costs with minimal listener disruption.”

    According to the company, the impact is limited to just 4 percent of all users, which is surprisingly low. Perhaps more folks use the free streaming on desktops or laptops connected via Wi-Fi as opposed to smartphone and tablet users on costly mobile broadband networks.

    Regardless of how people use the music service, pricing is understandably a challenge: Record label fees are negotiated at set royalty rates for a given time, but Pandora has no control over the demand for or growth of its service. The small $0.99 fee to continue music past the 40 hours in a given month seems reasonable to me, and I say that as a paying Pandora subscriber. I pay $36 a year for unlimited, ad-free music through Pandora mainly because I access it through multiple methods: my laptop, phone, tablet and even my television and car, both of which have integrated Pandora apps.

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  • Will Google be the next to fall?

    Google Stock Analysis
    Apple’s (AAPL) tremendous tumble after the stock hit an all-time high of $705.07 last September continues to be one of the biggest stories in tech. We know hedge funds led the charge, but investors continue to question the Cupertino-based company’s future after insisting it could do no wrong through much of 2012. Apple wasn’t the first company to learn how quickly sentiment can shift as its share price tumbled more than 30%, and it certainly won’t be the last. According to one industry watcher, Google (GOOG) might be next in line for a huge reality check.

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  • Google Emphasizes Brands More In Search Results

    Google appears to be taking another step toward emphasizing brands in search results. As pointed out by Gordon Campbell a few days ago, and then again today by Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Roundtable, Google is placing brand names at the beginning of titles for links in search results.

    One example both point to is for York Fitness.

    York Fitness

    As Campbell points out, “Google has presented us with the page title ‘York Fitness: Gym Equipment & Machines | Weights | Boxing’ but the page title that York Fitness has set is ‘Gym Equipment & Machines | Weights | Boxing Equipment | York Fitness’ and truth be told, Google’s version of the page title looks far better.”

    They appear to be doing the same thing on a variety of pages.

    While it didn’t speak about the brand-specific method of retitling pages, Google has talked about its process for retitling pages in the past.

    Google Webmaster Trends Analyst Pierre Far wrote on the Google Webmaster Central Blog over a year ago, “Page titles are an important part of our search results: they’re the first line of each result and they’re the actual links our searchers click to reach websites. Our advice to webmasters has always been to write unique, descriptive page titles (and meta descriptions for the snippets) to describe to searchers what the page is about.”

    “We use many signals to decide which title to show to users, primarily the <title> tag if the webmaster specified one,” he continued. “But for some pages, a single title might not be the best one to show for all queries, and so we have algorithms that generate alternative titles to make it easier for our users to recognize relevant pages. Our testing has shown that these alternative titles are generally more relevant to the query and can substantially improve the clickthrough rate to the result, helping both our searchers and webmasters. About half of the time, this is the reason we show an alternative title.”

    “Other times, alternative titles are displayed for pages that have no title or a non-descriptive title specified by the webmaster in the HTML,” he said. “For example, a title using simply the word “Home” is not really indicative of what the page is about. Another common issue we see is when a webmaster uses the same title on almost all of a website’s pages, sometimes exactly duplicating it and sometimes using only minor variations. Lastly, we also try to replace unnecessarily long or hard-to-read titles with more concise and descriptive alternatives.”

    As far as brands go, brands are associated with trust and identity. We all know how important Google considers identity these days. A brand is the identity of a company or a product. Google seems to be be making sure content is clearly associated with the brand that puts it out.

  • Verne Global Orders More Modules for its Iceland Data Center

    verne-colt-wrapped

    A Colt data center module being moved into its home at the Verne Global data center in Iceland. Verne has ordered additional modules for an expansion of its data center near Reykjavik. (Photo:Colt)

    There will be soon be more modular data centers loaded onto ships and heading for Iceland. Data center developer Verne Global has selected Colt’s ftec modular data centre for an expansion of its facility in Keflavik, Iceland. The modules will be fabricated at Colt’s manufacturing facility in northern England, and then shipped to Iceland in May and assembled onsite and ready to go live in the third quarter of 2013.

    The Verne Global facility, built in a former NATO command center, takes advantage of Iceland’s vast supply of renewable energy (hydroelectric and geothermal), along with a cool climate that allows the use of air-side free cooling for the entire year. Colt customized its modular data center hall design, equipping it with cooling modules that allow Verne to cool servers using air from outside the data center. In winter months, the system gives Verne the option of mixing the chilly outside air with exhaust heat from servers.

    Existing tenants at Verne Global include automaker BMW and managed hosting provider Datapipe. The company says demand remains strong, prompting the need for the additional modules.

    “As cloud, mobile and big data applications drive organixations to look for cutting edge solutions for their data storage needs, interest in our Icelandic facility continues to gain momentum and we find ourselves needing to expand our current footprint,” said Jeff Monroe, CEO for Verne Global. “Our partnership with Colt allows for flexible and rapid expansion of our business with a superior product that meets our specific requirements.”

    Focus on Flexible Design, Phased Growth

    Colt’s ftec design, introduced in November, is the latest version of the UK company’s modular data center. It uses a standardized, reusable design that can deliver excellent energy efficiency. Colt introduced its modular offering in 2010, offering more than 120 design variations and the ability to deliver modules to either a Colt facility or customer-owned site. With ftec – with the “f” emphasizing the flexibility of the product – Colt has introduced features to further reduce risk and deploy capacity efficiently, particularly when the data center is in low load.

    “By putting flexibility right at the heart of our data centres both in the design phase and throughout the life cycle, we achieve market-leading cost savings for customers in terms of energy efficiency and an unrivaled time to market of less than four months,” said Guy Ruddock, Vice President of Design and Delivery for Colt. “In the case of Verne Global’s campus, we’ve specifically customized our design to fully harness Iceland’s fresh air cooling which is available 365 days a year. This, coupled with the unique 100 percent renewable, dual sourced power supplying the data centre hall, provides industry leading efficiency and reliability.”

    The initial phase of the Verne Global, deployment involved moving a 5,000 square foot data center nearly 1,000 miles across the ocean? Colt loaded 13 of its factory-built modules onto a container ship, which sailed them from northern England to Reykjavik. This video provides an overview of the logistics involved in this unusual deployment.

  • Like Facebook, Foursquare Also Looking Forward To Google Glass

    Mark Zuckerberg isn’t the only social media company head anxious to get his hands on Google Glass for the betterment of his product. Dennis Crowley, CEO of Foursquare, has been talking about it as well.

    At Mobile World Congress, Crowley spoke about the device, and TechCrunch says he also told them “Foursquare is looking at how it can evolve along with that”. Ingrid Lunden quotes him:

    “Anywhere there’s a screen, we want to put our stuff on it, whether that’s on a phone, or a watch, or whatever,” he said. He also added that Foursquare hasn’t yet worked with Google Glass itself.

    …

    Crowley said that Foursquare is gearing up to launch a new feature in the next couple of weeks that builds on this concept, enhancing the “contextual awareness” (his words) introduced by existing services like Radar. (Introduced in 2011, Radar alerts users to when they are near places that they have flagged in their app.)

    Crowley, as you may know, co-founded early location-based service Dodgeball, which was acquired by Google in 2005, only to be shut down a few years later in favor of Google Latitude. He came out with Foursquare around that same time period.

    He has since expressed interest in working with Google. At SXSW 2011, for example, he said that Google would be a great partner if the timing was right, and that they would “probably” partner with them. Since then, we’ve seen a handful of Foursquare integrations with Google. Google Places started importing Foursquare data, for example. Eventually, they started letting you add Foursquare check-ins to Google Calendar (which could prove quite useful for Foursquare users when combined with the new Google Calendar integration into Google Search).

    At one point, it didn’t even seem out of the realm of possibility that Google would make a move to acquire Foursquare. Here’s a snippet from an article in December 2011:

    Laura Goode at All Things Digital interviewed Crowley. On the possibility of an acquisition, she quotes Crowley as saying, “I wouldn’t disqualify anything. The thing that’s important to us is doing the things we want to do, which could be partnering with someone, or it could be continuing to grow the product independently.”

    That is not exactly saying, “No, we’re not for sale.” For that matter, it doesn’t mean that Google, would be the winner of an acquisition, if in fact Foursquare is for sale. However, the interview is largely about Crowley’s relationship with Google, and how he has been talking with Googlers, including business development Googlers.

    That, incidentally, was just after Facebook acquired Foursquare rival Gowalla. I’m not trying to start any new acquisition rumors here or anything. Just pointing out the potential usefulness of Foursquare and Google working together.

    While Google is working on collecting a great deal of its own location-based data, even through games like Ingress, Foursquare no doubt has a lot to offer the company, especially for an offering like Google Glass, who co-founder Sergey Brin, by the way, seems to think will replace smartphones.

  • Samsung invites public to Galaxy S IV debut in Times Square

    Samsung Galaxy S IV Launch
    Smartphone fans around the world can tune in to BGR on March 14th as we report live from Samsung’s (005930) Galaxy S IV unveiling at Radio City Music Hall. For those in the New York area who want to be a part of the action, Samsung has issued an open invitation to the public, inviting anyone and everyone to Times Square that evening for what will undoubtedly be a smartphone unveiling to remember. Samsung’s next-generation Galaxy S IV is expected to feature a 1.8GHz eight-core Exynos 5 Octa processor (or a Snapdragon chipset, according to recent rumors) along with a 4.99-inch 1080p full HD display, a 13-megapixel rear camera, 2GB of RAM, 4G LTE connectivity, a micro SD slot, wireless charging capabilities and Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. An image of Samsung’s invitation follows below.

    Continue reading…

  • AOL Appoints Susan Lyne CEO Of Brand Group, Minson Steps Down As COO

    AOL just announced that it has appointed Susan Lyne CEO of its brand group, and she will run the AOL operating unit that houses the company’s portfolio of brands.

    There were already rumors being reported that she would be taking over all AOL content other than Huffington Post, though the company didn’t specifically mention this in its announcement. TechCrunch shares a company memo, however, which indicates that Arianna Huffington will still report to Tim Armstrong.

    “In her roles as CEO then Chairman of Gilt, and previously as President and CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Susan has a proven track record of brand building and aggressive growth,” said AOL CEO Tim Armstrong. “I know she’ll bring that same drive and growth-oriented mentality to our Brand Group. AOL ended 2012 growing revenue for the first time in eight years, and we expect Susan to help build on this momentum and take our brands to the next level.”

    “In my three years as an AOL board member, I have partnered with Tim Armstrong and my fellow directors to help drive the company’s transformation, and have seen AOL make great strides as it continues to innovate, grow and evolve,” said Lyne. “I’m looking forward to contributing to the company’s continued evolution in my new role, and will focus on creating additional value with all of AOL’s premium brands. Our efforts center on making all of our brands true destinations for audiences worldwide, and to provide marketers with innovative opportunities to connect with these audiences.”

    Lyne will remain Vice Chairman of Gilt, a role she recently transitioned to from Chairman.

    She has also served as President of ABC Entertainment, overseeing the development of shows like Desperate Housewives, Lost, and Grey’s Anatomy. Not bad experience to have as AOL continues to make a big video push.

    AOL’s Chief Operating Officer, Arthur “Artie” Minson, who previously oversaw all three of AOL’s business unites: the Membership Group, AOL Networks, and the Brand Group, is stepping down. He will remain with the company for a transition period.

  • What goes around, comes around: U.S. hackers attack China

    China Hackers US Attack
    Dozens of reports of cyber-attacks on U.S. companies originating in China have emerged over the past few years. But as these attacks were taking place, hackers in the U.S. were allegedly targeting at least two websites belonging to China’s military. China officials claim U.S. hackers targeted the Defense Ministry’s website and a site belonging to its newspaper, the People’s Liberation Army Daily, an average of 144,000 times per month in 2012, The Associated Press reported. Defense Ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng issued the accusation, and said that the Chinese military has never supported any hacking activity targeting the U.S. “Like other countries, China faces a serious threat from hacking and is one of the primary victims of hacking in the world,” Geng told reporters. “Numbers of attacks have been on the rise in recent years.”