Google reinvents search

At the Searchology press event yesterday, Google showed off the past, present and future of searching. They call it "Universal Searching," reports Tech.monstersandcritics.

The same Google search used daily is still there. The launch of Universal Search means a simple search will show results from Google's vertical search as normal, but there is a new, added layer.

A small bar appears just over the results that will let you target your results quicker. For example, a search for "python the popular code", will list the normal results plus links to Google Code, Google Blogs, and Google Groups relating to the subject as well.

The music-download service announced by Amazon.com yesterday represents the latest attempt by a digital retailer to meet one of the biggest challenges facing the industry: how to sell music that consumers can play on a wide variety of devices, including Apple's dominant iPod, says Moneyweb.

For now, the easiest way to sell music to create such a flexible consumer experience is to deliver music in a format, such as MP3, that doesn't include copy-protection software, known as digital rights management, or DRM.

Music sold through Apple's iTunes store, historically has come with DRM, meaning it can be played only on an iPod; likewise, music sold on most other services is incompatible with the iPod.

The NPD Group today released videogame hardware sales data for April and Nintendo's Wii and DS consoles were again the big winners, as both platforms dominated all competitors, reports ps2.ign.com.

At the same time, PlayStation 2 sales remained strong through the month, partially spurred on by continued interest in Guitar Hero II and God of War II.

Nintendo DS was the overall best-selling system in April, with approximately 471 000 units sold. On the other hand, Sony's PSP, which was coming off a price drop, managed 182 000 units sold.

A fake report, claiming the release of both Apple's iPhone and its Leopard operating system were being delayed, saw up to $4 billion of Apple's market value wiped on Wednesday, although it subsequently recovered, reports Fin24.

The post made on the Engadget Web site, at 11:49am on Wednesday, said that an e-mail (purporting to be an internal Apple memo) had been circulated saying the release of the iPhone had been put back to October and that Leopard wouldn't be ready until January 2008.

Although the e-mail turned out to be a fake, Apple quickly issued an e-mail denying the claim and saying both the iPhone and Leopard were still on target. Engadget corrected the post, but Apple shares tumbled from $107.89 to $103.42 within six minutes, from 11:56am and 12:02pm.

North Carolina is one of the states taking a closer look at sexual predators who are cruising cyberspace for potential victims, says Mountaintimes.com.

NC Attorney General Roy Cooper, who has made Internet safety for children a priority of his office, announced a crackdown Monday on registered sex offenders who use the popular online community MySpace.

The Web site has 70 million registered users and is a popular hangout for teens, who post pictures, blogs and sometimes intimate details about their friends and their daily lives.