While doing my monthly review of the search terms that led people to our sites, I came to the same conclusion I’ve come to since the MSN search came out. People using MSN search are mostly newbie’s with little idea of how to search effectively. For example our most popular search term from MSN last month was “registry fixit” which sent us about 500 users looking to fix their windows registry (I assume). And every one of the top ten MSN search terms contained the words “fixit” like “Dell fixit”, “dell support fixit”, the word “fixit” itself and so on. As a result we’ve recently been inundated by people asking support questions about Windows and Dell PC’s, all because we have the word Fixit in our domain name, (which says something about the effectiveness of MSN’s search algorithm).

This all got me thinking. If the search terms we get are any indication of the majority of MSN users, then we can safely assume that most of them are not experienced searchers and that leads you to think perhaps they are using MSN because it was the default home page of the default web browser for Windows, (Internet Explorer). Considering the overall search statistics that put Google with a pretty decent lead over Yahoo which has a similar lead over MSN in third place, it seems self evident that as people become more experienced in search, they are switching to Google or Yahoo instead of sticking with MSN. So what can we conclude from all this? As it stands now, MSN search’s market share is directly tied into Internet Explorers. Firefox now has a conservative 8.6% of the worldwide browser market share, and growing month over month and Firefox uses a custom Google page as it’s home page. It will be interesting to see what the search engine statistics are when Firefox has 20-30% of the browser market. Fortune have just released an article describing the search battle from MSN’s perspective and it makes for fascinating reading. The only part I think is not underscored enough, is that Microsoft are not an innovator as much as they are a mass marketer and copier. Remember that Gates didn’t think the Internet would go anywhere either. Microsoft’s power is to make “good enough” software, and then integrate it with all their other “good enough” software and market the hell out if it with huge PR campaigns. To the best of my knowledge, they have yet to introduce any world changing innovation in their 20 plus years of existence. The GUI (Graphical User Interface) wasn’t their invention, neither were the spreadsheet, word processor, multitasking/multi-user operating systems, network infrastructure, the web, e-mail and so on. Microsoft are where they are because they can usually recognise when somebody else has innovated something and they jump on the bandwagon with much better marketing and usually take the best part of the market as a result. Search is something else they didn’t see the power of until it was already in someone else’s hand.

Oh, and for any MSN users looking for REGISTRY FIXIT, take a look near the bottom of the right hand menu. For people looking for help with Dell computers, you would be better off asking your question at the Dell community forum.

The Sober.P (AKA Sober.N) worm has taken the Internet by storm showing that after all this time people will still click on unknown attachments in email if they look interesting enough. The worm has been spotted in 40 countries and currently accounts for just under 80 % of all Virus traffic or about 5% of all e-mail traffic. Our own mail server has blocked hundreds of them since the start of the week and we are by no means alone in this. All the major anti-virus companies have updated their pattern files to recognise Sober.p so if you have it, it isn’t too hard to find out. You might not consider being infected that seriously, but consider that you may be infecting your friends and possibly clients as well and they might not look at it in such a trivial light. If you use Windows, and you have e-mail, update your anti-virus application and run a full scan.

To help with removing the worm once you have found it, Symantec have provided a free tool specifically for cleaning up damage caused by the Sober worms and you can find it here. As always Apple Macintosh and Linux users are not affected.

Webroot, an anti-spyware company has revealed that spyware companies make an estimated 2 billion dollars every year. Some of their methods are questionable according to TheRegister but there can be no doubt that spyware is a profitable business. At the other end of the scale there can be no doubt that spyware costs companies millions of dollars in clean-up duties every year as well.
Speaking as someone at the front of the fight against spyware, I can personally testify as to how many home consumers and businesses have machines literally riddled with the stuff, sometimes to the point where the machines stability is compromised and nearly always to the point of noticeable performance slowdowns.

We wrote tips.littlehosting.com to help people take control back from spyware and virus authors that currently control their PC’s using only free software.

Microsoft has apparently set it’s sights on Adobe’s PDF format with their own version thereof called Metro. According to the plethora of details available online, it supplies the same benefits as PDF’s in that you don’t need the original program to view the content, and it displays and prints the way the original author intended. The question begs to be asked though, do we need another PDF format? Especially a format that is likely to be restricted by patents and license restrictions like the majority of their file formats appear to be. Microsoft also haven’t’ gotten it into their heads that governments the world over are switching to open standards and Open Source software and are unlikely to view a non open format as a possible future standard. Adobe realised this and opened up PDF’s to all. And they make PDF readers for all the main Operating Systems including Linux which is something else I can’t see Microsoft doing any time soon. Adobe have taken it a step further and open parts of their source code as well. Given the choice I’ll stick with Adobe because I can save to PDF in OpenOffice.org and I can read PDF’s just fine in Linux with a choice of several different readers. Until Microsoft realises it can’t act anti-competitively any more, I’ll continue to view everything they do with suspicion because they not yet given any reason for anyone not to. I’ll use Metro when Microsoft release it as a totally open non encumbered format. They recently asked to sit down with he Open Source community to discuss working inter-operability, well this is their chance to back their words up with some action. Expect Microsoft to embed Metro as far into MS Office and Longhorn (and possibly XP SP3) as they can manage to try to make it a de-facto standard. If you use any MS tools that try to push Metro, try to resist and instead use one of the dozens of free and cheap tools available online to create PDF’s instead. At least you know what you’re getting.

More proof of what I’ve been saying all along. O’Reilly have released their web browser usage statistics. Firefox accounts for at least 35.8% of their traffic now, with Internet Explorer at 54.66%. This puts O’Reilly’s statistics very close to those we have here at HTMLfixIT and prove conclusively that Firefox is much more popular on sites with a technical orientation. That means there is a pretty good chance that we don’t know just how popular the little browser is overall as the sites with the highest Firefox usage usually have their own statistics collection software. (Unlike the free and paid remote counters non tech sites tend to use.)

I’ve been reading much lately about Microsoft’s push to put their software into cars. The idea of really useful computer based tools in a car isn’t a new one and if properly implemented could really be a god send. It does raise some interesting points though.

When you install Windows on your PC, Microsoft makes you agree to a user license that among other things says something to the effect of “We can be held liable for damages, but only to a maximum of the purchase price of the software.” They combine that with about a thousand more lines of terms and conditions, most of which remove rights you would otherwise have, and they call it good.

Now consider having MS Windows type software running in your car. Will you have to click “I agree” to a license agreement before you can use your stereo or GPS? If your GPS incorrectly directs you to a slum area where you get car jacked or the car itself gets trashed are they liable for damages or is that another right you’ll have to sign away when you pick up your car? Are the damages limited to the cost of the software to the car maker? Now consider what would happen if Microsoft software controls your safety equipment as speculated in an article I read recently. What if you directly have a crash because of a Flaw in the software. Who is liable then? When Ford had the problem with allegedly faulty Firestone tyres on their Explorers, the lawyers knew exactly who to go after, Ford. There was no license agreement or indemnification clause attached to the tyres. So people went after Ford, and Ford if it chose to could go after Firestone for the possibly dodgy tyres. What happens when you start mixing 3rd party software systems all though the car. What happens if different parts of the software have different licenses and damages clauses?

Open Source software may actually be exactly what the car manufacturers need. If they agree to the GPL terms, then if there is a problem, the manufacturer is the single contact point and neither you nor they need to worry about nasty license agreements removing rights. What Microsoft has yet to realise, is that they managed to luck into one of the very few markets where their licenses can give themselves so many rights, and so little damages. When you start moving to things like cars, they are not likely to find themselves as well protected by user licences. Time will tell I guess, but if the recent story about Microsoft talking to Ford about putting MS software in their cars, then I’ll have to look for a different brand of car. I like Fords, and I don’t trust Microsoft with my rights or my software. I don’t want the two combined.

The GPL license behind most popular free Open Source software like Linux has never been tested in court. The reason for that is pretty simple, every time it looks like getting close to court, the possible offender settles the case. The fact that so many companies have settled rather then face the GPL in court seems to suggest that reports that the GPL is not enforceable are somewhat overstated. Gpl-violations.org managed to get an injunction against Fortinet, a software security company for allegedly using GPL software without complying with the license terms. Fortinet just settled the case, so this one won’t make it to court either. This is the latest of 30 such settlements with some fairly large companies.