Google PageRank updates schedule for 2013

 Google’s PageRank (named after Larry Page), or the heart of their software as Google describes it, is a system of counting link votes and determining which pages are most important based on them. These scores are then used along with many other things to determine if a page will rank well in a search.



The PageRank updates scheduled for this year:

• 1st Update: January 28 to February 6
• 2nd Update: June 27 to July 7
• 3rd Update: September 29 to 4 October
• 4th Update: 24 December to 29 December
  

However, Google also relies on other strategies such as Google Panda (released in February 2011) which is a change that aims to lower the rank of "low-quality sites" or "thin sites", and return higher-quality sites near the top of the search results. CNET reported a surge in the rankings of news websites and social networking sites, and a drop in rankings for sites containing large amounts of advertising.

The Free Web Vs DRM in HTML5

 "The W3C has a duty to send the DRM-peddlers packing, just as the US courts did in the case of digital TV. There is no market for DRM, no public purpose served by granting a veto to unaccountable, shortsighted media giants who dream of a world where your mouse rings a cash-register with every click and disruption is something that happens to other people, not them." -Cory Doctrow.

With the death of the owners plugins like Flash and Silverlight, media groups have a problem controlling their streaming flow. For example, they wont be able to restrict a video to certain countries, or to ensure that a film is not viewed simultaneously by two friends sharing a unique Netflix account.
To address their concerns, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) provides an integrated control system (digital rights management or DRM) directly in HTML5, this update of the language through which the Web is built.  
While the measure has not yet been adopted, 27 organizations, including the April and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, wrote a letter to the consortium. Their request: "Keep the digital handcuffs off web standards."

The arguments for
Rather surprisingly, the father of the World Wide Web and W3C Director Tim Berners-Lee, who usually defends a free and open network, supports this measure. According to him, DRM is not directly integrated into HTML5. In essence, he said that HTML5 would contain hooks, and that everyone would be free to lock or not to lock.
More generally, he argues that such a system is the only solution for media groups to adopt HTML5 and  not to return to Flash.  
Netflix, the streaming giant, recently said it was ready to move to HTML5 if the W3C incorporated the famous extensions for encrypted media (EME, the barbarous name of opening the door to DRM plugin). Microsoft and Google are also in this camp.
The arguments against
"This catastrophic proposal would change the HTML so it promotes the digital handcuffs (DRM). EME is sponsored by a handful of powerful companies that are members of the W3C, such as Microsoft and Netflix. These companies are promoting DRM, both for reasons of their own and for the close relationship they have with the most important media companies", the coalition wrote.
The founder of the website BoingBoing, Cory Doctorow, is comparing it to the DVD, wanting to control the media chronology with geographical areas, media conglomerates have indirectly led users to hack. According to him, DRM is not only against-productive, they also limit innovation because they restrict the changes that can be made to content or services. While the industry has moved away DRM on physical media, including music from the iTunes store, she sees the transition to paperless cloud the opportunity to return to the charge. A story that repeats itself, in fact.

Learn more about DRM and join: Voices Against EME

Firefox 20 available in final version

While Netscape freed, 15 years ago, the source code of its Web browser, resulting in the birth of the Mozilla project, Firefox is celebrating today its twentieth release. While the version numbers do not mean much anymore, but each Firefox version has brought a lot of new yet important updates so far. 
In addition to traditional invisible but important improvements, Firefox 20 has two new special updates to the user: 
First and the most visible, the new download manager and button at the top right of the toolbar. No need to start the download window, a single click will display the latest downloads and progression of downloads appears below the button. It is still possible to display a specific window, called "Library" which allows you to organize the downloaded files.
 

 
Another innovation will address the fans of  porn (private) mode that is particularly useful. Firefox offered previously the choice to reboot in private mode when it was selected, then closing the session where you were and preventing juggle between as it is possible such as Chrome.  
This twentieth release now offers navigation window that no longer requires the user to have to close the session to enjoy the incognito mode.

Note that this latest development is also valid for the Android smartphones version of Firefox. 
Finally, for developers, we note the integration of WebRTC's getUserMedia API, a toolbox allowing faster access to development tools. Firefox is available for: Windows, OS X, Linux, Android.

What does the creator of RSS have to say on Google Reader phasing out?

While users from all over the world went crazy, signing petitions, begging Google to reconsider their decision about the phasing out of Google Reader in July, one person didn't give a fuck. I'm not talking about just anyone, I'm talking about the inventor of RSS!

Dave Winer, who is credited for his inventions of both RSS and blog, wanted to respond to the demise of Google Reader, Google's RSS service and feed aggregator:
"I won't miss it. I've never used it. I do not believe that a company as large as Google has common interests with me, and I do not trust them to store all the news I want to read. Besides that, I do not think that an approach such as "inbox" is a good idea. Who cares about the number of unread items? I like the idea of a river of news to read, and I have many configured flows, bringing me news and podcasts. [...] the next time, remember to pay for the services you depend on. Those have more chances of surviving the bubble. "
 

The approach is interesting, but probably too biased for the most of Google Reader users. Anyway, I have already published an article suggesting some alternatives to Google Reader.