Some possible dark horses in race may include Clusty and Accoona. Clusty has some nifty clustering technology that can provide different categories while Accoona has search abilities based on artificial intelligence. Accoona also has a large customer base in China where internet population is biggest in world surpassing that of U.S.

This author’s take:

Despite its pronouncements, Google will need a large customer base to be able to provide “more personalized searches”. Providing 2GB free email is first step, from which it can harvest a lot of raw data which many privacy advocates are strongly oppose to.

Google’s plan to digitize all books in major libraries may lead company into a legal quagmire of copyright issues involving publishers and authors.

Maybe, emergence of some “intelligent” browsers with in-built artificial intelligence capabilities which can bypass search engine servers altogether – instead these agents would apply filters or weights according to wishes of individual searcher.

Google typifies successful upstart – self-assured, confident and secretive, causing dismay to analysts and fund managers. During its recent IPO (Initial Public Offering), Google bypassed traditional route via underwriters and brokers thus denying them a share of spoils. This slap on wrist would not go down too well with these lords of financial world. Should Google face some difficulties or stumbles, this publicly traded company may give new meaning to expression “When it rains, it pours”.

Expect mergers, takeovers to be norm. The real leader of internet would evolve from diverse parties and it would include Ebay-Paypal component. We live in interesting times.

Stan Seecrets’ Postulate: “The imminent war for world domination will be fought between gods of internet and gods of finance.”

[This article may be freely reprinted providing it is published in its entirety, including author’s bio and activating link to URL below.]

You can even have your own MP3 radio programmes - or Podcasts – for people to download. See http://www.infotechcomms.co.uk/audio/rss/rss.xml

Anything is possible as programmes are available to convert an RSS feed into HTML for web pages.

FAQs

What is RSS? It stands for Really Simple Syndication - a way of pushing news and other material from a website direct to your desktop. Alternatively, it is a way of sharing data with other web sites or intranets – automatically.

What is so special about it? With RSS you choose what you would like to subscribe to. Then, RSS news reader or aggregator makes sure that your news sources are updated on a regular basis.

How does it work? RSS uses a format called XML (Extensible Mark-up Language). XML is closely related to HTML and is a great format for content that is shared between different platforms such as web, print and databases.

Where do I get a news reader program from? There are lots available, but most common for Windows include NewzCrawler, FeedDemon and Awasu. For Macintosh OSX BBC recommends Newsfire and NetNewsWire.

Do I have to use a news reader? No. You can sign-up to RSS newsfeed via a web-based service like Bloglines (http://www.bloglines.com/). Most of these types of service are free.

How do I sign up to a newsfeed? First you have to find a feed that interests you. There are literally thousands to choose from and there are web-based lists to help you. You can also look out for small “RSS” or “XML” image that appears on some web sites – such as Reuters.co.uk. If you see this symbol, click on it and it will display a page of what looks like gibberish. This is XML code. All you then have to do is copy URL of that page (eg http://www.microsite.reuters.com/rss/uk/topNews) into your news reader or Bloglines account and you will be able to read latest news.

Is RSS just for text-based news? Far from it. RSS can be used to deliver multimedia to your desktop. Podcasting is name given to audio feeds that are delivered to your computer for downloading to your iPod or MP3 player. You will find a feature on podcasting on cib.uk.com website.