It has been a year since Bing began powering search results for Yahoo. That pairing has done little to increase the overall market share of Microsoft's search engine entrant, increasing only four percent during the period.

In an even starker example of Bing's troubles, it still lags behind Yahoo in terms of searches launched directly from bing.com. A larger portion of Bing's overall share still comes from Yahoo, Experian Hitwise has found.

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What happens when there's no Internet?

Yesterday, afternoon I feverishly worked on a commentary about Florian Mueller's ridiculous commentary (it doesn't qualify as analysis) on Google actions in relationship to Android OEMs, based on documents from a lawsuit with Oracle. I had real writing flow, likening Mueller to Santa Claus bringing Apple Fanclubbers and their anti-Google kin a heap load of presents. They've been blogging, tweeting and sharing about how evil is Google; they're giddy as can be. But I explained the bag contained nothing but coal, and that Mueller had cast a spell over them, as they were trying to do to others. I never finished that missive, and won't now. At 3:38 p.m. PDT, the electricity went out. The outage was massive -- parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Northern Mexico, all of San Diego County and sections of Orange County, which is just south of Los Angeles.

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The security requirements for certificate authorities have, so far been, well, there haven't been any. Mozilla is attempting now to impose some and giving CAs precious-little time to come up to standard. Could the Mozilla "death sentence" be imposed?

Moailla's letter to certificate authorities demands some significant information by September 16, 2011, the end of next week. While it shows nothing about breaches, we know from the EFF's SSL Observatory project that many certificate authorities aren't sticklers for detail when it comes to security issues.

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Mozilla has decided that once broken trust isn't easily restored. Today, the open-source developer of Firefox issued an ultimatum to certificate authorities, in wake of the spreading damage caused by the DigiNor hack. Certificates like those DigiNor and other CAs issue are the backbone of Internet trust. That lock you see in the browser represents security and trust in the website where transactions occur. But third-parties issue the certificates, presumably being more trustworthy than your local bank or other online service.

The hacker claiming to have broken into DigiNor, who goes by handle COMODOHACKER, also claims to have breached four other CAs and issued at least 531 rogue certificates. Major browser developers -- Microsoft among them have banned DigiNor and dispatched updates to block rogue certificates.

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I know we're all supposed to be working, but you deserve a YouTube break. I took one preparing this post; so should you.

Star Trek is 45 years old. The series was sold as "wagon train to the stars" at a time when Westerns dominated US network TV. I've pulled together some video spoofs and others for your viewing pleasure and some trivia -- all accurate from memory; I was a Trekkie in my youth. They're called Trekkers now, I believe.

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Google today announced it has purchased Zagat, the 32 year-old ratings guide considered to be a definitive standard of quality for restaurants, hotels, transportation services, and public attractions.

Marissa Mayer, Vice President of, Google Local, Maps and Location Services, said Zagat will become the cornerstone of Google's local offerings.

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The United States Senate is scheduled to vote on House Resolution 1249 at 4:00pm today; the bill also known as the "America Invents Act," which will begin a major overhaul to the US Patent System.

In a Senatorial debate last night, a bipartisan majority voted to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed, or in other words, to summarily end the debate and move along to the voting stage.

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If you have an iPhone or an Android phone, the chances are that you frequently connect to the internet using a 3G connection. The same is true for some iPad users, although there are more WiFi-only Apple tablets in circulation. Whether you are working with a device that only offer WiFi connectivity, you are out of range of a 3G signal or you just need faster Internet access, there are numerous reasons you might want to find a wireless Internet connection when you are out and about, and this is something that Wi-Fi Finder can help with.

The app is available for iPhone, iPad and Android, and native versions have been released for each type of device. If you do have a 3G connection, you can use the app online and check in the area for the availability of wireless networks. The database of hotspots includes both free and paid-for networks and you can use filtering to track down particular types of establishment offering WiFi -- you might want to avoid hotels, for instance.

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Some security companies appear to think that enhancing their software is just about adding new functionality. But while this can make for an enticing feature list, there’s usually a price to pay, in terms of extra complexity and layers of overweight code that slows down the rest of your PC.

So it’s good to see AVG take a different approach with their latest Internet Security 2012 release.

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For the past few years, IcoFX has lain apparently dormant, despite noises from the developer that a new version was in development. This powerful icon editor has suddenly resurfaced, however, with a major new version number, IcoFX 2.0, and a shock for those who’ve been using the previous build: IcoFX is no longer freeware.

IcoFX 2.0 is now available to download as a trial version, and the full version will set you back the princely sum of $59. The question is, what’s exactly changed to justify the new price tag?

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The simple fact that iPhone, iPod and iPads have been designed specifically with portability in mind, they are perfectly suited for use as task management tools. As you are likely to have your iOS device with you at all times, it makes sense to store details of upcoming appointments, information about the projects you are working on, and to keep track of everyday data such as income and expenditure. Two of the most well received iOS apps in this category are Weave and Calvetica. We decided to put them head to head to see which comes out on top.

From the offset Weave is at a major advantage by virtue of being free. This gives the app instant appeal, and the fact that trial versions of iOS app do not exist, save for so-called ‘lite’ versions of apps, it is more likely to be installed by someone browsing the App Store.

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Symantec has released brand new versions of its antivirus and Internet security products. Norton Internet Security 2012 and Norton AntiVirus 2012 both launch with new and improved features to boost the brand's security reputation even further.

Norton 2012 promises improved Norton Protection System and Insight features, a new parental controls tool and built-in optimization for netbooks, claiming it will conserve battery life and preserve network usage while running on battery power.

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Microsoft's BUILD developer conference is almost here (save the date, September 13). It's going to be a big event for Microsoft and the official debut of Windows 8 (c`mon, you know there's going to be a developer beta).

Apple could spoil it all, with one of its famously-timed leaks or official product announcements. With iPhone 5's launch expected as soon as October, timing would be right for an Apple spoiler. Blogger, news media and Wall Street obsession about Apple is sure to succumb to a competing gravity well that pulls attention and online posts/print stories from Windows 8 during its special week.

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Verizon Wireless and Motorola Mobility on Wednesday announced the Droid Bionic will go on sale nationwide on September 8. It will be Verizon's thinnest LTE smartphone, and the second Motorola smartphone (after the Atrix 4G) to utilize a Lapdock and Firefox 4-based Webtop environment on top of Android.

Who could forget the Motorola Atrix 4G, right? That Android smartphone that could fit into a notebook dock or an HDMI dock and turn into either a netbook computer or a set-top box?

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Like many of you, we spent hours slogging through HP's overwhelmed order system to get 2 TouchPads. They're giveaways for lucky readers, in appreciation for your loyalty. We really should do more of this.

But HP took more orders than it could fill from its stock of leftover TouchPads -- the product line killed just six weeks after retail sales started. We figured that was the end of our order, but then HP decided to produce one last batch of TouchPads, increasing the likelihood we might still get our two, for you.

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