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David Gelernter: Bring on the 'stream browser'

Close your eyes and look beyond the Firefox, Chrome, IE, and Safari of today. Do you see a "stream browser"? David Gelernter does.

The Yale computer science professor has been musing about what comes next for all the digital information that swarms and surrounds us, and it has led him to write an op-ed piece on Wired called "The End of the Web, Search, and Computer as We Know It." The emphasis in the online time/space continuum, he says, will be shifting from the "space-based web" of the present day to a "… Read more

Vringo subsidiary sues Microsoft over search patents

A subsidiary of intellectual-property firm Vringo is suing Microsoft for allegedly infringing two of its patents, Vringo said today.

Wholly owned subsidiary firm I/P Engine filed the suit in the Southern District of New York.

I/P Engine is seeking a judgment from the court declaring that Microsoft did infringe its patents and requests the court to award past and future damages through royalties and "any form of recoverable economic injury."

The two patents relate to U.S. Patent No. 6,314,420 and U.S. Patent No. 6,775,664, which detail essentially the foundation framework … Read more

Bing rolls out five apps for Office 365 and Office 2013

Microsoft launched five new free Bing apps for Office 365 and Office 2013 today. These apps are geared toward integrating work templates with search functions. The apps include Bing Finance for Excel, Bing Maps for Excel, Bing Image Search for Word, Bing News Search for Word, and Bing Dictionary for Excel and Word.

The software giant released its 2013 version of Office and its subscription-centric version of Office -- Office 365 Home Premium -- just this week. The latter of these two products is downloadable and can be locally installed on versions of Office 2013. Users are charged annual or monthly fees … Read more

Google hands settlement proposal to EU on antitrust -- report

Google was expected to submit a settlement proposal for the European Commission's antitrust inquiry by the end of January. And, it looks like the Web giant just made the deadline.

According to AllThingsD, sources familiar with the matter said Google turned in a detailed proposal earlier today. However neither Google nor the EC are confirming whether a settlement proposal was definitively submitted.

When asked about the settlement offer, a Google representative told CNET, "We continue to work cooperatively with the European Commission." The EC's press office has not yet responded to CNET's request for comment.… Read more

Google-Asteroids: Blast your way through search terms

If you think searching the Internet is way too fast and easy, I have the perfect online game for you. Google-Asteroids makes you slow down and really savor the search experience, one laser blast at a time.

Created by Masswerk.at, Google-Asteroids is labeled as an "info-shooter." You have to blast your way through the alphabet letter by letter to set your search term. Launch the search and you find yourself in an old-school-gaming asteroid field. Blast away at the asteroids floating by and you slowly reveal the search results in your score list.… Read more

Shutterstock's new tools revamp photo and video search

It's a challenge for anybody selling a wide range of anything online: how do you get the right products in front of the right customers?

Shutterstock, which sells stock-art photos and videos to customers such as ad agencies and PowerPoint presenters, has the matchmaking problem in spades. With 550,000 active customers and more than 23.7 million images, pairing the right buyer with the right photo isn't easy.

Which is why the New York-based company, which went public last October, is retooling how it presents its products to better compete with iStockphoto and other rivals.

Shutterstock has … Read more

Foursquare reveals the 'best of' based on 3 billion check-ins

Want to know where to get the best Tex-Mex in Austin? Or how about the locals' favorite bookstore in San Francisco? Well, Foursquare will let you know what it thinks.

The check-in social network rolled out its "best of" guide today based on more than 3 billion member check-ins and tens of millions of user tips, likes, and dislikes. The guide shows the top places users checked into in 2012 in 30 cities across the U.S., such as New York, Atlanta, and Honolulu.

"There are plenty of lists of great places out there -- some are … Read more

'Citizen cartographers' help Google update maps of N. Korea

Maps of North Korea's landscape have for decades been largely empty, but thanks to "a community of citizen cartographers," Google Maps has managed to fill in some of the blanks.

Tapping input submitted to its Google Map Maker tool, the Web giant has added more detailed, up-to-date information to its maps of the reclusive nation, including streets, names, and other points of interest.

Jayanth Mysore, Google's senior product manager of Map Maker, discussed in a company blog post the effort behind assembling the new data:

To build this map, a community of citizen cartographers came together … Read more

Yahoo's big move to mobile: Little to report just yet

When she grabbed the mic for her first quarterly earnings call as Yahoo's CEO last October, Marissa Mayer told listeners that she would ultimately move one-half of the company's engineers to assignments working on mobile. That was how vital she saw mobile to the company's future.

A lot of investors got understandably excited. After years of musical chairs at the top, finally there was a new boss who "got it." This proverbial platform change was something that could help return the pizzazz to Yahoo. Mobile could pave the way for Yahoo to use search and … Read more