Cybersecurity, Microsoft's Bing, Google's Wave

29.05.2009
This busy week for IT news was capped on Friday when President Barack Obama outlined U.S. cybersecurity plans, which have been anticipated for a while now. We also had been awaiting Microsoft's public release of its new search engine, which it said it has named "Bing." And Google made waves with a new "mega" application as well.

1. and : Cybersecurity will be a top management priority for the U.S. government, with plans for a coordinator to oversee government efforts in that regard, President Obama announced. "It's now clear that this cyberthreat is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation," he said. "It's also clear that we're not as prepared as we should be, as a government, or as a country."

2. and : As expected, Microsoft renamed its Live Search product "Bing" as it renovates its search technology and tries to make inroads on Google in that market. PC World's Tom Spring tested a preview version and came away impressed (no small feat, that) and offers readers a visual tour as well as his review of Bing.

3. and : Google released an early version of what looks to be a nifty collaboration and communication tool to developers. Called Wave, the Web application consolidates features of e-mail, instant messaging, blogging, wikis, multimedia and document sharing.

4. : Time Warner is spinning off AOL -- finally! -- into a publicly traded company, uncoupling from a merger that will go down in the annals of corporate history as one of the worst ever.

5. : We knew it was just a matter of time before netbooks took on e-reader characteristics -- how could they not? Mary Lou Jepson's company, Pixel Qi, will show off its first product next week at Computex, with a 10.1-inch netbook screen that works in three modes, including one for reading documents and e-books. Jepson had been with One Laptop Per Child until she went off to start her own company.