Microsoft's Desktop Search Done

Source: - Wired News

Eager to gain some ground in the battle to help people find their computer files, Microsoft launched the final version of its desktop search software.

The free software is part of the MSN Search Toolbar Suite, which Microsoft introduced several months ago as a test version.

The new version expands the types of files supported by the search and lets users customize how the program sorts different files -- by date, size, author or sender, among other options.

Desktop-searching has become an incredibly competitive field. Yahoo, Google and America Online, among others, have similar products already out or in testing.

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Broadcasting: CNN.com will make its existing online video offerings available for free as it prepares a new video package that will cost money to watch.

CNN is redesigning its home page to prominently feature the free video, which currently can be found by clicking on small links marked "video."

Susan Grant, executive vice president for the CNN News unit that oversees the website, said costs for delivering video have decreased dramatically since CNN first charged for video in 2002. The market for advertising, meanwhile, has increased, allowing CNN to subsidize costs.

The company said the premium offering would deliver multiple live feeds and provide access to CNN's video archives. Grant would offer no other details on the premium service or on how the free video would differ from the current offerings, other than its placement on the home page.

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Joining hands: Former archenemies Sun Microsystems and Microsoft marked the first anniversary of their historic detente by unveiling a series of measures to improve how their products work together.

Sun CEO Scott McNealy and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced that their companies have jointly developed and published two draft specifications to allow people to sign on once to multiple networks. Previously, the companies led competing efforts to achieve the same goal.

Sun also sued for alleged anticompetitive behavior after Microsoft rewrote elements of Sun's Java programming environment specific to its Windows operating system.

The wrangling ended in last spring, when the companies surprised the world with a $1.95 billion settlement and 10-year collaboration agreement.

The new specifications are now available for software developers. The executives said they expect the technology to start appearing in products later this year.

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Unregistered: The rapid growth in cell-phone-only households is pressuring public opinion researchers to adapt their surveying methods, which are based heavily on telephone interviews of people with traditional landline phones.

The number of households using only a mobile phone doubled in less than two years, with the rate rising faster among certain groups, researchers found.

Slightly more than 6 percent of households do not have a traditional landline phone, but do have at least one wireless phone. About 5.5 percent of adults have only a mobile phone, research found.

Public opinion research, such as government surveys, market research and political polls face difficult obstacles in dealing with the cell-phone-only crowd.

They include legal restrictions on use of automated dialing equipment, cell phone owners' concerns about using up costly minutes in their calling plans and how to statistically blend cell phone results into traditional polls.