Say you type in the Wikipedia.org in your browser window. The DNS then converts the URL you typed into machine readable IP address and returns it to you. Only after the actual IP of the website is determined does the webpage begin loading for you.

OpenDNS has long since been considered the pioneer in the making the web faster by giving users a free, fast public DNS server with servers spread around the globe to reduce latency.

I’ve been using OpenDNS for the past two years for my needs, and needless to say the experience has been quite good. Not to forget the increase in speed while browsing the web. But today with the release of Google’s own DNS solution I was curious to see if it could beat the already fast service that OpenDNS provides.

So I ran my own tests sitting here in India, using this script by Manu over at TechSutra.

#!/bin/sh 
for i in "lifehacker.com" "facebook.com" "dailyapps.net"  "reddit.com" "google.com" "bbc.co.uk" "microsoft.com" "yahoo.com" "ebay.com"
do
  for j in "4.2.2.2" "8.8.4.4" "208.67.222.222"
  do
    echo $j $i `dig @$j $i | grep Query | awk -F ":" '{print $2}'`
  done
done

And here are my results :

As you can see Google DNS consistently was atleast two times faster than OpenDNS and even more faster than Level 3. Those of you in the U.S I believe shouldn’t see much performance difference between Google and Level 3.

For me personally, Google was always in the range 90-110ms while OpenDNS was in the 200-210ms range. A Significant performance boost I must say.

Is Performance a tradeoff for Privacy?

Hmm it depends on how you look at it. Surely Google has a lot of information about you, and a DNS server will only allow them to gather more data about you. They could in theory gather information about all the websites you visit. Sounds like Big Brother ain’t it, except that Google makes it explicitly clear that “Collected data includes IP address (up to 48 hours, to detect malicious behavior against the service), ISP information and geographic information (2 weeks each). The data is not correlated with your Google account in any way”

For more on what they log while using their DNS service, read the Google Public DNS Privacy Policy.

So as things stand at the moment you don’t have to worry about Privacy Issues. But OpenDNS founder David Ulevitch seems to have other concerns :

“Google claims that this service is better because it has no ads or redirection. But you have to remember they are also the largest advertising and redirection company on the Internet.
……
To think that Google’s DNS service is for the benefit of the Internet would be naive. They know there is value in controlling more of your Internet experience and I would expect them to explore that fully. And of course, we always have protected user privacy and have never sold our DNS data.”

At the end of the day, its pure competition. Google has been entering a lot of verticals lately, in their quest to make the web a better place for everyone. They’ve a long way to go, before they can achieve their goals.

What does this mean for OpenDNS? Well guys, you’ve had the free run for the past three years, now you got to make OpenDNS even more faster. Competition is always a wake up call.

So are you willing to give Google DNS a shot? Google has a handy guide for you to get started.

Google Public DNS (via Google Code Blog) | Photo Credit : jpctalbot

Google Chrome OS, the Operating System being currently built by Google for people who would like to work in the cloud has been in the wild as public test builds. It wasn’t isn’t that easy to get Google Chrome OS running on your machine keeping in mind the limited hardware support, and the relative complexity to get it installed.

However if you still want to try out Google Chrome OS, don’t fret Chrome OS Diet is here. The biggest change is the 300 MB download, a far cry from the 8 GB that “real” Chrome OS consumes. The small download size means that Diet Chromium OS much easier to get hold of.

Diet Chrome was built by developer Hexxeh in his free time. What’s even better is that he’s managed to add some more hardware support in his builds, which means the chances of Chrome OS working smooth on your system is even greater.

Here’s how you get Chrome OS Diet up and running on your system. Won’t take much of your time I promise.

1. Download the Diet Chrome OS torrent (or alternatively get a direct download mirror from here)
2. Download and extract Image Writer for Windows.
3. Extract .tar.gz archive using your favorite software.
4. Launch Image Writer and write the newly freshly extracted image file (the one with .img extension) onto a 2GB or better USB Pen Drive
5. Voila that’s it. Just boot into Chrome OS from your System by restarting.

I tested this on my Dell Inspiron 530s and everything worked perfectly. Chrome OS booted up from the USB drive in like about 6 seconds. There’s isn’t much to play around with at the moment, so I got bored by it pretty fast.

You might want to have a look at Diet Chrome OS FAQ here : http://chromeos.hexxeh.net/faq.html

If you don’t want to reboot and boot into the USB Pen Drive, you can use MobaLiveCD to run Diet Chrome directly in Windows.

I am not really sure if Google Chrome OS will manage take off in the real world, because the demand of an always available Internet connection isn’t any bit easy to achieve. Its a long way ahead for Google and its ambitious plans for Chrome OS.

Have you tried out Chrome OS? Tell us about your experiences in the comments.

Diet Chrome OS

Am not quite sure if Google Wave is ready for primetime yet, because in my opinion it needs a lot of fixing up to do. At the moment Google Wave is kinda buggy and slow (faster than other web apps of course, considering the high standards Google has set for itself). But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try out Google Wave if you haven’t already.

I have 8 invites of Google Wave to giveaway at the moment, and I will update this post if there is more in the future, so make sure you keep this page bookmarked and check back often.

What Should You Do?

Comment on this post, saying why do you want a Google Wave Invite and how it can make a difference to your day to day life. And second just tweet the following :

“RT @coolkarthik88 #DailyApps Giveaway : Google Wave Invites | http://j.mp/6ROWH3″

8 Lucky people will be randomly chosen from the Comment thread to receive the Google Wave Invites.

If you have invites that you’d like to giveaway to DailyApps readers please get in touch with me using the contact form.

Till then Happy Google Waving!

Image Credit : thelastminute

But over the past few months, Google has also been secretly testing a new UI and look for the Google Search engine, which has essentially not changed much since its inception. Do you want to be one among the secret testers, to have a sneak peak of the new design?

To get this Hack Attack to work for you, you need to be using the international version of Google i.e. http://google.com/ncr and not the localized version that you are redirected to usually.

Once you are at the Google Homepage, copy the following text and paste it in the address bar as it is…

javascript:void(document.cookie=”PREF=ID=20b6e4c2f44943bb:U=4bf292d46faad806:TM=1249677602:LM=1257919388:S=odm0Ys-53ZueXfZG;path=/; domain=.google.com”);

Once you are done, press enter and reload the Google Homepage. You Should now be looking at an all new design for the homepage. Perform a search and you’ll see a new search results page with an always visible Sidebar.

So Do you like the new look? I do quite like it, at least the sidebar is useful to perform searches more rapidly. But I’m not quite sure if it will be well received by all the people because it is quite a departure from the Google we are all used. However they could tone down the Blue a bit because at times I feel am at the MSN of yesteryears rather than Google.

Or you never know Google may never release it in the wild…

However if you aren’t a fan of the new design, you can remove the corresponding cookie from your browser. Here’s how its done in Chrome

Leave your comments, as to what you feel about the new Design?

Via Google Blogoscoped | Google Caffeine Update | Image Credit : ientu

Finally Yahoo decided to cave in and has decided to partner with Google to display relevant alongside its search results in the US and Canada. This surely is the beginning of the end of the ambitious Panama project.

If you remember Yahoo had announced a similar deal a couple of months back that was more of a test to see the returns from the ads by Google. From what I’ve heard, Yahoo was extremely satisfied with the returns and that’s why this deal is happening today.

Yahoo has spent a lot on Panama, the advertising platform that was built to compete with Google Adwords. But somehow Google managed to stay on, and Yahoo has seen less ad dollars compared to Google on its search advertising front.

You can read the Google blog post about the deal, but here is the main gist of the deal.

• The deal is non-exclusive. Yahoo will be able to run Google ads alongside Yahoo ads or other ad providers.
• The deal is expected to add $800 million a year in revenues and $250 million to $450 million in operating cash flow.
• The deal only applies to paid search and contextual ads, not to algorithmic search.

On a related note, Yahoo also has concluded all talks with Microsoft and decided to focus on its core business. I have no idea who’s going to benefit in this race of Internet domination that Microsoft, Yahoo and Google are vying for.

At the end of the day its Google who is playing the smart moves. Simply put this deal will start the decay of Yahoo Search, and who knows one day they might even outsource search to Google. Who wins? Google obviously.

As someone said, this deal is more like Ford signing a deal to have its cars built by Honda. By any means its an admission of failure, a failure by Yahoo to monetize its assets effectively and a complete failure in the search game.

I now wonder what does Microsoft get by buying a sinking Yahoo? Simply put Microsoft is a sinking ship too, and two sinking ships don’t make a cruise that is Google.

I have virtually have no interest in this deal, since this is the beginning of another round of internet domination by Google. But even otherwise I’d never want Yahoo to go into Microsoft’s hands. The big three are BIG only when they are left on their own, not when Yahoo becomes a mouse to Google or Microsoft.

On a slightly retarded note, I love the press release headline of Yahoo. “Yahoo! to Strengthen Competitive Position in Online Advertising Through Non-Exclusive Agreement With Google”

Really? Yahoo

Google’s press release is a better read though. Sound off your opinions of the deal in the comments.

Like other web apps that are designed for the iPhone interface, Google Reader fits very well in Firefox (and other browsers) sidebar.

Looks nice isn’t it? Adding one to your own Firefox is simple. Just follow these steps..

• Open the Bookmarks Manager (Bookmarks/Organize Bookmarks)
• If you are using Firefox 2, then in the File menu select New bookmark and in Firefox 3, press Organize in the toolbar and select New bookmark
• Enter a name, http://www.google.com/reader/i/ for location, and ensure to check Load this bookmark in the sidebar.
• Press Save Changes and now you can select the bookmark to load Google Reader in the sidebar.

Here are some more services which work very well with Firefox Sidebar. To use any of these follow the instruction as above, and just replace the location URL when required. 

• Facebook Chat, use the location as http://www.facebook.com/presence/popout.php
• Netvibes Mobile, use the location as http://iphone.netvibes.com/
• Zoho Mobile, use the location as http://mini.zoho.com/
• Facebook for iPhone, use the location as http://iphone.facebook.com/

Know about some more cool services that work well in the Firefox sidebar. Drop in your comments so that everyone can know about it..

For those of you who are big fans of Google Reader, here’s an app that you must check out. You’ll love this new Adobe AIR app called ReadAIR that completely syncs with Google Reader and has the same basic layout as Google Reader, so you should have no problems starting out.

You could be easily be fooled into thinking that this app was developed by Google because it is that well polished. It features full synchronization with your Google Reader account and requires you to log in with your credentials the first time you use it.  The viewing panes can be resized but the columns in the list view can’t. It also has a search feature for going through all of those feeds and you can use tags as well as add or delete subscriptions. Sounds cool eh!

The interface of ReadAIR has been designed keeping OSX in mind, but it surely does look good on Windows machines as well. The UI is simple and effective and is a joy to use. There are some important features missing at the moment, but the developer plans to add it as soon as possible. Here’s what the developer has in the pipeline :

• Offline mode
• Keyboard shortcuts
• Windows XP/Vista and custom themes
• Unread count in Mac doc icon

I can’t wait for keyboard shortcuts to be a part of ReadAIR. I found myself using J for next item and S for starring it while playing around with ReadAIR, such is the striking resemblances between Google Reader and ReadAIR.. For the first release ReadAIR looks promising indeed. I suggest you all to give it a try.

Download ReadAIR from here

Finally it looks like Steve Ballmer and his team found too much of trouble running behind Yahoo for the past three months. Microsoft considers Yahoo to be its golden goose, and it feels that it will lay golden eggs in the future of online advertising.. I had written a post detailing What A Combined Microsoft Yahoo Looks Like weighing all the pros and cons if this deal went through. Somehow Yahoo managed to push Microsoft to such an extent that it had no choice but to accept defeat.

Now that Yahoo is staying on as an independent company, Jerry Yang and his team have some important tasks at hand. Let me reserve what exactly do they need to do for another post and focus on the ramifications of the breakout of this deal.

Microsoft issued a statement here

“Despite our best efforts, including raising our bid by roughly $5 billion, Yahoo! has not moved toward accepting our offer. After careful consideration, we believe the economics demanded by Yahoo! do not make sense for us, and it is in the best interests of Microsoft stockholders, employees and other stakeholders to withdraw our proposal,” said Ballmer.

Yahoo! responded by issuing a statement

“From the beginning of this process, our independent board and our management have been steadfast in our belief that Microsoft’s offer undervalued the company and we are pleased that so many of our shareholders joined us in expressing that view. Yahoo! is profitable, growing, and executing well on its strategic plan to capture the large opportunities in the relatively young online advertising market. Our solid results for the first quarter of 2008 and increased full year 2008 operating cash flow outlook reflect the progress the company is making.”

Looking at the two statements, it is clearly evident that Microsoft sounds like a looser while Yahoo sounds like a clear winner either way you look at it. Considering that Yahoo already has a search advertising deal with Google, Yahoo should now focus on improving the services and increase the ad revenue across the board.

With the Microsoft hurdle out of the way, I feel that there are more important Google and Yahoo tie ups on the way. This is just the beginning and from now on, Google has got some interesting times ahead, and it will be worth watching how Google dodges the challenges being thrown at it.

Look out for a post soon, wherein I’ll be detailing as to what Yahoo needs to exactly do to stay clear and profitable in the future. I’m no guru but I love Yahoo and would never want it to go into the evil hands of Microsoft.

What do you think about the fall through of this deal? What do you think is going to happen to Microsoft, Yahoo and Google as individuals? How do you think the Internet will react to this? Pitch in your opinion by dropping a comment.

I never wanted to this deal to go through and it looks its finally happening. Yay! I can’t be more happy for Yahoo than am right now .

photo credit: RossinaBossioB

Music sharing has been of the most common file sharing activities on the internet. There are many ways you could find the music you were looking for by using tools like Limewire, BitTorrent etc.. But most times nothing beats a Google search does it? Yes you heard that right.. Google may as well be your best friend if you are looking to find music freely on the Internet.

Just follow the instructions below, and you will be on your way to find the music that you otherwise won’t find on P2P networks. The hack simply involves the major search engines revealing their vast indexes to you so that you can find what you are looking for.

I’m going to give some modified special search strings that will help you find hidden stuff from Google, Yahoo and MSN.

How to Accomplish the Hack

Click on the links below for your favorite search engine. Modify the details according to your liking (for example replace Linkin Park with Radiohead or just the song name). Change the “wma/mp3″ tag to other format such as “ogg” if you wish to download the music in other not so popular formats.

• Google

“parent directory” mp3 OR wma OR ogg OR wav Linkin Park -html -htm -download -links

• Yahoo Search

“parent directory” AND (Linkin AND Park) AND (mp3 OR wma OR ogg) AND NOT(”download”) AND NOT(”links”)

• MSN Search

“parent directory” AND (Linkin AND Park) AND (mp3 OR wma OR ogg) AND NOT(”download”) AND NOT(”links”)

Using the major search engines should help you find any kind of music you are looking for, but there other alternative music only search engines also available that deserve a mention. Check out Alltheweb Audio (mp3), mp3realm and espew

So that was it. I hope this guide will help you find the music you have been looking for quite some time now.. Have a musical day ahead. Do drop in a comment with the song/artist/band that you found with this hack!

Special Credit to Blog Anything

Just like in the regular version of the game, the goal is to obviously acquire as many properties as possible. The only difference here is that the companies are truly Web2.0. The Dollars are replaced by Google cash and the Motels you build on your properties are replaced by buying servers or hiring coders.

Truly Googlish isn’t it? I am going to take a print out of this game and play with geeky friends someday in college. Lets play Googolopoly shall we?

Via Digital Inspiration and Box.net Blog. Download the PDF to be printed out from here