Every year Google publish their Zeitgeist, a snapshot look at the search trends in the year.

The main link is here: http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/zeitgeist2007/index.html

You can spot some interesting trends for example:

HD-DVD is more popular than blu-ray in Google searches.

Basically the Google Zeitgeist is a fun way to learn about the importance of search and does contain some surprising results about the other humans on the planet.

When I talk to Clients about Google the biggest problem  area is around creating web content that can be found by real people. You would be amazed how people actually use Google Search in the real world.

I boil it down to “You have to write, how they search”.

Other funnies in the 2007 Google Zeitgeist: the most popular how to list:-

1)  how to kiss
2)  how to draw
3)  how to knit
4)  how to hack <<< (hello, warning, warning)
5)  how to dance
6)  how to crochet
7)  how to meditate
8)  how to flirt
9)  how to levitate
10) how to skateboard

It was all going to so well up to number 4.

In other Google news eWeek are reporting that Google’s dedicated blog search (http://blogsearch.google.com/) is to be integrated into the main Google search page. Just like Images, News, Groups, Products are today.

I cannot wait until the day all our software lives running on web servers and some poor web admin has to take care of the security updating, because running a Windows Vista/Office 2007 PC requires quite a lot of Windows Updating/Rebooting to keep it going.

In total my laptop has received 156 important updates via Windows Update, each was classed as “important”. So I haven’t counted the optional or recommended ones.

A quick word about my Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 1 Deployment experience.

I downloaded and installed the Office 2007 SP1 yesterday morning. The install ran fine and I worked quite happily in Office 2007 for the rest of the day.

At the end of the day I noticed that this months Windows Updates were out and I noticed that the Office 2007 SP1 was listed as important. Mmmm I thought I already have that installed.

For the hell of it I just clicked to install all the “important” updates (like a user would) to see if Windows Vista would spot that the Office 2007 SP1 was already installed. NOPE. It download the 200mb+ Service pack again and installed the Office 2007 SP1 over the SP1 I installed earlier in the day.

In related news Windows Vista SP1 RC1 is now available for public download. I have decided to be a sensible chap and not install the RC1 on my work laptop. I will try it out on a test machine in the next few weeks.

In a surprising but smart move Dell are to sell the XPS range (and others) at selected  HMV stores in the UK.

HMV is basically a retail store that sells Music, DVD, Video games etc in the High streets and Malls of the UK.

So why is this smart?

1) Dell get to boot strap its way into UK retail market and target a young hip audience of HMV customers. Clearly this is an experiment to see how well they can sell in the high street.

It is also an attempt to lure those “iPod Dreamers” away from Apple retail.

2) HMV desperately needs some new products to sell. As music and eventually movies become downloads why would you need an actual store? It doesn’t take a genius to see a physical store needs physical products.

Now purchasing at retail is usually an expensive business. However Initial reports suggest the pricing is competitive with Dell’s own web site (another good idea, or people will try at retail then buy at home).

Read More: http://news.google.co.uk/news?tab=wn&ned=uk&ncl=1124714444&hl=en&topic=t

Well first of all any photograph you have seen of the HTC Touch doesn’t really do it justice.

When I opened this box the “oh, now that is cool” was my first impression.

I have been using the phone for nearly a month and to date this phone is the most reliable Windows Mobile device I have used. No crashes, freezes or other problems to report.

A month later the Touch Flo interface has proved not to be just a gimmick I can flick between the different screens single handed and make calls with just my thumb. A great user interface improvement.

I do miss not having a physical keyboard but you cant have anything.

The 802.11 wireless works flawlessly which is a cheap way of allowing me to play with Google Maps/Live Search without using my orange data package.

The voice call quality seems to be as good as any phone I have used over the recent years. No problems here.

Battery life seems to be an issue for some people but now I have calmed down and stopped “playing” with my new phone its not a problem. I can go two or three days without worrying about it.

The loudspeaker is great for a device this small. Last weekend I was installing a Network in a deserted office so I loaded up some music on the 1gb mini sd card.

My only criticisms are:-

Copying data to the mini SD memory is slow if you connect the phone to your PC over USB

Fitting the mini SD memory and the phone sim  is a bit too tricky.

The reflective nature of the screen does not make it easy for viewing video. You can do it but you have to view it at a slightly off angle. But lets put that in perspective this is a phone not a portable media sever.

Conclusion

There is a big decision to be made around the issue of the keyboard, if you can live without one the HTC Touch is a great phone other wise you have to go HTC 730 or HTC TYTNII.

The Touch range also comes in Touch Dual (has a slide out keypad) Touch Cruise (this has inbuilt GPS).

So a month on I have zero regrets about the HTC Touch. What a cracking little phone.

Official Link: HTC Touch

On related HTC News any phone geek’s should check out this recent interview the CEO of HTC

Link: http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/10/the-engadget-interview-peter-chou-ceo-of-htc/

Microsoft have just released an 11 page document entitled Windows XP Service Pack 3 Overview.

It lists out some of the Windows technologies new to this version

including:

Black Hole Router Detection
Network Access Protection (NAP)
Descriptive Security Options User Interface
Enhanced Security for Administrator and Service policy entries
Microsoft Kernel Mode Cryptographic Module
Windows Product Activation

Here is a snipped about deployment.

Windows XP SP3 will be available through Windows Update and the Microsoft Download Center.

Through Windows Update, the download size varies, but it is typically 70 megabytes (MB), depending on the computer’s configuration. Through the Download Center, the download size is approximately 580 MB. Fundamentally, deploying Windows XP SP3 works the same as deploying SP1 and SP2 for Windows XP:

SP3 is cumulative, so users can install SP3 on top of Windows XP SP1 or SP2.

Windows XP SP3 supports the same languages as Windows XP did in its initial release.

You can run the SP3 update package on any SKU of Windows XP SP1 or SP2. For example, you can run the SP3 update package on a computer running the Windows XP Media Center Edition with SP1.

Link: Download on this page