20 websites - changed the world

If there was one site that would change the world for ever, it would be the first ever website, created by internet pioneer Tim Berners-Lee.

It went online on 6 August 1991 offering people help with using the brand new 'World Wide Web', rather modestly described as a "wide-area hypermedia information retrieval initiative aiming to give universal access to a large universe of documents". It's now archived at www.tinyurl.com/3apuu.

If Berners-Lee had known what was to come, he might have added: "This is going to be awesome!"

2. GeoCities

Fascinating as it was back then, the web wasn't a whole lot of fun and after four years of pages created by scientists and academics, David Bohnett and John Rezner, who ran a web directory called Beverly Hills Internet, turned their company into GeoCities, giving anyone the ability to create their own site for free.

"There was a time when half the internet seemed to be on GeoCities and I don't think that this can be underestimated," says Rob 'CmdrTaco' Malda, founder of Slashdot. "GeoCities made it possible for anyone to put something online for nothing. This was a huge deal."

3. Blogger

GeoCities made it easy for anyone to build their own site, but in August 1999, Blogger made it even easier. Now anyone could post a diary of what they had for dinner or why they hated their parents. Acquired by Google in 2003, Blogger continues to enable everyone to document their lives without needing to get their hands dirty with HTML. As does WordPress, TypePad, Tumblr and a million other services that have since appeared. GeoCities was purchased by Yahoo! in 1999 and lives on as Yahoo! GeoCities, though we've never heard anyone say "Check out my Yahoo! GeoCities page."

4. Yahoo!

One thing that Yahoo! will be remembered for, though, is its search directory, without which most of us would never have found GeoCities in the first place. Founded by Stanford University graduate students Jerry Yang and David Filo in January 1994, Yahoo! was a manually compiled directory of sites. "Remember when you bookmarked Yahoo! indexes because they were actually comprehensive sources on a subject?" says Rob Malda. "Good times."

But those good times weren't to last. Computer-compiled search listings from AltaVista and, later, Google, were to rise in popularity, leaving Yahoo! behind, perhaps distracted with building its community features such as chat rooms, email and message boards. "They were an early leader but went down a path of being more marketing- oriented than technology-oriented," says Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales. "I hope they recapture the idea of pushing the forefront of technology."

5. The internet-connected coffee machine

When you're chatting with friends on your webcam, who'd have thought you owe all that to a coffee pot? The internet-connected coffee machine from Cambridge University went online in November 1993, so university staff could check on whether there was coffee in the pot before walking down several flights of stairs.

A year later, student Jennifer Ringley installed a webcam in her dorm, giving viewers a regularly updated window into her life on the JenniCam. Usually mundane, but not shying away from appearing nude or having sex, Ringley attracted an estimated three to four million viewers, some of whom were paid subscribers. But on 31 December 2003 Ringley shut her site down to lead a quieter life, out of the public eye.

Cambridge University's coffee machine is also living a more private life these days, but you can read more on its history at www.cl.cam.ac.uk/coffee/coffee.html.

6. Danni's Hard Drive

So the early 90s were an innocent time, but that all changed when, in the spring of 1995, model Danni Ashe created Danni's Hard Drive. Ashe started out in newsgroups after hearing her pictures were being posted there and soon after that she hired some programmers to build her site.

Not satisfied with the result, Ashe studied HTML and built her own site, which she ran single-handedly for over a year before bringing in extra staff. Ashe went on to become the Guinness World Record holder of the title 'Most downloaded woman on the Internet', in December 2000, when it was confirmed that her image had been downloaded over a billion times.

7. MP3.com

It wasn't just photos that we'd be downloading, though. In 1998, along came MP3.com, without which there would have been no Napster, and no iTunes. MP3.com was to popularise the MP3 format of digital music, offering downloads of unsigned bands, which people would have downloaded and transferred to their iPods, had the iPod actually been around at the time.

"I remember downloading my first few MP3s from MP3.com while ripping my own CDs. It took something like eight hours to rip and encode a single CD," says Slashdot's Rob Malda. "A year or two later, tiny devices like the Rio paved the way for the iPod. I can't tell you how powerful it felt to browse what felt like an infinite number of songs."

8. eBay

In September 1995, programmer Pierre Omidyar founded AuctionWeb, later renamed eBay. It's been responsible for turning stay-at-home mums into successful businesswoman, and lists Damon Albarn, Gordon Ramsay and Meg Matthews among its sellers. It's also known for a decommissioned nuclear bunker and the image of the Virgin Mary in a decade-old toasted cheese sandwich.

Brian Groth, product manager for Windows Live at Microsoft is a fan: "Not many sites can claim to have created and ridden their own zeitgeist, but eBay did – and it still is! Its simplicity is its genius and the feedback system is a shining example of how seamlessly self-regulating internet communities can work. A further testament to its success is that it's the only website on this list that's created a viable new career choice – the professional eBay trader." eBay was ahead of its time, adds Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales. "It really was Web 2.0 before Web 2.0 was cool. eBay is all about having ordinary people contributing the vast majority of what's going on at the website."

9. Amazon

Another company that was Web 2.0 before the term was coined is Amazon, founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994. Bezos had originally planned to call the site Cadabra, until in a moment of clarity he realised it sounded uncannily close to 'cadaver'. And so Amazon was born, initially offering books but now selling everything from watches to lawnmowers. Not only did it popularise online shopping but its focus on user reviews paved the way for sites such as TripAdvisor and Epinions.

Match.com's Jason Stockwood says of Amazon: "Many people had huge reservations about using the internet, and even more about ecommerce. Amazon led the charge, and continues to play a crucial role in encouraging a wider demographic to feel comfortable surfing."

10. Boo.com

Not every site was as successful. Boo.com was set up at the end of 1999 selling branded fashion clothes, but went into receivership just six months later, after burning through more than £100 million. The site was big on Flash, with its 3D views of clothes and virtual shop assistant Miss Boo. 56k modems weren't ready for it and shoppers stayed away in their droves. But perhaps Boo was just before its time: does a 3D view of the product you're browsing really sound so ridiculous now?

11. Wikipedia

If Amazon championed user reviews, Wikipedia was to take user-generated content to another level, with an online encyclopedia anyone could edit. Sounds like a recipe for disaster, but where errors or downright lies appear, they're quick to be corrected by the site's users. "Yes, the information is imperfect," says Jason Stockwood, "but the rigidly democratic nature of the site means that Wikipedia is a true embodiment of what the internet revolution originally promised."

12. Slashdot

If you'd rather comment than review, then you owe a debt to Slashdot, a site where people submit news stories for discussion. Created in September 1997 by Rob Malder, it continues to be a must-read destination for anyone interested in technology. Drew Curtis followed up with FARK.com, and Kevin Rose with digg.com. Commenting on stories has become so widespread that it now seems odd to arrive at a site where there are no comments.

13. The Drudge Report

It's hard to believe now, but it used to be that the mainstream media was where you went for serious, trusted news and the web didn't get a look in. But on 17 January 1998 The Drudge Report was to change that, when it broke the Monica Lewinsky scandal to the public after Newsweek decided not to publish the story.

Reporting on the event on 25 January 1998, BBC News said, in what sounds obvious and naive all these years later, "In the future, academics, politicians and journalists aren't likely to dismiss the internet so quickly."

Now news is regularly broken by specialist blogs before you read about it in the morning paper. That's assuming you even buy a morning paper any more.

14. YouTube

And where do you watch your TV? Started in a garage by three former PayPal employees, one site went on to shake up the TV industry, and was acquired by Google for $1.6 billion. All that for a company that's less than four years old. You've probably heard of it: it's called YouTube.

"You used to find a text search result for every keyword you could think of," says Torsten Schuppe, marketing director at eBay. "Now you find a video for every keyword you can think of! I've been told people upload 10 hours of video content every minute – that's huge!"

15. Gabocorp

Until Flash came along in 1996, the web was much like Ceefax, with a few animated GIFs and PC-crashing Java applets thrown in. But the arrival of Flash was to herald a new era in web design. The sign of things to come appeared in 1997 in the form of Gabocorp (archived at thefwa.com/flash10/gabo.html). Suddenly the web was no longer static.

"This was the equivalent of TV going colour," says Rob Ford, founder and principal of Favourite Website Awards. "Gabocorp made us realise we could now make things move, add sound and generally be far more creative than the days of blue hypertext links that turned purple on-click. Animated GIFs took a body blow while lake applets took the knockout punch. Gabo Medoza, for me, is a true web pioneer: we all owe his creativity and vision for where we are today."

16. Legal & General

On the accessibility front, an encouraging early example of accessible web design produced by a commercial company was that of Legal & General.

Julie Howell, director of accessibility at digital agency Fortune Cookie explains: "Legal & General were concerned that their website was needlessly excluding disabled people, so undertook a site refresh that took into account the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (WCAG 1.0). While the company's main intention was to make the site easier for disabled people to use, the business returns were quite astonishing and proved that accessible design can be good for everyone: conversion increased by 300 per cent, maintenance costs reduced by 66 per cent, natural search listings improved by 50 per cent and page load time reduced by 75 per cent. If Legal & General can do this, what excuse do other companies have for not doing it?"

17. Hotmail

Free email for all, accessible anywhere – that was the promise of Hotmail. Founded by Jack Smith and Sabeer Bhatia, it was launched in 1996 and sold to Microsoft in 1997 for around $400 million.

18. Classmates.com

Hotmail helped us keep in touch with people we knew, but Classmates.com, launched in 1995, helped us get back in touch with people we hated at school and never kept in contact with. Four years later, the UK followed suit with Friends Reunited, which made the mistake of charging a fee to get in touch with old school pals. Then Facebook stepped in, offering the same service for free – and now we can all see that the person we fancied at school isn't quite so hot any more.

19. Match.com

Having exhausted old school friends for potential mates, where to turn? Match.com opened the entire internet community up for grabs. Going live in 1995, it was the first popular online dating site, and is also notable for being one of the first sites to persuade internet users to part with their cash for a subscription. Today, online dating is rapidly becoming the new, natural way to meet and (hopefully) fall in love.

20. HotWired

And finally, if you haven't fallen in love, how about something to hate? In 1994, web magazine HotWired pioneered banner ads. Bastards.

By Paul Douglas

Ref: http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/20-websites-that-changed-the-world-472648?artc_pg=1

Fed to Give A.I.G. $85 Billion Loan and Take 80% Stake

In an extraordinary turn, the Federal Reserve agreed to take a nearly 80 percent stake in the troubled giant insurance company, the American International Group, in exchange for an $85 billion loan. Read Full Article »

Lehman Bros went bust - Why?

Lehman Brothers is no more. Merrill Lynch has gone down the Bank of America maw. AIG too could go belly up. With a doubt, these developments in America are the most shocking events to have hit global financial markets. So where did it all begin? And what does it mean for the Indian stock markets? Find out. . .

 

What is (or was) Lehman Brothers?

America's fourth-largest investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc has filed the biggest bankruptcy petition known to mankind.

The 158-year-old firm was founded by brothers Henry, Emanuel and Mayer Lehman, Jewish immigrants to the US from Germany, in 1850. Henry set up a general store in Alabama in 1844 and was later joined by his brothers. In 1850 they set up the merchant bank in New York after having made money in railway bonds. So what went wrong?

Lehman Bros, which till June 2008 had not reported a quarterly loss even once, had earlier survived many an economic crises, like railroad bankruptcies of the 1800s, the Great Depression in the 1930s, and the collapse of Long-Term Capital Management in the 1990s. Thus the collapse of the giant investment bank came as a major shock for the entire world markets that plunged after Lehman filed a Chapter 11 petition with US Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. The $613 billion (some estimates put the size at $639 billion) bankruptcy thus throws up the question: why did the Wall Street giant go bust? Here's why. . .

 Why did Lehman Brothers go bankrupt?

The giant investment bank succumbed to the sub-prime mortgage crisis that has rocked the United States and the global economy. Lehman was strangled by a massive credit crisis and fast plummeting real estate prices. The gargantuan $60 billion loss in bad real estate loans forced the bank to file for bankruptcy. However, the fall of the 158-year-year institution that started cotton trade in US before the American Civil War and financed the railroad that built a nation, got hit by a large dose of bad luck, pride, arrogance and greed. Primarily, the pride of its chief executive office Richard Fuld. But there were more reason. Check out what they were. . .

Lehman's collapse was also triggered by the refusal of other banks to do business with it because of its complex and, at times, opaque ways of trading. Housing loans made by the bank to people with little support made these loans very risky, and when interest rates rose, these borrowers could no more repay Lehman. This led to huge losses, the extent of which is not yet clear. Thus other banks stopped trading with Lehman. This led to it losing almost all business and triggered its fall. The final straw for Lehman was the fact that both Barclays Plc of the United Kingdom and Bank of America Corp pulled out of takeover talks. BofA bought out Merrill Lynch for $50 billion. However, Barclays has now said that it is in discussions with Lehman Brothers about buying certain assets of the stricken US investment bank. "Barclays confirms that it is discussing with Lehman Brothers the possible acquisition of certain Lehman Brothers assets on terms that would be attractive to Barclay's shareholders," Britain's third largest bank said in a statement.

 

When other banks do not want to buy Lehman, why is Barclays interested?

Barclays wanted to buy Lehman out at a discount, so to speak. But when Lehman CEO Fuld decided that his bank was worth much more than what Barclays had apparently offered, Barclays stepped back. Now that Lehman has filed for bankruptcy, its assets are available fairly cheap. However, the biggest problem is to take on Lehman's enormous liabilities.

How far is the CEO of the company responsible for Lehman's fall?

Wall Street analysts believe that it was the 'hubris' of Richard Fuld, the 62-year-old CEO of Lehman, who did not take the telltale signs of impending doom very seriously. Fuld, nicknamed The Gorilla for his foul temper, intimidating presence and tough talk, rejected many bids to save Lehman because he thought that the sinking giant was much bigger than Wall Street was giving it credit for, and wanted to get more price for the sale of the company. Analysts say if the bank was sold just a week before it went kaput, it could have been saved the ignominy of a bankruptcy, but Fuld was far too adamant to see reason. Result: the end of a 158-year-old financial giant.

Could the United States government helped, like it helped Bear Stearns in May this year, and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac earlier this month?

The US government could have helped, but US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said that it would not use up any more taxpayer dollars to bail out Lehman Brothers as it would lead to investment banks getting away with their gambling ways. Paulson had bailed out Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Bear Stearns, saying that if the government had not done so, the US housing loan market would have collapsed leading to gigantic losses for hundreds of banks all over the globe that have invested in US property.

Paulson, however, believes that a brokerage major like Lehman, which does not have a direct connection with ordinary people who have taken on home loans, need not be bailed out as it would not cause any systemic damage to the US

Will everyone in Lehman lose their jobs?

The bankruptcy administrators, PricewaterhouseCoopers, feels that as Lehman's operations were essentially centralized at New York, the folding up of the investment banker in the US will have a telling impact on all its operations globally.

Over 5,000 employees in the UK have already lost their jobs, while about 20,000 in the US might as well forget going back to their work stations. About 2,500 Lehman employees in India too face the axe.

Will the whole bank be liquidated?

Unlikely, at least for now. The US Chapter 11 that deals with bankruptcy says that PwC, the administrators, can go about taking its time to find good offers and buyers for Lehman's 'least affected businesses.' The entire exercise can take months before all of Lehman's assets are sold, given the complexities linked to the bankruptcy.

 What about the Bank of America and Merrill Lynch deal?

Merrill Lynch's buy out by Bank of America is also a shocking development. ML, saw the writing on the wall once it guessed that Lehman was going bust, and decided to sell out before it actually has to file a bankruptcy petition..

What about the insurance giant AIG?

The world's largest insurer, American International Group, has been downgraded by credit rating agencies and is racing against time to find a multi billion dollar infusion to stay afloat. US Federal Reserve officials and two leading banks, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, were negotiating to put together $75 billion package to save the insurance giant to stave off crisis.

AIG has sought $40 billion in bridge loan to stave off the crisis. But the Fed rebuffed the request. AIG's ills came to fore, when three leading credit rating agencies - Standard and Poor's Moody's and Fitch - lowered the company's credit scores.

 Who could be the next to fall?

Some Wall Street analysts, reports The Guardian, name Washington Mutual as the next financial major to 'find itself in serious trouble.'

However, the even bigger worry is whether the world's largest securities firms, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, would be able to survive this brutal financial crisis. But many say that these two gaints will not melt down as they have 'done a better job of spreading their bets across world markets and are also more diversified, less leveraged and have managed such risks much better.'

 What do Indian markets fear?

The fall of two global financial behemoths -- Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch -- is expected to dent India Inc's ability to raise resources via the equity route. Experts feel that such events significantly increase the risk perception, which in turn will put all future investments by institutional investors such as pension or endowment funds, on the back burner. While the public issue market has already dried up, the private equity funds are also becoming conservative in terms of pricing. This is resulting in either inordinate delays in concluding deals or transactions being called off. There are many instances of private equity fund managers refusing to go ahead with deals after signing the term sheet. Sources said that a leading fund conducted due diligence on two companies in the last fortnight but did not close either deal primarily because of the developments in the US, their home country. The crisis faced by Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers is expected to have a cascading effect on PE firms too.

 Will it hit the Indian growth story?

The ongoing financial sector crisis in the United States and its repercussions on developed markets worldwide will result in lower capital inflows into emerging markets like India, economists and government officials said today. At the same time, they called for the government to make it easier for Indian companies to borrow overseas by easing the restrictions that have been imposed in the past to reduce excessive liquidity in the system and control inflation. This will, in turn, lead to a slowing in investment growth in the months ahead. As lending gets tighter and investment flows dry, corporate India will find it more difficult to raise both equity and debt.

 

Technology firms are shivering

Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy filing may well prove to be the last straw for Indian IT firms, which were expecting the second half of FY09 to be better. As a result of the US financial market crisis, analysts do not expect Indian IT firms to sign any significant contracts in the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) space in the months to come. While IT firms do not disclose client-specific details, it's estimated that Lehman Brothers has outsourced deals amounting to anywhere between Rs 550 crore and Rs 700 crore (annually) to numerous IT firms, including majors like Tata Consultancy Services, Satyam Computer Services and Wipro. Lehman Brothers, say sources, works with 14 services providers in India - Wipro and TCS being the largest. It also has investments in a few IT firms. It's not clear if these holdings will be liquidated to raise funds.

Moreover, the sources add that Lehman Brothers' unit in India has issued termination letters to a majority of its 2,500 employees.

What kind of investment does Lehman have in India?

Lehman does not have direct large holding in the Indian stock markets. These holdings are estimated at around $200 million, including Participatory Notes. This figure is not enough to cripple the Indian stock markets. But Lehman has exposure to the Indian stock market through special purpose vehicles. This exposure to real estate stocks is said to be of about $1.5 billion, enough to shake up the markets.

Ref: http://specials.rediff.com/money/2008/sep/16slde3.htm

AIG Says, Indian joint ventures safe

The American International Group India on Thursday issued a release stating that the US financial crisis does not have any immediate material impact on Tata AIG Life Insurance.

"Tata AIG Life is well capitalised and is subject to stringent local regulatory and capital requirements. Our (Tata-AIG Life) solvency margin at the end of August 2008 stood at over 300 per cent compared to the regulatory minimum of 150 per cent. Total revenues stand at Rs 2,339 crore for 2007-08." Tata-AIG Life and Tata-AIG General Insurance are two insurance joint ventures, where Tata Sons owns 74 per cent, while the remaining 26 per cent is owned by AIG.  

"Our investments, consumer finance and captive software development functions continue to operate in their normal course. We continue to be fully dedicated and committed in discharging our fiduciary responsibility to our customers and unit-holders," said the statement from AIG India.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is providing a two-year, $85-billion secured revolving credit facility to AIG that will ensure the company to meet its immediate liquidity needs.

"AIG believes that the loan, which is backed by profitable, well-capitalised operating subsidiaries, with substantial value, will protect all AIG policyholders and give sufficient time to conduct asset sales to repay the loan and enable AIG's businesses to continue as substantial participants in their respective markets," said the company in a release.

Ref: http://www.rediff.com/money/2008/sep/19bcrisis.htm

Ten biggest banks in the world

World's 10 biggest banks

 

A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove you don't need it, said US actor Bob Hope. But on a serious note, there is no denying the fact that banks are to economies what souls are to human beings.

The Bankersalmanac.com ranks the world's largest banks by total assets in US dolalrs. By the way, according to Bankersalmanac.com, Citibank NA is the world's 16th largest bank. So which are the top 10? Read on to find out:

 

UBS AG , Zurich, Switzerland

UBS AG is the world's biggest manager of other people's money. The bank's asset stood at $1,963.227 billion as in January 2008.

Present in major financial centres worldwide, UBS has offices in 50 countries. The bank had 81,557 employees on June 30, 2007. It originated in 1747, with its maiden branch coming up in the Swiss region of Valposchiavo.

The new UBS evolved out of a merger of the Union Bank of Switzerland and the Swiss Bank Corporation in June 1998. The merged bank's new name was originally supposed to be the United Bank of Switzerland. But it had to be named UBS as the proposed name clashed with United Bank Switzerland.

Marcel Opel is the bank's chairman of the board of directors, its executive vice chairman is Marco Suter, and the group CEO is Marcel Rohner. The bank's main competitors are Deutsche Bank, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse etc.

 

Barclays PLC is a major bank operating in Europe, the United States, West Asia, Latin America, Australia, Asia and Africa. It operates through its subsidiary Barclays Bank PLC.

The bank has registered assets worth $1,951.041 billion. It is also the sponsor of the English Premier League. Forbes Global 2000 ranked Barclays PLC as the 18th largest company in the world in 2007.

The bank's roots can be traced back to 1690 in London. It borrowed its name from Alexander and David Barclay, who provided credit to slave traders. The bank is headed by Marcus Agius, the group chairman.

Barclays being a member of the global ATM Alliance, its customers can use ATMs of other banks free of charge.

BNP Paribas is a major European bank. It was created on May 23, 2000 through the merger of Banque Nationale de Paris and Paribas. As on January 31, the bank's assets stood at $1,899.186 billion.

It's history can be traced back to 1869, when a group of bankers and investors, including Adrien Delahante, Edmond Joubert and Henri Cernuschi, founded the Banque de Paris.

The bank employs 162,700 people and operates in 87 countries. The bank is active in the finance, investment and asset management markets.

 

The Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, Edinburgh, UK, is the largest banking group in Scotland and the fifth largest in the world by market capitalisation. As on January 31, the bank's assets stood at $1,705.680 billion.

The bank originated from the Equivalent Society set up by investors in the bankrupt Company of Scotland. The Society was formed to protect the compensation the investors received as part of the arrangements of the 1707 Acts of Union.

Controversy has dogged the bank off and on. It has been infamously dubbed 'Oil Bank of Scotland' by environmentalists as it provides finance for the fossil fuel industry, thereby causing global warming.

In 2001, the bank received threats for having financed animal testing company Huntingdon Life Sciences. As a direct fallout of this, RBS withdrew the company's overdraft facility.

 

Credit Agricole SA is the largest retail banking group in France and the eighth largest in the world, according to The Banker magazine. On January 31, the bank's assets stood at $1,663.101 billion

Through its subsidiaries, Credit Agricole SA is involved in the following services:

·  Retail banking

·  International retail banking

·  Specialised financial services

·  Asset management, insurance and private banking

·  Corporate and investment Banking

The banks' varied activities are supervised by Rene Carron, the bank's chairman.

 

Deutsche Bank AG is headquartered in Frankfurt. It employs more than 78,000 people in 76 countries. As on January 31, the bank's asset stood at $1,485.008 billion.

Deutsche Bank was founded in Germany in 1870 as a bank for foreign trade in Berlin by private banker Adelbert Delbruck and politician Ludwig Bamberger. Its chief executive officer today is Dr Josef Ackermann.

 

The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd came into being with the merger of The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Limited and UFJ Bank Limited. As on January 31, the bank's assets stood at $1,362.598 billion.

The bank, through its several subsidiaries, performs the following activities: commercial banking, trust banking, securities dealing, leasing, venture capital deals, factoring, research and consulting, securities custody service, etc.

The bank's CEO is Nobuo Kuroyanagi.

 

ABN AMRO Holding NV, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, evolved from the amalgamation of AMRO and ABN. As on January 31, the bank's assets stood at $1,301.508 billion.

The bank created history when the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Fortis and Banco Santander announced on October 8, 2007, that an offer for 86 per cent of outstanding ABN AMRO stock had been accepted. This made way for the largest ever bank takeover in history. On November 1 2007, an extraordinary shareholder meeting changed the bank's management.

Mark Fisher from RBS took over as the bank's CEO. Since then, Fortis has been using the ABN AMRO brand name for retail banking in the Netherlands.

 

Societe Generale, one of the oldest banks in France, is also one of the main European financial services companies. As on January 31, 2008, its assets stood at $1,261.657 billion.

It is headquartered in France with the main head office in Tours Societe Generale in the business district of La Defense west of Paris.

Societe Generale, one of the oldest banks in France, is also one of the main European financial services companies. As on January 31, 2008, its assets stood at $1,261.657 billion.

It is headquartered in France with the main head office in Tours Societe Generale in the business district of La Defense west of Paris.

Bank of America was formed after the consolidation of quite a few historical banks, the most prominent of those being the Bank of Italy. On January 31, the bank's assets stood at $1,196.124 billion.

In 1958, the bank introduced the BankAmericard, which changed its name to VISA in 1977. A consortium of other California banks came up with Master Charge (now MasterCard).

Bank of America has divisions in US, Europe and Asia. The US headquarters are located in New York, European headquarters are based in London and Asia's headquarters are split between Singapore & Hong Kong.

 

Reference:

http://specials.rediff.com/money/2008/mar/27bank4.htm

http://specials.rediff.com/money/2008/mar/27bank5.htm

 

Google to launch browser to compete with Microsoft

SAN FRANCISCO -- Bidding to dominate not only what people do on the Web but how they get from site to site, Google Inc. plans to release a browser today to compete with the likes of Internet Explorer and Firefox.

It's yet another salvo in the company's intensifying battle with Microsoft Corp., which last week released a beta, or test, version of Internet Explorer 8 that makes it easier to block ads from Google and others.

 

"This is the first truly serious threat that Microsoft has faced from a well-funded platform," said technology analyst Rob Enderle, president of the Enderle Group.

A beta version of the Google browser, called Chrome, will be available for download by Windows computer users in more than 100 countries. Chrome will offer features that make it easier, faster and safer to browse the Web, the Mountain View, Calif., search giant said in a blog postMonday.

Google has long ruled how people search the Web. Now it is going after how they navigate it, analysts say.

 

"We like this move by Google and believe it can help to increase or at least maintain its leading search market share," Needham & Co. analyst Mark May said in an e-mail. "As the starting point for nearly every user's Internet experience, the browser is important online real estate. The market share gains by Firefox in a short period of time show to us that users are looking for better browser experiences."

One feature will allow consumers to run Web-based applications independently, which means that if one program crashes it won't take down the browser.

By improving the reliability of such online services, Chrome could mark another step in the browser's drive to supersede the computer operating system in importance, said Matt Rosoff, analyst with Directions on Microsoft, a research firm focused on Microsoft products and strategy.

Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft holds a virtual monopoly in operating systems, but their importance in the computing landscape is diminishing as Web-based programs become the starting point for many users.

Chrome will be an open-source product, meaning anyone can modify the software code and add features.

Internet Explorer General Manager Dean Hachamovitch called the browser market "highly competitive" and said he remained confident that consumers would stick with Microsoft's product.

Google executives have expressed concern over the years that Microsoft could use its dominant browser to route consumers to its own search engine, which has sputtered despite years of effort and billions of dollars in investment.

Explorer 8 enables a user to surf the Web without the sites he or she visits being tracked. Google and other Internet companies -- including Microsoft -- use such information to finely target the ads they display. People who use Chrome could give Google even more information about their online habits.

Launching a browser war with Microsoft is a bold move for Google because Microsoft controls nearly 75% of the market. It also could cause trouble for Firefox, a free browser that is gaining popularity but still trails far behind Explorer.

The nonprofit Mozilla Foundation, which manages Firefox, has benefited from engineering help and money from Google. In 2005, Google hired the lead engineer behind Firefox, who splits his time between Google and Mozilla. Just last week, the two extended their partnership, which makes Google the browser's default search engine, through 2011.

Also potentially vulnerable are Opera and Apple Inc.'s Safari, which have captured much smaller fractions of the user population.

News about Chrome broke Monday after the website Google Blogoscoped reported receiving a comic book from Google that outlined the details of the new browser. A Google blog post later explained that it had inadvertently released the news. "We believe we can add value for users and, at the same time, help drive innovation on the Web," the post said.

The browser, which Google says was built from scratch, has been in the works for two years. It is intended as a "modern platform for Web pages and applications" that can run faster and be more responsive, the post said.

Even coming from a universally known brand such as Google, the browser might not catch on. Google may encounter resistance from consumers, who typically switch browsers out of frustration, not for new features, Enderle said.

Rosoff said Google will attract its share of "curiosity seekers" and can rely on distribution deals to increase its market share.

"I think this could be a real contender," he said.

Ref: http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-google2-2008sep02,1,2493823.story

 

Kodak announces two photo frames, two cameras and a Flip-baiting & Kodak announces YouTube-friendly camcorder

In a flurry of announcements this morning, Kodak released info on two new digital cameras: The EasyShare Z1015 IS, a 15x megazoom, and the EasyShare M1093 IS, a 10-megapixel compact point-and-shoot, both of which will ship in September. The 10-megapixel Z1015 IS ($349.95 MSRP) stands out for its wider-than-usual 28mm lens and 15x optical zoom, under 0.22 sec shooting lag (according to Kodak), image stabilization, 3-inch LCD, ISO up to 6400 (at 3.1-megapixel setting or less), and HD image and video capture at 720p and 30 fps. The M1093 IS is a budget-priced ($199.95) compact shooter with a 3x zoom (35–105mm equivalent), 3-inch LCD, image stabilization, HD photo and video, ISO up to 3200, and comes in three colors (silver, black, and red).

In addition to these announcements, Kodak also revealed two new WiFi enabled photo frames (10-inch and 8-inch) that utilize their "Quick Touch Border" touch operation. The big news here is new partnerships with Flickr and FrameChannel that allow you to upload photos wirelessly (in addition to the existing Kodak Gallery upload capabilities).

Finally, Kodak also announced its entry into the pocket camcorder business, currently dominated by Pure Digital's Flip. Kodak's Zi6 bests Pure Digital's top-of-the-line Flip Mino by delivering HD video capabilities (720p) and a bigger (2.4-inch) LCD for the same price ($179.95–well, five cents less, if you're being nit-picky). A vertical form factor, flip-out USB connector, easy YouTube upload are becoming standard features in these babies. Kodak's model comes in black and pink.

Janice Chen has been covering technology for almost two decades. She got her hands on a Nikon Coolpix 900 back in 1998 and has been a digital camera enthusiast ever since. See her full profile and disclosure of her industry affiliations.

Ref:  http://blogs.zdnet.com/digitalcameras/?p=288&tag=nl.e505

Nokia will buy Symbian, but doesn't want to control it

 "This is the fastest and the best way [to] go forward," said Nokia's XVP yesterday. "What we are gaining here is the knowledge and the experience from the employee base in Symbian Ltd. For Nokia, this is a good investment."

During yesterday's press conference with soon-to-be members of the Symbian Foundation -- the group being assembled by Nokia after its historic purchase of Symbian Ltd. is complete -- the one aspect of the deal that reporters couldn't quite wrap their heads around was this: Nokia wants to set Symbian free, so it's buying it. Is this how Nokia expects to answer the challenge from Google's Open Handset Alliance with Android?

"It's important to look at this as a market-making move," Nokia Executive Vice President Kai Oistamo told reporters yesterday. "Looking at this as a response to anything would not be making any justice to the boldness and the magnitude of the change that we are creating today. We are [giving], technologically, the most proven software to open source, offering it royalty-free for anybody out there to develop and create products from this asset. It really has...an unparalleled existing ecosystem already, 200 million handsets out there today, 400 four million developers.

Continuing in the participle-speckled, active verb-devoid phraseology made popular by Microsoft's Bill Gates, Oistamo continued, "Putting it into an open source community controlled by no single company. Creating, I would say, an ecosystem; creating a gravitational pull for application developers that I don't think any application developer, service developer, really can afford to pass going forward."

What does "free" actually mean, from a revenue standpoint? Right now, the royalty rates for manufacturers wishing to implement Symbian on a smartphone platform start at $5 per unit sold, and with enough quantity can be reduced to as low as $2.50 per unit, according to Symbian Ltd. CEO Nigel Clifford, soon to become a Nokia employee.

Does Symbian have any regrets about not only being bought out, but watching its key revenue center -- its intellectual property rights (IPR) -- folded into a multi-company organization?

"IPR begins to have less of a meaning in the world that we're entering into," remarked Clifford. "Proper management and good configuration, good release protocols, are really what the Foundation is going to be doing, as well as presenting a unified developer network, [in] which we'll be talking to all of the developers that are accessing the Symbian Foundation code. So there will be people, we anticipate, coming from Nokia, from Symbian, from others to populate the foundation; but it will have a very defined purpose."

Not two weeks ago, Nokia's own vice president of software, Dr. Ari Jaaksi, told a handsets conference in Berlin that open source developers seeking to break into the mobile space need a quick education on the business rules and business models regarding proprietary intellectual property, especially digital rights management -- models the open source community typically eschews.

If this was the first statement you'd ever heard from Dr. Jaaksi, you'd think he might work for Microsoft. Actually, he was speaking in a much broader context of moving the open source realm into the realm of broader business deals, where the key players come to the table with their own intellectual property portfolios. In a personal blog post a few weeks earlier, he suggested that with so many devices and designs concurrently available on the market, the only way to come up with a workable development model is through open source.

"In the traditional phone business, things may be a bit more difficult. Traditional phones have already good operating systems and software optimized for their reasonably narrow set of use cases and for fixed business ecosystems," Dr. Jaaksi wrote in May. "So, it'll be more difficult to change that landscape to more open direction. I thought the same was the case with the PC -- but Ubuntu may be proving me wrong. So you never know about the traditional phones either. The sure thing, though, is that for all new interesting highly connected devices, Linux and open source is the way to go. This is my opinion."

It's a well-stated opinion, but it may also have cleverly (intentionally or not) contributed to analyst speculation up until yesterday, over whether Nokia had plans to join the Open Handset Alliance or partner with Google on Android.

During yesterday's press conference, one reporter specifically referred to Jaaksi's viewpoint, and asked the Symbian Foundation's future board members -- including Nokia -- how they plan to reconcile their open and free business model with the real world of proprietary interests, as Jaaksi suggested any open source provider should do.

"Part of our world is that world," responded Symbian's Nigel Clifford, referring to the realm where business deals over proprietary IP and interoperability already take place. "We've been living in a very disciplined, very focused, mobile-orientated environment for the last ten years. So we understand what operators need, we understand what mobile handset manufacturers need, silicon vendors, and application partners. And we do that stuff; that's what we do every single day.

"So what we're doing with this announcement is doing that...in a slightly different business model; i.e., for free. And we're taking away the licensing barriers to people reaching in and using our software. Now, that doesn't mean that this now becomes a free-for-all. That is the idea of the Foundation, that there is still a body there which understands disciplines, which understands the mechanisms that are required to satisfy those very demanding end users, those stakeholders. So I would say we're providing the best of all worlds here; we've got proven software...built from day one to address the very issues that the mobile industry requires, and we're doing it in a way which talks very directly to the open source community, inviting many more millions of developers to just come and play."

Ref: http://www.betanews.com/article/Nokia_will_buy_Symbian_but_doesnt_want_to_control_it/1214427351

Gadgets comes to Google Docs

Google on Wednesday unveiled Gadgets for Spreadsheets in Google Docs, allowing people to create graphical representations of data in spreadsheets and publish them on Web sites.  For consumers, this means they have a dozen or so new ways to look at data in their spreadsheets. Google has put up a gallery of specialty gadgets to choose from. They include gadgets to display data on a pie chart, map, time chart, funnel chart, Gantt chart, pivot table, and on a heat map if it's geographical data. You can even create interactive charts like those used by Google Finance and for motion charts.  These visuals can also be pushed out to appear on an iGoogle home page or any other site and they will be dynamically updated as changes are made to the spreadsheet. Gadgets will soon be coming to other apps in Google Docs and eventually search, to help people find relevant content and links, says Jonathan Rochelle, senior product manager for Google Docs.

Google has also added new features that make using Spreadsheets easier. For one, there is a notification system that will e-mail you when somebody has made a change to a spreadsheet that is being collaborated on. You can set it to alert you once a day or after each new change is made. The changes are highlighted so you can easily detect what is new. There is also a column-based auto-complete function that looks for cues from adjacent cells to try to guess what you are typing, an updated color palette and function editing capability that uses the arrow keys, as well as an auto-complete function for typing long formulas. In addition, spreadsheet creators now have access to historical stock market data through a Google Finance function and new functions to automatically sort and filter data. Google is doing something interesting with its Gadgets platform, making gadgets a data source for spreadsheets as well as a data distribution method for developers. "If I'm collecting census data and putting it into a spreadsheet, I can also make that data available to statisticians," through the Visualization API, says Rochelle. "It doesn't have to be in a spreadsheet form" to distribute.

Spreadsheets is just the first data source that can be handled this way. "We're making the spreadsheet almost a platform for simple development and delivery," he says. With the enhancements, Google is ratcheting up the competition its free Web-hosted apps are giving Microsoft's desktop productivity suite, which companies pay for.

Ref: http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9898520-7.html?tag=nefd.top

Safari 3.1 adds speed and HTML 5 features

 Apple released Safari 3.1 on March 18 with an updated rendering engine that makes the fastest Internet browser even faster.

On top of that, Apple's new browser includes some features that reflect the future of the HTML 5 specification: offline storage, media support, and CSS animations and Web fonts. It also adds some needed compatibility and bug fixes, as well as some other new features that really make it a great everyday browser. For the uninitiated, Apple provides a great PDF overview of Safari. You can get the upgrade/installer from apple.com/safari/download/ (it's about a 16MB download for both Mac and PC) or simply update from Software Update. The installation is easy but strangely requires a restart on Macs but not on Windows. By the way, Safari 3.1 is the first Windows version not to carry the "beta" tag. The interface and the user experience are largely unchanged from those in Safari 3.0. Under the hood, however, Apple has made some significant changes that it has pulled from the latest builds of the open-source WebKit engine. WebKit is the framework version of the engine that's used by Safari. It is also the basis of the Web browsing engine in iPhone's Mobile Safari, Symbian's browser, the Google Android platform and Adobe's new AIR platform.

Testing

To check out how well Safari 3.1 handles Web sites, I ran it through some popular standards testing -- and found that it leads the pack. In the Acid3 Tests, which were created by the Web Standards Project to test dynamic browser capabilities, Safari 3.1 scored 75 out of 100, significantly higher than the previous version of Safari and other shipping browsers (Firefox 3 Beta 4 scored 68, while the most recent WebKit scored 92). However, the big news is how fast the new version of Safari is. How fast? I tested Safari 3.1 on my first-generation 2-GHz MacBook Pro with 2GB of RAM. In MooTools' SlickSpeed speed/validity test, Safari came out on top in almost every category on both Mac and PC.

It also did significantly better than any shipping browser on the SunSpider JavaScript speed tests (although since these tests are hosted at WebKit.org, they are perhaps biased). For example, on the Mac, Safari scored 4430ms, compared with 5048ms for Firefox 3 Beta 4. While I spend 90% of my time on a Macintosh, I also installed Safari on my Windows XP box to see how it stacked up against Internet Explorer, Opera and Firefox. In short, it worked extremely well for everyday browsing, offering speed and efficiency, especially on a four- or five-year-old machine. It also performed really well with lots of tabs open.

Although Safari 3.1 does perform much better than the shipping version of Firefox, the speed improvements in Firefox 3 Beta 4 are catching up with Safari 3.1 -- though Firefox 3 did consume more CPU cycles during my tests. One of the drawbacks of Safari has been the perceived "over-smoothing" or softening of fonts on the PC. While this hasn't been completely fixed, Apple's Safari 3.1 allows Web sites to specify fonts outside the seven Web-safe font families; these new fonts can be downloaded by the browser as needed. Unfortunately, there are still prominent features that are part of rival browsers that Safari simply can't match. For example, Safari doesn't have all of the add-ons that Firefox enjoys, such as the Google toolbar. Furthermore, if you need to use a site that employs Microsoft's proprietary DirectX technology -- like Microsoft Exchange's Outlook Web Access, for example -- you'll find that the experience on Safari leaves much to be desired. In this case, you're better off using Internet Explorer. Finally, Opera offers features, such as direct BitTorrent downloads, that aren't offered in Safari.

With the 3.1 release, Safari has become the fastest browser you can use. If that isn't enough reason to make a switch, its strong adherence to Web standards and rapid adoption of new technologies might make you think again.

SlickSpeed Test

	Dojo 1.0.2	JQuery 1.2.3	MooTools 1.2 Beta 2	Prototype 1.6.0.2
Mac OS
Safari 3.1	91	138	209	272
Firefox 3 Beta 2	142	235	151	282
Opera 9.25	225	431	426	562
Windows
Safari 3.1	171	171	250	236
Firefox 2.0.12	286	439	267	398
IE7	335	468	869	1987

* All measurements are in milliseconds. Lower numbers are better.

Ref: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=macintosh_os&articleId=9069838&taxonomyId=123&intsrc=kc_feat

The world's safest supercar - Caparo T1

The new Caparo T1, dubbed as one of world's safest ultra-performance cars, will go on display at the week-long Auto Expo in New Delhi on Thursday, prior to release to customers in April. Manufactured by Caparo Group -- the global technology company founded by NRI businessman Lord Swraj Paul -- and designed by senior engineers -- Ben Scott-Geddes and Graham Halstead -- from the team that developed the legendary McLaren F1, the T1 uses a blend of race-car and road-car technologies to deliver astonishing performance that surpasses even today's fastest and most expensive super-cars.

With more than 1,000bhp per tonne, around twice the power-to-weight ratio of a Bugatti Veyron, the Caparo T1, costing around ?235,000 ($480,000) or Rs 2 crore, slashes acceleration and braking times to levels previously only experienced by the most extreme racing cars.

Zero to 60 mph is dispatched in just 2.5 seconds and zero to 100mph in less than five seconds. Top speed exceeds 200mph and the vehicle's Caparo AP braking technology can deliver more than 3g of retardation, allowing it to stop from 100mph in less than three seconds.

Ref:http://specials.rediff.com/money/2008/jan/09sld01.htm

The world's cheapest car! - Tara Tiny @ Rs 99K

The Tata Nano is no longer the world's cheapest car! Jostling along with Tata Nano, this July, will be Tara Tiny and Tara Titu. These are zero emission, electric cars and cost only Rs 99,000! And they come from the Tara International stable.  Tara S Ganguly, the company's chairman and chief executive officer, had a big dream. And he set about realising it 'in a small way.' Tara International has teamed up with China's Aucma, a leading player in the electrical vehicles and appliances segment, to manufacture these cars.

At the moment, four variants of electric cars are ready at the Tara International factory at Palta, a few kilometers from Kolkata. These are Tara Tiny, Tara Titu (two-seater and four-seater, respectively), Tara Shuttle, and Tara Carrier. While Tara Tiny and Tara Titu are priced at Rs 99,000 (approximately), Tara Shuttle and Tara Carrier are priced at Rs 500,000 (approximately). The company will also launch electric bikes priced between Rs 12,000 and Rs 35,000.

The Tara series cars are available in electric red, black and white. Bikes comes in varied hues -- green, blue, red, etc.

Ref: http://specials.rediff.com/money/2008/mar/17tara1.htm