Yahoo Searches Get Social Boost

Contact PC World contributing editor Steve Fox at steve_fox@pcworld.com.

Search With a Little Help From Your Friends

Illustration by Gordon Studer

Bottom Line: Search is rapidly evolving from blunt tool to finely tuned instrument. Witness not only My Web 2.0, but also localized search and personalized search services from Google and others. Yet I still can't ever find my keys.

Longhorn and RSS

The Buzz: Details of Longhorn, Microsoft's next operating system, keep trickling out. The latest nugget: RSS support, built right into the OS itself. RSS--or Really Simple Syndication--lets content providers (Web sites, bloggers, and others) deliver headlines, news, links, and even multimedia "enclosures" to subscribers via an RSS feed (basically a text document). With Longhorn, subscribing to RSS feeds in Internet Explorer 7.0 will be much easier; simply click the iconic 'XML' button on the page, and you'll get the feed delivered to your browser. A common feed list will make those subscriptions available to other applications such as e-mail and scheduling programs.

Bottom Line: By making it easy, Microsoft removes a major impediment to RSS use. Looks to me like RSS is about to get some R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

Big Storage in Small Camcorders

The Buzz: It's about time: Everio G camcorders from JVC replace conventional tape or removable disc storage with gel-encased 20GB or 30GB hard drives. The tiny 0.7-pound cameras can hold 5 to 7 hours of DVD-quality video, or up to 30 hours in lower-quality mode. Priced at $800 to $1000, the models come equipped with either a 640-kilopixel or a 1.3-megapixel CCD and with a 25X or 15X optical zoom, respectively. And butterfingers can take heart: The drives have drop protection, so you won't lose data if the unit falls off the table.

Bottom Line: Just imagine: 30 hours of home videos. If my Uncle Phineas (with his four kids) gets one of these, I'm leaving the country.

Liquid Camera Lenses

Camera phones require tiny, durable, low-powered lenses. Hence the excitement over liquid lenses--rugged, inexpensive little devices that have no moving parts. Developed by French optical pioneer Verioptic, the latest liquid lenses zoom and focus automatically, just as the human eye does. An "electrowetting" process deposits two drops of fluid between lenses and then applies electricity to alter their curvature, changing their focal length on the fly. Samsung is working to incorporate Verioptic's technology into an autofocusing camera phone due to appear later this year.

HERE\NOW

1.ThinkFree Office 3 Free Java-based Microsoft Office-compatible suite can be launched from a browser.

2. Athlon 64 FX-57 AMD's blazingly fast but pricey new chip is made to order for gamers.

3. 4INFO.net Fire off an SMS message, and get localized info in return--from flight data to sports scores.

4. KlipFolio On-screen dashboard delivers news, weather, tools, and more.

5. Spell With Flickr Wacky art-house fun: Type in a phrase and see it spelled out in images.