Adobe believes that the discontinue of its one-time flagship Website creation product, i.e. Adobe GoLive will better serve the needs of the Web designer market. Clearly, it will pave an even brighter future for Adobe Dreamweaver, which users can create HTML, ColdFusion, PHP, ASP VBScript, CSS, JavaScript, or Ruby (through plugin) with this software.

Devin Fernandez, GoLive’s Product Manager believed Dreamweaver is a better fit for today’s Web developer, he told Macworld, “Even after GoLive 9 came out people were drawn to Dreamweaver, especially around features and support for technology like AJAX and CSS Starter Points. Dreamweaver also supports dynamic content, while GoLive doesn’t.”

To compensate the existing GoLive registered users, Adobe is offering a Switch plan, a special plan of $199, with a goal to help them switch to Dreamweaver product.

There is a new third-party Twitter application called Birdy. It is an Adobe AIR application (You need to download Adobe AIR) before you begin to install Birdy to your desktop computer. For micro blogging addicts, they need this application because it allowed them to post their latest updates or receiving any tweets. A bit of googling on the Web I’m not manage to find out who was responsible in developing this Birdy. But I think nothing is simpler than whenever you receive a tweet, Birdy will inform you with a sound.

Nevertheless, this Bird reminds me of the other two Twitter applications built by Adobe AIR, Feedalizr and Twhirl.

via [go2web2.0]

If you’re using Windows XP Chinese edition, the update file of Service Pack 3 is available for you to download. Simply click this link will bring you to that file.

via [cnbeta]

Google has stopped serving its advertisements to a Sydney-based search engine called Ecocho. Now if you visit the Ecocho search engine, you’ll notice a small default button which only allowed users to search by using Yahoo!, but not Google anymore. More details can be found on the Ecocho’s blog. In their blog, Ecocho said, “For Google to say that we had no approval to use Adsense on Ecocho is inaccurate.”

Ecocho’s business model is simple. Whenever users use its search engine, for every 1,000 searches, they’ll plant two trees. If users search Ecocho through Google technology, they’ll find the AdSense advertisement to be appeared next to the search results. Ironically, the ban action was taken immediately effect on the Earth Day, i.e. April 22.

In an Australian newspaper, Google Australia spokesman Rob Shilkin said Ecocho was banned because it broke Google’s AdSense policies by “compensate users for viewing Google ads or performing searches, or promise compensation to a third party for such behaviour”.

Dot ORG, the Public Interest Registry is launching a new resource center. The purpose of this resource center is to enhance the user experience of the dot org community, and user who visit this new site will find a variety of library of information, interactive tools, examples and online guides.

On this resource center, visitors will see a succinct long list of sites that almost came across all industries. The sites listed there not only using dot org extension, but also famous. You’ll not only see sites that belong to non-profit sector, but commercial sectors such as media, medical, sport, technology, and etc. However, it should be noted that sites listed there are joining the “.ORG Featured Partner Program.”

A new Google Finance in Mandarin has been launched in China. It allowed investors in China to find out the latest updates of all the information in securities markets, and of course, they will find some sophisticated financial advices there too. For your information, this site was jointly created by the Google’s engineers that based in New York and Shanghai.

The product offerings of this Google Finance Chinese version is relatively no different from the other versions such as the US, Canada, and UK versions. Content found on the Google Finance China is geographic catering to the local people. The top left column is as usual, the market summary, as China users will read all the latest news happening in China, not necessarily related to the Shanghai or Shenzhen stock market data. This contrast to the US or UK site, both sites typically showed the stock market info and users there will get a fast grasp on what’s happening to some stocks or funds in respective country.

One unique feature found on this site is the Google Suggest feature. Whenever an user type a letter on the search bar, it will display the search suggestion of some stock quotes or stock portfolios appeared in a fixed dialog box. This feature is helpful, but not sure when Google China will release another advanced feature called Stock Screener to the China people.

The first developer tool of Opera browser, Opera Dragonfly will be officially released on May 6th, 2008. The inquisitive may request beta access, but there was no way to get it now. At this moment, you only can find more details of it on this blog post.

The Chinese search giant has a new venture now. It is now entering the online game sector by providing some games through its newest platform called Baidu Youxi. With the recent release of Baidu Hi (instant messenger service) and this online gaming platform, Baidu is considered the biggest Chinese platform that probably cover all the needs of the Chinese young adults.

At present, Baidu does not develop its own casual online games, but chose to offer a portfolio of entertainment through some partnerships with the renowned interactive entertainment media companies such as Shanda Entertainment, Dreamwork Net, and 51wan. Currently, there are seven (7) free online games available to the Chinese users, and most of them such as 纵横天下, 方便面三国, 天空左岸 are very popular in China. Out of four of these seven games, four are developed from 51wan, as reported by this casual game developer.

There are two main selection criteria that set by Baidu in choosing the games, first it must be home-made, i.e. made in China, and secondly, all its online games must be healthy, which mean all family members are welcome to play and view. There will be no violence, sex that can be found on its casual games. Also, games that allow users to gain access to online casino, poker, with access to third-party betting exchange will not be permitted on this Baidu Youxi. Since Baidu Youxi adopt a business model of free-to-play, I still can’t figure out what will be their major revenue streams. But one thing for sure, as more and more online game users are becoming sophisticated, the games available must be in extremely high quality.

Why Baidu engaged in this online game sector? This can be explained by the market outlook of the online game sector in China. China recorded a CNY$12.8 billion during a fiscal year ended December 2007. It has been project forecasted more than 20% growth each year in the next five years. Thus, by year 2011, China’s online game sector will generate more than CNY$40.1 billion. By then, China will be a mature online game market such as South Korea.