Internet to be replaced by " Grid " .

The Internet could soon be made obsolete by "the grid.” The lightning-fast replacement will be capable of downloading entire feature films within seconds.

At speeds about 10,000 times faster than a typical broadband connection, the grid will be able to send the entire Rolling Stones back catalogue from Britain to Japan in less than two seconds.

The latest spinoff from Cern, the particle physics centre that created the Web, could also provide the kind of power needed to transmit holographic images; allow instant online gaming with hundreds of thousands of players, and offer high-definition video telephony for the price of a local call.

David Britton, professor of physics at Glasgow University and a leading figure in the grid project, believes grid technologies “could revolutionize society.”
“With this kind of computing power, future generations can collaborate and communicate in ways older people like me cannot even imagine,” he said.

The power of the grid will become apparent this summer after what scientists at Cern have termed their “red button” day -- the switching on of the Large Hadron Collider, the new particle accelerator built to probe the origin of the universe. The grid will be activated at the same time to capture the data it generates.

Cern, based near Geneva, started the grid computing project seven years ago when researchers realized LHC would generate annual data equivalent to 56m CDs -- enough to make a stack 50 miles high. Ironically this meant that scientists at Cern -- where Tim Berners-Lee invented the internet in 1989 -- would no longer be able to use his creation for fear of causing a global collapse.

This is because the internet has evolved by linking together a hotchpotch of cables and routing equipment, much of which was originally designed for telephone calls and which lacks the capacity for high-speed data transmission.

By contrast, the grid has been built with dedicated fibre optic cables and modern routing centres, meaning there are no outdated components to slow the deluge of data. The 55,000 servers already installed are expected to rise to 200,000 in two years.

The Grid
While the Web is a service for sharing information over the Internet, the new system, Grid, is a service for sharing computer power and data storage capacity over the Internet.

It will allow online gaming with hundreds of thousands of players, and offer high-definition video telephony for the price of a local call. In search of new drugs against malaria, it analysed 140m compounds -- a task that would have taken an Internet-linked PC 420 years

Google Squared

Google, already the king of Internet search, rolled out an experimental new search product called "Google Squared".

Google Squared does not provide a list of links to Web pages, like with a traditional Google search, but presents information derived from a query in a spreadsheet-like grid called a "square."


Users of google.com/squared can then build, modify and refine their "square" through further Web searches.

"Unlike a normal search engine, Google Squared doesn't find webpages about your topic -- instead, it automatically fetches and organizes facts from across the Internet," Google said in a preview of the product last month.

In a blog post on Wednesday, Google said Google Squared could be useful when a user needs to make multiple searches to find the information they want.

"It essentially searches the Web to find the types of facts you might be interested in, extracts them and presents them in a meaningful way," Google said.

"If your square isn't perfect at the beginning, it's easy to work with Google Squared to get a better answer," Google added.

The Mountain View, California-based Internet search giant cautioned that Google Squared remains experimental and the technology behind it "is by no means perfect."

Nokia popularity dips

According to a recent report, mobile phones market leader Nokia is steadily losing its hold over the rather important teen segment thanks to the uninspiring, bland designs that most Nokia phones sport.

Nokia seems to have failed to introduce an attractive handset that teenagers could carry around. The survey carried out by Social Networking site Habbo Hotel was conducted over the period of a few months and saw the participation by 112,000 teenagers from across 30 countries. The results from the survey showed that while Nokia still remains popular, its popularity has dipped almost 8 percent from last year. The drop in popularity has helped Nokia's Korean rivals Samsung and LG to capitalize with phones like the LG Cookie that offers the user a touchscreen experience at a not so hoigh price.
Yes, Nokia too was fairly successful with its touchscreen 5800 XpressMusic, which has sold over 2.6 million units so far, but post that the only other addition is the N97 which is hardly a teen phone. The Koreans on the other hand have been constantly releasing new, cheaper handsets while Nokia refuses to update its now old 5800 with spruced up features or even a nw sibling.
The surprise part of the survey was that even though Sony Ericsson might be in trouble now, the brand is still popular amongst teenagers. It amazingly stood as the first choice for 18% of the students. This however was a drop of 3% over the past year. Nevertheless, it is heartening to see that the company has a hardcore fan following amongst teens. The 18% preference puts it at the third place as Samsung has now moved up to 19% in the teen segment.