Computerzworld

Microsoft Corp said on Monday it would test a new way to measure the effectiveness of Internet advertising in a challenge to an industry standard that has helped the likes of Web search leader Google Inc.

Microsoft’s “Engagement Mapping” is due to begin in beta form on March 1 and departs from a standard that ties sales, leads and traffic to the last ad that a user clicked on online. Instead, it attempts to take into account all the Internet interactions that lead a consumer to buy a product.

Microsoft’s new ad initiative follows its purchase of online marketing company aQuantive for $6 billion last year in an effort to capitalize on the fast-growing online ad market and better compete against Google.

The software maker is also in the midst of a $41 billion unsolicited takeover attempt of Yahoo Inc.

Adobe today introduced AIR, an application that lets people access Web sites even when they aren’t online. Someone who wants to put an item up for bid on eBay, for example, could fill out the form through the AIR software while the PC isn’t connected to the Web. The software would automatically post the information to eBay the next time the computer is connected to the Internet.

Adobe isn’t the only company trying to bridge the gap between online software and traditional PC software: Google, Microsoft and others have similar initiatives. That’s because while online software has a number of advantages – there’s nothing for customers to install, it’s accessible from any computer and it’s usually faster to develop – it also has one big disadvantage: You need to be connected to the Internet to use it. We’re getting closer to ubiquitous Internet connections, but we’re not there yet. There’ll be a need for PC software as long as people want to work on desert islands or don’t want to pay $10 an hour just to access a spreadsheet.

“This is a really big release for us,” Geoff Price, Product Unit Manager for Office 2008 for Mac at Microsoft’s Mac Business Unit, told Macworld. “We are moving with Apple as it moves forward with its operating system.”

Office will be available in three versions: Office 2008 for Mac ($400; $240 upgrade), Office 2008 for Mac Home and Student Edition ($150) and Office 2008 for Mac Special Media Edition ($500; $300 upgrade).

When it arrives on U.S. retail shelves later this month (with international sales to follow), Office 2008 will sport a number of new features, not the least of which is the ability to run natively on Intel-based Macs. But from Microsoft’s perspective, some of the most important features in the latest version of its massive productivity suite have already been in place for some time.

As is the custom at Microsoft when developing software updates, members of the office team hit the road to talk to customers about what they wanted to see in the next version of Office. One of the things they noticed noticed is that loyal Office users were often unfamiliar with all the features of the product.

“One of the goals for this release was to allow people to rediscover the power of Office,” said Microsoft’s Han-Yi Shaw, lead program manager for Word, Compatibility, and User Experience. “Sometimes we get requests from power users for features we already have.”

To overcome that, according to Microsoft product unit manger Eric Wilfrid, the company’s Mac Business Unit designed Office 2008 to allow users to create a variety of documents quickly regardless of which Office application they’re using.

AV-Test.org, an independent testing group at the Otto-von-Guericke-University (Magdeburg, Germany), tested 29 anti-malware products with a very large set of files (606,901 to be specific). The goal was to test detection capabilities only, not cleaning. Products were set with their most aggressive detection options, such as using all heuristics and testing inside archives.

In the test set were:

* 68,864 backdoors
* 407,487 Trojan Horses
* 47,891 bots (zombies)
* 82,659 worms

Some of the results:

* The best product, WebWasher, detected 99.83 percent, but this is a gateway product. The best desktop product, at 99.56 percent, is AVK 2007.

* The worst product, Computer Associates’s eTrust-VET, detected 62.12 percent.

* The average product detected 86.95 percent, the median 90.97 percent.

All products were last updated on Friday, May 18th, prior to the test. Only current malware was used, meaning all samples were seen in the last 12 months. Only Win32 malware, not 16-bit Windows or DOS, was used, and all malware had to be functional, as opposed to corrupted or benign samples.

Here is the full data set:

Program═══>Detected═══> Detection %

WebWasher═══>605,846═══>99.83%

AVK 2007═══>604,255═══> 99.56%

AntiVir═══>603,408═══>99.42%

F-Secure═══>594,333═══>97.93%

Symantec═══> 593,355═══>97.77%

Kaspersky═══>592,606═══>97.64%

Fortinet═══>589,028═══>97.06%

Avast!═══>584,574═══>96.32%

AVG═══>583,541═══>96.15%

Rising═══>582,772═══>96.02%

BitDefender═══>580,700═══>95.68%

Norman═══>574,476═══>94.66%

Ikarus═══>561,607═══>92.54%

Panda═══>558,899═══>92.09%

Trend Micro═══> 552,107═══>90.97%

Nod32═══>536,043═══>88.32%

McAfee═══>529,680═══>87.28%

Dr Web═══>520,959═══>85.84%

F-Prot═══>517,491═══>85.27%

VBA32═══>498,264═══>82.10%

Sophos═══>496,135═══>81.75%

eSafe═══>495,074═══>81.57%

Microsoft═══>488,942═══>80.56%

Ewido═══>456,660═══>75.24%

VirusBuster═══>441,341═══>72.72%

Command═══>414,036═══>68.22%

ClamAV═══>387,276═══>63.81%

QuickHeal═══>382,557═══>63.03%

eTrust-VET═══>376,983═══>62.12%

The MacBook Air is a Macintosh notebook computer by Apple Inc. It is part of the MacBook family and the company’s first to feature a multi-touch trackpad and an optional solid-state hard drive. Apple CEO Steve Jobs revealed the MacBook Air at the Macworld Conference & Expo on January 15, 2008. Apple describes it as the “world’s thinnest notebook”, while it was the thinnest on the market at the time it was released there have been two prior laptops that were thinner that are no longer produced, at 0.76 inches (1.93 cm) thick at its thickest point and 0.16 inches (0.4 cm) at its thinnest Weighing 3.0 pounds (1.36 kg), it is also Apple’s lightest laptop.