Outlook.com: Microsoft’s New Webmail

Now, Microsoft is dropping Hotmail in favor of a new, rebranded web mail service based on its other popular email brand: Outlook.com.


The company announced the launch of a preview of the service, which it describes as “modern email designed for the next billion mailboxes.”


Here’s what it looks like:







Sign up for the preview at Outlook.com and grab your preferred handle now!


There’s a mobile set-up guide here.

Facebook with keyboard shortcuts


Facebook has a small, but useful set of keyboard shortcuts you can use to navigate the social networking site.


The shortcuts work best with Chrome in Windows and Firefox on Mac OS X, because they only need one modifier key, plus the shortcut key. Also keep in mind that the number shortcuts must be pressed from the number row; they don't work with the number pad.


Here are the keyboard shortcuts for Facebook:


Windows
Firefox modifier: Shift + Alt + #
Chrome modifier: Alt + #


Mac
Firefox modifier: Control + #
Chrome modifier: Control + Option + #
Safari modifier: Control + Option + #


Shortcuts
1 : home
2 : timeline/profile
3 : friends
4 : messages
5 : notifications
6 : general account settings
7 : privacy settings
8 : Facebook's Facebook page
9 : legal terms
0 : help center
m : new message
? : search


That's it. If you're wondering why Internet Explorer 9 was left out, it's because only the home and timeline shortcuts seem to work. If you want to use IE9 anyway, the modifier is Alt + #, then Enter.

Here’s How People Look at Your Social Media Profiles


The study used the webcams of 30 participants to record their eye movements as they were shown profile pages from Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Flickr, YouTube, Klout, Reddit, Digg, Tumblr, Twitter, StumbleUpon and Pinterest at 10-second intervals. What participants looked at on each page and in what order is recorded in the images below.

It’s not a perfect study. Thirty is a small sample size, and what draws attention on a profile likely varies depending on the content displayed. But we’ve hazarded making a few observations:
  • Profile pictures matter. The site feature that attracted most attention on Klout, Facebook and StumbleUpon was the profile photo.
  • Job title garnered more attention than profile photo on LinkedIn. In fact, it got more attention than anything else on the page.
  • Who you know gets noticed. Even if for no better reason than their placement on the page, people do look at those little thumbnails of friends that appear on many social profiles. You can see this in the data from the Facebook, Google+, Twitter and Klout profiles.
  • Content on top wins. The further something is down a page, the fewer number of people look at it. This was true on both content-focused profiles such as Pinterest and Digg as well as socially focused profiles such as Facebook. On the Twitter and YouTube profiles, the effect was less extreme.
Take a gander at the results of the study in the gallery below, and let us know your own observations in the comments.
Click to enlarge image
Facebook


Google+




Linkedln



Flickr



YouTube



Chrome usage within striking distance of Firefox


Chrome is within striking distance of Firefox for second place in worldwide browser usage.


If one in 50 people on the Web move from Firefox to Chrome, Google's browser will unseat Mozilla's for the No. 2 spot in worldwide usage.
That's because, according to Net Applications' November browser usage measurements, Chrome is now within 4 percentage points of Firefox. With a 2 percentage-point increase in one and a 2 percentage-point decrease in the other, Google comes out on top.
Firefox dropped 0.4 percentage point to 22.1 percent of usage in November, while Chrome gained 0.7 percent to 18.2 percent. If that rate was to continue, Chrome would outpace Firefox in March 2012, but fluctuations make such predictions difficult.
Firefox once was the prime challenger to Microsoft's Internet Explorer, which for years languished in the doldrums of software development. Now it shares that role with Chrome and, to a lesser degree, Apple's Safari. Microsoft is in high gear again, though, with IE9 a credible challenger and IE10 shaping up to be a strong competitor when it's finished in 2012.
The browser market is now fiercely competitive as browser makers use the software to drive their agendas. For Microsoft, it's about the Metro user interface in Windows 8; for Google, it's browsing speed and Web applications; for Mozilla, it's a Web built on openness and standards; and for Apple, the best mobile devices.
In the mobile market, Apple's Safari dominates, while Opera Mini and the Android browser jockey for second place.
In the mobile market, Apple's Safari dominates, while Opera Mini and the Android browser jockey for second place.

In November, IE's steady decline stopped, with Microsoft's browser holding steady at 56.2 percent of usage. Microsoft has largely written off Windows XP users by requiring Windows Vista or Windows 7 for its current IE9. The company measures its performance by Windows 7 usage. there, IE9 passed Chrome and Firefox in usage and now trails only IE8.
The vast majority of browser usage today is from personal computers--92.2 percent. But with smartphones and tablets, mobile-device usage is generally increasing. In November, it reached a record 6.7 percent, according to Net Applications.
The top mobile browser by far is Apple's Safari, but it plunged 7 percentage points to 55.0 percent of usage in November. The Android browser had bumped Opera Mini aside in October for the second-place spot, but in November, Opera Mini clawed its way back. Opera's lightweight browser, which runs on thousands of phones, surged 7 percentage points to 20.1 percent, while the Android browser dropped 2.2 percentage points to 16.4 percent.
Opera also offers a full-fledged browser, Opera Mobile, for higher-end smartphones. But that remains relatively rare at 0.4 percent of mobile browser usage.
Mobile browser usage is small but growing.
Mobile browser usage is small but growing.


(VIA: CNET)