Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing, looks set to take on search giant Google, with their new search feature by indexing Twitter. For a start, they are indexing prominent Twitterers, and Bing users who make a search may pick up information from Twits from these people.

On one hand, this is an advancement and we have additional sources of information available through using a search engine but what worries me is that when more Twits are indexed, we may be fed with misinformation like in the recent celebrity hoax following the sudden death of Michael Jackon, where even 80’s pop star Rick Astley fell victim to.

Well, I guess it is up to Bing’s technology to filter out the random Twitter chats from solid information and provide users with something worth our time checking out.

By a strange turn of events, I have not stepped out of the house for more than a month already. No, I am not ill. The thing that amazed me is that even without going out of the house, I could still survive.

Of course, I have family members to run errands for me but for a lot of other things, I resorted to the web, especially shopping. Even I am amazed at the wealth of goods and services I could purchase online, from apparel to home medical supplies to personal care items.

I am so grateful for this convenience, you know. I wonder how people from my parents’ generation survived without this convenience and freedom to shop even at home and have goods delivered to their home!

And I am not missing it! I don’t think that I have ever used it before, actually, since its launch in August, 2004. Perhaps it is just the way I am connected to the internet. I use my desktop or laptop most of the time and both have MSN Messenger and Windows Live Messenger installed and ready to connect once my systems are connected to the internet.

When I am on the move, I have my mobiles with me and I would hardly use MSN or Windows Live Messenger. If my battery could withstand being connected to the internet for long hours, Fring would be the order of the day.

Today, 30th June, 2009, not only is Microsoft retiring MSN Web Messenger, we will also see the retirement of Microsoft Encarta, Microsoft Money and sadly, Microsoft OneCare.

Following news of Michael Jackson’s hospitalization and subsequently, death, Google, Twitter, MySpace, Facebook and even Wikipedia servers were all tested to the maximum thanks to web queries from fans of Michael Jackson who all wanted to know the latest updates. My friends on Facebook were all trying to provide “breaking news” and there was no need to search for news on media sites or entertainment blogs.

Music websites like Amazon and iTunes all saw a tremendous surge in sales of Michael Jackson albums and tracks which strangely, propelled Michael Jackson with the the kind of popularity that has eluded him for years and which he has continuously tried to recapture even till the end of his days, culminating to a 50-night show in London which would now never happen.

I also grew up listening to Michael Jackson and I guess like everyone in my generation, we are all web savvy people now who treat Google, Twitter and Facebook as our online homes, who would hit the web whenever we are looking for information, especially when we needed confirmation on big news like the death of Michael Jackson.

A friend, who is a problogger and makes a living from Google AdSense, asked if I have read of any bloggers complaining about lower revenue from AdSense. I told him no but it is not because I didn’t come across any, but because I haven’t been visiting blogs lately.

I did notice, though, that my own AdSense revenue was halved lately but I wasn’t alarmed because I thought that is was because I couldn’t find time to update my blogs as often as I would like, hence my blog traffic has decreased, lowering click through rate and impression as well.

Anyway, what surprised me was that I discovered a couple of days ago that my unpaid earnings were deducted by almost 50%. I know that Google audits our account every month but this has never happened before. At least, even if it did happen, it was negligible so much so that I did not notice the slight difference in payment, and never by such a quantum. I was caught off guard because I certainly did not notice any discrepancy in the clicks. I wonder if I am facing this loss alone!

Well, it looks like it is bad news for those of us who have been enjoying the older version of Yahoo! Messenger. I actually use three versions of Yahoo! Messengers on different systems. One is an old version, one 8.x and one is the latest version.

Out of the three, I actually prefer the old no frills version since I don’t use Yahoo! Messenger much except as an email alert and occasionally chat online with it. Most of my friends had migrated to MSN (Windows Live Messenger).

The other day, I logged in to my old version Yahoo! Messenger only to receive a small pop up system message that says that my version of Yahoo! Messenger is already obsolete and I would not be able to log in to my account from August, 2009.

I definitely am not happy with being forced to upgrade to the latest version, or at least version 8.x, since like I said, I use three different versions and the old one is still the best. I don’t use those frills that hog computer resources and memory and what about those advertisements?

If you are a Facebooker, you should log into your Facebook account right now and claim your Facebook username if you haven’t done so yet. I claimed my name yesterday and am happy that I am able to use my own name.

You see, what Facebook is allowing is not just any ID but a shortcut to our profile, which prior to this, is made up of a string of numbers. Now, with this username, we could easily direct our friends and contacts to our Facebook profile by just giving them our Facebook username.

For example, if your name is James Bond, your Facebook username could be james.bond. However, if it has already been claimed by another person who shares the same name, then I am afraid you would have to opt for something dumb like james1.bond or james.bond2. That’s why it’s important to claim your username as soon as possible.

Once you have selected your Facebook username, you cannot change or delete it. Doesn’t it sound like selecting an email handle for a new email account?