2013-03-22

A new study suggests that the universe is 80 million years older than previously thought, scientists said today. The study’s findings also help back up a theory about what happened just after the Big Bang


A new study suggests that the universe is 80 million years older than previously thought, scientists said today. The study’s findings also help back up a theory about what happened just after the Big Bang. Learn more: http://yhoo.it/13gjR2e

(Photo: AP/ESA, Planck Collaboration via NASA)
Photo: A new study suggests that the universe is 80 million years older than previously thought, scientists said today. The study’s findings also help back up a theory about what happened just after the Big Bang. Learn more: http://yhoo.it/13gjR2e

(Photo: AP/ESA, Planck Collaboration via NASA)
A new examination of what is essentially the universe's birth certificate allows astronomers to tweak the age, girth and speed of the cosmos, more secure in their knowledge of how it evolved, what it's made of and its ultimate fate.
Sure, the universe suddenly seems to be showing its age, now calculated at 13.8 billion years — 80 million years older than scientists had thought. It's got about 3 percent more girth — technically it's more matter than mysterious dark energy — and it is expanding about 3 percent more slowly.
But with all that comes the wisdom for humanity. Scientists seem to have gotten a good handle on the Big Bang and what happened just afterward, and may actually understand a bit more about the cosmic question of how we are where we are.
All from a baby picture of fossilized light and sound.
The snapshot from a European satellite had scientists from Paris to Washington celebrating a cosmic victory of knowledge Thursday — basic precepts that go back all the way to Einstein and relativity.
The Planck space telescope mapped background radiation from the early universe — now calculated at about 13.8 billion years old. The results bolstered a key theory called "inflation," which says the universe burst from subatomic size to its vast expanse in a fraction of a second just after the Big Bang that created the cosmos.
"We've uncovered a fundamental truth of the universe," said George Efstathiou, director of the Kavli Institute for Cosmology at the University of Cambridge who announced the Planck findings in Paris. "There's less stuff that we don't understand by a tiny amount."
The map of the universe's evolution — in sound echoes and fossilized light going back billions of years — reinforces some predictions made decades ago solely on the basis of mathematical concepts.
"We understand the very early universe potentially better than we understand the bottom of our oceans," said Bob Nichols, director of the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation at the University of Portsmouth in Britain. "We as humanity put a satellite into space, we predicted what it should see and saw it."
Physicist Sean Carroll of the California Institute of Technology, who was not involved in the project, called it "a big pat on the back for our understanding of the universe."
"In terms of describing the current universe, I think we have a right to say we're on the right track," he added.
Other independent scientists said the results were comparable on a universal scale to the announcement earlier this month by a different European physics group on a subatomic level — with the finding of the Higgs boson particle that explains mass in the universe.
"What a wonderful triumph of the mathematical approach to describing nature. The precision is breathtaking," Brian Greene, a Columbia University physicist, said in an email Thursday. "The satellite is measuring temperature variations in space — which arose from processes that took place almost 14 billion years ago — to 1 part in a million. Amazing."
The Big Bang theory says the universe was smaller than an atom in the beginning when, in a split second, it exploded, cooled and expanded faster than the speed of light — an idea that scientists call inflation. It's based in part on Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity — from about 90 years ago.
"The universe is described amazingly well by a simple model," said Charles Lawrence, the lead Planck scientist for NASA, which took part in the research. "What is new is how well the model fits both the old data and the new data from Planck."
The $900 million Planck space telescope, launched in 2009, is named for the German physicist Max Planck, the originator of quantum physics. It has spent 15 1/2 months mapping the sky, examining so-called light fossils and sound echoes from the Big Bang by looking at background radiation. When the light first burst out, it was blinding, but it is now fractions of a degree above absolute zero, Lawrence said.
The space telescope is expected to keep transmitting data until late this year, when it runs out of cooling fluid.
Planck's examination of the Big Bang's afterglow set the universe's age at about 13.8 billion years. Scientists often round up to 14 billion years anyway, and Caltech's Carroll said an additional 100 million years is nothing — like adding a month to the age of a 13-year-old. But 100 million years is important, countered Planck scientist Martin White: "100 million years here and there really start to add up."
The new results also mean there's slightly less dark energy in the universe than scientists figured. Instead of 71.4 percent of the universe being that mysterious force, it's 68.3 percent. This dark energy is smoothly spread throughout the universe and gives the "push" to its expansion, Carroll said.
The results also slightly boosted the amount of dark matter in the universe — up to 26.8 percent — and more normal matter, up to 4.9 percent. The concept known as the Hubble constant, which measures how fast the universe is expanding, was adjusted to be about 3 percent slower than scientists had thought.
But the bigger picture was how Planck fit the inflation theory, which physicists came up with more than 30 years ago.
Inflation tries to explain some nagging problems left over from the Big Bang. Other space probes have shown that the geometry of the universe is predominantly flat, but the Big Bang said it should curve with time. Another problem was that opposite ends of space are so far apart that they could never have been near each other under the normal laws of physics, but early cosmic microwave background measurements show they must have been in contact.
Inflation says the universe swelled tremendously, going "from subatomic size to something as large as the observable universe in a fraction of a second," Greene said.
Planck shows that inflation is proving to be the best explanation for what happened just after the Big Bang, but that doesn't mean it is the right theory or that it even comes close to resolving all the outstanding problems in the theory, Efstathiou said.
There was an odd spike in some of the Planck temperature data that hinted at a preferred direction or axis that seemed to fit nicely with the angle of our solar system, which shouldn't be, he said.
But overall, Planck's results touched on mysteries of the universe that have already garnered scientists three different Nobel prizes. Scientists studying cosmic background radiation won Nobels in 1978 and 2006, and other work on dark energy won the Nobel in 2011.
At the news conference, Efstathiou said the pioneers of inflation theory should start thinking about their own Nobel prizes. Two of those theorists — Paul Steinhardt of Princeton and Andreas Albrecht of University of California Davis — said before the announcement that they were sort of hoping that their inflation theory would not be bolstered.
That's because taking inflation a step further leads to a sticky situation: An infinite number of universes.
To make inflation work, that split-second of expansion may not stop elsewhere like it does in theobservable universe, Albrecht and Steinhardt said. That means there are places where expansion is zooming fast, with an infinite number of universes that stretch to infinity, they said.
Steinhardt dismissed any talk of a Nobel.
"This is about how humans figure out how the universe works and where it's going," Steinhardt said.
Efstathiou said the Planck results ultimately could spin off 


2013-03-20

RAT Remote Access Tool

From hundreds of miles away, a man sits at his monitor watching an unsuspecting woman use her computer, undress and go to sleep. She has no idea she’s being watched. The remote attacker has installed software to control her webcam. What’s worse, he’s recording all of her actions and posting those videos on YouTube or trading the videos with other voyeurs online.

R.A.T. Remote Access Tools This scenario is happening more and more; there are myriad photos and videos available online indicating the practice is getting easier and more popular with an online community called Ratters. They use Remote Access Tools (R.A.T.s) to activate the webcams of compromised computers and record video of unsuspecting users. They call the owners of these infected computers “slaves,” and compromising videos, especially of female slaves, are openly traded, and posted on YouTube.

Online Forums of Ratters Grow The practice of taking over a computer is not new. Hackers have produced software for years that gives complete control of a machine to a remote attacker. Aspects of these tools are also common in the IT field for offering remote tech support. But what’s new is the community of remote attackers who have formed in hacking forums to share or trade access to the enslaved computers and talk about their exploits.

In a detailed article on Ars Technica, journalist Nate Anderson probes into the members at hackforums.net, which he says has more than 134 pages of posts featuring captured images and video of female slaves. Some are recorded from webcams, and others are videos or images found on the hard drives of compromised computers that their owners thought were private and secure.

Scare Tactics Beyond invading a victim’s privacy, Ratters have tools in their software to scare or annoy remote victims. They can open and close their DVD drives, display graphic images on screen, have the computer read aloud using text-to-speech applications, or even hide the start button.

Hard to Police While this type of unauthorized computer intrusion is clearly against the law, the fight against Ratting is a challenge. There are many free or low-cost programs already available online, attackers are not usually local or in close proximity to victims, and while any one forum of Ratters could be shut down, others could easily pop up elsewhere.

How Victims Are Infected Victims are infected with remote access tools the same way many viruses spread: opening attachments, drive-by downloads from sketchy sites, downloading files from torrents or file-sharing sites, or being tricked into clicking links through social media sites.

How to Protect Yourself The good news is that these tools can be detected and held at bay. First, pay attention to the little light next to your webcam. If at anytime it’s lit and you aren’t using your webcam, find out why it’s engaged by running either an antivirus program or hitting ctrl-alt-del to see what processes are actively running. If you see anything suspicious, it’s time to disconnect from the Internet and disinfect.

[RELATED: Does Your PC Have a Virus – Or Is It Just Slow?]

Best practices to stay safe include using a firewall, keeping all software up to date, and using an anti-virus program. Also, staying away from torrent sites and sketchy websites will add a layer of protection, as many Ratters seed files on these sites disguised as free videos, music or software programs. If your paranoia is high and you really want to be sure your webcam isn’t spying on you, some have suggested taping a piece of paper over the camera, but this does nothing to protect your information or image/video files already on your computer.

2013-03-13

Less than 11 hours after Rob Thomas and Kristen Bell announced a Kickstarter campaign,fans have raised the $2 million necessary to finance a Veronica Mars movie. It’s officially on!


Veronica Mars' movie is a go! 'My mind is blown' says Rob Thomas -- EXCLUSIVE

Kristen-Bell_510x317.jpg
Image Credit: Scott Garfield/UPN
You did it, Marshmallows!
Less than 11 hours after Rob Thomas and Kristen Bell announced a Kickstarter campaign,fans have raised the $2 million necessary to finance a Veronica Mars movie. It’s officially on!
“My mind is blown. I’ve been fantasizing about this and had to tell myself, ‘Stop it, Rob, you’re being silly. You’re setting yourself up for disappointment,’” the Mars creator tells EW. “And now today has exceeded the wildest pipe dream I let myself entertain. Holy cow. We better make a good movie. These amazing fans have stepped up. We better deliver.”
“I knew Veronica Mars fans were cool, but I had no idea they could rally with such power. They are unstoppable — just like Veronica. I will have a permanent blush on my face, feeling so lucky to be associated with this entire thing,” says Bell.
The goal was to raise $2 million in 30 days. Warner Bros. Digital Distribution has agreed to put the movie into production and pick up the tab for marketing, promotion, and distribution. But exhibiting a passion that broke Kickstarter records in just six hours, fans have been flocking to the site since the page went up at 7:30 a.m. PT.  And even though the goal has been reached, pledges can keep coming in.
In a previous interview with EW,  Thomas spilled details about the upcoming movie’s plot, which will include — no surprise — murder, mystery and a high-school reunion. It will film this summer and be released in early 2014.
Don’t know what all the fuss is about? Now is the perfect time to catch up: The entire three-season run is streaming in full over on TheWB.com (the show originally aired from 2004-2007).

Google's Android chief Andy Rubin steps down



By Gerry Shih and Edwin Chan
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Andy Rubin, the architect of Android, the world's top-selling mobile operating system, has decided to step down as Google Inc combines mobile software divisions under one roof, the company said on Wednesday.
Google appointed Sundar Pichai, the executive overseeing its Chrome web browser and applications like Google Drive and Gmail, to take over Rubin's responsibilities, hinting at how the company with the dominant Internet search engine intends to address the rise of mobile devices.
In a blog post, Larry Page, Google's chief executive and co-founder, credited Rubin for evangelizing Android several years ago and building it into a free, open-source platform that runs on nearly three-quarters of the world's smartphones and is used by the world's largest handset manufacturers, from Samsung Electronics Co Ltd to HTC Corp.
"Having exceeded even the crazy ambitious goals we dreamed of for Android — and with a really strong leadership team in place — Andy's decided it's time to hand over the reins and start a new chapter at Google," Page wrote. "Andy, more moonshots please!
The merger of the Chrome and Android divisions helps resolve a longstanding tension in the Mountain View, California-based company's corporate strategy, and reflects a convergence of mobile and desktop software.
When Google poured resources into launching the Chrome web browser five years ago, the company laid out a vision of the Internet and an ecosystem of Google apps based on the Web. But the Android operating system, acquired by Google in 2005, has also been a runaway success, enabling third-party handset makers like Samsung to overtake Apple Inc while also spawning a massive economy of third-party apps that are only loosely affiliated with Google.
Under Pichai's direction, Google has released several netbook computers using the Chrome operating system. Last month, when Pichai unveiled the Chromebook Pixel, the first Chrome-based laptop with a touch-screen interface, analysts noted that Chrome and Android appeared to be on converging paths.
"You had this Chrome OS and this Android Group that were building in many overlapping products," said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Gartner.
Gartenberg argued that despite Android's overwhelming popularity, it is Chrome that remains at the core of Google's strategy.
"For Google, it's not about the platform, but the ecosystem," Gartenberg said. "They're more concerned long-term about Google Docs, Google Voice, Google Books, and less about helping Samsung sell more phones."
Chrome, Gartenberg added, "is the purest expression of Google's philosophy."
FUTURE ROLE
Page was mum on Rubin's future role. Some analysts speculated that Rubin, an executive with a knack for developing products, could take on one of the company's many budding projects such as its Glass eyewear or the self-driving car.
"If he really has the magic touch perhaps he can create something else within Google," said Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC Partners, who added that it was better for Google to have a more "cohesive" mobile brand.
Still, it remains unclear how Pichai would seek to merge Chrome and Android, if at all. Microsoft Corp, for example, recently introduced its Windows 8 operating system that was designed for both touch-screen desktop devices and Windows smartphones like the Nokia Lumia, while its Surface tablet further blurred the distinctions between form factors.
In his blog post, Page said Pichai would "double down" on Android.
"Sundar has a talent for creating products that are technically excellent yet easy to use — and he loves a big bet," Page wrote. "So while Andy's a really hard act to follow, I know Sundar will do a tremendous job doubling down on Android as we work to push the ecosystem forward."
Android is now installed on roughly two-thirds of the world's smartphones, supplanting Apple Inc at the pinnacle of the fast-moving mobile arena.
Android tablets are also expected to overtake Apple's iPad in terms of shipments in 2013, IT research house IDC predicted on Tuesday.
But Android's explosive growth - and the companies it has boosted - have also concerned Google's leadership. Rubin himself has warned other Google executives that Samsung could use its heft to renegotiate its ad revenue-sharing deals with Google, the Wall Street Journal reported last month.
LEADING VOICE
The re-shuffle reinforces Pichai, a senior vice president, as one of the leading voices within Google.
Trained as an engineer in India before moving to the United States, Pichai holds degrees from Stanford University and the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. He joined Google in 2004.
In 2008, Pichai aggressively pushed Google's Chrome browser, when Microsoft Corp's Explorer lorded over the market. Chrome now commands a roughly 35 percent market share according to Web traffic analyzers StatCounter.
He is also credited with the development of some of the company's most successful cloud-based apps, such as Calendar and Gmail, and has also steered Google Drive.
"Today we're living in a new computing environment," Page wrote. "People are really excited about technology and spending a lot of money on devices."
Google shares closed down 0.3 percent at $825.31.

Argentina's Bergoglio elected as new Pope Francis

Argentina's Bergoglio elected as new Pope Francis Reuters - 1 hr ago

By Philip Pullella and Barry Moody

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina was elected in a surprise choice to be the new leader of the troubled Roman Catholic Church on Wednesday, taking the name Francis I and becoming the first non-European pontiff in nearly 1,300 years.

Pope Francis, 76, appeared on the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica just over an hour after white smoke poured from a chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel to signal 115 cardinal electors had chosen him to lead the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics.

"Pray for me," the new pontiff, dressed in the white robes of a pope for the first time, urged a crowd of tens of thousands of people waiting in the square below.

The choice of Bergoglio, who is the first Latin American and first Jesuit pope, was announced by French cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran with the Latin words "Habemus Papam" ("We have a pope.")

Francis has became the 266th pontiff in the Church's 2,000-year history at a time of great crisis, with the church under fire over a child sex abuse scandal and torn by infighting in the Vatican bureaucracy.

Although a conservative theologically, Francis is known for his concern for the poor and is expected to bring a radical change of style to the Church leadership, indicated by his choice for the first time of the name of St Francis of Assisi, who died in 1226 after living a life of poverty and simplicity.

He immediately showed the difference from his predecessor Benedict, an aloof theologian, with a gesture of humility, asking the waiting crowd to bless him before he blessed them.

Bergoglio shunned the papal limousine after his appearance on the balcony and chose to take a shuttle bus with other cardinals back to the Vatican residence where they are staying, for an evening meal.

Bergoglio is known as a humble man who leads an austere and sober life without ostentation, travelling by public transport and living in a small apartment outside Buenos Aires.

He is willing to challenge powerful interests and is deeply concerned about the social inequalities in Argentina and elsewhere in Latin America. He has had a sometimes difficult relationship with President Cristina Fernandez and her late husband and predecessor Nestor Kirchner.

Francis has spoken out strongly against gay marriage, denouncing it in 2010 as "an attempt to destroy God's plan".

ARGENTINES JUBILANT

Jubilant Argentines poured into churches, some crying and praying, after the announcement at the Vatican. "This is a blessing for Argentina," one woman shouted on a Buenos Aires street.

"I hope he changes all the luxury that exists in the Vatican, that he steers the church in a more humble direction, something closer to the gospel," said Jorge Andres Lobato, a 73-year-old retired state prosecutor.

The election was enthusiastically welcomed elsewhere in Latin America too.

"We're happy because we have a new pope and because the choice of a Latin American shows that the Church is opening, is now focused on the entire Church. It's not just a church only focused on Europe," said Leonardo Steiner, general secretary of the national conference of Brazilian bishops.

Francis was not among the small group of front runners identified before the election. The Jesuit order to which he belongs was founded in the 16th century to serve the pope. It is best known for its work in education and the intellectual prowess of its members.

The monks at the convent of St. Francis in Assisi were overjoyed at the election of Bergoglio and his decision to take the name Francis for a pontiff for the first time.

"St. Francis still points to the path of humility and evangelical simplicity," said the abbot, Father Mauro Gambetti.

Italian theologian Massimo Faggioli told Reuters: "I don't expect him to change on doctrine, but he is a more pastoral person. It seems that this pope will be more aware of what life is all about."

Faggioli, a professor at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, added: "He will have more room to make his message heard than Benedict did. The papacy needs to have an audience more open to listen to what the pope says. He is not an outsider. He didn't present himself as a reformer with hatchet in hand."

Bergoglio was born into a middle-class family of seven, his father an Italian immigrant railway worker and his mother a housewife.

Replacing Pope Benedict, who resigned last month, he overturned one of the main assumptions before the election, that the new pope would be relatively young.

Bergoglio is the oldest of most of the possible candidates and was barely mentioned in feverish speculation about the top contenders before the conclave.

He is the first non-European pope since Syrian-born Gregory III in the eighth century, and the third successive non-Italian pontiff.

The Vatican said his inaugural mass would be on March 19.

U.S. President Barack Obama said the election of Francis "speaks to the strength and vitality of a region that is increasingly shaping our world."

"PRAY FOR BENEDICT"

In brief remarks from the balcony of St. Peter's, Francis called on the faithful to pray for Benedict and said the Church was setting off on a "journey of fraternity, of love, of trust".

It seemed the cardinal electors "went to the end of the world" to find him, he said.

The Vatican said Francis would visit Benedict soon at his temporary home in the summer papal residence outside Rome.

Thousands of people sheltering from heavy rain under a sea of umbrellas had occupied the square all day to await the decision and the crowd swelled as soon as the white smoke emerged.

They cheered wildly and raced towards the basilica as the smoke billowed from a narrow makeshift chimney and St Peter's bells rang.

The tens of thousands in the square cheered even more loudly when Francis appeared, the first pontiff to take that name. "Viva il Papa (pope)," they chanted.

Front runners at the conclave had included Brazilian Odilo Scherer, and Italy's Angelo Scola, who would have returned the papacy to traditional Italian hands after 35 years of the German Benedict XVI and Polish John Paul II.

The decision by cardinal electors sequestered in a secret conclave in the Sistine Chapel came sooner than many experts expected because there were several front runners before the vote to replace Pope Benedict.

The cardinals faced a thorny task in finding a leader capable of overcoming crises caused by priestly child abuse and a leak of secret papal documents that uncovered corruption and rivalry inside the Church government or Curia.

Francis will head a Church also shaken by rivalry from other churches, the advance of secularism, especially in its European heartland, and allegations of scandal at the Vatican bank.

The series of crises is thought to have contributed to Benedict's decision to become the first pontiff in 600 years to abdicate.

RIVAL TO RATZINGER IN 2005

Bergoglio was a moderate rival candidate at the 2005 conclave to the conservative Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who went on to become Benedict.

Italian media say he impressed cardinals in pre-conclave meetings where they discussed the Church's problems.

Reserved and humble, Francis does not fit the profile of an active preacher that many cardinals had previously said they were seeking. He studied chemistry before joining the priesthood nearly a decade after losing a lung to respiratory illness.

The secret conclave began on Tuesday night with a first ballot and four ballots were held on Wednesday. Francis obtained the required two thirds majority in the fifth ballot.

The previous four popes were all elected within two or three days.

In preparatory meetings before the conclave, the cardinals seemed divided between those who believe the new pontiff must be a strong manager to get the dysfunctional bureaucracy under control and others who are looking more for a proven pastoral figure to revitalize their faith across the globe.

Apart from Brazil's Scherer and Italy's Scola, a host of other candidates from numerous nations had also been mentioned as potential popes -including U.S. cardinals Timothy Dolan and Sean O'Malley, Canada's Marc Ouellet and Argentina's Leonardo Sandri.

But the front runners' list never mentioned Bergoglio.


2013-03-07

Hon Hai chief in Tokyo for talks on Sharp deal: media



TAIPEI (Reuters) - The chairman of Hon Hai Precision will meet Sharp Corp executives this week in a bid to revive stalled talks over Hon Hai's plans to buy a stake in Sharp, local media reported on Friday.
Terry Gou of Hon Hai, a major supplier of Apple products, is currently in Tokyo, the Economic Dailyand the Commercial Times said, citing unidentified sources.
Gou's move comes after Samsung agreed to buy a 3 percent stake in Sharp for $111 million earlier this week.
This would be the first meeting between Gou and Sharp executives in seven months, the Economic Daily said.
Talks to sell a 9.9 percent stake in Sharp to Hon Hai have stalled since last year over differences about executive control, as a March deadline looms.

2013-03-05

EU regulators set to fine Microsoft for breaking browser pledge

EU regulators set to fine Microsoft for breaking browser pledge

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union anti-trust regulators are set to hit Microsoft with a hefty fine on Wednesday for breaking a promise to offer consumers using its Windows system a choice of rival Internet browsers, people familiar with the case said.

EU anti-trust chief Joaquin Almunia is expected to use the fine - which could run into hundreds of millions of euros - to set an example after the software giant became the first company to break a promise made to end an anti-trust probe.

Almunia will announce his decision at 6:30 a.m. ET, the sources said. Reuters reported last week that EU regulators would fine Microsoft before the end of March.

EU rules mean the company could be penalized $7.4 billion or 10 percent of its fiscal 2012 revenues although regulators are not expected to levy such a high fine.

The fines relate to an anti-trust battle in Europe more than a decade ago. In order to avoid a penalty then, Microsoft promised to offer European consumers a choice of rival browsers.

EU anti-trust regulators said this did not happen for a period during February 2011 and July 2012, a lapse Microsoft blamed on a technical error. It has said it since tightened internal procedures to avoid a repeat.

The European Commission has already fined Microsoft 1.6 billion euros ($2.1 billion) to date for not providing data at fair prices to rivals and for tying its media player to its operating system.

The latest lapse did not escape the notice of Microsoft's board, which cut the bonus of chief executive Steve Ballmer last year, partly because of the Windows division's failure to provide a browser choice screen as required by the European Commission, according to an annual proxy filing.

Both the European Commission and Microsoft declined to comment.

Microsoft's share of the European browser market has roughly halved since 2008 to 24 percent in January, below the 35 percent held by Google's Chrome and Mozilla's 29 percent share, according to Web traffic analysis company StatCounter.

Google shopping express

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc began testing a same-day delivery service with retailers in recent weeks, the latest move into Amazon.com Inc's e-commerce turf by the world's largest Internet search company.

Google Shopping Express helps local retail stores sell products online and have the items delivered to shoppers the same day, according to a person familiar with the test.

Google arranges for third parties, such as couriers, to pick the products up from local stores and deliver the items to shoppers. Neither the stores nor Google handle the deliveries, the person explained on condition of anonymity because the service is still in the early development stage.

Tom Fallows, a Google product management director with over a decade of e-commerce experience, is running Google Shopping Express. The test is focused on the San Francisco Bay Area and has been going for at least a month, the person added.

Google has not yet decided how to charge for the service. It is considering an annual subscription, similar to Amazon, which charges $79 a year for free two-day delivery of many items purchased on Amazon.com. However, Google may also charge a small fee each time a shopper orders through the service, the person said.

Google Shopping Express is the latest sign that the company is expanding from its online search roots into e-commerce. It also suggests that Google may be building an online marketplace that connects merchants and consumers, a business model that has made Amazon and eBay Inc successful in the United States.

"Google needs to become a marketplace," said Scot Wingo, chief executive of ChannelAdvisor, which helps merchants sell more online. "This is another step." EBay is an investor in ChannelAdvisor.

Amazon's marketplace business, which lets other merchants sell through its website, has grown rapidly in recent years and has been a big driver of Amazon's revenue and profit growth.

This success has encouraged more shoppers to search for products on Amazon.com, rather than going to Google - a potential threat to Google's search dominance online.

In the past, consumers would search for an item on Google.com, an Amazon sponsored link would pop up, the shopper would click through, Google would get paid for the ad and Amazon got the sale.

"Everyone was happy. At least they used to be," said Tom Allason, founder of Shutl, a startup that provides same-day delivery for retailers' online orders. "Today Google needs a new play because increasingly consumers are cutting out Google and going direct to Amazon for their product search."

Last year, Google changed its free product search offering to a paid service called Product Listing Ads, a move aimed at generating more revenue and profit from e-commerce.

In February, Google acquired Channel Intelligence, a $125 million deal that brought the search giant lots of data on e-commerce transactions. Longer-term, that could help Google build a product catalog, a crucial ingredient for an online marketplace that would compete with Amazon and eBay, according to Wingo.

"We view Google Shopping Express as another step in the evolution of Google Shopping and potential move to a full-blown marketplace," Shawn Milne, an analyst at Janney Montgomery Scott, wrote in a note to investors on Tuesday.

Amazon has an advantage because it already has a network of large distribution warehouses, known as fulfillment centers, to deliver goods sold through its online marketplace, according to Wingo.

Google is likely taking a different approach, building a network of loosely affiliated local retail stores that, in effect, act like small fulfillment centers, Wingo explained.

EBay took a similar approach when it acquired Milo in late 2010. Milo let shoppers search for products available to buy in retail stores nearby.

The business formed the foundation of eBay's Local Shopping business and is a crucial part of eBay Now, a same-day delivery service that the company began testing in San Francisco and New York last year.

2013-03-01

Web pioneer Vint Cerf envisions a futuristic Internet where people communicate with aliens

One of the Internet’s founding fathers envisions a bright future that one day may involve communicating with animals and even aliens using the Web. During a speech given at the annual TED conference, Internet pioneer Vint Cerf described how technology can be used to communicate with other species, explaining that the Internet isn’t just a way of connecting machines but a way for people to interact.

[More from BGR: Time Warner Cable’s arrogance perfectly illustrates why the cable industry is so disliked ]

“Now what’s important about what these people are doing is that they’re beginning to learn how to communicate with species that are not us — but share a common sensory environment,” he said about the other event speakers. “We’re beginning to explore what it means to communicate with something that isn’t just another person.”

[More from BGR: BlackBerry coup confirmed: iPhone, Android users make up half of Z10 sales in Canada, one-third in UK ]

Cerf noted that developments like the “Internet of Things,” which refers to objects and their virtual representations in an Internet-like structure, will bring more connections to the Internet.

“All kinds of possible sentient beings may be interconnected through this system,” he said. “I can’t wait to see these experiments unfold,” adding that projects like the “interplanetary Internet” system used by the Mars Curiosity rover to transmit imagery to Earth will further help humans interact with other species.

“What that means is that what we’re learning with these interactions with other species will teach us, ultimately, how we might interact with an alien from another world,” he said. “I can hardly wait.”

Pope Benedict XVI last day as Pope

Pope Benedict XVI greets the crowd from the window of the Pope's summer residence of Castel Gandolfo, the scenic town where he will spend his first post-Vatican days and make his last public blessing as pope,Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)