Muslims generally use the term "Halal" to designate food items that they are allowed to eat under the Islamic law (like fish). The opposite of "halal" is ‘haraam’, another Arabic term which is used for food products that Muslims are forbidden from eating (like pork).


This page describes in detail how stuff is classified as Halal or Haram according to Islam. And its not just about food, the term Halal can refer to any action that is permitted under the Quran while prohibited actions are known as "Haram".


A Search Engine for Muslims (and your Kids)


Extending the Halal and Haram concept to the Internet, Ramadan Kareem has created a search engine called I am Halal that might just prevent you (Muslims and Non-Muslims alike) from "accidentally" bumping into any explicit (or "Haram") content on the Internet.


Unlike Safe Search in Google which simply removes all adult sites from search results, I-Am-Halal, which uses search results from Yahoo, employs a double-layered filter.






When you type a search query (e.g. sex) that can potentially retrieve "haram" search results, the search engine would require you to confirm whether you really want to see those search results. When you say yes, it will fetch the relevant pages but will still filter out content that is not deemed as family-safe.


The search results page will also contain thumbnail images of web pages alongside the site links and description. And in addition to websites, you may also use IAmHalal.com to search for images and news stories on the web.


I am actually quite impressed with "I Am Halal" and, other than the religious side of things, this is something good for your kids as well. For instance, if they type a query that is bound to return explicit results, the search engine would simply refuse to work for that query.


Original post http://www.labnol.org/internet/safe-internet-search/10604/. Thanks to Labnol !!!

Hi All,

Read the official release of Google regarding their new Operating System, Chrome OS. Offical Google Blog.

It's been an exciting nine months since we launched the Google Chrome browser. Already, over 30 million people use it regularly. We designed Google Chrome for people who live on the web — searching for information, checking email, catching up on the news, shopping or just staying in touch with friends. However, the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web. So today, we're announcing a new project that's a natural extension of Google Chrome — the Google Chrome Operating System. It's our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be.


Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we're already talking to partners about the project, and we'll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.

Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.

Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform.

Google Chrome OS is a new project, separate from Android. Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks. Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems. While there are areas where Google Chrome OS and Android overlap, we believe choice will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including Google.

We hear a lot from our users and their message is clear — computers need to get better. People want to get to their email instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up. They want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them. They want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files. Even more importantly, they don't want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates. And any time our users have a better computing experience, Google benefits as well by having happier users who are more likely to spend time on the Internet.

We have a lot of work to do, and we're definitely going to need a lot of help from the open source community to accomplish this vision. We're excited for what's to come and we hope you are too. Stay tuned for more updates in the fall and have a great summer.

The History

Founded in 2007, Scour was originally named Aftervote.com, a search engine with an AJAX backbone with one mission: to deliver the most relevant results as efficiently as possible. Almost exactly 1 year later, Aftervote was acquired by Internext media, owner and operator of the ABCSearch Network and re-branded to Scour.com.

The Mission

Scour's purpose is to bridge the gap between searchers and relevant results. By providing a platform for the user to vote and comment on relevancy, searchers connect with one another creating a true social search community, attained through innovative solutions to meet the needs of today's web searchers.
So, login and get active! Play a part in the Scour community and get rewarded for what you already do- Search!

Click here to join Scour.com

A new search engine dubbed Cuil is hoping to offer a rival to the likes of Google, Yahoo and Ask.

Cuil is pronounced 'cool' and comes from an old Irish word meaning 'knowledge'.

Continue reading here or read the original article in VNUNet.com

The site has indexed 120 billion web pages, which it claims is three times more than any other search engine, and results are organised by ideas rather than just rankings. Cuil also boasts complete user privacy.

The new search engine will attempt to analyse the context of each page and the concepts behind each query, thereby grouping similar results together and sorting them by category.

These groups are divided by tabs which aim to clarify subjects, offer images to identify topics and search refining suggestions.

"The web continues to grow at a fantastic rate and other search engines are unable to keep up with it," said Tom Costello, chief executive and co-founder of Cuil.

"Cuil presents searchers with content-based results, not just popular ones, providing different and more insightful answers that illustrate the vastness and the variety of the web."

However, it seems that the new site has been more popular than its makers had anticipated, as the servers seem to have buckled under the strain.

Many users trying to access the site are seeing an error message which reads: "We'll be back soon ..."

"Due to overwhelming interest, our Cuil servers are running a bit hot right now. The search engine is momentarily unavailable as we add more capacity. Thanks for your patience," the notice says.

Article Credit: VNUNet.com