Google announces goo.gl, URL Shortener

Google, the company that made searching on the web synonymous with it's brand, the company behind gmail and android.
They seem to be expanding into an increasing number of markets daily. With the last couple of weeks busy, with many announcements made. Today, another was made, regarding its new & free URL shortening service, goo.gl, for use within its other products.

URL shorteners are great for services like Twitter, where characters are counted in posts, or for when a fully-sized link would look rather out of place. There tons of alternatives to choose from, but at the moment, there are only a few very popular ones (such as bit.ly). Google's new offering is only available through its own products, according to the blog post on the subject, but it comes with a few benefits, listed below.

• Stability: Google's scalable, multi-datacenter infrastructure provides great uptime and a reliable service to our users.
• Security: As we do with web search, shortened URLs are automatically checked to detect sites that may be malicious and warn users when the short URL resolves to such sites.
• Speed: At Google we like fast products and we've worked hard to ensure this service is quick. We'll continue to iterate and improve the speed of Google Url Shortener.

The proper link for the site, goo.gl, has nothing much to offer (as the service is limited to a couple products), but you can test out the Google URL Shortener (the official name) by using the Google Toolbar or FeedBurner.

Reinvent your desktop using BumpTop™

BumpTop™ is a fun, intuitive 3D desktop that keeps you organized and makes you more productive. Like a real desk, but better. Now with awesome mouse and multi-touch gestures!

A cool program! But sadly, many nice features are only found in the paid version.

Official website: BumpTop™

Microsoft DreamSpark

UPDATE: DreamSpark is available fo SP Students. Sign in with your school e-mail and select SP as your school.
DreamSpark is a student programme from Microsoft.  DreamSpark provides student with professional-level developer and design tools (from microsoft) at no charge.
The software provided are:

Your [Most] used app.

What's your current most used app on your computer(not workplace). You can check it via your XP/Vista/7 start menu provided you don't clean it.
[poll id="3"]
For others, you may want to [comment] about it.

New info on Microsoft’s free AV

Liveside has reported new information about Microsoft's new anti-malware product.

According to Liveside, Microsoft is considering the following names for it's new anti-malware program: Microsoft Security Essentials, Microsoft Antivirus Plus, Microsoft Personal Security, and Microsoft Security Fundamentals.

"Morro", has been in limited alpha testing, will be available for free to all licensed Windows users, and while there is no confirmed release date yet.

[Via Liveside]