The service will shut down on December 31 -- just one of more than 60 products that the company has discontinued over the past two years.
Yahoo started as a directory called "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web," named after the company's co-founders, Jerry Yang and David Filo.Getty Images
One of the Internet's earliest mainstays is going away by the end of the year.
Yahoo announced Friday that it's shutting down Yahoo Directory, along with two other products: Yahoo Education, a portal for education services, and Qwiki, an app for creating short movies from videos on a mobile device.
But the real significance, if only sentimentally, is the shutting down of Yahoo's Directory -- once the cornerstone of the company. The service, a search tool for a bygone era, lists popular sites by category, instead of surfacing search results by keyword, like search engines such as Google allow. Before Yahoo was Yahoo, company co-founders Jerry Yang and David Filo created the directory in 1994, calling it "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web."
"Yahoo was started nearly 20 years ago as a directory of websites that helped users explore the Internet," Jay Rossiter, Yahoo's senior vice president of the cloud platform group, said in a blog post. "While we are still committed to connecting users with the information they're passionate about, our business has evolved."
The directory will officially close December 31, and advertisers will be given details on getting upgraded to a new service, he said. The shutdown is part of the company's attempt to streamline its product offerings. The company has shuttered more than 60 products in the last two years, said Rossiter.
Yahoo did not immediately respond to a request for comment specifically on the Directory's shutdown.
Under CEO Marissa Mayer, the company has homed in on a mobile product strategy, refreshing all of those properties, including Yahoo Sports and Finance. Shutting down the less relevant products allows the company to shift resources around to where they're most needed, said Rossiter.
"With even more smart, innovative Yahoos focused on our core products -- search, communications, digital magazines and video -- we can deliver the best for our users," he said.
The streamlining comes as Yahoo looks to shore up excitement over its product line and attract advertisers, while Google and Facebook have become dominant players in the digital ad space. Last quarter, Yahoo's display ad revenue -- an important financial metric for the company -- slumped 7 percent.
As you settle into the social network (or wait for your invitation), learn about Ello's ad-free promise and find out how to navigate the interface.
Screenshot by Sharon Profis
By now, you've probably heard of Ello, the invite-only social network garnering attention for its radical approach to social networking. Find out why the site is seeing 35,000 hourly sign-ups, and why people are so willing to join yet another social network.
Why Ello is different
Ello is the anti-Facebook, and it has no problem stating that. The bare-bones, ad-free, so-minimalist-it-hurts social network was designed in response to the many controversial Facebook policies, especially the one that forces users to display their real names.
But when you look at Ello, it might not seem that much different than other social networks. It doesn't go out of its way to use innovative approaches to organizing your friends, discovering content, or enriching your experience. Google+, for instance, introduced Circles, confusing users before they even had a chance to set up their profile.
What you get is a hybrid between Tumblr and Twitter. Like Tumblr, you can post photos and written thoughts, long or short. Like Twitter, you can @mention people, and those mentions show up on your profile, as well as theirs.
Unadorned and intentionally sparse, the users and their content are the focus, while other site elements generally go unnoticed.
The ad-free, privacy-first promise
Ello promises to uphold its proposition and remain ad-free forever. The reason goes back to Ello's philosophy -- the only way to sell ads is by harvesting user data, and the company does not intend on doing that. In fact, Ello allows users to opt out of Google Analytics tracking, and details the ways in which it anonymizes user data.
Plenty of folks are dubious, but Ello responded to the skepticism by asserting its plans to find other streams of income. In a post, its founders stated plans to offer paid feature upgrades, which could be things like data exporting or profile enhancements.
Is there a "like" button?
Nope. We looked high and low, but there's no button to be found.
Remember that the Like button was created as a streamlined way to collect data about what users are interested in. It's easier than analyzing written posts -- if a user "likes" something, Facebook can easily package that sentiment for sale.
According to this post, it sounds like Ello will be adding its own version of this feature -- a "Love" button(seriously) which will function as a way for you to save posts for later reading.
Signing up
Those who remember Gmail Beta will feel nostalgic when they find out that signing up for Ello requires an invitation. Each new users is allotted 25 invites.
The social network is supposedly attracting about 35,000 invites per hour, so your chances of getting an invitation are pretty good.
Once you've gotten a golden ticket, signing up is simple. Ello asks you to choose a username, which is also your URL. Although you should probably choose something you plan on sticking with, it's good to know that you can change this at any time. You'll also be asked to choose a display name, which you can change at any time. In the spirit of Ello, you may choose to make it entirely anonymous.
The only other required information is your e-mail address. (Compare this to Facebook's sign-up, for example, which also requires a birth date and gender.)
Customizing (or not customizing) your profile
Like every other social network, you'll get your own profile page, which can be accessed via Ello.co/(your user name). By default, this is accessible by anyone, whether or not they have an Ello account.
From your profile page, click the large circle to upload a photo. If you want it to look perfect, be sure to resize it to 340x340, or else Ello will automatically crop it. (And you probably won't like it.)
If you scroll down, you'll also see that you can upload a header image, for which the recommended size is 1,800x1,013. If you upload anything smaller or larger, Ello will do its best to make it fit. (Mine was much smaller than that, and it looks fine.)
You're almost done customizing your profile! All that's left to do is click the gear icon to the left of your profile picture, and fill in any blank fields, like a short bio or links. As long as you insert spaces, multiple links can be included.
Personal settings
Ello's profile settings are minimal, but what they lack in quantity, they make up in importance. At the bottom of your settings page, take your time to consider each option. For example, Ello uses Google Analytics, which tracks visitors and anonymizes their activity. Unlike any other major social network, Ello lets you opt out of this activity.
You may also choose to disable the Public Profile option, which prevents people who are not members of Ello from seeing your profile. Note that anyone within the network can still see your profile and posts.
Finally, there's a Delete button. When you click it, your profile will be removed from Ello. According to the Terms of Service, however, Ello retains the right to "store backups of your content, even after it is deleted or after you delete your account."
Friends vs. Noise
Your Ello "news feed" can be filtered in two ways: Friends and Noise. When you're viewing the Friends tab, you'll see complete posts from anyone you've marked as a Friend. In the Noise tab, you'll see a Pinterest-like grid of posts from people you've marked as Noise. It's designed this way so that you can quickly scroll through content you're less interested in.
You can categorize people as "Noise" or "Friend" from their profiles. When you click "Friend" on someone's profile, you are simply following their posts, not sending them a friend request. In this way, it's a lot like Twitter.
Anyone you mark as "Noise" won't be alerted of your choice. You're the only one who can see how you've categorized people.
Tip: You can toggle between the grid-style and full width-style within either filter by hitting Shift-5.
Posting and interactions
To create a post, click the black box and start typing. If you want to format your text with numbered lists, links, bold, italics, or even bullets, you can do that with markdown. Ello has a useful support page with tips on formatting. To mention a user, just add an @ symbol to the beginning of their username, and the post will appear on their page.
You can't post videos (at least for now), but you can upload photos by clicking the double window icon just below the gray text box. Alternative, just drag a JPG, GIF, animated GIF or PNG file directly onto the black box. Photos are compressed but not resized, so don't expect uniformity when uploading photos of varying dimensions.
So far, the posting process has been a little glitchy. I've uploaded photos that disappeared upon hitting "Post," although I've never lost written content. Also, Ello will not warn you when you delete a post. Not a surprising scenario when you consider Ello is run by a handful of people and is still in beta.
Searching Ello
On the Discover page (also accessible from the left sidebar), there's a search field at the top. Right now, it doesn't work. You'll probably end up being able to use it to find users or content.
Features
Ello is in beta, so expect a lot of bugs. Also expect to feel deprived of a lot of features, like user blocking or a mobile app. The company has a list of current and upcoming features you can check out here.
One in particular worth noting is the NSFW flagging option, which users can utilize when posting explicit content. Until that flagging feature is released, NSFW content is not allowed on Ello.
And then there's the Ello Facemaker tool. It doesn't seem to be working right now, but when it functions, it can be used to paste the Ello logo on your face, hiding your identity and becoming one with the Elloans.
You don't have to try to figure out what's making noise on a particular page, this Chrome extension will do the work for you.
Nicole Cozma
Back in January, Google Chrome added a feature that shows which tab is making noise by displaying a speaker icon on it. This is really helpful when you have many tabs open and suddenly a video starts playing on one of them. Unfortunately, the browser doesn't tell you which element on the page is making noise, so you may still have to look for it among the ads and text.
Instead of switching tabs and manually turning off the sound, Ghacks.net recommends using a Chrome extension called Mute Inactive Tabs. This extension takes the guesswork out of silencing tabs and does it for you automatically.
Step 2: Click Add to Chrome. When you see the pop-up confirming the install, click Add.
Step 3: To test, open a YouTube video, and then open another tab next to it. The YouTube video should pause while that tab is inactive.
I found some YouTube videos went back to the beginning with Mute Inactive Tabs turned on, but this shouldn't be too much of a problem if you're working in another tab instead of watching the video.
Mute Inactive Tabs toggle featureNicole Cozma
Although the extension offers a convenient toggle button, it might be best to open streaming music services in another window. That way you can experience muted tabs in the main window without interrupting your tunes in the other.
In an open letter to Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, the investment management firm Starboard makes its case for the oft-rumored pair-up.
A pair-up between Yahoo and AOL has been an oft-rumored merger.Richard Nieva
A week after Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba went public, Yahoo -- which sold a large stake in Alibaba in the offering -- is facing pressure from an activist investor.
Starboard Value, which describes itself as an investment management firm that "seeks to invest in undervalued and underperforming public companies," posted an open letter to Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer on Friday urging her to buy AOL. Starboard also announced on Friday that it was acquiring a "significant" stake in Yahoo.
"We believe a merger of AOL and Yahoo's core business may be one of the best ways to both fully seize the cost reduction opportunity and also to tax-efficiently monetize Yahoo's noncore equity holdings," the firm wrote.
Neither Yahoo nor Starboard immediately responded to requests for comment.
A tie-up between the two early Internet companies has long been a favorite topic of discussion in the tech industry. In July, the rumor mill churned after Mayer and AOL CEO Tim Armstrong were spotted having drinks at an industry conference. The idea of a merger was also tossed around in 2008, when then-CEO Carol Bartz was in charge.
If it wanted to, Yahoo has the resources to buy AOL. After selling more than 6 percent of its stake in Alibaba in the Chinese company's massive IPO, Yahoo is due a windfall of $8.27 billion before taxes. Yahoo has already promised to return at least half the Alibaba proceeds to shareholders. But along with the cash Yahoo already had on hand, the company has more than enough to buy AOL, which had a market capitalization on Friday of $3.49 billion.
Under Mayer, the company has been focused on refreshing its suite of mobile properties, like Yahoo Sports and Finance, and jolting its ailing online advertising business. In February, the company introduced an ad platform called Gemini, which focuses particularly on native advertising, or ads that look more like editorial content instead of being cordoned off like traditional ads.
Still, revenue has been flat. Last quarter, Yahoo's display ad revenue -- an important financial metric for the company -- slumped 7 percent. Yahoo doesn't break out mobile revenue.
Starboard particularly called out display advertising in its letter. The firm said that it believes AOL's display business is sagging as well and that the two companies could save up to $1 billion by reducing costs in the display business and corporate overhead.
A merger with AOL isn't the only fate that's been rumored for Yahoo. The company has also been mentioned as an acquisition target itself. When asked about the possibility by Bloomberg TV on Alibaba's IPO day last week, neither Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma nor Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son ruled out the idea. Softbank, a Japanese telecom company that has a 32 percent stake in Alibaba, could find Yahoo attractive for the 16 percent stake the Silicon Valley giant still retains in Alibaba.
Update, 3:36 p.m. PT: Yahoo has issued a press release saying the company will "review Starboard's letter carefully and look[s] forward to discussing it with them." Below is Yahoo's entire response:
"We are committed, as an organization, to acting in the best interests of the Company and all of its shareholders. We have maintained, and will continue to maintain, an open dialogue with all of our shareholders. As part of our regular evaluation of Yahoo's strategic initiatives to drive sustainable shareholder value, we will review Starboard's letter carefully and look forward to discussing it with them," said Yahoo's CEO Marissa Mayer.
"Going forward, we have great confidence in the strength of our business. The management team and the Board of Directors remain committed to building value for all shareholders through the continued execution of our strategy, investing in products that will drive sustainable growth: search, communications, digital magazines and video. We continue to leverage our portfolio of world-class products, which include Yahoo Search, Mail, News, Sports, Flickr, Tumblr and advertising solutions among others. Additionally, we will continue to focus on evaluating various capital allocation initiatives, an update to which we plan to provide on our third-quarter earnings call," concluded Mayer.
The Company remains focused on creating shareholder value through its world-class Internet assets, its highly successful investments in leading global Internet companies and the increasing traction in transforming Yahoo into a mobile-first company. In the last two years, Yahoo has more than doubled its average monthly mobile users. Since July of 2012, Yahoo has completed over $6.3 billion in share repurchases.
Google receives guidelines from European regulators explaining how it can avoid running afoul of privacy laws, reports Reuters.
Europe is now trying to tell Google how best to handle the privacy of its users.
For years, the search giant has been tussling with European privacy regulators over how it collects and stores the data of its users. In 2012, Google got into trouble after it said it planned to revamp its privacy policies to "combine personal information" across its multiple products and services. The company justified the change by saying it would consolidate its 60 different privacy policies into one single policy that would be simpler.
European regulators didn't see it that way and wanted Google to change its new policy. In 2013, France's privacy watchdog, the Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertes (CNIL), said that six different countries -- France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK -- would launch investigations into Google over its non-compliance with European privacy regulations.
In one series of recommendations, Google's privacy policy must be visible to users from each landing page, must be clear and unambiguous, and must list all of the purposes for which personal data are processed by the company. Further, Google should inform users if and when it allows third-party partners to collect personal data.This week, European regulators took the next step by sending Google a list of guidelines telling it exactly how to comply with local laws, Reuters reported. Issued this past Tuesday by European data protection authorities, known as the Article 29 Working Party, the 6-page guideline document spells out a series of requirements that Google could and should follow to stay out of further trouble.
European regulators also suggest that Google make it easy for users to manage their personal data with a new dashboard that would include all of the company's services. Users would then be able to control the privacy settings for each service, though "privacy-friendly" default settings could also be in place.
Consent to allow your personal data to be used would also have to be clearly laid out as per the following recommendation:
Specific and information based consent. To be valid, consent must be specific and based on appropriate information. All users of Google services are to be informed in a clear and distinct manner, for instance by means of a pop-up or banner. This banner or area should contain a simplified information notice mentioning the purpose plus a link to Google's privacy policy, as well as an additional link to another area or section where users' choices can be fine-tuned (to refuse consent to specific purpose, or to select the scope of purpose allowed for by the user with regard to the individual features offered by Google).
Finally, Google should clearly explain its data retention policy for all data gathered about its users.
"Retention policies should be sent to European DPAs (data protection authorities); the retention period for each type of data should be justified and should be specific to each purpose and legal basis," the guidelines stated.
The ball is now in Google's court to respond to these guidelines and try to continue further discussions with European regulators. In its letter to Google, the Article 29 Working Party said it "remains open to discuss any other measures that Google would propose to address the legal requirements."
A California startup is crowdfunding a flexible phablet that you strap to your arm and it might not be totally ridiculous. Maybe.
We're pretty sure this is not a joke.Arubixs
For the past few years, the standing lazy punchline about wearables has been something about awkwardly strapping a computer or a phone to your body. Finally, a crowdfunding campaign has taken the joke to the next level and made that punchline a reality.
Bay Area, Calif., startup Arubixs has designed a flexible screen phablet dubbed "Portal" which slides into a dual-strap arm cradle that extends about halfway up the forearm from the wrist. It seems equal parts brilliant and ridiculous. We've seen flexible displays like this for years now -- mostly as demonstration models at CES that never make it to market -- but this is the first design I've seen that's built entirely around the flexibility of the screen.
"Current wearable offerings and even the new Apple Watch are just too small to text on or do anything really practical," Arubixs founder Brandon Mairs told me via email. "This (Portal) is not just a wearable. It's a smartphone you can wear. So when the phone is not in the cradle its just a thin 6-inch smartphone that's flexible, water resistant, and shatterproof."
While the idea of essentially strapping a bendable phone the size of a Galaxy Note to your arm seems like it would be a tough sell even in a futuristic sci-fi universe, the Portal's specs are hard to ignore.
Arubixs claims its 6-inch TFT display is also scratch-resistant and reinforced by a flexible Kevlar exterior. It has 2GB RAM, a total of four cameras, 64GB of storage, a full suite of sensors, NFC, Bluetooth, LTE, wireless charging and a proprietary 3,200mAh flexible battery. The processor is yet to be determined. Portal will run a skinned version of Android and respond to touch, gesture and motion-based commands.
Part of me really likes the basic concept here, which is a single device that can act as smartwatch, fitness tracker and phone all at once, but the whole thing reminds me a little too much of the guy at the office party who tries a little too hard. Right down to the Indiegogo pitch video below, which at first seems like a satire from an episode of HBO's "Silicon Valley."
But if we can just throw away the absurd steel-banded "executive" model, and focus on the idea of a large, rugged wearable device for active uses like sports or even working in the field, Portal starts to seem like a pretty cool potential niche product.
If you're such a shameless phablet fan that you'd have no problem wearing one on your sleeve -- or as a sleeve -- you can claim a Portal via an Indiegogo campaign right now, starting at $349. If you prefer something a little subtler, the company says it's working on a smaller, 4-inch model.
"We started with a 6-inch display first, then realized in testing (that) a smaller one could close the gap for everyone's needs," Mairs wrote to CNET. "In early 2016 we will be introducing a more compact 4-inch. I personally prefer the 4-inch myself and wear that mock-up around town all the time."
Check out the pitch video below and let us know in the comments or by tweeting @Crave if you'd ever consider wearing something similar.
Watch this fun short in which Lego versions of Star-Lord and Malcolm Reynolds teach Han Solo that if you want to stay alive, you always shoot first.
If you want to survive as a hero in a galaxy far, far away, you have to be a bit liberal with your blaster.
That's the lesson from this short video from Brotherhood Workshop, in which Lego versions of Star-Lord from "Guardians of the Galaxy" and Malcolm 'Mal' Reynolds from "Firefly" teach Han Solo that if you want to live to tell your tale, you must always shoot first.
Fortunately for Luke, Leia and the Rebel Alliance, Star-Lord and Mal are able to convince Han Solo that it's a good idea to always shoot first, just in time for his fated meeting with the bounty hunter Greedo. And, well, I think we all know how that meeting turns out.In the clip, Star-Lord, Mal and Han Solo are sitting around a table at the cantina in Mos Eisley discussing gun battles and the benefits of being the first guy to fire. Han Solo was a bit apprehensive of this philosophy, citing some code of honor requiring that the bad guy must shoot first.
Scientists produce ultra-thin threads of carbon atoms they say should be stronger and stiffer than any existing man-made material. Space elevators, here we come.
Diamond nanothreads offer the promise of more strength and stiffness than any existing man-made material thanks to their never-before-seen atomic structure.Penn State University
A team of scientists have crafted a thread of carbon atoms 20,000 times smaller than a strand of human hair, and it may prove to be the strongest man-made material in the universe.
Called a "diamond nanothread," the ultra-thin material has a never-before-seen structure resembling the hexagonal rings of bonded carbon atoms that make up diamonds, the hardest known natural mineral on Earth. That makes these nanothreads potentially stronger and more resilient than the most advanced carbon nanotubes, which are similar super-durable and super-light structures composed of rolled up, one atom-thick sheets of carbon called graphene.
"Because this thread is diamond at heart, we expect that it will prove to be extraordinarily stiff, extraordinarily strong, and extraordinarily useful," John Badding, a chemistry professor at Penn State University who led the project, said in a statement. The work was published on September 21 in the journal Nature Materials.
The creation of a diamond-like nanomaterial is a first, marking a breakthrough after a century of unsuccessful attempts to compress carbon-based molecules into a structure with such strength. The team produced it by using a pressure device at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to compress an especially large 6-millimeter wide pool of benzene, a molecule composed of carbon and hydrogen. The benezene molecules first stacked, then bent and broke apart, only to form again when the team released the pressure in an entirely different fashion with a diamond configuration and a bonding structure that formed thin nanothreads.
New "diammond nanothreads" are constructed as long strands of carbon atoms that take the triangular pyramid shape of a diamond's atomic structure, giving it unprecedented strength and stiffness for a nanometerial.Penn State University
Graphene and carbon nanotubes, which are both based on carbon atoms but differ in structure, are ushering in stunning advancements in the fields of nanotechnology and materials science. Isolated from graphite just 10 years ago, graphene offers the promise of revolutionizing electronics, energy storage and even medicine because of its incredibly low weight, its strength and its remarkable conductivity. Some of these applications include using graphene and carbon nanotubes to create next-generation touchscreens, solar cells, batteries and nanocomposities used in tissue engineering.
This new discovery of diamond nanothreads, if they prove to be stronger than existing materials, could accelerate current and future uses. That includes more fuel-efficient electric vehicles and even a durable cable that could send humans to space without the need of rockets.
Space elevators, which could become a source of solar energy and an avenue for cheap space exploration and tourism, would essentially wire a carbon nanotube-based cable 60,000 miles above Earth and use magnetic linear motors, the same that power maglev trains today, to send pods to space. A construction company in Japan, Obayashi Corporation, thinks advancements in nanotechnology will let itbuild and commercialize such a structure by 2050."One of our wildest dreams for the nanomaterials we are developing is that they could be used to make the super-strong, lightweight cables that would make possible the construction of a 'space elevator' which so far has existed only as a science-fiction idea," Badding said.
"The tensile strength is almost a hundred times stronger than steel cable so it's possible," Obayashi research and development manager Yoji Ishikawa told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation last month. "Right now we can't make the cable long enough. We can only make 3-centimeter-long nanotubes but we need much more... we think by 2030 we'll be able to do it."
Meet the Nixie, a prototype wearable quadcopter drone equipped with a camera that you can use to capture the ultimate selfies.
Wearables are the must-have gadgets of 2014, so it was only a matter of time before we started seeing wearable drones.
The Nixie drone starts off as a somewhat bulky bracelet, but unfolds into a small, sleek quadcopter after you perform a simple gesture with your wrist. In theory, once the Nixie takes off from your wrist, it'll know exactly where you're standing, snap a photo or video, and then come back to you like a boomerang so you don't lose it.The Nixie, brainchild of Stanford postdoctoral researcher Christoph Kohstall, is an attempt to make the world's first flyable and wrist-wearable camera. The Nixie is for those moments in life when you really want a picture or video of something you're doing, but using a standard camera or phone either isn't feasible or would interrupt the moment. Imagine being able to capture a picture of yourself climbing a mountain, flying a kite with your children, or going over an epic jump on your bike.
Apple releases a fixed iOS 8 update and addresses issues with bent phones and the Bash bug. Meanwhile, BlackBerry brags about selling out of Passport phones.
CNET Update delivers the tech news you need in under three minutes. Watch Bridget Carey every afternoon for a breakdown of the big stories, hot devices, new apps, and what's ahead. Subscribe to the podcast via the links below.
India's first Mars orbiter Mangalyaan captured this photo of the Martian atmosphere just after arriving at Mars on Sept. 24, 2014 Indian Standard Time. The Indian Space Research Organisation released the image on Sept. 25. Credit: Indian Space Research Organisation
India's first Mars probe has captured its first photos, revealing an early glimpse of the surface and atmosphere of the Red Planet.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) unveiled the first photos of Mars from its Mangalyaan spacecraft via Facebook and Twitter on Wednesday and Thursday (Sept. 24-25), just a day or so after the probe made it to the Red Planet.
"The view is nice up here," ISRO officials tweeted about one of the images, which shows a heavily cratered portion of the Red Planet's surface.
Another photo depicts the curving, orange-brown limb of Mars against the blackness of space.
"A shot of Martian atmosphere. I'm getting better at it. No pressure," ISRO officials tweeted about that one.
Mangalyaan, whose name means "Mars craft" in Sanskrit, arrived at the Red Planet on Tuesday night (Sept. 23), making India's space agency just the fourth entity — after the United States, the Soviet Union and the European Space Agency — to successfully place a probe in orbit around Mars.
Mangalyaan is the centerpiece of India's $74 million Mars Orbiter Mission(MOM), which ISRO officials have described as primarily a technology demonstration. The spacecraft carries a camera and four scientific instruments that it will use to study the Martian surface and atmosphere during the course of a mission expected to last six to 10 months.
MOM reached Mars close on the heels of NASA's MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) probe, which was captured by the Red Planet's gravity on Sunday (Sept. 21). The $671 million MAVEN mission aims to help scientists determine what happened to Mars' atmosphere, which was once relatively thick but is now just 1 percent as dense as that of Earth.
MAVEN has also taken its first images of Mars from orbit; NASA released a few false-color views of the planet's atmosphere on Wednesday.
Mars orbit now hosts five operational spacecraft; NASA's Mars Odyssey probe and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, as well as Europe's Mars Express craft, share space with MAVEN and Mangalyaan. And two rovers (NASA's Opportunity and Curiosity) are actively exploriong the planet's surface.
