City Tours From Google Labs

Google Labs have published about multi-day (or single day if you are the fast walking type) walking tours of major cities given a starting address. For startes, there are a few cities and walks suggested;

• Union Square, San Francisco
• 34th Street and 5th, New York
• London, England
• Dame Street, Dublin, Ireland
  

Except Dublin, I have walked the other cities, more or same the suggested routes. Let Google find nearby points of interest for you or (new!) create your own tours from your own and others' "My Maps".

Try City Tours

Friendster Sold To MOL Global.

Friendster Mol Global Weseepeople.blogspot.com

The social networking site Friendster has been sold to MOL Global, a Malaysian payments company. Friendster is one of the oldest social networking companies that had a face lift recently. Eventhough it has lost the glamour a glitter in the USA, it still has a lot of users (about 75 Million) else where, mostly in Asia.
MOL Global Pte. Ltd, an affiliate of leading online payment solutions provider MOL AccessPortal Berhad handles payment transactions totaling  an annual payment volume of over US$200 million. It provides systems to collect payments for online content and services.

“The merger with Friendster will continue to transform the social networking industry, combining a highly intuitive and successful social media site and online marketing channel with an integrated payment platform and content network which includes games, goods, gifts, music and video. We are creating a unique company that will be well positioned to provide content to a huge, regional user base, here in Southeast Asia,” said Ganesh Kumar Bangah, president and chief executive officer of MOL.

“Friendster and MOL are both industry pioneers and are close partners. This combination is a natural progression of our relationship and will be an industry-changing event, The new combined entity gives Friendster the kind of financial backing, retail distribution, and e-commerce infrastructure that will enable us to accelerate our strategy and create a locally relevant, fun experience for our users in Asia, both on and offline.” ” said Richard Kimber, chief executive officer at Friendster.

The combined entity will maintain offices in various locations, around the world, including Mountain View, CA (USA), the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore. Ganesh Kumar Bangah will become the Group Chief Executive Officer of the combined entity while Richard Kimber will become the Non-Executive Chairman.

Google Friend Connect Becomes More Social.

Google Friend Connect has added a whole slew of features that might help them to fend off some of the effects of facebook onslaught. Due to popularity of facebook the facebook connect has many more members and sites.
Perhaps time that we have friend connect on all our blogs ! :)
Google Friend Connect Gains Ground With New Features | VOIP IP Telephony

Becoming And Staying Digitally Literate!

Being online and understanding your surroundings is not an easy task. When you are unsure of your position in any situation, it leads to you being vulnerable. Little children, and young adults are often targets of unscrupulous people and only way to keep them safe is to educate parents and educators about the digital world.
So Google and iKeepSafeare working together to take a tour through the country to help parents and educators across the country become more involved in kids' online activities. To begin the tour in proper manner, the team is holding a panel discussion in the capital regarding issues concerning educating a protecting youngsters. The best part of it is that they will be talking about "How to talk to young people about online safety"

"Playing and Staying Safe Online"
An expert panel discussion on how to help kids become responsible members of the digital community.

Panelists:

• Dr. Michael Rich, Director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Children's Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health
• Dr. Harry Bloom, Director, California Technology Assistance Project
• Lt. Joe Laramie, Director, Missouri ICAC Task Force
• Darlene Faster, COO, Center for Social and Emotional Education
  

Moderator:

• Marsali Hancock, iKeepSafe President
  

With special presentations from Google and WoogiWorld.

When: Tuesday, November 3, Noon - 1:30pm
Where: Room B-354, Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C.

Lunch will be served.

Please click here to RSVP.

Google Social Search Extend Your Searches Into Your Social Networks.

Google last week told us about a Google's Social Search Demo in "This week in search 10/24/09" and the feature will enhance your searches with information from people you know or blogs that you follow!.
The Google Social Search is an opt-in and it is tightly connected to your Google Profile and GMail. So it will connect to blogs, photo albums, videos, reviews your close ones and friends produce.
Say for instance, if you have your twitter page connected to your Google Profile, the search will extend to blogs, photo albums, videos, reviews written or done by people you follow.
This is available on experiment on Google Labs and like all Google labs fetures, it is an experiment that might make into the mainstream services by Google. You can follow the link after the jump for more information and more videos.

Official Google Blog: Introducing Google Social Search: I finally found my friend's New York blog!

http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/

Yahoo Sexist?

After Go-Go dancers doing lap dances (where in my laptop? or what is that thing on my lap) at Yahoo Hack Day 2009 in Taiwan. Hack Day is deviced to attract developers to build widgets and apps for the Yahoo platforms.
But this stunt may have attracted many young developers, who lost their laptops, there were plenty of flack coming from all sort of people in the society.

I am not surprised at either side, knowing how sexist some of the Asian countries are and hypocrits protesting these dancers while having whore houses which are called Massage parlors in the back yards, abusing similar young women. (massage parlors San Francisco, search Massage Parlors New York at google)
Yahoo should have known better and done better, and so the critics!
Yahoo posted an apology on the developer blog but apperantly the sane thing has happened before, in 2008 as well

I wanted to acknowledge the public reaction generated by the images of female dancers at our Taiwan Open Hack Day this past weekend. Our hack events are designed to give developers an opportunity to learn about our APIs and technologies. As many folks have rightly pointed out, the “Hack Girls” aspect of our Taiwan Hack Day is not reflective of that spirit or purpose. And it’s certainly not the message we want to send about our values here at Yahoo!. Hack Days are about making everyone feel welcome, including women coders and technologists.

 You can read more, specially the comments at yahoo blog.

Keep Your Reputation Clean On The Net With "Reputation Management"

Google, I think in managing the people who come running to it to remove personally damaging or embarrassing information. Even though Google is not responsible for such data on it's servers on search farms, first place people write seems to be Google.
Always, Think three times before putting your personal information online.

But there are more things yoou could do if the horse has already left the barn. I think the following article is both valuable to everyone.
You can read it also on Webmaster Central Blog
Managing your reputation through search results

Friendster Patents On Social Networks May Make It Unfriendly To Other Social Networks

I do not like patents but they do excist and we all got to live with them! Techcrunch published the following data on some of the Friendster Patents, (since our report they got two more) and I hope some one, one of those big boys, validate these;

No. 7,478,078, titled “Method for sharing relationship information stored in a social network database with third party databases.” It was first filed on June 14, 2004.
The patent describes the sharing of information between users and applications based on relationships between users, as well as other uses. Most social networks today do exactly this, and may violate the patent:

By having a way of obtaining relationship information from an online social network, operators of online services can manage services based on the relationships between their customers. For example, a site offering a directory of members may allow each member to limit who may access his or her member information, or who may communicate with him or her, based on the closeness of the relationship between the requesting member and him or her. In addition, providers of online services may use methods of the present invention to allow users to control the accessibility of personal information maintained in an online environment. Furthermore, operators of existing database are better able to target particular information (e.g. advertisements) to individuals with an interest in receiving it, based on the premise that people closely related to one another in a social network share common interests, goals, lifestyles, and the like.

This patent joins the previous four Friendster patents. From information supplied by the company:

• In July 2006, Friendster was awarded its first U.S. patent describing how people are
  connected in the context of an online social network, titled “A System, Method and
  Apparatus for Connecting Users in an Online Computer System Based on Their Relationships within Social Networks” (U.S. Patent No. 7,069,308).
• Friendster was granted a second U.S. patent in October 2006, which discloses the
  process of enriching other users’ profiles with text, video, pictures and additional content,
  titled “Method of Inducing Content Uploads in a Social Network” (U.S. Patent No.
  7,117,254).
• In March 2007, Friendster added another patent to its portfolio, titled “System and
  Method for Managing Connections in an Online Social Network” (U.S. Patent No.
  7,188,153), which describes a technology that manages connections in a social network and allows members of the social network to add friends, personalize their network through arranging, ordering and classifying their connections, and search and browse profiles of other members of the social network.
• In December 2008, Friendster was granted its fourth patent, titled “Compatibility Scoring of Users in a Social Network” (U.S. Patent No. 7,451,161), which discloses a unique methodology used to calculate compatibility based on expressed interests between users of a social network. This includes scoring the compatibility between two members of a social network based on their interests and scoring the correlation between two interests for a given member of a social network.

Oogle In 51 Languages Through Google Translate

I use Google translate very often to communicate with some of the people that I work with but when we do not have a common language, through translation bots on Google.
I also use it to browse through foreign language websites and news sites.
Sometimes it also helps you to horn a language that you are learning or have learned a while ago and forgotten for lack of usage.
What ever the case, now you have opportunity to translate in additional 9 languages, bringing the total languages on Google Translate to 51!
I also leaned some thing today;

You can translate e-mails within GMail, translate web pages using Google Toolbar, translate RSS news feeds from around the world in Google Reader, and translate documents in Google Docs.

And if you work with translations a lot, Google Translator Toolkit might help you a lot.

Official Google Research Blog: 51 Languages in Google Translate

"I Am What I Learn" Tell Us How! To Win $1000 From Department Of Education (DOE)

YouTube and Department Of Education has come together to boost the morale of US Students and teach all of us the value of education.
All the students of USA has to do is make a video (two minutes or less) showing how the education will guide you to your dreams and goals of life, and upload it to the Department of Education's YouTube channel.
I wish I had such opportunity when I was in high school, as there were many things I could do with $1000 to achieve my dreams, which I have reached in any case, due to the excellent education an opportunities I received.
The contest is open to U.S. middle, high school, college and post-grad students, ages 13 and up, and the deadline to submit is October 20. For complete rules and FAQs, please visit www.ed.gov/iamwhatilearn.
YouTube Blog: If Only Every Homework Assignment Had Prizes Like This...

#tc50 Hash Tag For TechCrunch50

I know I will not be lucky enough to attend (I will be in Palo Alto for whole day!) but Dior was waving his entry pass at our faces yesterday. I hope to hear from him more details as well as sticking to regular channels of social media to keep me informed.
TechCrunch has advised all to use #tc50 hash tag for all the for all TC50-related posts, photos, videos, etc and that will be a sure fire way to locate information. You can also use #techcrunch50, if you are happy at typing 8 characters. TC has even given some example how to use the suggested hashtags;
Twitter: #techcrunch50 or #tc50
FriendFeed: #techcrunch50 or #tc50
Flickr: techcrunch50 or tc50
So please be socialable and make my life easier for a day! Give us the news, and use hashtags.
Techcrunch on #tc50

National September 11th Memorial & Museum

Another September 11th has come and passed. I remember how shocked, sad and mad I was on that day. I was at home but in the morning I dropped my girl friend at the campus and saw scores of bewildered people.
I only found what was it when I came home and my jaws dropped, it took me full five minutes to come to senses and call my girl friend and ask her to come home.

Well that eerie feeling still there. I have visited the Ground Zero and what do we find after 8 Years? a big hole. Why can't we build a memorial before all the bickering and in fighting. We should show terrorists that they did not change anything. That we are not scared and we honor our people. Add those people we lost in the wars since September 11 and we have a lot to honor.
But why I started this article is to say about "a website, 911history created by the National September 11th Memorial & Museum in partnership with design firm Local Projects. Make History is a participatory archive that invites people to share their experiences of 9/11 and its aftermath in an effort to preserve the memories of that time. The Museum has created a collaborative storytelling tool that makes innovative use of Street View through the Google Maps API. The Make History site allows people to place and then share their photos and videos in geographical context, collectively piecing together the history that was witnessed, one photo and video at a time."
To participate, simply go to the site and click "Add Your Story." You'll be asked to write about your experience of 9/11 and share your photos and videos, and then to place them at the spot where they were captured.
Learned about it at; 
Google LatLong: Make History with the National September 11th Memorial & Museum
But main Google Blog too had a Article about the same subject.
Official Google Blog: Make History with the National September 11th Memorial & Museum
I told my story, please go tell yours.

Collaborating On Picasa, A Dutch Google Lesson

Collaborating On Picasa,
With all my tiny little knowledge of various languages (of which none are in professional capacity) I roam around different language web sites. Specially Google blogs.
One reason I visit them is to horn my language skills and another to learn many a tricks and tips with Google products.
Today I learned a bit of Dutch language and collaboration on Picasa! Which I did not know before.
If you are familiar with Google Docs sharing feature, you know that a bunch of colleagues could work on the same spreadsheet, adding their own columns or rows.
So up to now when it came to photo albums, we all had our own albums that we shared with family but not many worked on a single album, unless you wanted to share your account, which is not advisable, even with your family and friends.
Now Picasa has a collaborating feature that allow multiple people work together on an album. Let us say that a bunch of people went on a holiday together and took many a photos on their own. This group of people want to have a single album that every one can share. Yes it is possible with Picasa now.
The initiator creates and album and adds collaborators by inviting them by email;
Once the photos are in do not forget to use the "Add Name Tag" feature. It is wonderful way to locate the people you know!
Thank you Thomas Kang, for the Dutch lesson and the Picasa Tip.

You can find more on Picasa Collaboration here.

Het Google-product blog: Samenwerken aan Picasa-webalbums

Tags: picasa, Google Docs, Picasa collaboration

Orkut Photo Albums Get Face detection

When I started working with face detection on my Picasa albums, I was thrilled and It was fun to discover how viral it was. You could basically get your family and friends to do the editing for you. Basically when one is recognized in an photograph that is shared, all the photos of that person get recognized.
In group photos, you might not know all the people in them but your contacts and family and friends do!.
So with Orkut getting this feature, you will be relieved of having to tag each photo individually, Orkut will try to recognize your photos as they are uploaded and to make the task even easier, there is an auto fill feature, just start typing the name of your friend and the the auto fill will complete the name.
Keeping the privacy in mind, only your friends will be able to tag you in their photos. Of course if you do not like or want it, you could turn this feature off.
I am for one looking forward to it.
orkut Blog: Face detection in orkut photo albums– photo tagging just got easier

Tags: Face detection, Orkut, picasa

iGoogle social! Go Social With Your Home Button

If you have set your home button to iGoogle (if not check it out as it provides most of the Google Services from one location and if you want more, there are gadgets galore which you could incorporate to your iGoogle site.) you will be able to god social with social gadgets for iGoogle.
The 19 social gadgets Google debuted today will make your homepage more useful and fun place to come when you fire up your browser.

If you're a game fan, you might find Who has the biggest brain?, Chess or Scrabble a way to show your expertness. You will be also be on the top of news and happenings with media-sharing gadgets from NPR, The Huffington Post, and YouTube. The social To-Do list gadget might make it easier to pu all these in to a manageable form.
Be social, Be nice, to somebody, even if it is yourself.

Official Google Blog: I scream, you scream, we all scream for iGoogle social!

Tags: iGoogle social, ocial gadgets for iGoogle, Social networking

Hiroshima, Never Again.

I have stood in front of this structure and weeped. This happened a long time before even I was born and far away from where I was born. But all the agony and destruction that I have witnessed ran across my mind. It was not easy to recognize that it was real. It was real that little children who had nothing to do with the war vaporized.
Not again, Never Again. Say no to Nuclear Arms, anywhere.
Recognize people for who they are! We are all the same, packaged in different colors and sizes :)

Tags: Hiroshima, Atomic Bomb, Nuclear Arms, weseepeople

Twitter Hacking, A Primer To A Revolution!

Image from 352media

Mashable has a nice article on Twitter hacking and creating social chaos! Interesting.

Tags: twitter, social chaos, twitter hacking

Boy Big Guys Fight And Say Bad Words! Leo Laporte Loses It With Mike Arrington

Is not it pathetic? Both but more so on Leo because I thought he was a great emcee all along!

Tags: Loe Laporte, Mike Arrington

FaceBook Devalued?

Looks like Marks stance on 15 Billion valuation of Facebook is wavering and it might be as low as 2 Billion now, according to a TechCrunch Post! The article talks a lot about company values, early investors and anti-dilution provisions.
Hmmm I guess I better tweet like Oprah, if my posts are this short!

Tags: facebook, techcrunch, twitter

StumbleUpon Is Back To Being A Startup

Social Book marking site, StumbleUpon has broken free from ebay and become independent again. StumbleUpon was in the folds of Ebay for nearly two years after in 2007 Ebay acquired it for $74 million.
"After nearly two years as a subsidiary of eBay, today StumbleUpon returns to being an independent company. StumbleUpon is now backed by myself and co-founder Geoff Smith, along with several great investors who’ve backed companies such as Google and Facebook."
Hope they can stay up strong among services like DIGG.
StumbleUpon Blog

Tags: social bookmarking, StumbleUpon, digg

Internet For Everyone

There should not be a digital divide. Let's start at home! http://InternetforEveryone.org

Tags: Free Press, Digital Divide, Internet For Everyone

Associated Press! Forces An Affiliate To Takedown Youtube Videos

AP Continue to show that they are still trying to coral the wild horses with straw fences or trying to be media mafia of the present. They post embeddable videos to YouTube and when people post them, even an AP Affiliates, get pulled up for violations. I also do not understand why people post AP News. While Ago they tried to define fair use.
AP does not create news, just like everyone else, they pick up the news from a source, so it is not that hard to find the source of news, which has nothing to do with AP usually, Like the video below which TechCrunch pointed us to (They have a bunch of links to various sources of information on this piece of news!). The video carries an interview of an radio station manager who was stopped by AP and a local producer.
Somewhere in the video, it comes out, "What an idiot!", yes you guessed right!

Tags: Associated Press, Media Mafia, AP News, Youtube Videos

FriendsFeed, Better Faster and

I Logged into my Friendsfeed beta page and I think, I love it. What I have seen so far makes me want to have it running all the time on tab. Here is a video showing the features but there is a great article and a another video by Techcrunch. Follow the link after the video.

Techcrunch article

Tags: friendfeed, Social networking

EFF, Apple, Songs, Copyright Laws and You

I read an article today at EFF that stated with;

"President Obama reportedly gave an iPod, loaded with 40 show tunes, to England's Queen Elizabeth II as a gift. Did he violate the law when he did so?

You know your copyright laws are broken when there is no easy answer to this question."

I am mum on this and you can read more (you should) at EFF, iPods, First Sale, President Obama, and the Queen of England

Tags: iPods, First Sale, President Obama, the Queen of England

Orkut Skin Previews Via Activity Streams

Orkut has added skin updates to your activity streams. So you will be able to see all the new skins that orkut has implemented lately, without having to dig through them.
Now you will see your friends skins via the activity updates and of course you can previews the skin by clicking on your friend name.
I think this lead me to believe that it is better to get all my friends or add more frinds to my lists so I can preview more skins. Then again, I will have to dig them up!
orkut Blog: Skin updates in Activity Streams

Tags: Orkut, Orkut skins, Orkut activity Streams

Barclays Bank Tax Avoidance Schemes Documents

Barclays Bank lawyers had no clue as where their nuts lay and banned The Guardian from publishing of internal Barclays Bank documents alleged to detail huge tax avoidance schemes by the company that total more than $16 billion.
But the documents are out and many people and sites are taking an stand. Perhaps the UK Judge erred in his infinite wisdom or those wigs they wear is made of lead. Either way another attempt to keep the public uninformed thwarted.
I learned about this at TechCrunch and wikileaks (Overloaded with traffic) has the documents as well.

Tags: Barclays Bank, Barclay scam, Guardian

Google Friend Connect Gives More Help With The New Friend Connect Help Forum.

Even though Google Friend Connect had good help resources at the Friend Connect Support, like setting up your site, adding social gadgets, and the difference between a friend and a member, folks at FriendConnect has brought out another resource.
They have secured a place in the New Google Help Forums and you can post your questions, tips and tricks for FriendConnect at the new Friend Connect Help Forum.
I did not have much problems with the Friend Connect Service but if you did now you know where to find help.
Via Social Web Blog

Tags: Google Friend Connect, social web

FriendFeed Offsite With FrienFeed Desktop App.

FriendFeed has revealed another way to keep tab on your friends, off the site. With the new Adobe Air-based desktop application updates whenever your friends post something on FriendFeed on your desktop.
The difference is invisibility this time, that is until there is something to see. Unlike many ways that you keep a watch on your friends like IM notifications, RSS feeds, e-mail digests, or the Facebook app, where you have to flip between what you are doing and the method, Bubbles are the way with Friendfeed desktop app.
You can even comment directly from the bubble that pops up to inform you of update.
You will need Adobe - Air to run the application but it is easy two clicks to install.
FF Blog
Tags: social network, Friendfeed,

Amazon Kindles A DCMA Fight With Kindlers And kindlepid.py!

I am most wrote a foue letter word and Amazon after that. It looks like that Amazons kindle files are actually mobi files and locked.
As usual someone went and found a way through the weak protection so that other books (legally purchased) could be read on Kindle. So the application or the script that provided the means were found on the net, somewhere.
Then someone, who was interested in these mobile stuff, posted a link to the files and got a take down notice from Amazon.
Well I thought Amazon and Kindle was cool and was genuinely happy to see kindle for iPhone but I know now, how I will read my books.
Time to look for a ebook reader for iphone. Oh Four letter word Amazon, I am going to get Moleskin Book out of my iPhone ;)

Tags: amazon kindle. kindle for iPhone, kindlepid.py

Social Services Profit, Flickr Collection At Getty Images

Looks like Yahoo found another way to make money from Flickr, for creators of photographs, the middlemen (yahoo and Getty) and who ever else pick up the crumbs, like ad agencies.
The Getty site has a nice Flickr Collection and promises to make it dynamic and larger as time goes by. The pricing is not cheap, $50 for 500KB photo to about $330 for a 47.5MB photo.
The getty images seeing the value of 3 billion and growing collection of photographs, has hand picked photos from user submitted accounts.
More than being another collection, the getty flickr collection has added value in being able to search by categoreis such as concept, people, location, subject and composition.
If you are planing to make money from your photos at flickr, you need to be chosen to sign up with getty images and flickr has all the information on this page, such as;

"How can I participate? Getty Images’ photo editors will identify photos that they would like to feature in the collection and reach out directly to members of the Flickr community via a new platform that we are developing for them."
Hope this will be a better deal for all those photographers! not a dead fish!

Tags: flickr, getty images, Flickr Collection

DIGG Townhall Latest Webcast (Feb 09) Online

The Digg Townhall Webcast Held on February 26, 2009 5pm PT/8pm ET
The fifth Digg townhall meeting, hosts Kevin and Jay answered questions about power users, customized Digg pages, and dupe detection. Also present was the special guest Anton Kast, Digg's VP of Research & Development.
More info on the embedded video is available on Digg Townhall.

Tags: Digg Townhall, digg

How To Follow A Blog With Google Friend Connect

Since Google introduced Follow your Favorite Blogs within the blogger account setting, there have been multitudes of people adding their favorite blogs and being displayed using the Google Friend Connect! I have used the widget on one of our Blogs and seem to be working very well albeit only three followers so far!. But today Google Blog Announced that Blooger has joined the Open Network of Friends Connect.
Following Video should give you an idea, "How to follow a blog";


Official Google Blog: Blogger connects to Google Friend Connect

Tags: How to follow a blog, Google Friend Connect, Google Blog, blogger

Legalize And Tax Marijuana! Says Ammiano.

SF Weekly is reporting about Assemblyman Tom Ammiano's proposal to help alleviate fiscal problems of California by legalizing pot. It might actually alleviate more than fiscal problems. San Francisco may take over from Amsterdam from being the weed capital of the world. What ever the Dutch do, they can't grow Marijuana like Californians!

Quintin Mecke, Ammiano's press secretary, confirmed to SF Weekly that the assemblyman's 10 a.m. Monday press conference regarding "new legislation related to the state's fiscal crisis" will broach the subject of reaping untold -- and much-needed -- wealth from the state's No. 1 cash crop.

Mecke said Ammiano's proposed bill "would remove all penalties in California law on cultivation, transportation, sale, purchase, possession, or use of marijuana, natural THC, or paraphernalia for persons over the age of 21."
Assemblyman Tom Ammiano will announce legislation on Today to legalize marijuana and earn perhaps $1 billion annually by taxing it.
Well I am ready for a few laughs!
SF Weekly

Tags: Legalize marijuana, legalizing pot, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, SF Weekly, weed capital of the world, Amsterdam

Get Or Give Your Lacal News At Patch

If you were worried about your local news paper dying of vanishing over night, fear not. According to an article I read over at John Battelle's blog, Patch which is beta now ready bring you your local news by local journalists.
The important part of this is the fact that many ties the demise of newspapers to Google, Google Advertising somehow. And who is supporting this Local News Startup? Google's vice president of advertising, Tim Armstrong. As John noted, the about page of patch lists this under the Investor;
"Polar Capital Group, Tim Armstrong's private investment company, is an investor in Patch. Polar invested in Patch because Tim believes that Patch should be in every community in America, and wants Patch in his town. He wants to read local news stories done by journalists, make sure that local government is transparent and accountable, see all the ways he can give back to his community, and have his town be as interesting and alive online as it is offline. Tim is also a believer in American ingenuity and knows that products like Patch will help deliver a commercially viable way for communities to support the important work of local journalists, institutions, governments, and businesses. Tim works at Google and his family lives in a Connecticut patch."
Google folded it's news paper advertising and radio advertising recently.
Do you belive news papers will die? In either case, you can join and create your own Patch!
John Battelle's blog post
Patch Beta

Tags: Local News, Newspaper, Google, Patch Beta

End Of Porn, Chinese Scientists Develops Anti-Porn Program

Scientists with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) will offer government organizations and website operators a more intelligent computer tool to discover pornography and lewd materials on Internet.

Last December, Zhang Quan and his colleagues at the CAS Institute of Acoustics developed a system of comprehensive Chinese character recognition, which could identify porn contents on Websites not only by key words but also by syntax and other language index.

"The system functions as a search engine. You input a website address, and it will automatically open every page on the site and examine words, sentences and paragraphs for pornographic materials," Zhang, chief scientist of the program told Xinhua on Thursday.

"It is smarter than keyword-based search engines, because it can discern articles which are critiquing porn materials from those which are merely talking dirty," he said.

The system could also pick up ambiguous paragraphs which it could not comprehend for examiners to scrutinize, he said.

The CAS official website and some of its institutes' websites have already adopted the system for trial use.

"We anticipate that many government organizations and website operators will find it useful," said Zhang, "and we will soon put the software into the market."

Scientists also established a database of "pornographic like" words working as a "searching standard" for the examination.

The software could be used by supervision watchdogs or websites themselves for a real-time supervision on the web contents.

However, Zhang admitted that the new invention could only sniff out "pornography in written form", and could do nothing about images or audio-visual materials.

"We have yet to find an effective way for audio-visual examination, which needs further advanced technology," Zhang said.

In early January, seven government departments including the State Council's Information Office and the ministries of Public Security and Culture, jointly launched a nationwide crackdown campaign on porn websites. As of Tuesday, a total of 1,911 porn websites were shut down.

It later extended the campaign to mobile phone games, online novels, blogs, videos, radio programs, mobile phone websites, chatrooms and instant messenger groups.

Min Dahong, a senior mass communication fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), said the government crackdown campaign would help build a much healthier web environment for Chinese youth. (From Xinhua)

Tags: Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, anti porn, porn, end of porn

Wikileaks Leak Its Own Anonymous Donor List (Partial)

In an amateurish email blunder we all have committed at least once, putting bunch of email address in CC field instead of BCC field, Wikileaks have inadvertently released partial list of their donors. But trying to be open, they have posted the complete email online. But as far as I know, I guess the spamers got a few more address'
Wikileaks partial donors list, 14 Feb 2009

Tags: Wikileaks

How ConnetU Really Lost Ater Winning Against Facebook!

The websphere is awash with facebook / ConnectU case and what the court papers revealed. Mark Zukerberg is still the winner and Divya Narendra and Cameron and Tyler Winklevossare the losers even after winning.
ValleyWag has done a nice bit of calculations to show how the triplets lost.

Tags: facebook, connectU

Yahoo Twitts

Yahoo has a twitter account, twitter/yahoo and so does a whole bunch of people, entities from Yahoo. All of them are invading Twitter. Is it a prequel to what?
Pehaps it was due to this PEW report that says 11% of Americans used service similar to twitter.

Tags: Yahoo, twitter, PEW report

Social Trails On Android-Powered Phones, With My Tracks.

I have been a GPS fan for a very long time. Geo tagging was a part of my life even before the digital cameras became part of daily like now. But those day (even Now) most people carry a GPS device, Camera (Or GPS enabled Camera) and record their trails or photographic wanderings. Then they come home and plug the device into a computer and do bunch of things to merge data with map services like Google Maps.
But Now, with My Tracks for Android based phones, can do these things in a much simpler way. All these could be done via an Android based phone, like T-Mobile G1. Too bad I cannot run it on my iPhone. But I have another program on iPhone that performs similar task, GPSlite.
The above trails were created by Sandor, a software Developer at Google
Official Google Blog: Happy trails with My Tracks for Android-powered phones

Tags: My Tracks, Google maps, Android, Geo tagging, GPS, GPS enabled Camera

Google Book Search Goes Mobile With 1.5 Million Books.

As you can see from the image above, I am on the Google's recently announced Book Search Mobile site. I value books a lot and I have read a lot, a lot more than an average person (but it seems that it has not helped me in writing!) and I have a section of the house, yes you can call it a study, dedicated to books. There are thousands of books and I feel like I am in the center of imaginary and real world at the same time.
I have browsed through Google Books, found books that I have not read or seen before. But now I can take my study where ever I go. I was more than thrilled to see all those titles on the Mobile book search site and I am sure I will spend more time there. Since iPhone gives me constant connection, I will be walking through all those books more often. I think more than those iPhone games now!
Inside Google Book Search: 1.5 million books in your pocket

Tags: Google Books, Google Book Search Mobile

Data Privacy Day! Raising data privacy awareness

US and Canada is celebrating Data Privacy Day with 27 other European countries today. I am not sure why not the other countries. Because data privacy affects every one.
In the USA, the Information Technology Association of America is hosting an event called "Data Privacy Day: Increasing Privacy Awareness and Trust." Google is supporting this event by joining government officials and privacy community members.

In addition to collective efforts, Google is offering its users with their own privacy initiatives, from face blurring on street views to incognito mode on Google Chrome, which I use every day and like very much.
Follow the link to read more about Google privacy initiatives and policies.
Official Google Blog: Raising data privacy awareness

Tags: Data Privacy Day, Information Technology Association of America, Google Chrome, Google privacy

Google Earth and Google Maps Become Art Museums

Google Earth and Google Maps have become an art museums by bringing the famous and lovely (I love museums) PRADO museum (Museo Nacional Del Prado) online. I was lucky enough to have visited the real one but I would not miss any of these high res images displayed by Google.
I was thrilled to read;
"Experience some of the most important Masterpieces from the Prado Museum. In the next two weeks, you will be able to access a new painting every day on Google Maps. To see them all together in full screen, use Google Earth"
If you an art lover, the classics, the kind that leaves with your jaws in your hands, follow this link.

Tags: PRADO museum, Museo Nacional Del Prado, Google maps, Google earth

Tweetnews! Twitter Authorized Yahoo News!

Determining how fresh and relevant the news are a question to news publishing sites. Sorting them by time has been the initial method with some other authorization schema has brought us the fresh and relevant news to us.
But Yahoo developer Vik Singh has seen that perhaps binding the time stamped Yahoo news articles with Twitter and order them by the number of tweets, Tweetnews, could be of a better relevance. Yes, they seem to be. I did a few searches and was happy with the results. (Above is a search on Israel on Tweetnews and at the bottom is the same done on Yahoo News at the same time.)
Vik has written a very good blog post on the suject and sums ip up as "To sum up, the contributions of this service are: (1) Real-time search + freshness (2) Stitching social commentary to authoritative sources of information (3) Another (hopefully cool) BOSS example."

Tags: twitter, tweetnews, Yahoo, Vik Singh, BOSS, Google APP Engine

My Senetor Is On YouTube! Is Yours?

YouTube in conjunction with both the House and Senate, today launched two new hubs that will help you access your Senator and Representatives' YouTube channels: The Senate Hub (youtube.com/senatehub) and The House Hub (youtube.com/househub).
These channels will give you time to interact with your senator and representative. According to Google Policy Blog, People on the hill will be posting videos direct from their Washington offices, as well as clips of floor speeches and committee hearings alongside additional behind-the-scenes footage from Capitol Hill.
I think this is getting better!

Tags: youtube, capitol hill, senate, house, househub, senatehub

Twittbation

If no one comments on your twits, you can comment on yourself like our Diordna did!

Tags: twitter, twitbation

Twitters Crunched

Twitter folks were recognized as the "Best Startup Founders" at last Friday evening at San Francisco's Herbst Theater for the second annual Crunchies awards.

Twitter Blog: We Got The Crunchies

Tags: crunchies, twitter, Best Startup Founders

Butcher's Guide To Social Media!

Actually it is a guide for butchers who wants to be social media moguls. According to the first comment, bakers and candlestick makers will not cut it even thought the article, Build A Social Media Cheat Sheet For Any Topic is slated for Butchers, bakers and candlestick makers. Even though I am none of the above, I found the article to be very interesting. It was Written by Marshall Kirkpatrick and now running on RWW. Go build your Social Media Interface.

Tags: Social Media Interface, Social Media Cheat Sheet, RWW

Obama's Twitter Account Hacked?

Twitter blog tells us that quite a few, 32 accounts were hacked using the twitter phishing scam that we mentioned earlier. But all have been restored and our president's Twitter account is safe. By the way the president, is already working in bringing the much needed stimulus package forward. We certainly see Barak Obama!
The phishing incident has made Twitter investigate OAuth. According to Twitter blog, it is in closed beta test at the moment. But OAuth would not have prevented the phishing attack. Only us, users can prevent such things by being a bit vigilant.

Twitter Blog: Monday Morning Madness

Tags: We see Barak Obama, twitter

Plugged In Twitter

I just installed Firefox plugin, Power Twitter. (So new that I have not restarted my browser yet as some other web application is running on another tab and hence the screen caps from the web. But I have seen and played with the installation on my partners browser).
Power Twitter seem to be a must for twitters who twitch their fingers wanting to do more with their twitter. From what I have seen so far it gives a real boost to the twitter. Praises have come from techcrunch to me and many other web dignitaries in between.

With this plugin, Twitter now can include:

• Photo sharing with embedded flickr photos
• Video sharing with embedded youtube videos
• Shared tinyurls are unwound so you know where they link to (No more twiter Phishing) and url translation to page titles
• All links are mapped to their web page titles
• Additional user information is mapped to twitter users thanks to data conduits via 30 Boxes (e.g. flickr accounts, blog posts, del.icio.us links, and tons of other social media!, such as Facebook status updates, inline YouTube, Flickr, and TwitPic,
  
• Search, search scoped to a specific user, status history peeking on mouseover.
  
• open web update (news feed) mapping

You can get the plugin from the link below but you may want to follow the discussion and information on Social|Median first. The app comes from 30 boxes!

Plugin from Mozilla.org

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/9591

Tags: power twitter, twitter, social median, techcrunch, Mozilla.org

Twitter Phished

In case if you did not know, there was a twitter phishing saga that unfolded. According to the news a few people have got caught in the Phishers net and given away their passwords to bad people.
So if you have not done so be careful with your surfing and if you DID give the password away, please go and change it. Twitter has proactively reset the passwords of suspected accounts that may have been tricked. Please use the reset password link. This process will send an email to the address associated with your account and you'll be able to create a new password.
Twitter Blog: Gone Phishing

Tags: twitter, Phishing

NTT Launches Mobile Social Network, FAMI NAVI!

NTT Com, Japan has launched a social networking service (SNS) that families can use to share pictures and schedules through their mobile phones. The beta version of "fami navi" ("family navigation"), is initially targeted towards families. NTT Com expects its SNS service to build a better tomorrow by helping to strengthen family bonds, foundation of our socities.

NTT Com offers the service for free (packet data charges may apply from the carriers). Fami Navi is currently compatible with NTT DOCOMO, au and SOFTBANK handsets equipped with Flash^®Lite™ 1.1 or above.

Since the the network id geared towards the family units, there are a limit of 20 members to a unit. With small families that Japan has, this limit will not prevent a few generations be in touch where ever they are during the day. I am not sure what happens when a member has multiple memberships! As of now, one person registers as the site manager and then can invite up to 19 other family members to register.

With current services, photos, usually those taken with a camera-equipped mobile phones, could be shared with family or unit members. One also will be able to create a slide show with a compilation of these photos with a provided application, and the same could be used as a Flash Video standby screen for handsets.

The other prominent service, calendering or scheduling is uniue in itself. There is nothing new from traditional calendering service but having it available on your mobile device might make it easier to be home before dinner. Everyone’s schedule can be viewed by other members anytime and anyplace making it easier to plan family functions together. Members can receive an automatic e-mail reminders before special days, such as birthdays and other anniversaries.

As usual with Japanese Internet culture, A variety of graphics are available to decorate messages exchanged among the members. Members also encouraged to access the site frequently. Each time a person accesses the site, a decorative item such as virtual flower or building block icon is added to the site and that reflects the frequency of use. When the site collects a certain number of flowers/blocks within a given time, the members can receive a present from fami navi, such as a photo album template.

Tags: fami navi, family navigation, Mobile Social Networking, NTT DOCOMO, SOFTBANK, Flash®Lite™ 1.1, Japanese Internet culture