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805 results for google
Gaming:The WTF World of Wikipedia - 15 unbelievable "tr in Business and Industry in Gaming, Media, Web, IT and Computing
You. Your friends and family. Your classmates and coworkers. In thebrave new world of the internet, everybody has power. Information isinteractive, knowledge is collaborative and history is open source. Thenerdy kid next door has just as much influence as a high schoolteacher; the dorky dude at the comic book shop has just as much voiceas a college professor.
Problem is, the nerds and dorks tend to have a lot morefree time - and passion - than the teachers and professors. The endresult? A hilariously skewed, terrifyingly twisted view of the world inwhich all the wrong things are deemed "important" and worthy of seriousacademic discussion.
Here are 15 mind-boggling examples.

See what we mean? When the deadliest, costliest war in the history of mankind has been trumped by a videogame franchise about that war,you know something's off. One involved over 50 countries and took over70 million lives; the other involves button mashing and tea bagging.
On an encouraging note, we did have to add all the Call of Dutygames' individual pages together to reach the crazy number above. On adiscouraging note, we didn't have to add Call of Duty 4 and itsnon-WWII setting, which would have brought the total word count to aneven crazier 18,927.
Oh, and on a simply ridiculous note? Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare beats "modern warfare"... 5,858 to 2,873.
Also less important than Call of Duty!
American Revolutionary War = 8,078
American Civil War = 11,729
English Civil War = 8,030
Napoleonic Wars = 7,951
Hundred Years' War = 7,992
War on Terrorism = 10,674
War on Drugs = 7,628
Cold War = 10,117
• "War" = 9,233
While the magic menagerie of super-powered, frilly-maned, sparkly-eyed, rosy-cheeked wonder beasts might make for slightly more exciting cards than a Three of Spades, the emphasis here is still extremely wonky.
Poker has been around for longer than anyone can remember... the Pokemon Trading Card Game was invented in 1996. Poker has created millionaires and forced bankruptcy... the Pokemon Trading Card Game might have resulted in some lost lunch money and a temper tantrum or two.
Also less important than Pokemon Trading Cards!
Baseball cards = 4,686
Blackjack = 5,228
Roulette = 5,492
Checkers = 2,326
Pool (Billiards) = 621
Bowling = 407
Wheel of Fortune = 4,521
• "Trade" = 3,038
• "Games" = 2,830

Before you get the wrong impression, no, the Master Chief does not win in a Wikipedia matchup against George W. Bush... though his approval ratings are undoubtedly higher.
The truly astounding thing, however, is that he does emerge victorious against not one, not two, but TENof this country's past commanders in chief. Yes, 23% of the men whohelped make the United States the strongest nation on Earth are easilydefeated by a fictional and faceless videogame character who barelyknows how to speak and takes orders from a naked hologram. Go America!
The orange word count above is an average taken from the USPresidents beaten by the Master Chief. Here's the full, patheticbreakdown:
Leaders of the Free World less important than Master Chief!
James Monroe = 2,820
(5th President)
John Quincy Adams = 3,457
(6th President)
John Tyler = 3,431
(10th President)
Zachary Taylor = 2,235
(12th President)
Millard Fillmore = 3,631
(13th President)
Franklin Pierce = 4,203
(14th President)
James Buchanan = 3,888
(15th President)
Rutherford B. Hayes = 2,686
(19th President)
James A. Garfield = 3,915
(20th President)
Chester A. Arthur = 3,078
(21st President)
          
                   
     


In the future, when Captain Kirk is battling tribbles and Data islearning how to love, this lopsided comparison will make completesense. Why wouldn't the entries for the glorious Starship Enterprise dwarf that for a dusty museum piece like the automobile? We expect the pages for hoverboards, robot maids, personal time machines and giant laser death rays to do the same.

For the present, though, why does a make-believe spaceship deserve more words than the planet's principal mode oftransportation? Also, why does that make-believe space ship deserve noless than nine separate pages, including unique entries for six different models of the NCC-1701? Seriously?!

Also less important than the Starship Enterprise!

Planes = 5,132
Trains = 2,850
Boats = 1,884
Bicycles = 5,112
Motorcycles = 5,446
Shoes = 3,241
Lunar rovers = 1,844
Space shuttles = 6,217
Space stations = 1,830
Outer space = 3,000







You think Hideo Kojima's cut scenes are long? Try reading Leo Tolstoy's epic tome. War and Peace waspublished in four books over five years, covers nearly a decade ofhistory and includes more than 1,400 pages, more than 560,000 words andmore than 3 million characters. It's generally considered one of thelongest novels - hell, one of the longest things - of all time.

Somehow, though, the writers on Wikipedia managed to summarize thewhole plot in 1,922 words. Well done! Now we'd be really impressed ifyou guys could squeeze the plot of a single damn videogame - even therambling old man that is Metal Gear Solid 4 - into less than 2,548 words.

The top numbers (in orange) are for the entire entries.The numbers in the preceding paragraph, as well as the list below, arefor the subsections entitled "plot," "story," or "synopsis."

Also less important than Metal Gear Solid 4!
(by plot, story or synopsis)


Romeo and Juliet = 770
Hamlet = 780
Moby Dick = 845
Of Mice and Men = 288
A Tale of Two Cities = 1,341
Atlas Shrugged = 673
The Hobbit = 465
Citizen Kane = 430
Casablanca = 834
Chinatown = 854







We won't get jealous and play the competition card here. EGM isimportant, a veritable titan of the industry with a massive and devotedfollowing. Many of us here at GamesRadar include ourselves in that camp.

But come on... do the latest screenshots of Chun-Li'sthighs really carry more weight than the 2008 election? Do you reallyneed to know the review score for Turok more than you need to know thereasons for the recession? Is the dropping price of the PS3 morecritical than the rising price of gasoline?

Yes, Electronic Gaming Monthly - and any videogame publication - is totally worthy of 4,429 words. We just wish that Time and other vital news sources received the same attention.

Also less important than EGM!

Newsweek = 1,393
USA Today = 2,685
National Geographic = 1,949
The New Yorker = 3,874
The Washington Post = 2,449
CNN = 4,281
Fox News = 3,758
• "Magazines" = 842
• "Newspapers" = 3,537
GamesRadar = 201







We love, love, love the soundtracks to Final Fantasy... but someone put way, way, way too much effort into this Wikipedia page. The intro alone is nearly 700 words, lengthier than the entries for many singers, bands and genres. Rock and roll, the biggest genre of them all, doesn't stand a chance.

Of course, the vastness of the web was made to hold such exceedinglyniche minutiae, but even the fan who owns all of these compilationalbums probably agrees that they could have fit onto the page forgeneral Final Fantasy music. Unless that fan is the one who wrote this obsessive love letter to begin with...

Also less important than obscure Final Fantasy music!

Beethoven = 6,268
Mozart = 6,331
Frank Sinatra = 5,743
Kelly Clarkson = 5,849
Amy Winehouse = 7,269
Rihanna = 2,977
Kanye West = 4,713
Jay-Z = 6,658
Nirvana = 4,157
Radiohead = 6,495



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Jeffrey Dahmer was a cannibal, Charles Manson was a deranged cultleader and John Wayne Gacy, worst of all, dressed up like a friggin'clown. Yet the complete list of these horrible, horrible murderers -together with dozens of depraved others - is apparently about 3,000words less significant than the list of Maverick boss characters in the Mega Man X series.

And that's compared to the list of serial killers by country. Look up the list of serial killers by number of victims andthe difference grows to 6,000. Go ahead and add the two lists togetherif you want - at 8,000 words total, they still fall short of the sheerterror and infamy inspired by Cyber Peacock, Blizzard Buffalo,Overdrive Ostrich and Armored Armadillo. Ooh, we're getting chills justthinking about them!


Above: The true face of evil







Let's be honest. Who doesn't love Gardulla the Hut? Who didn't havea poster of Cole Fardreamer or Elan Sleazebaggano hanging on theirbedroom wall as a kid? Who wouldn't beg their parents to buy them thatKlaatu action figure for the holidays?

Qwi Xux, Plo Koon, 2-1B, Chief Chirpa, Yarna D'al Gargan, BaronSoontir Fel, Meewalh, Oola, Commander Cody, Baron Soontir Fel, TraskUlgo, Gartogg, Wam "Blam" Lufba and, of course, little Windy... all ofthem are forever entwined in our dreams and imaginations.

Clearly, the list of minor characters in the Star Wars universe should be seven times as large as the page on the Founding Fathers of the United States. Clearly.

Also more important than the Founding Fathers!

Minor Star Wars droids = 10,105
Minor Star Wars villains = 9,648
Minor Star Wars bounty hunters = 5,236
Minor Sonic the Hedgehog characters = 12,595
Minor Mortal Kombat characters = 6,286
Minor StarCraft characters = 5,640
Minor One Piece characters = 17,446
Minor Sailor Moon characters = 7,251
Minor Gundam Wing mobile suits = 3,584
Minor recurring characters in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine = 5,097

Heed our warning - Wikipedia is only the beginning. Soon, textbookswill have entire chapters devoted to fairies and fishmen. Languagestudents will learn Goron instead of Greek. History class will forgothe Romans for the Rito, while anthropology discards the Spanish andSwedish for the Subrosians and Skull Kids.

Nonsense, you say? Tell that to the 730 million residents of Europe, whose deep and diverse ethnic backgrounds just got pwned by a bunch of elves, gnomes, talking twigs, golden frogs and mutant chickens.
Oh yeah, and Tingle.

Also more important than the population of Europe!

Elder Scroll races = 8,489
Pokemon types = 4,362
Final Fantasy monsters = 6,637
Halo aliens = 5,478
Middle-earth orcs = 4,845
Fictional cats = 10,248
Fictional dragons = 8,651
(there are non-fictional dragons?)





No surprises here. After all, Superman (10,641 words) has been known to survive a nuclear explosion... inside his own ass. And Batman (10,818 words) invented his own damn brand of shark repellent Bat spray!

Obviously, these guys are far superior to the rest of us. End of discussion.



Above: Holy sardine!






Both the fictional Umbrella Corporation and the real world National Human Genome Research Institute studythe mysteries of genetics. Both engage in the cutting edge field ofbiomedical engineering. Both are located in small towns. Both haveseemingly harmless, yet somehow creepy names. Both have seeminglyvague, yet somehow menacing logos.

Wait a second - are these two organizations actuallyone and the same?! Has Umbrella been a front all along, a clever ployto distract us from the true zombie overlords? We knew that tiny word count seemed suspicious...


Above: Oh shit.






According to Wikipedia, Kirby is "a small, pink, spherical creature with large red feet."

Exactly. Done. Enough said. Oh, if only that were the case...instead, that is merely the first sentence of a 1,512 word subsectionentitled Characteristics, which goes on to describe - in disturbinglydetailed sub-subsections - the Personality, Abilities and Species of Kirby. Yes, species.

The dog hasan overall longer page, sure, but the fact that Kirby's"characteristics" actually overcome those of man's best friend isabsolutely insane. They shouldn't even be close.








                              

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
                    
               
          
          
          
                   
            


As expected, Jesus whoops Mario byquite a large margin in total Wikipedia word count. In a miraculousturn of events, however, Mario's Legacy section is actually longer thanJesus' Legacy. Yes, you heard right - a pixelated plumber is consideredto have had a bigger impact on the world than the central figure ofChristianity and, to some, the physical embodiment of God. Wow.

Then again... Jesus can walk on water and heal the sick,but Mario can shoot fireballs out of his hands and turn into a raccoon.Jesus has an awesome beard, but Mario's got a super sweet mustache.Jesus ushered in much of modern religion, but Mario ushered in much ofmodern gaming. Both can come back from the dead, though to be fair,Jesus only did that once.

Dunno, seems like a tie to us





Also less important than Mario's legacy!


Albert Einstein's legacy = 153• John F. Kennedy's legacy = 436• Susan B. Anthony's legacy = 252• Princess Diana's legacy = 196• The Wright brothers' legacy = 175• Mother Teresa's influence in the world = 117






At last, we reach the ultimate showdown. In this corner, we have God, who Wikipedia describes as:

"... the principal or sole deity in religion..."
"...the creator and overseer of the universe..."
"... omnipotent and eternal..."
"... the source of all moral obligation, and the greatest conceivable being existent..."

His opponent? Knuckles of Sonic the Hedgehog fame, who Wikipedia describes as:

"... a red, teenage, anthropomorphic echidna..."
"... the fourth most popular character in the series..."
"... shy around girls..."

And, uh, yeah. How did this guy beat God by more than 4,000 words again? Well, to reach Knuckles' number, we did have to add two pages together, one for his game character and one for his comic character. To level the playing field, we should probably give God the Bible or something, right? Of course, we'll also have to give Knuckles his comic books and two videogames (Knuckles Chaotix and Sonic & Knuckles) to keep things even...




Damn! Sorry God - you lose again. Looks like we have a new omnipotentoverseer in the universe... or at least in the strange, silly, scaryand seriously skewed universe that is Wikipedia.
Posted by Editorial Team Mon Jul 14, 2008 11:21 am
1.8GHz SSD MacBook Air Drops $500 in Apple
Apple has quietly dropped the price of the high end MacBook Air by $500.

The high end MacBook Air comes equipped with a 1.8GHz upgrade (from1.6GHz) and a 64GB Solid State Drive (SSD). The total price for thehigh end laptop is $2598. Compare this to the original price of the1.8GHz/SSD MacBook Air at $3098 just last week (Google Cache).

The base price for the 1.6GHz 80GB Hard Drive MacBook Air remains at$1799. The difference in price appears to be a combination of pricedrops in both the processor upgrade ($200 vs $300) and SSD ($599 vs$999).

Apple has emailed customers who have outstanding orders that are affected by the price drop:
To Our Valued Apple Customer:

Apple has announced a price drop for a component(s) of the MacBookAir that you recently ordered. We have automatically adjusted yourorder to reflect the new lower price.

For up-to-date information on your order, please visit our Order Status website at <http: www.apple.com="" orderstatus="">. After your order is shipped, you can also obtain tracking information on this site.

Thank you for your shopping at the Apple Store.

Sincerely,
Apple Online Store Support</http:>
Posted by Editorial Team Mon Jul 14, 2008 11:11 am
Google's Street View comes to UK london and Inverness [PICS] in General Discussion, including Off Topic, Current Affairs
Google has defended its controversial Street View photo-mappingtool, saying it will meet local privacy laws in European countries atlaunch.
Following the news that Google Street View image capturing cars havebeen spotted in London, it seems Google's plans to bring the service tothe UK is under threat.



It's time to lock up your daughters, and here's why: The rovingspycar of Google's Street View has been spotted prowling the meanstreets of London...





At london bridge:
T

Also
http://flickr.com/photos/rodcorp/2653406304/

Inverness:



That aside - my mate snapped one of these devices on a few lampostsin his street that turned up the same day the Google-mobile was about.
http://c.imagehost.org/view/0124/thing.jpg
A quick call to the Highland Council street lighting departmentconfirmed they knew nothing about it, and that it should definitely nothave been put there without their permission.
So, over to you, readers. What the hell is it ???

The tool, which matches real world photos to mapped locations, has drawn fire from some privacy campaigners.
In the UK, Privacy International said the tool could breach data protection laws if people's faces were shown.
Google has said it is using face blurring technology to preserve the privacy of individuals photographed.<!-- E SF -->
"In our view they need a person's consent if they make use of aperson's face for commercial ends," Simon Davies, of PrivacyInternational told BBC News.
Street View has already been launched in the US and includesphotos of streets in major American cities. Photographing of areas inthe UK, including London, is believed to have started last week.
Mr Davies has written to Google asking for details of the face-blurringtechnology, saying he would ask the UK Information Commissioner tointervene if he did not receive a satisfactory response.
He told BBC News that he was concerned that Google's technology would not work.
Google's senior privacy counsel Jane Horvath has responded saying that the technology had already been deployed.
She wrote: "We actually launched this technology publicly in early May, when we refreshed our imagery in Manhattan, New York.
"Since then we have applied face blurring to all new imagery launches in the US, including a major launch in June."
Google has said it plans to launch Street View in a "few European countries" but did not give any more details.
In a statement, a Google spokesperson added: "We think this type ofprivacy-enabling technology is the best way of meeting the challenge ofcontinuing to respect people's expectation of privacy, while notstifling the development of new products and services that everyone canenjoy and benefit from."



Have you seen Google photographing the UK? Do you have any picturesof the cars Google are using to take photos?



Heres some US sights from the likes of
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/05/request_for_urb.html


Without any context or timeline, it's hard to tell exactly what you're seeingin the extraordinary panoramic images captured by Google's magic van. But inthe days since the service was launched, numerous blogs have appeared,linking to the most interesting sights. Here are a selection found at GoogleSightseeing, Steetviewr, and ThreatLevel.
1.Someone apparently climbing over a fence in San Francisco
2.Borat peeking out of a window in San Jose, California
3.The already infamous 'Hot Babes' poster van driving alongside the Googletruck in Las Vegas
4.A girl bending over, and two guys watching her...
5.Ambulance driver stops for a sandwich
6.A canine disagreement
7.Strange, headless figures next to what looks like a newly dug grave
8.Giant robot attack
9.The alien invasion begins
10The moment when the Google van stopped for lunch, and the road takes adetour in the McDonald's car park
Posted by Editorial Team Mon Jul 14, 2008 9:57 am
RSS - who profits? in Business and Industry in Gaming, Media, Web, IT and Computing
Of course your content is your copyright and others should not copyit without your permission. But a feed can be repurposed in many ways,and we need to look at what parts of the feed are being copied and whoprofits.
Copyright lawyers will have to fill me in on the latest case law onall of this, but I think in practice we have despatched the question whether links are legal (is the web legal?) with a resounding yes.
Shouldn’t You Have To Ask Permission If You Want To Take A Blog’s Feed For Your Profit? which has attracted considerable comment.
As Sir Tim father-of-the-web-but-not-a-lawyer Berners-Lee has said:

There are some fundamental principles about links onwhich the Web is based. These principles allow the world of distributedhypertext to work. Lawyers, users and technology and content providersmust all agree to respect these principles.

What of link+title? In principle there is copyright in a title, butit’s hard to see anyone any longer seeking to enforce copyright here.
But an RSS feed is an aggregation, so what of a bunch oflinks+titles? Here there is a stronger case for saying that thisaggregation is protected by copyright, and if we’re talking about anaggregation of links+titles+descriptions or even +excerpts, that isclearly protected. So let’s talk about permission, express or implied.
I don’t believe there’s any implied permission for others to republish feeds.But in practice, why publish a feed if you don’t want it to berepublished? It will be, and there’s little you can do to stop it. Youcan frame some stern T & Cs or apply a more friendly CC licence,but most, whether intentionally or by default, will take little notice.
Susan makes much of others taking your (blog) feed “for profit”. Weare all miffed if we see others profiting from our work at our expense.But, with feed repurposing, in most cases we profit too, sufficientlythat we do not see it as being at our expense.

  • Google indexes, caches and republishes parts of my website, myblog, my feeds without my permission. Google profits handsomely, but Iprofit too.
  • Other specialist search engines and directories - like Tehcnorati,Blawg Search - also index and repurpose my content. If I’ve submittedmy site to them, I’ve probably given them permission to do this, but inmost cases my signing up only legitimates what they have been doing /would do anyway. (Susan, Technorati indexes your blog whether you’veclaimed it or not.) They profit, but I profit too.
  • Smaller fish might also republish my feeds, but in all cases shortof their republishing my full text, I profit as much as or more thanthey do. All items link back to me. And I really am not going to losesleep if they choose to wrap Google ads around it or seek to profit inother ways. (I do view sploggers etc as the scum of the earth, but I blame Google Adsense.)

So in practice, what we are all most concerned about is othersclaiming our real work - our full posts or articles - as their own; andthere is a simple answer: if you want to protect your content, includeonly excerpts rather than full text in your feeds. Syndicate yourmetadata, not your data.
Posted by Editorial Team Mon Jun 30, 2008 5:44 am
Top 10 most vital people-powered technologies - FEATURE in General Discussion, including Off Topic, Current Affairs
Linux
Thedaddy of people power, this open source operating system owes prettymuch everything to the massive community of users and developers who'vebuilt it, broken it, put it back together again and added all sorts ofgoodies.
The penguin logo unites a truly incredible group oftalented people, from driver developers to desktop designers, advocatesto application builders.
Firefox
Even people who think that Linux is a character in the Peanutscartoon know about Firefox. What makes it special isn't the open sourcecommunity that created and maintain it, however; It's the efforts ofthe developer community whose extensions make Firefox the Swiss ArmyKnife of the internet.
Whether you want to block annoying ads,keep track of interesting sites or just stay up to date with footieresults from around the world, if you can imagine it, there's almostcertainly an extension that does it.
Half-Life 2
This month we've mostly been playing Minerva, Adam Foster's excellent mod for Half-Life 2 (http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/MINERVA). Modders have been creating new stories since the days of Doom, and a quick look around Moddb (www.moddb.com) uncovers stacks of mods for your favourite PC games.
Smartdevelopers - such as Half-Life's Valve - know that mods make theirgames even more attractive, so the firms make modding as easy andaccessible as possible.
Xbox
Is your original Xbox gathering dust in the loft? Why not dust it down and turn it into a fully-fledged media centre?
While Microsoft blabs about the 360's multimedia features, the talented team at the Xbox Media Center project (www.xboxmediacenter.com)can turn an ageing original Xbox into a multimedia marvel (although ifyou don't fancy modding your console, steer clear - XBMC only works onhacked machines).
Job done, they're turning their attention to other platforms: a Linux version of the software is in development.
TiVo
Thecommunity that's sprung up around the TiVo digital video recorder(www.tivocommunity.com) is a thing of wonder, with users offering eachother advice, commenting on the company and fiddling with its products- often in ways that would give film and TV studios heart attacks.


       
While TiVo claims not to encourageor discourage the hacking community, it's pretty obvious that thehacking community makes the product even more attractive to tech-heads- and hackers' ideas often turn up in the official product, such aswhen the community found and fixed a date problem in older TiVo boxes.
iPhone
iPhonehackers aren't just trying to free the phone for use on any network.They've found ways to turn your existing tunes into ringtones withoutpaying for them all over again, created all kinds of add-onapplications and best of all, found a way to change the truly horriblefont on the Notes screen.
PlayStation Portable
Sonydoesn't like it - recent firmware updates mean that unless you've gotan older PSP, your options are limited - but thanks to Homebrew (www.psp-homebrew.eu)you can add all kinds of goodies to the device. There are loads,including customisers, emulators, chat programs and GPS software.
Overclocking
Changingchips' clock speeds and hoping they wouldn't set your house on fireused to be a shadowy pursuit that tech firms frowned upon. Thenhardware firms realised that overclockers had money as well as PCs toburn.
Now, motherboard makers often provide everything a speeddemon needs, either in the motherboard BIOS or on the driver CD, andgraphics card firms are keen too. For example, ATI actively encouragesoverclockers to ramp up their Radeons.
Windows Media Center
Microsoft'smedia system is pretty nifty, but it's niftier still when you tweak ituntil it squeaks. Microsoft knows this, which is why it happily linksto two independent community sites: the Media Center-specific GreenButton (thegreenbutton.com), and the general audio-visual AVS Forum(www.avsforum.com/avs-vb).
The software giant also has its own community site (www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/communities/mediacenter.mspx), where media center experts share their top tips.
Web apps
Firms who make it easy to interact with their online apps have createda massive community of developers. Google Maps has been adapted toprovide maps of speed cameras (http://spod.cx/speedcameras.shtml) and to create flight simulators (http://www.isoma.net/games/goggles.html), while keen developers have created software for apps such as Google Mail and Flickr.
You'll also find useful and useless apps alike on social networks such as Facebook.
Posted by Editorial Team Mon Jun 30, 2008 5:31 am
Microsoft to send high-speed net traffic over whitespace in Microsoft / Windows
Microsoft has a plan for sending high-speed net traffic over America's television whitespaces. And it's sure the country will eat some serious foreign dust ifthis plan gets snuffed.
Quote:

"Across the nation, there are vast swathes of unoccupied TVspectrum, and we - along with other tech companies - are asking thatthis spectrum be used for a what is essentially WiFi on steroids,"Microsoft senior director of public policy Marc Berejka said yesterdayduring a panel discussion at Santa Clara University.
tile++; document.write('\x3Cscript src="http://ad.uk.doubleclick.net/adj/reg.comms.4159/wireless;cta='+cta+';ctb='+ctb+';ctc='+ctc+';sc='+sc+';cid='+cid+';'+RegExCats+GetVCs()+'pid='+RegId+RegDT+';'+RegKW+';test='+test+';pf='+RegPF+';dcove=d;tile='+tile+';sz=336x280;ord=' + rand + '?" type="text/javascript">\x3C\/script>'); <ahref="http://ad.uk.doubleclick.net/jump/reg.comms.4159/wireless;dcove=d;sz=336x280;ord=DDxucdRk6jcAABXRLpwAAADE?"target="_blank"><imgsrc="http://ad.uk.doubleclick.net/ad/reg.comms.4159/wireless;dcove=d;sz=336x280;ord=DDxucdRk6jcAABXRLpwAAADE?"width="336" height="280" border="0" alt="" />
"If we fail on white spaces, what does that mean for the country'sreputation in the world as innovators? We have the potential to beleaders on spectrum policy, but if we don't push white spaces through,it will happen somewhere else. Some country will take the lead, andentrepreneurs will innovate over there."

But as Berejka admits, not everyone agrees with him. This whitespace idea is opposed by the nation's TV broadcasters, the wirelessmicrophone industry, and hospitals who like to monitor people walking through their hallways. Not to mention the other panelists at yesterday's Media Access Project Innovation 08 gathering.


Analyst Coleman Bazelon, economist Gregory Rose,
Media Access Project's Harold Feld, CTIA's Carolyn Brandon,
Columbia Telecommunications' Joanne Hovis, Microsoft's Marc Berejka
Microsoft wants to turn America's white spaces - portions of the TV band that aren'tused for broadcasting - into unlicensed spectrum. That means anyonecould buy devices off-the-shelf and grab some wireless bandwidth - aswe now do with WiFi. The difference is that this spectrum offers muchbetter propagation properties. Those net-centric wireless signals couldtravel over much longer distances - and at higher speeds.

One of Berejka's fellow panelists, industry analyst Coleman Bazelon,isn't opposed to using the white spaces for net access. But he doesn'tlike the unlicensed idea. "I agree that [the white space spectrum] is avaluable resource that's up for grabs," said Bazelon, a principal withthe Battle Group. "But if we don't license it and put it into the handsof companies that will invest in infrastructure to develop, it's goingto be wasted."

Of course, if it is licensed and auctioned off to the highestbidder, it will likely fall into the hands of the wireless old guard.Think AT&T and Verizon. After all, that was the inevitable resultof the epic 700-MHz auction. Officially, Microsoft has nothing but good thingsto say about the old guard, but in this case, it wants truly openairwaves. Redmond has even gone so far as to partner with Google on itswhite spaces project. Yes, Google.

At yesterday's panel, the old guard was represented by the CTIAwireless association. And naturally, the association said it wouldprefer that the white spaces be auctioned off to the highest bidder.

"We don't think white spaces should be given away for free," saidCarolyn Brandon, the CTIA's vice president of policy. "Some of ourmembers have suggested that the white spaces be auctioned off forbackhaul. Some have suggested that's not an important enough use, butwe say 'Let the market decide what the best use is.'"
So Microsoft tells the truth. If its white space plan bites thedust, so does at least a certain amount of American innovation. That'sright: We're siding with Redmond on this one.
Posted by Editorial Team Tue Jun 17, 2008 4:12 am
TomTom SatNav software heading to iPhone in Entertainment, Film and Music, Mobile devices and media
TomTom hasprepared a version of its popular SatNav software to run on Apple’siPhone, which the company plans to release online via Apple’s AppStorein the near future.
Weighing up Apple strategy
TechRadarspoke with a TomTom UK rep this morning who told us that the companywas not concerned about TomTom software on iPhone ‘cannibalising’traditional sales of TomTom hardware.
“No, we feel that itcomplements what we already offer,” the rep told us. “Though we arelooking at Apple's strategy before we can say more."
Free Google Maps
So,no details yet on pricing or planned release date for TomTom on iPhone,but we will of course be sure to bring you all those details as soon aswe have them.
In the meantime you might just want to make towith the freely available 2D version of Google maps when you pick upyour shiny new, £100 iPhone on 9 July.
Posted by Editorial Team Fri Jun 13, 2008 4:27 pm
WWDC 08: me.com mail, contacts, calendar like native apps in Apple
Apple hasunveiled MobileMe, which is a push method of controlling calendars,emails and contacts by sending the information from a remotely storedbase.
The service replaces the .Mac service which hasn’t really set the world alight so far.
The programme works with Mac, PC and iPhone, and works with Mail, iCal and Address book on the Mac, or Outlook on Windows.
Applehas also built a suite of web 2.0 applications for the MobileMe serviceusing Ajax, which provides a desktop-like experience on the web tointeract with the data, and can be accessed at me.com.
Send photos from the beach
Photoscan even be synched over the air, either from the iPhone or a Mac orPC, which means Apple is working to drop hard into the Web 2.0 spaceGoogle and Yahoo have been beavering away at over the last two years.
MobileMealso has over the air interaction; i.e. email is sent to the device, itinteracts with Google Maps, finds a restaurant mentioned in the email,and stores it as a contact for use on your computer.
Unveiled atWWDC, it was termed as a perfect application for the iPhone or iPodtouch for $99 per year with 20GB storage, but it comes with a free 60day trial.

MobileMe
Difference between .Mac and MobileMe
While mostly replacing .Mac (which was primarily centered aroundInternet services for Apple's desktop and notebook computers), MobileMeprovides Internet services for both Mac OS X and the iPhone OS as well as the iPod touch device and Microsoft Windowsusers. This means that now you are not restricted to a Mac runningsoftware like Mail and iCal, but can access your personal data from anycomputer connected to the internet.

Features
Storage
20GB of online storage featuring 200GB of monthly transfer. Thefamily pack includes this for the main user as well as 5GB of storageand 50GB of transfer for each sub user (up to four additional users)

Mail
Free Push Mail. Includes a @me.com email address. When a message is received it is sent directly to all the user's devices.

Address Book
Address Book (Push). When a contacted is added or amended it is updated immediately on all the user's devices.

Calendar
Calendar (Push). When a calendar appointment is added or amended it is updated immediately on all the user's devices.

Gallery
Public photo gallery. Photos can be uploaded in the web browser or synced by iPhoto on a mac

iDisk
iDisk, which is accessible via a web browser, the Finder on a Mac, or as a remote disk in Microsoft Windows.The iDisk can also share files by emailing a link to the intendedrecipient. Another feature is to set an expiration on the link. Thismeans access to file will stop after a set number of downloads or aftercertain time period.

Web 2.0
MobileMe uses web 2.0 technologies to provide the look and feel of desktop-class applications in the user's web browser.

Pricing
An Individual purchase of a MobileMe account for one-year is $99 USD (£59), while a Family Packsubscription (which includes one individual account and four familyaccounts with a specific email address for each one) is $149 USD (£89)for one year. The Individual account will have 20GB of combined emailand file storage and 200GB of monthly data transfer, while the FamilyPack will have, for each account in the Pack, 5GB of combined email andfile storage, and 50GB of monthly data transfer.

Competitors
MobileMe is supposed to comprise Microsoft Exchange-like features for consumers.

Browser Support
MobileMe's online services can be accessed in Desktop Applications.MobileMe also allows access to the user's data in desktop-likeenvironment in a web browser. Featured browsers are:

  • Safari 3 or later (Mac + PC)
  • Firefox 2 or later (Mac + PC)
  • Internet Explorer 7 (PC)
iPhone 2.0
Posted by Editorial Team Tue Jun 10, 2008 3:04 am
WWDC 08: iVirtua Official Topic, Analysis, Live Coverage in Apple
WWDC 2008 is currently taking place from June 9 to June 13 at Moscone West, San Francisco.

Applereported that, for the first time, this conference is sold out. Thereare three tracks for developers, iPhone, Mac, and IT.

Announcementsat the keynote included the App Store for iPhone and iPod Touch, thestable version of the iPhone SDK, a subsidized 3G version of the iPhonefor Worldwide markets, version 2.0 of the iPhone OS, Mac OS X v10.6,and the replacement/rebranding of .Mac as MobileMe.
Mac OS X version 10.6 "Snow Leopard" is the presumptive designation of Apple's next major version of Mac OS X. It was announced by Apple  CEO Steve Jobs at  WWDC on June 9, 2008. It is scheduled to ship "about a year" from the announcement.
Mac OS X v10.6 will not introduce any major new features, ratherfocusing on improving performance, stability and reducing the footprintof Mac OS X. However, full support for Microsoft Exchange will be included.
Snow Leopard

MobileMe
Difference between .Mac and MobileMe
While mostly replacing .Mac (which was primarily centered aroundInternet services for Apple's desktop and notebook computers), MobileMeprovides Internet services for both Mac OS X and the iPhone OS as well as the iPod touch device and Microsoft Windowsusers. This means that now you are not restricted to a Mac runningsoftware like Mail and iCal, but can access your personal data from anycomputer connected to the internet.

Features
Storage
20GB of online storage featuring 200GB of monthly transfer. Thefamily pack includes this for the main user as well as 5GB of storageand 50GB of transfer for each sub user (up to four additional users)

Mail
Free Push Mail. Includes a @me.com email address. When a message is received it is sent directly to all the user's devices.

Address Book
Address Book (Push). When a contacted is added or amended it is updated immediately on all the user's devices.

Calendar
Calendar (Push). When a calendar appointment is added or amended it is updated immediately on all the user's devices.

Gallery
Public photo gallery. Photos can be uploaded in the web browser or synced by iPhoto on a mac

iDisk
iDisk, which is accessible via a web browser, the Finder on a Mac, or as a remote disk in Microsoft Windows.The iDisk can also share files by emailing a link to the intendedrecipient. Another feature is to set an expiration on the link. Thismeans access to file will stop after a set number of downloads or aftercertain time period.

Web 2.0
MobileMe uses web 2.0 technologies to provide the look and feel of desktop-class applications in the user's web browser.

Pricing
An Individual purchase of a MobileMe account for one-year is $99 USD (£59), while a Family Packsubscription (which includes one individual account and four familyaccounts with a specific email address for each one) is $149 USD (£89)for one year. The Individual account will have 20GB of combined emailand file storage and 200GB of monthly data transfer, while the FamilyPack will have, for each account in the Pack, 5GB of combined email andfile storage, and 50GB of monthly data transfer.

Competitors
MobileMe is supposed to comprise Microsoft Exchange-like features for consumers.

Browser Support
MobileMe's online services can be accessed in Desktop Applications.MobileMe also allows access to the user's data in desktop-likeenvironment in a web browser. Featured browsers are:

  • Safari 3 or later (Mac + PC)
  • Firefox 2 or later (Mac + PC)
  • Internet Explorer 7 (PC)
iPhone 2.0


  • Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync support
  • Push email
  • Push contacts
  • Push calendar
  • Global Address List
  • Certificates and Identities
  • WPA2/802.1x
  • Enforced security policies
  • Extra keyboard languages including Chinese and Korean
  • Cisco IPsec VPN support
  • Device configuration
  • Remote wipe
  • Ability to view PowerPoint attachments
  • Mass email delete
  • Mass email move
  • Bonjour service discovery protocol
  • Support for SVG
  • Parental controls
  • Ability to search contacts
  • App Store (To manage third-party applications)
  • New "Calendar" menu in "Settings"
  • Updated calculator with extra features in portrait mode, a scientific calculator in landscape mode and an updated icon.
  • Updated iTunes with a new icon and reordered category icons within iTunes application.
  • Ability to save or open images from websites in Safari
  • Support for Traditional and Simplified Chinese handwriting recognition
  • Geotagging
  • Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Polish, Korean and Brazilian Portuguese language interface in iPhone, previously these languages were only in the iPod Touch since 1.1.1



Workers hang Apple's logo outside Moscone Center, where the Worldwide Developers Conference kicks off Monday.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET News.com)
Expect to hear new details about the future of Apple's Mac OS X andWeb business next week at the Worldwide Developers Conference--and wethink there might be a new iPhone, too.
On Monday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs will take the stage at the Moscone WestConvention Center in San Francisco to address a gathering of Apple'sdevelopers and the media. This year's WWDCis sold out to the development community, who will be hearing formalpresentations by Apple on both Mac and iPhone development during theweek's sessions and meetings.
Anyone with even a passing interest in consumer electronics is probably aware that Apple is expected to unveil the next generation of the iPhone in the near future. The older version has been sold out for weeks as we approach the anniversary of the first model's debut, and anticipation of a model that can connect to 3G cellular networks has been building almost since that date last year.
One of the primary drawbacks of the first iteration of the iPhone hasbeen its reliance on the slower EDGE network outside of Wi-Fi hotspots, which can make downloading a Web page an exercise in patience.Upgrading to a faster connection should encourage people to do more Webbrowsing outside of Wi-Fi connections and could open up a whole newclass of applications that need a faster pipe to work effectively.
Apple is also expected to include GPS technologyinside the latest version, another development that could pique thesoftware development community's interest in the iPhone. Location-awareservices are available on several phones that use GPS technology, andthe iPhone developers could soon be ready to join the party.
Will the new iPhone be available immediately following Jobs' keynote?It's not clear. There have been conflicting reports, but Brian Tong ofCNET TV is hearing from his sources that Apple Retail employees havenot yet been told whether they'll need to report early on Monday for aspecial training session, which the company has done in the past beforemajor announcements.

Next Monday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs could announce a new iPhone and a new operating system.
(Credit: Apple)
While the iPhone gets all the attention as the new kid on the block,WWDC is always, in large part, about the Mac. Apple chose a picture oftwo Golden Gate bridges branching off in different directions toillustrate its WWDC invitation, and while the iPhone branch mightaccount for the sold-out conference, the Mac branch is the bread andbutter of this conference.
The Unofficial Apple Weblogreported on Wednesday that Apple would be providing developers with anearly version of Mac OS X 10.6 during the conference. It's unclearwhether that means Apple is ready to start demonstrating features fromthat release, but the report said the new version is expected to focuson "stability and security."
Apple released Leopard, Mac OS X 10.5, last October after a delay needed to make sure the iPhone arrived on time. At the time, Jobs told The New York Times that he wants Apple to stick to an operating-system deployment cycle of 12 to 18 months.
TUAW's report says Apple could be eyeing a Macworld 2009 release forMac OS X 10.6, which would certainly nestle within that time frame.Microsoft recently said it wants to get the next version of Windows out by the end of 2009.
Another interesting part of that report is the notion that 10.6 will bean Intel-only release. Users of older Macs running PowerPC chips wereable to upgrade to Leopard, but the report suggests that Apple willdrop PowerPC support with the next release.
Apple will likely spend a healthy portion of Jobs' keynote discussingMac OS X, but it remains to be seen how much of a peek we'll get at thenext version. One question on the minds of many Apple users: afterwhich big cat will Apple choose to name the next release?
Ars Technica's Infinite Loopreported Wednesday that "Snow Leopard" was the name slated for the nextversion, which sounds like it could be somewhat confusing, given thefact that the current version is called Leopard. In a poll on TUAW'ssite, "Cougar" was in the lead, trailed by "Lynx" and "LOLcat," the last of which we can probably eliminate.
The third leg of the WWDC presentation could involve Apple's .Macservice. There have been a number of recent signs that Apple isrethinking its presence on the Internet, with new domain names beingsnapped up by the company and code strings in the iPhone SDK suggesting that a new name is on tap.
One interesting thing to watch for concerning any new version of .Macis how much of the service Apple keeps in-house, as opposed to bringinga Web-savvy partner like Google into the mix. The .Mac service is a good idea, but it isn't widely used among Mac users due to issues with its stability, feature list, and price tag.
Any or all of those objections could change, if Apple transfers theback end of the service to a huge Internet services provider likeGoogle, and uses the service to bring Macs and iPhones together ininteresting ways.
As usual, Apple is very tight-lipped about what may or may not bearriving during this year's WWDC. The latest iPhone may or may not beready for an actual release on the first day of the show, but expectthe topic to be the highlight of the day's announcements.

WWDC 2007 Keynote Live Coverage here at iVirtua Community
Posted by Editorial Team Mon Jun 09, 2008 12:23 pm
Acer’s Atom-based Aspire One £299 Eee Rival in Hardware, Internet, Networking, Comms and Security
The new machine does have something of an identity crisis – Acer iscalling it a “mobile internet device” when others are calling similarlaptops sub-notebooks, micro laptops and suchlike. There certainlyseemed to be some discrepancy between Acer’s label for the machine andIntel’s descripton of it as a ‘netbook.’ Acer has even sent us a‘positioning document’ that says “the Aspire one is an all-newcommunication device designed to provide a true mobile and wirelessexperience through continuous access to the Internet no matter whereyou are.” Nice.
But, marketing claptrap aside, the Aspire One looks like aformidable prospect, especially given its £199 price point for the 8GBLinux version with 512MB of RAM. Acer has engineered a bespokeinterface, rather like Asus’ for the Eee PC. Open Office is offered, asis a Messaging app that can handle MSN/Windows Live, AIM, Yahoo andGoogle Talk. Likewise an integrated email app can handle variousaccounts including Google Mail, but not Hotmail.
Windows XP Home is also an option (£299) but Acer only had the LinuxLite version available for us to look at during this morning’s launch.The uprated Windows XP option provides 1GB of RAM with an 80GB harddrive. Various models will be available, including a version with7.2Mbps HSDPA. Acer was also talking up WiMAX, but we all know itsappearance in the UK will be long and drawn out. 802.11b/g Wi-Fi isincluded as standard – part of Intel’s 945GSE chipset.
The Atom N270 chip is the Diamondville variant (Silverthorne is forUMPCs and MIDs) and runs at 1.6GHz with a thermal envelope of 2.5W.That’s the top end of the spectrum for Atom, which doesn’t need a fan.
In terms of weight and size, the Aspire 1 is just over 1KG and ismore-or-less perfect for a train-top table. It’s still an 8.9-inchdisplay, though Acer plans some bigger-screened models in future. Othernotable features include an SD slot for expanding the memory as well astwo available batteries – a 3-cell that Acer says promises three hoursof battery life as well as a 7-cell for a pretty impressive sevenhours. Take some time off this if you’re buying an XP-based variant.
The Aspire One will make an impression on the market, that’s forsure. The £199 Linux offering is impressive and pound-for-pound the XPversion is better value than the MSI Wind. Acer clearly wants to makean impact – the company will hope the Atom will give the Aspire One thespringboard it needs.
Posted by Editorial Team Thu Jun 05, 2008 4:05 pm
Facebook, Apple and Amazon word association: FUNNY YET TRUE! in General Discussion, including Off Topic, Current Affairs
Brandtags.net shows a brand's logo and simply asks you to type the first wordthat pops into your head, these are collated and the top 25 words are generated.



Facebook: friends, social, college, annoying, people, facebook, fun, boring,kids, lame, community, social networking, myspace, waste of time, addictive,social network, network, networking, stupid, young, useless, crap, internet,stalker and, um, shit



Amazon gets a better ride with words like books, book, everything, shopping,convenient, easy, buy, cheap, awesome, fast, online, smile, great, shop, amazon,useful, internet, good, online shopping, shipping, amazing, store, reliable,cool, and huge.

Apple gets the words Jobs, smug, git, crap, toy, fruit, pastel, expensive,polo-neck, irritating, stupid, evil, iphone, ipod, sickening, genocide, herpes,Coldplay, hippy, con-trick, waste, bubonic plague, and overpriced. Actually wemade some of those up.



And Google's:
search, google, internet, search engine, awesome, god, evil, smart, useful, everything, cool, find, fun, fast, good, big brother, information, everywhere, simple, great, innovative, ubiquitous, helpful, amazing, love

The experiment, via a site called brandtags.net,is anything but scientific. But it is simple: The site shows a brand'slogo and simply asks you to type the first word that pops into yourhead.
Posted by Editorial Team Wed Jun 04, 2008 4:46 am
Google Favicon: Small 'g' is the new brand? Previews [image] in General Discussion, including Off Topic, Current Affairs
Many people noticed a small change: Google has a new favicon.

Google changed their “Favicon.ico”, the 16x16 image file thatusually shows in the browser address bar or in bookmarks. The old icon used a square with red, green and blue edges, wrapping an upper-case“G”. The new logo is a bit more open, showing just the lower-case blue“g” from the Google logo, without borders, and a bit of shadow. To see this, visit Google
.com (or images.google.com, Google Product Search and so on), empty your browser cache and reload the page.


Is Google undergoing a rebranding exercise...?

Maybe they’re going to be known as ’the little g’ rather than ’The BigG’ from now on...



Google's favicon is hosted at google.com/favicon.icoand it's a 16x16 pixels image, a standard size for favicons. Googlereplaced the upper-case "G" in blue border, green and red borders witha lower-case purple "g" in a rounded corner rectangle.

I could get used to this:




Reception has been mixed, commenting on the new grey background, usability and recognisability when multiple tabs are open, lack of transparency and differing brands. Some bloggers note the new favicon 'totally fails on white background and in the urlbar [sic] on FF3RC1'. It is also noted that the 'googol' by which Google is named after, is spelt with a lower-case 'g'.

A before and after can be seen here, thanks to our tech team.



Google code still sports the old logo as of today.

Effects and debate
. I spent a good couple of minutes trying to find the right tab–I couldn’t find it because of a change to a very small image from a section of the browser I hardly every look at. You never realize how much these small things really incorporate into your overall web image. I’m amazed that such a small detail can prove to be so important to such a huge audience.

So why the change? What’s the point? Is there something coming? I can’t imagine such a departure from the branding just being nothing. What do you think?
Posted by Editorial Team Fri May 30, 2008 2:44 pm
MICROSOFT / YAHOO: Microsoft will consider fresh Yahoo bid in Business and Industry in Gaming, Media, Web, IT and Computing
Microsoft has confirmed it is stilllooking to acquire Yahoo, following the battle against Carl Icahn’splan to replace the entire board.



Microsoft’s decision to walk away from a bid for Yahoo prompted huge controversy and Icahn’s decision to try to oust the board– and it appears that, in what appears to be a study of big-businessbrinkmanship, both companies are now ready to return to the table.
Developments
Microsoft’s statement, released "in light of developments"read:"[Microsoft] is not proposing to make a new bid to acquire all ofYahoo at this time, but reserves the right to reconsider thatalternative".
Although this is ostensibly a tentative statement, the intent isclear, and it appears Yahoo’s opposition to the takeover has beenslapped down by the financial necessities that it faces.  
Overtures
Overtures to other companies – believed to include both Google and Rupert Murdoch’sNews Corp. - have not come to fruition and Microsoft may not get themerger that it believes will make it more competitive on the internet.
Currently Google dominates both search and online advertising, butMicrosoft hopes that a huge merger with one of its other rivals inYahoo will change the game in its favour.
Posted by Editorial Team Wed May 21, 2008 8:59 am
Gordon Brown looks for a boost speaking at Google conference in Business and Industry in Gaming, Media, Web, IT and Computing
GORDON BROWN will arrive at tomorrow’s Zeitgeist event hoping that some ofGoogle’s magic will rub off on him, just as it did on Conservative leaderDavid Cameron.
The prime minister is the opening speaker at the internet giant’s third annualconference at The Grove hotel complex in Chandler’s Cross, Hertfordshire.
What began as a simple gathering for Google’s advertising partners hasmushroomed into an event to see and be seen at for politicians and businessleaders professing to be in tune with the digital age.
The Google phenomenon has ensured that Zeitgeist has become much more than acustomer conference.


For those who attend, it is a reminder of Google’s limitless ambition. Aschief executive Eric Schmidt put it: “Zeitgeist is not about Google, but theworld.”
The 350 hand-picked delegates can expect big ideas and blue-sky thinking.
On the platform will be Queen Rania of Jordan, mobile-phone entrepreneur MoIbrahim and Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, the former prime minister of Norwayand a climate-change advocate. Also speaking is Chad Hurley, co-founder ofthe video website YouTube, which is owned by Google.
The company is keen to burnish its green credentials. It has vowed to make itsgiant computer servers carbon neutral and is hiring scientists to hunt forways of making renewable energy as cheap to produce as coal.
The subject of advertising may also be raised. Google has not been immune fromconcerns over a downturn in spending. Its shares are 22% below theirNovember peak, although the business still has a market value of £93 billion.
Previous Zeitgeist delegates include foreign secretary David Miliband and SirMartin Sorrell, the chief executive of WPP.
Cameron has attended twice: two years ago in Britain and last year inCalifornia. His close association has made him appear more in touch thanBrown with new technologies, using a webcam to broadcast from his breakfasttable.
The links run deep: Cameron was a special adviser to Michael Howard alongsideRachel Whetstone, Google’s European communications director. Whetstone isgodmother to his eldest son.
Posted by Editorial Team Tue May 20, 2008 3:47 pm
The concise definition of Web 1.0,Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 in Programming, Web and Software Design/Development
t seems that everyone has their own idea of what Web 2.0 means.Thatis one of the pitfalls to using a single buzzword to define everythingyou see on the internet. I have heard people describing nearly everynew website as being Web 2.0 as if it was describing the launch date ofa site. The term ironically is the most popular category on ResourcefulIdiot. In leu of this, I am going to finally give you the definition ofWeb 2.0 and the principles that define it. In order to do that however,I need to start from the beginning with Web 1.0.



You can group each of the “Web x.x” as a different movement when itcomes to internet usage. Web 1.0 is the movement that took place duringthe beginning of the internet.

Think AOL, Geocities, and Netscape.


Back then the primary use of the internet was taking print media andposting it online. Web 1.0 saw books, news, music and everything elsebeing moved into a digital format. This movement is still going on andwill probably never stop. This is because as new data becomes availableit needs to be made available online, but the majority of the communityhas shifted focus toward data integration since there is not muchinnovation remaining in posting data online.
Now that brings us to Web 2.0. Many think that this is the currentmovement of the internet, and in some ways you are correct. After allthis data was posted online with the Web 1.0 movement, the onlinecommunity began to look for ways to share all of this data. The mainquestion that drove this movement, “How can I take this data and shareit with other people?” Since this question was asked, sites have poppedup all over the internet trying to answer this question with differentapproaches. One of the most adopted solutions involves the idea ofsocial networking.

Facebook is a popular Web 2.0 site utilizing social networking as a solution


All of these sites, like Facebook, use the concept of a socialnetworking to create a community. Each community member is responsiblefor contributing information to the rest of the users. Even thoughsocial networking is the most popular approach, another prominentapproach is the development and utilization of web services. I wrote anarticle a few weeks ago about different web services and their technologies (REST and SOAP),and I mentioned that the majority of sites you visit have a web servicerunning in the background. These services allow you to integrate databetween sites through API’s (Application Programming Interface) such asyou see on Flickr and Amazon. RSS/Atom feeds are also products of the Web 2.0 movement. This movement is still very much alive and being actively addressed.
Now to look into the upcoming movements, Web 3.0. It is difficult todefine what Web 3.0 will be as you cannot define something that has yetto occur on a large scale. The best way I can define what we will seewith this movement is the integration of data on the internet. Now thatthe data is online thanks to Web 1.0 and sites can share data throughAPI’s and social networks (Web 2.0), the next obvious direction is todo something with this massive amount of data we have available. Acommon way of describing this is the use of internet as a platform.With Web 3.0 applications we will see the data being integrated andapplying it into innovative ways that were never possible before.Imagine taking things from Amazon, integrating it with data from Googleand then building a site that would define your shopping experiencebased on a combination of Google Trends and New Products. This is justa random (possibly horrible) example of what Web 3.0 applications willharness. An illustration would be to draw nodes to represent all thesites on the internet and then draw a new node. Draw lines from allthose existing nodes into the one you just created. The consumption andpresentation of the data is what Web 3.0 will potentially be.
The definitions of Web x.x terms is highly debatable. Even whenwriting this, I was told that technology is what defines Web 2.0. Theuse of Javascript and AJAX is the “essence” of Web 2.0. However, thesetechnologies have been around since Web 1.0 so obviously this isincorrect. The technologies that have been developed during thesephases are simply there to help answer the question in a more accurateway. To prove my point let’s look at history. The guillotine did notdefine the Enlightenment movement back in the 1700s, the guillotine wasdeveloped in response to the questions the Enlightenmentmovement sought answers for (in this case, “Humane death”).
Posted by Editorial Team Fri May 16, 2008 3:47 am
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