Official Google Blog: Adding search power to public data

Now all they need to do is mash it up with maps.

We just launched a new search feature that makes it easy to find and compare public data.

Official Google Blog: Adding search power to public data

Starting your own Facebook- Lessons Learned from NASA’s Spacebook Project » Socialfeds

I love the name, Spacebook. This is a very nice post listing lessons learned about launching a successful social network. Lot's of good resource links for further reading too.

Spacebook is an enhanced Intranet designed around user profiles, forums, groups, and social tagging. The goal of the project is to use social media to help NASA be more competitive and innovative, encourage collaboration and information sharing, and take better advantage of the information & resources they already have. Emma Antunes (@eantunes), Project Manager for Spacebook, recently gave a great webinar to share how she approached this project, got the buy-in from users, contractors, and management, and other invaluable lessons she learned in getting this implemented.

Starting your own Facebook- Lessons Learned from NASA’s Spacebook Project » Socialfeds

Lawyers Enter Twitter Tempest - NYTimes.com

I recently blogged about Identity Squatting and how it's been a problem for a friend of mine. The issue is now being challenged in the form of a "satirist" not only tweeting but also blogging using a Daily News food critic's byline and name. This situation pushes the argument that the fake posts are a creative writing exercise in parody and legitimate entertainment - you know like the Daily Show or Saturday Night Live.

One question is whether Mr. Rucinsky’s writing exercise, with a few more than 300 followers on Twitter and minimal blog traffic, is legitimate parody. Or does he mimic Ms. Freeman so closely that, despite recent disclaimers on his sites, a reasonable reader might not be able to tell the difference?

This issue has been bubbling to the surface as Twitter gains mainstream mind share. Ashton Kutcher's recent challenge to CNN founder Ted Turner that he would beat CNN as the first Twitterati to get 1 million followers (I don't get why Ted Turner gets punk'd here but it sure got peoples attention and a lot of mosquito nets for a good cause). Ironically, the CNN Twitter handle, @ccnbrk, was not actually owned by CNN, but rather was maintained by an individual user, James Cox. CNN remedied this by acquiring the account, which lead to further brouhaha, and a services contract for Mr. Cox, since selling free account names violates Twitter usage policy.

Lawyers Enter Twitter Tempest - NYTimes.com

Ages After Yahoo And Google, Microsoft Finally Enables Web-Based IM In Hotmail

Better late than never I suppose.

I’ve said this before: easily dismissed by geeks and savvy web users, Hotmail has a gigantic mainstream userbase who are not likely going to switch to an alternative webmail service en masse provided Microsoft keeps up with the times and lets Hotmail evolve the way its users are increasingly demanding it to.

But make no mistake about it: Microsoft is ridicously late with adding this functionality to Hotmail.

Ages After Yahoo And Google, Microsoft Finally Enables Web-Based IM In Hotmail

Windows Live To Add More Social Network Partners (Digg, MySpace, Facebook, Last.fm And More)

Where social worlds collide...

Today Microsoft will announce a number of new data partners, including Facebook, Digg, Last.fm, SmugMug, TypePad and Yandex. This is, apparently, the first time Facebook feeds can be pulled into a third party service

Windows Live To Add More Social Network Partners (Digg, MySpace, Facebook, Last.fm And More)