Last fall, Twitter started including geolocation information in its API, but it was not available through Twitter.com. That appears to be in the process of changing now.

This week, Twitter has been rolling out (it appears to still be in the process) geolocation info on tweets at Twitter.com. Various reports from users have been circulating, with those who have access to the feature pointing to a little blue icon by the tweet source on individual tweets, which when clicked, shows location information on a Map (powered by Google Maps).

The feature (as most new Twitter features do) is already receiving some criticism from users who have access to it. For example, Kim-Mai Cutler with VentureBeat says Twitter’s geotagging is `far from what Twitter needs to be a real player in location.`

Cutler adds, `First, the new maps feature isn’t turned on for Twitter’s search results. The whole point of location-based search is to be able to find what’s actually happening around you right now. Instead, Twitter tosses a few such tweets into a wash of noise…`

Earlier this week, news of Facebook readying location features surfaced. The company is expected to launch something along these lines at its f8 conference in May. Location players getting the most buzz currently are Gowalla and Foursquare. They you have Google, of course. This may be the most interesting space to watch as the year progresses. It will be quite interesting to see how mainstream location sharing becomes when it comes to consumers.

Are you seeing the geolocation information showing up at Twitter.com? Do you intend to share your location when tweeting?

Special Thanks To: http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2010/03/11/twitter-location-features-rolling-out

Search giant characterized as `unfriendly, irresponsible`

Despite weeks of talks that have supposedly taken place behind closed doors, the Chinese government still seems unwilling to compromise with respect to Google and censorship.  Indeed, it may be growing hostile, as a minister talked about `consequences` today.

The BBC reported that Minister of Industry and Information Technology Li Yizhong adopted a tough stance during a legislation session.  `I hope that Google will abide and respect the Chinese government’s laws and regulations,` he said.  `But, if you betray Chinese laws and regulations . . . it means that you are unfriendly, irresponsible, and you will have to pay the consequences.`

As for what those consequences might be, it almost sounds as if China’s ready to force Google out of the country whether it wants to leave or not.  The Chinese official stated at one point, `[W]hat needs to be shut down will be shut down, what needs to be blocked will be blocked.`

This is less than good news for anyone who was hoping Google would be able to keep operating in China.  Considering that Eric Schmidt recently said `something will happen soon,` it may even represent the end of the road, rather than just another outburst of rhetoric.

Or not.  Investors on both sides have failed to flinch, with Google’s and Baidu’s stocks up about equal amounts so far today.

Special Thanks to: http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2010/03/12/chinese-minister-hints-at-consequences-for-google?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+WebpronewsTopNewsRssFeed+%28Top+News+Items+-+WebProNews%29

 TED Conference LONG BEACH, California —

Google appears to be content to remain in China doing business as usual while it finds a way to work within the system, according to one of the search giant’s founders. This despite a strong statement 30 days ago that it would stop censoring search results in China and possibly pull its business out of that country.

Google founder Sergey Brin discussed the recent hack attack against Google at the Technology, Entertainment and Design conference here Friday. He was invited to the stage by TED curator Chris Anderson to discuss the hack against dozens of companies that targeted intellectual property and Gmail accounts of human rights activists. Google stated at the time it announced the hack that it would seek to negotiate with the Chinese government to find a way to continue to operate there without censoring its search results.

Anderson asked Brin if he thought the negotiations would succeed, and Brin said he wanted to find a way to “really work within the Chinese system.”

 “I’m not going to put odds on it. … Perhaps we won’t succeed immediately … but maybe we will in a year or two,” he said, noting that “a lot of people think I’m naive … but I wouldn’t have started a search engine in 1998 if I wasn’t optimistic.”

His comments echoed statements made by CEO Eric Schmidt in Davos last month.

Google.cn is still operating, and search result pages are still appended with the message: “According to local laws, regulations and policies, some search results are not shown.” So as best as can be determined, Google continues to obey Chinese law and is neither in a hurry to leave or challenge the government in a more direct manner by stopping the practice.

Brin said he felt that after entering China in 2006, things had actually improved in China for a while.

“I know there was a lot of controversy about that,” he said. “But we were actually able to censor less and less. … we also provide notification when the local laws prevented us from showing information, and local competitors followed suit in that respect. So I feel like our entry made a big difference.”

Things, however, started going downhill, especially after the Olympics, he said. There’s been a lot more blocking going on since then, and Google’s other sites, such as YouTube, have been blocked.

“So the situation really took a turn for the worse,” he said.

Brin said the company was willing to continue to do some types of censorship — porn and gambling — but didn’t want to continue political censorship.

“There’s probably some people here who wouldn’t mind you doing that in the U.S. as well,” Anderson replied.

If they can negotiate this level of censorship Brin said, “we’d love to continue Google.cn and our operations there.”

Anderson asked if Google wasn’t being naive that it could pull out of China, given shareholder interests and other demands.

“You’re inevitably forced to compromise,” Anderson said. “I mean, really? Don’t be evil? Can you really hold on to that?”

“Well perhaps people don’t believe this but all throughout the discussion of originally entering China in 2006 … and including the announcement last month, our focus has really been what’s best for the Chinese people, it’s not been about our particular revenue or profit or whatnot. And I think there are many potential answers there and it’s a really difficult question.”

Brin ended his comments by calling out companies that don’t disclose when they’ve been hacked.

“As we’ve gone through this investigation, it turns out a number of companies were aware of certain attacks on their systems and yet they didn’t come forward, and as a result other companies couldn’t be better prepared,” he said. “If more companies were to come forward with respect to these sorts of security incidents and issues, I think we would all be safer.”

Read More http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/02/ted-2010-google-optimistic-it-can-remain-in-china/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29#ixzz0fbldg3qJ

Thanks To: http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/02/ted-2010-google-optimistic-it-can-remain-in-china/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29

Friday, February 12, 2010
By Chris Crum
Yesterday, news broke that Google was acquiring social Q&A site Aardvark for about $50 million. Aardvark sent its users an email today saying:

Dear friends,

Aardvark has just been acquired by Google!

Aardvark will remain fully operational and completely free, providing quick, helpful answers to all of your questions. For more information about how the acquisition affects Aardvark users, check out the FAQ that we’ve put together….

`We want social search to reach hundreds of millions people around the world, and joining with Google lets us reach that scale — we’re also excited to work with the team at Google: our company has a culture that was inspired by Google in many ways, and we have a lot of respect for the folks who work there,` the company says in a blog post.

Aardvark is already available in Google Labs. Users will keep the same Aardvark account. It will continue to work under Google.

The company says it will continue to keep introducing new features, fixing bugs, and improving speed and quality. They say the main thing that is going to change is that they will be able to move faster with the support of Google.

User questions and answers will show up in search results from Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search results if you choose to share them publicly.

Ask (formerly Ask Jeeves) thinks Google is coming after its business. Read the company’s comments on that here.

Thanks to: http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2010/02/12/aardvark-already-part-of-google-answers-will-show-up-in-search

• By Ryan Singel  February 11, 2010  | 3:49 pm  | 

Read More http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/02/google-poaches-social-search-service-aardvark/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29#ixzz0fKe5Ieh7

By Eliot Van Buskirk  February 11, 2010  |  1:24 pm  

Poor MySpace.

First, the audience it stole from Friendster left for Facebook. Now, Owen Van Natta, the former Facebook executive Rupert Murdoch hired less than a year ago to reverse the site’s declining fortunes, has also left, MySpace announced late Wednesday night.

The bell has been tolling for MySpace for years, with users leaving the site pretty much as they found it: as a place to hear what a band sounds like and see what they look like in a matter of seconds, rather than as a place where they establish an online identity and communicate with friends.

After signing on last April, Van Natta wisely acknowledged this change in how people were using MySpace — as a media site rather than as a social network — by doubling down on the ad-supported MySpace Music service. However, the company was not able to fix problems with the service including poor integration with existing band pages, which left many users confused or uninterested in the service.

According to an Ad Age source, Van Natta bailed on MySpace because he was frustrated by the company’s “slow pace of change” and “entrenched culture.” A dearth of fast, competent, loyal software engineers in the Los Angeles area reportedly slowed things down even further. MySpace is headquartered in Beverly Hills, in southern California. Facebook, which evolves its design and feature set so often that some users can’t keep up with the changes, is located in the more technology-oriented Palo Alto, California.

We’re not surprised to hear that Van Natta has left, or that the slow pace at MySpace reportedly contributed to his decision. MySpace’s seven-year history follows a smooth narrative arc in retrospect:

1. Copy Friendster but make it music-friendly.

2. Sit back as everyone and their mother signs up for MySpace. Pack it with ads and sell it to News Corp.

3. Sit back as Facebook does to MySpace what MySpace did to Friendster.  Lose $100 million due to a missed Google traffic target.

4. Try to remember why everyone loved MySpace so much in the first place: free music.

5. Launch a free music service with the backing of three major labels that’s difficult to use, lives in a totally different section of the site from the band pages where people are used to finding music, and was apparently designed in such a complicated way that it was not easy to fix.

6. Fail.

Update: Deadline.com has the alleged e-mails MySpace staff received announcing the change in leadership. They’re not tremendously fascinating, although it is interesting that the company sees its declining traffic  as a good sign because it’s not declining as fast as it was previously.

Read More http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/02/flailing-myspace-loses-ceo/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29#ixzz0fKcaAotP