You would almost think blogging was dead, the way headlines are dominated by Twitter, Facebook, and social media in general. I’ve always considered blogging to be a part of social media anyway, as the commenting factor lends to engagement between author and user.

But blogging is so five years ago right? It’s all about microblogging and status updates now isn’t it? If you think that’s the case, think again, because blogs can still drive big-time traffic to websites. An example of this has been illustrated by the launch of e-commerce site Alice.com.

If you are not familiar with Alice.com, it is a site where consumers can buy everyday household items like toothpaste, toilet paper, laundry detergent, diapers, etc., right from the manufacturers, rather than through middleman retailers. It launched in June, and by July it had doubled its traffic to 387,000 unique visitors, according to Compete. (more…)

A lot of business and IT people still tend to think of anything related to the term Web 2.0 as being a consumer phenomenon. But over the last few years a wide variety of Web 2.0 technologies have wormed their way into the enterprise. The question that a lot of people have is just what has the business impact of all these Web 2.0 technologies actually been.

Cisco this week offered itself up as a prime example of a company that has derived substantial benefits from Web 2.0 applications and technologies in the enterprise. Cisco wants other companies to follow it lead because it is gearing up to bring a Web 2.0 collaboration platform to market and customers that adopt Web 2.0 technologies tend to consume a lot more network bandwidth, which usually means an upgrade to the network infrastructure. (more…)

27 days and counting. That’s how long it is until September 30th, when Google will start sending 100,000 invites for the early test of Google Wave.

The real-time communication platform has captured the imagination of countless communication, social media, and tech enthusiasts that want to get their hands on its game-changing features. It can import Twitter, provide real-time chat, play back past conversations, and even allows for drag-and-drop file uploads.

There are a lot of features, but it is unlike any other web product yet and thus takes time to learn. That’s why in July we asked an important question: is the world ready for Google Wave? Will there be widespread adoption, or will the ambitious project fall short of expectations? Will developers jump on the Wave bandwagon and build apps for it like they do for Twitter (Twitter) and Facebook (Facebook)?

Wave Is Almost Ready for Primetime

We have been monitoring the progress of Wave with our developer accounts, and we have to say: it’s come a long way. When I first used it, I experienced multiple crashes per session and the interface would bug out. And while these things still happen when I use Wave, the instances are far more sporadic.

Google (Google) has also been constantly informing developers of its updates to Wave. Today in fact, they just released a new update, codename “ChooChoo.� Here’s what was just added, according to the Wave team:

- Gadget insertion button in the editor toolbar (don’t need to use the Debug menu anymore!)

- Strikethrough button in the editor

- The extension management system has been upgraded (meaning any extensions you had previously installed will need to be re-installed)

- Minimized Waves will now flash green when new content is entered into the Wave

(if you are curious, a lot of the current work is moving towards improving our OT infrastructure, it isn’t something that will be obvious, other than the editor will be more robust)

Summary: Google is implementing a swath of minor back-end and UI improvements in rapid fashion in anticipation of the September 30th release. Things like small notifications, added formatting tools, and more efficient gadgets will all make the experience that much better when the end of the month rolls around.

So are you ready for Google Wave (Google Wave)? Because ready or not, it’s going to be making waves (pun intended) across the entire web very, very soon.

Source: Mashable

Last year, Google rolled out forms that link into Google Doc’s spreadsheets, providing elementary database-style form support for its online office suite. Forms basically let you add data to a spreadsheet without having to enter it directly into the spreadsheet itself, or even having to log in because you can add the data through a survey.

Today, Google is upgrading its Forms tool in Google Docs, adding a number of new features. Forms is basically a way to conduct a survey, with responses added automatically to a spreadsheet. Users now have a more compact, grid-like form in which to collect data. They can now quickly gather responses for a group of similar questions by simply labeling a few columns and creating as many rows as they like.

Summary charts also have clearer formatting of statistics and now support right-to-left text input, helping out those users whose written languages go from right-to-left. Developers can also integrate forms with their own applications and pre-populate a form with data.

Since its launch, Google forms has been an easy and accessible way to collect large amounts of data. Of course, the obvious use for forms is for surveys where you are collecting a massive amount of data and then need to make sense of it. You can either embed surveys into a blog post or site or you can share a link to the survey. Any responses are collected in a spreadsheet.

These new features make forms a little bit more user-friendly and attractive. Forms aren’t the most popular Google app out there

Try out Google Docs

The Apple/Google Voice fiasco just got more interesting. Toktumi, a startup that lets small businesses build office-caliber phone systems with their mobile phones and computers, just had its application Line2 approved by Apple — nearly three months after it was originally submitted. The powerful service allows business employees to assign two phone numbers to their iPhone: one that they can give to family and friends, and another that can be given to business contacts, with features that allow for call filtering and a professional-grade voicemail system. But it’s also notable for its many similarities to Google Voice, an application that Apple has kept out of the App Store for months now.

The story so far: late last July, Apple abruptly pulled all third party Google Voice applications from the App Store, explaining that they somehow were duplicating the iPhone’s native functionality. Later that day, we broke the news that Google’s official Google Voice client had been barred from the App Store, sparking a media storm and a FCC inquiry into Apple’s rationale for the ban. (more…)

Schools of robotic fish could one day map the ocean floor, detect pollution or inspect and survey submerged boats or oil and gas pipelines, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say.

MIT research fish

MIT engineers are showing off the latest generation of so-called robofish 15 years after they built the first one. The latest incarnation is sleeker, more streamlined and capable of mimicking the movements of a real fish.

And it’s capable of exploring underwater terrain submersibles can’t, said Pablo Valdivia Alvarado, a mechanical engineer at the school.

“Some of our sponsors were thinking of using them for inspection and surveillance,” Alvarado said. “Since these prototypes are very cheap, the idea was to build hundreds — 200, 500 — and then just release them in a bay or at a port, and they would be roaming around taking measurements.”

MIT researchers built their first robotic fish, “Robotuna,” in 1994. But Robotuna has gone the way of the dinosaur. Alvarado said the new generation — modeled after bass and trout — cost only a few hundred dollars and have only 10 parts instead of the thousands used in Robotuna.

At five to 18 inches, the new fish is much smaller than Robotuna and built from a single, soft polymer. And unlike Robotuna, the fish is able to be released in the oceans.

“Most of the brains, the electronics, are embedded inside,” said Alvarado, who designed the robofish with fellow MIT engineer Kamal Youcef-Toumi. “We have built prototypes with the battery inside, but for my experiments, for simplicity. We have a lot of prototypes that are simply tethered. We have a cable that runs out from the body and connects to a power supply.”

The new generation has withstood harsh conditions in the lab, including two years of testing inside tanks filled with tap water, which is corrosive to standard robots, according to Alvarado, who says the Robotuna inspired him to take the technology to the next level.

The oil exploration company Schlumberger helped fund the research, but Alvarado says the U.S. Navy has also expressed interest in the robofish.

MIT’s mechanical engineers are now turning their attention to new challenges: A robotic manta ray and a terrestrial robot in the form of a salamander.

Hurricane experts are throwing cold water on an idea backed by billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates aimed at controlling the weather.

Gates and a dozen other scientists have raised eyebrows by submitting patent applications for a technology to reduce the danger of approaching hurricanes by cooling ocean temperatures.

It’s a noble idea, given the horrible memories from Hurricane Katrina, which slammed into the Gulf Coast four years ago this week.

The storm, which rated a frightening Category 3 when it made landfall in Louisiana, was blamed for $81 billion in damaged and destroyed property and the deaths of more than 1,800 men, women and children.

Skeptics applaud the motive of the concept but question its feasibility.

“The enormity of it, in order to do something effective, we’d have to do something at a scale that humans have never really done before,” said Gabriel Vecchi, a research scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

How exactly would this hurricane-zapping technology work? (more…)

Oh, Windows. You inform and entertain us. You are inescapable, and your Start menu is full of items relevant to our productivity. You move us. Sort of. To be honest, we’re not sure what sort of state this fair planet of ours would be in without the ruggedly functional operating systems the folks at Redmond have handed to us over the years, and while Windows Vista might have proved that Microsoft wasn’t invincible, it did nothing to demonstrate that Windows as an idea — and for most, a necessity — was at all in jeopardy.

Windows 7 arrives on the scene three short years after Vista, shoring up its predecessor’s inadequacies and perhaps offering a little bit more to chew on. We’ve been playing with the OS ever since the beta, along through the release candidate, and now at last have the final, “release to manufacturing” (RTM) edition in our grubby paws. Does it live up to its understandable hype and the implicit expectations of a major Microsoft release? Let’s proceed on a magical journey to discover the truth for ourselves. (more…)

The art of portraiture, once reserved for the rich, the royal and the holy, has found a new mass appeal online.

Matt Held is painting 200 Facebook photos and giving them to the subjects.

Some avid social-network users are commissioning artists to create small digital images to represent themselves in the online world. Other Internet-savvy people use automated computer programs and Web sites to generate posterized likenesses of themselves.

Matt Held, a 38-year-old painter in Brooklyn, New York, has gained Internet celebrity for painting peoples’ Facebook photos and then giving them to his subjects. And some identity researchers are trying to take the online portrait beyond images of people’s faces entirely.

All of these efforts underscore the fact that tiny images, often no bigger than a postage stamp, have become stand-ins for peoples’ identities online.

On the Web, people can recreate themselves in any way they choose.

(more…)

(CNN) — Facebook has announced it is to overhaul its privacy settings to make it clearer for users to know who has access to their personal data.

The news follows an investigation into the privacy policy of the social networking site by Canada’s Privacy Commissioner.

The social networking site has agreed to make changes that it believes will provide its users with greater transparency and control over their personal information and how it is used.

“These changes mean that the privacy of 200 million Facebook users in Canada and around the world will be far better protected,” said Canada’s Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart in a press statement.

In July Stoddart issued an initial report on an investigation into Facebook that followed a complaint from a privacy advocacy group, the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic at the University of Ottawa.

The main concerns highlighted by the report were the lack of clarity over privacy settings and how much personal information is shared with third-party developers of applications such as games and quizzes.

(more…)