Tech Digest

How to play Space Invaders - with your brain

Over at top bloke's blog Brandish, you can find out how to give your hands a rest and exercise your brain - to play Space Invaders.

Yes, a team of researchers has poured its energies into developing a brain-to-computer interface, allowing a 14-year old epileptic gamer to play Space Invaders using only the power of his grey matter. Obviously there's more serious applications than retro gaming for such a device - but playing an arcade classic is a great way of making your research 'sexy'. To find out more and to see  a video of it all in action, check out Brandish now.

17th October is UK's 'One Day in History' blog day

Tomorrow is "One Day in History" day, set up by the National Trust, which will allow anyone in Britain with access to the Internet to record a short piece of blog-style text with their reflections on how history has influenced their daily life. The entry must be between 100 and 1000 words in length, written in English or Welsh.

As The History Matters site says:

"The History Matters campaign has designated 17 October a day for the public to make historic.

We want as many people as possible to record a ‘blog’ diary of this one day which will eventually be stored by the British Library as a permanent historical record of our national life.

This is a one off, one day diary done on a mass scale – that will itself make history and can be a resource for historians in the future.

We want to urge people participating to reflect in their diaries how history itself impacted on them that day – whether it be simply commuting through an historic environment, discussing family history, watching repeats on TV, or listening to mum's incessant 80's pop."

Tomorrow, Tuesday 17th October, isn't particularly significant so is being used as an ordinary day for Britons to record their thoughts.

The Sunday Times reports that actors including Stephen Fry and Sir Derek Jacobi, the writer Bill Bryson, and TV historian Bettany Hughes are some of the celebrities who've already agreed to take part, along with pupils and staff of 29,000 schools.

To get involved, first write a diary entry for 17th October, then log on to the History Matters website between 17th and 31st October to upload them.

History Matters web site

Naughty, rude programmers: Bad words found in code thanks to Google

The Register has been doing the modern-day equivalent of the schoolboy looking up rude words in the new dictionary, by using Google Code to search for programmers using less than tasteful language in their code comments.

For the sake of decency, I'll use judicious quantities of asterisks from now on, but you can read the examples in all their glory over at The Register - or search for yourself.

First up is Apple (allegedly) who's code included a comment "// Register the f***ing window class."

Next came some JavaScript written by someone who obviously hates Internet Explorer (like that narrows it down): "// f***ing IE"

Sun decided that they knew the user a little too well: "/* The user is a w***er */"

And finally, some poor programmer who seems to have had enough of the whole thing. Never mind... "// I really give up on this b****cks, I really do. MAME says do this. <sigh>"

Ahhh, poor guy.

One of the less useful, but far funnier, uses of Google Code search. Now go forth and, err, find your own. Not at work, though.

Read (probably NSFW)

Friday Fun: Typewriter keyboard meets laptop meets dodgy Google Japanese-English translation

It's Friday. It's Friday 13th, in fact, and so I feel it's quite appropriate that the web page I've just found (courtesy of Digg) is just one of those that makes you wonder "what the hell?" (or words to that effect). Laugh. Cry. You decide.

I thought I'd share with you the joys of a bizarre technological concoction, twinned with the less-than-perfect Google translation from Japanese into English. Yes, it's banal. Stick with me...

Firstly, the page seems to be describing how someone with way too much time on their hands married an old typewriter keyboard with an LCD screen and various ports (USB and so on). Apparently it actually works. Boing Boing had a go at describing it, and the original page is here, but by far the most fun is by reading Google's translation, which includes such gems as:

"We would like to flaunt any which after all, were made in the person."

"Mack changing atmosphere, it attacks coolly. Rather than with saying, after the Mack producing the feeling which was shaken in the girl, appeared in style. But by your method of designing such time favorite what."

"Around the keyboard, the space bar is the wood product."

"The latest foppery equipment."

"Because key- in chattering treatment the [tsu] [chi] [ya] [u], it tried inserting the circuit of delay."

"Control ball. But another what from this the device and the Morse keyboard of the dream which can be input with the one key in the midst of development. The uncle who cannot use the keyboard well it is, whether properly even, correspondence (perhaps)"

I'll leave you to find the rest. Enjoy.

Website of the Day: Video Games Blogger

Today's Wesbite of the Day is the Video Games Blogger, a collection of articles about consoles and games. It's an interesting mix of news about new releases covering all the major current and forthcoming consoles.

Sony BRAVIA "Paint" TV advert debuts soon

Remember that grey building that we showed you back in July? Well, since then the guys promoting the new Sony Bravia high definition TVs have had a load of fun playing Paintball with it - firing huge globs (70,000 litres, in fact) of coloured paint at it.

Showing the Bravia's mantra "colour like no other" in spectacular style, the paint was fired using controlled firework explosions to blast the fountains of colour into the air and onto the side of the building.

For an advert, it's generated a lot of interest on the web. It will be available to view online before it goes to TV at colourlikenoother.com - presumably sometime in the next week or so as a 70 second version of the "Paint" ad will be premiered on Tuesday 17th October, 8.35pm during the Man U v FC Copenhagen Champions League match.

The official blog explains:

The ad took 10 days and 250 people to film. Huge quantities of paint were needed to accomplish this, which had to be delivered in 1 tonne trucks and mixed on-site by 20 people.

The effect was stunning, but afterwards a major clean-up operation was required to clear away all that paint!

The cleaning took 5 days and 60 people. Thankfully, the use of a special water-based paint made it easy to scrape-up once the water had evaporated.

Keeping everyone safe was also an important factor. A special kind of non-toxic paint was used that is safe enough to drink (it contains the same thickeners that are sometimes used in soups). It was also completely harmless to the skin.

Welsh web users campaign for dot cym

A number of technology peeps from Wales have joined together to form dotCYN to campaign for a web top-level domain (TLD) for the fine country. They believe that having such a TLD will play a strategic role in validating and promoting Welsh culture and language.

It would be available to anyone with a website in Welsh, or of Welsh interest or about Wales in any language.

They base their campaign on a recent successful one by the people of Catalan who now have a 'dot cat' extension (as does anyone who owns a cat and wants my.cat or tibbles.cat)

In an interview with Ping Wales, Siôn Jobbins said that the Catalan experience was that there was an increase of 33% in the number of sites using Catalan since the adoption of .cat. This is a good and effective way of promoting Welsh on the web as well without the need for any new law.

Other campaigns are afoot for domain endings such as .berlin and .nyk (New York).

What do you think? Should Wales have its own domain ending?

Via Ping Wales

Britain’s blogging A list

Earlier this week PR company Edelman, in conjunction with the blog search engine Technorati, published a list of the top British blogs.

It’s a cracking list especially as Tech Digest made number four, but we did notice a few key omissions. So we have put together our very own top ten UK bloggers A list. This is a mixture of the Edelman list, Technorati figures, information from internet data collection agency Hitwise and some qualitative data of our own.

Like the Edelman list it is no way definitive, but I think it might be a good conversation starter. It is interesting to note that the top British blogs mirror the top US ones in that they are dominated by politics and gadgets. It is also interesting to note that most of the bloggers have been blogging for several years now, ironically though with the exception of one of the very biggest.

There is also a discussion about what actually constitutes a British blog. Does it have to have content that is UK focussed? And what if the writer is British but lives outside these isles. That would propel Andrew Sullivan and maybe Nick Denton to the top of the list.

Anyhow we have kept to blogs that are largely written in the UK. Like Edelman we have left out the blogs from the BBC and The Guardian and any other large media company.

Here then is the UK’s blogger A list:

Gaping Void
Blogger – Hugh Macleod
Technorati rating - Rank: 144 (9,060 links from 2,896 blogs)

Indisputably the most popular British blog, Gaping Void is a fantastic collection of cartoons and observations from the wonderfully creative mind of Hugh Macleod. Over the past 3-4 years it has built up a huge following.

Mashable
Blogger – Pete Cashmore et al
Technorati rating - Rank: 400 (12,266 links from 1,867 blogs)

Incredibly Pete has only been writing Mashable for a year or so, but in that time has built up a huge audience who love his news and reviews of the latest social networking sites and other web 2.0 wonders. A massive favourite at Tech Digest, we were shocked when we discovered that the site’s author lived not in Silicon Valley but Aberdeen. 

eureferendum.com
Blogger - Richard North et al
Technorati rating - 611 (5,249 links from 1,545 blogs)

Richard North plus a select group of writers have been blogging about European politics for about two-and-a-half years. It started as a blog "to rehearse and discuss the issues relating to one of the most important political issues of the day - the UK referendum on the EU's constitutional treaty." but has expanded to cover a wide variety of topics with in-depth writing, analysis and wit. It obviously hits the spot for many as it's highly ranked and well commented.

Tech Digest
Blogger - Dave Walker, Andy Merrett et al
Technorati rating -  975 (5,434 links from 1,221 blogs)

One of Shiny's original blogs, running for over 3 years, it's the UK's definitive guide to a huge range of gadgets and technology. Since taking on extra writers earlier this year its range of topics has expanded and its popularity continues to grow massively. Informative but not taking itself, or the technology, too seriously, it mixes hands-on reviews with up-to-date tech news.

Shiny Shiny
Blogger - Katie Lee, Susi Weaser et al
Technorati rating - 1,464 (5,711 links from 975 blogs)

Quite simply the UK's premiere girl's guide to gadgets (though I reckon quite a few blokes sneak a read too), Shiny Shiny has a great female authorship reviewing the latest female-friendly gadgets and tech accessories - and no, not everything's in pink.

coolest-gadgets.com
Blogger - Al Carl et al
Technorati rating - 1,547 (4,394 links from 944 blogs

As well as the usual suspects on this gadget site, there's some great out-of-the-ordinary gadget finds that'll make you wonder how some people dream up such weird ideas. A popular and well-linked blog.

PlasticBag.org
Blogger - Tom Coates
Technorati rating - 1,467 (2,219 links from 973 blogs

Tom has been writing at PlasticBag.org for over seven years and has built up a loyal following to his mix of technology articles and links along with a fair dose of politics, music, religion, politics, and more besides. Great writing and interesting links make this a popular stop on the web.

samizdata.net
Blogger - Adriana Cronin-Lukas, Perry de Havilland et al
Technorati rating - 1,404 (3,166 links from 999 blogs)

I've not read this blog before, despite it's high ranking, so I didn't know what to expect. Whether their description: "The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling." helps at all? Written mainly by Brits with the occasional Australian or American thrown in for good measure, this is a mix of politics, celebrity talk, science 'stuff', and, well, all sorts really. It really needs to be seen to be appreciated, as indeed many do.

c h r o m a s i a
Blogger - David Nightingale et al
Technorati rating - 2,633 (1,746 links from 679 blogs)

Chromasia is a fantastic UK photoblog and deserves its high rank. Amazing photography of people, landscapes, buildings and abstracts cleverly taken and manipulated by David Nightingale. Well worth a visit to this highly commented site.

hecklerspray
Blogger - Stuart Heritage et al
Technorati rating - 5,196 (843 links from 416 blogs)

Hecklerspray, recently affiliated with Shiny Media, may not have the highest Technorati ranking yet, but has become a well-linked and highly trafficked blog in its relatively short year-and-a-half life. Plenty of entertainment news from TV, film, music and video gaming keeps over half-a-million people happy each month.

Tips for getting to the top

If you're a blogger and want to appear on a future UK 'A list' of blogs here's our Top 5 tips to get you started (what do you mean you wanted ten?):

1. Write funny, interesting, useful, or just plain zany content that gets noticed, dugg, bookmarked, linked, commented on...
2. Stay regular: write quality content... often
3. Write lots: see 2
4. Write in a group: Many large, popular blogs are written by a collective of bloggers. It makes it easier to publish more articles, more often, on more subjects, and is more interesting (usually)
5. Become an expert: Know what you're writing about and who's reading it.

Top five most useless inventions ever

I'm a sucker for a new gadget - and I have the debris of half-used, long-discarded items all around me to prove it. Probably class most as disappointing rather than useless - especially in comparison to the list of most useless inventions ever that's been compiled over at top bloke's blog Brandish.

From the Butter Stick (pictured) to the Self Saluting Hat - not a redeeming factor between them. Check out the top five over at Brandish - and if you can think of anything to add to the list, let them know. There's got to be a top 20 out there somewhere.

Check out the top five most useless invention at Brandish

Website of the Day: iFizzle Virtual Mac

Today's Website of the Day is the iFizzle Virtual Mac: an online iMac developed in Flash. Of course it doesn't do everything, but it's a cool app that the developer has spent a lot of time on. It'll play a set of virtual iTunes tracks, iPhotos, Quicktime movies, and more.

It's there to raise money for the author to buy a Mac through donations (he doesn't actually own one at present but is obviously seriously devoted to Mac).

Check it out.

Yay or Nay: Yahoo Time Capsule

Earlier today we reported on the Yahoo Time Capsule being 'buried' on November 8th and reopened in 2020. It'll contain all manner of user-submitted digital content.

The good side is that it will be a record of people's thoughts in the year 2006. It could be interesting in 14 years' time to see what tech stuff we were messing about with and what people thought of life. There's also that $100k that Yahoo are planning to give away (though they could do that anyway).

On the negative side - well, is it really going to be interesting in just 14 years' time? Traditional time capsules tend to be buried for 40 years at least. Has technology speeded everything up so much? Will Yahoo even be around in 2020?

What do you reckon? Yay or nay? And will you be contributing to it?

Almost half of employers allow unrestricted access to web mail

A new survey has found that nearly half of all UK employers allow unrestricted or unmonitored employee access to web-based email services such as GMail, Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail. This is potentially leaving them vulnerable to viruses, information leaks and other unwanted content because this traffic is not monitored in the same way as most company email systems are.

Internet firm Marshal found 48% of people surveyed worked for companies that had no restrictions in place, whilst just 33% said they were banned from using it by their employers, and had automated systems in place to enforce that ban.

8% said they weren't allowed to use webmail during working hours, but that no system was in place to monitor the web sites visited.

CEO of Marshal Ed McNair said "Webmail provides a backdoor to organisations where employees can trade private company information, download or exchange inappropriate material or simply chat with their friends on company time. Having 48% of companies not having any measures in place is far too high a figure."

Certainly in places I've worked, even if there have been fairly strong policies in place about other Internet content, nothing has been said explicitly about web mail.

It can be very useful to have access to a personal email account at work, but it surely isn't any employees right to have it. After all, there's very little business argument for allowing it, other than in keeping employees a little happier and showing a degree of trust.

What do you think? Should employees be allowed access to their own personal email accounts at work?

(Via PersonnelToday)

Website of the Day: WikiMusicGuide

Today's Website of the Day is WikiMusicGuide, and I've chosen it because, to be perfectly honest, it needs some help.

The concept is good, if you like Wikis in the first place. This one is all about music, though there's not much of the stuff in there at present. There are also some bizarre groupings, like the classical music section containing links to Mariah Carey and Christina Aguilera. OK...

There's not much about instruments, either. Searching for 'piano' or 'guitar' leads to a big fat zero at present.

But it has potential. I could actually imagine spending a reasonable amount of time building the place up. It'll be interesting to see how it develops.

Masked Blogger: an Apple insider anonymously blogging?

How about an undercover Apple blogger as good bait for a future 'employee-sacks-blogger' story?

Take one uber-secretive company, the ongoing saga of the perils of blogging at or about work, and someone who claims to be working for Apple (and in the UK at that) and all the ingredients are there.

Whilst I wouldn't normally link to a blog that has only two entries, one of which perhaps focuses a little too much on Sainsbury's, this "Masked Blogger" has already created a bit of a buzz on the web.

Thieir opening post reads simply: My first ... and test post! Stay tuned for an explanation on the anonymity. It's a genuine attempt to join and advance the conversation ... to effect positive change without jeopardising my livelihood. More shortly ....."

Unfortunately the second post suggests that he (or she) may not be very good at anonymity as he/she might like to think. As far as I'm aware, Sainsbury's is only really a prevalent store in the UK - which begins to imply (as commenters have picked up already) that the blogger lives in the UK and works in retail.

How the story develops, whether this is a genuine Apple employee, and at what level, remains to be seen. At this stage, it could be a big publicity stunt (it's working) by, well, anyone, or it could be a junior at an Apple Store who may not get much inside information anyway. If it is genuine, this person would be advised to be very careful, if they value keeping their job. We've seen the wrath of Apple on other Apple spoilers.

What do you reckon? Hype? Foolish?

The Masked Blogger

Google proclaims its commitment to Mac

Google have been pretty good to the Mac community recently, and whilst we haven't had all the Google goodies our PC-owning friends have access to straight away, we've not been left totally in the cold, either.

Even so, Google has affirmed its commitment to the Mac by starting up the Google Mac Blog and pushing some new software and browser plugins our way.

They write:

If you sit down at your Mac, start up your browser, and search for "Google mission statement", this is what you'll see:

"Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."

We're pretty serious about that mission, including the "universally accessible" part. It means making products that everyone can use – including Mac users. We want to provide great products and services to the tens of millions of Mac users around the world, because it's the right thing to do, and because Mac users inside and outside Google demand it. That's why we've recruited some of the best, most passionate Mac people out there for a Mac Engineering team.

So, what do we get from the word go with this pledge?

* Our very own Mac Software Downloads page.
* A small (hopefully growing) collection of Dashboard Widgets
* Two methods of uploading photos to Picasa
* Google Notifier with Safari support for Google Calendar
* Google Video for Mac
* Google Earth for Mac

Hopefully this is just the start of a beautiful friendship.

eBay Express opens as regular online shop

eBay wants to take advantage of the surge in popularity of online shopping in Britain by opening up its eBay Express store. It focuses on fixed-price goods from reputable sellers in a bid (ha ha) to give confidence to online customers.

The UK eBay auction service started seven years ago and has a mixed reputation. Whilst the auction style of buying and selling suits some, it's been criticised for the ease in which scams can take place. eBay Express extends the 'Buy it Now' model and only accepts sellers with a very high positive feedback score.

eBay say there's a distinct advantage for niche sellers who wouldn't get the product exposure by simply running their own web site.

It will be interesting to see if it has any effect on eBay's core auciton services, which have already undergone some unpopular changes recently, affecting both buyers and sellers.

eBay Express

Website of the Day: Kittenwar

Someone had to do it. Not content with rating humans and computers, it's time to go cute and rate kittens. Awww, you know you want to.

When I visited, I read the title "Kittenwar" and thought I was supposed to be voting for the kitten that looked the most scary (and some of them do) - oops. Actually you're supposed to vote for the one that looks the most cute. Then you can look at the "Winningest Kittens" and "Losingest Kittens".

Hey it's Monday afternoon. What better way to pass the time than rating kitten photos?

Kittenwar

Classical music lovers embrace downloads too

Last month the Royal Scottish National Orchestra launched an online music service and new research from Gramophone magazine suggests it could be quite popular.

Their new research suggests that one in three classical music lovers have digital music players, download music from the Internet, and listen to digital, streaming radio as well as ripping their classical CDs. One in five legally download music, averaging 12 downloads per person.

The big services provide a reasonable amount of classical music, including iTunes and eMusic, though more specialist services will still probably be the way to go for serious classical connoisseurs. Classical music tracks are usually longer and part of collections (symphonies, for example) and they often benefit more from being encoded at a higher rate due to their dynamic range. You'll still not really notice any quality loss when travelling in noisy environments though.

(Via m4music)

UK to be Internet gambling world leader?

The Sunday Times is reporting that some internal Whitehall documents suggest that some ministers are intent on making the UK a 'world leader' in Internet gambling. Seems like we're already paying for this new initiative - in July, Richard Caborn who is the minister in charge of gambling, travelled to Gibraltar (at taxpayers' expense) to visit the HQ's of Party Gaming and 888.com. And culture secretary Tessa Jowell is to hold an international summit of politicians at Ascot racecourse to discuss regulatory standards.

New legislation would lift the current ban on online gaming businesses, and ministers want to actively encourage gambling firms to Britain, but the sticking point is taxation, with the industry saying that anything over 2% on gross profits would be unacceptable. Traditional bookmakers pay 15%. Some firms want to remain offshore but receive a British 'stamp of approval' so that they can attract British gamblers.

Gambling is one of those contentious issues. Do we want the UK to become a 'world leader' in online betting?

Read

Create your own Oasis promo video on Homegrown

The Homegrown video sharing network is offering users the opportunity to create their own promotional video for the Acquiesce track from Oasis, by downloading a 90-second audio clip and then producing their own video for it. The best entry (judged by Trouble and Big Brother Recordings, not by peer vote) will be screened on Trouble and will feature on the official Oasis website.

There are currently around 150,000 Homegrown subscribers - presumably there's a hope that this will boost numbers (at least of Oasis fans).

So, a legal way to lip-sync or otherwise create (bad) home video to a favourite track. The competition runs up until the release of the new Oasis album "Stop the Clocks" on 20th November.

Homegrown Oasis promotion

Celebrity websites harbour the most malware, says McAfee

Last month I reported that people searching for US Ryder Cup stars were likely to be lured into web sites containing malware. According to the security software firm McAfee celeb sites in general are the number one place for fans to be infected with malicious software.

Traditionally the porn site was blamed for much of this, but McAffee's survey suggests that such sites have fallen to a lowly third place overall, with celebrity sites (fake ones, at least) at number one, and screen saver sites at number two. Many search engine queries on famous names led straight to malicious sites.

Whilst the results are based on proprietary software - McAfee's SiteAdvisor antiphishing browser plugin - it doesn't surprise me. Celebs are hot news offline (it's what primarily sells tabloids and glossy mags, after all) so why shouldn't it be so online.

Got a celebrity craving? Stay safe and get your Pop Junkie, Star Trip, TV Scoop and footie fixes straight from Shiny.

Paid to Digg? IMO the service sucks (on so many levels)

Do you like Digg? Do you like money? Do you like ripping off genuine users and sites to help promote crap paid-for-submission sites?

You do? Then the Digg Submitter is for you! Get paid 10 cents via PayPal every time you Digg some site that you don't really believe in, have never visited before and will never visit again, and for which some gullible webmaster with more money than sense has paid around $1 to get you to chuck out your principles to Digg.

Yep, the User Submitter is a cheap little website that looks like it was knocked up in 5 minutes that claims 'proof of concept' status, presumably to make it sound less dodgy.

Now, in the interests of first-hand research, and not because I wanted to make some quick cash, I decided to sign up and test the service out - as a 'clicker' of course, there's no way I'm paying out cash.

I won't bore you with the details. Let's just say you get a selection of 5 URLs to copy and paste into the Digg submitter. Now let's skip straight to the verdict. Well it potentially works but I felt dirty after three clicks, and actually undugg one of them (the other two sites were OK) I just have a feeling it will tarnish my Digg account and could get me chucked off. Maybe no biggie, but it feels cheap.

(Oh by the way, I'm now deleting my membership, as I've done my research)

What do you reckon? Is Digg going to suffer because of this, or is it just a drop in the ocean?

(Via Tech Buzz)

Not just youth on MySpace: half are over 35

Analysis of US traffic to MySpace suggests that the perception of the social networking site being the near-exclusive domain of teenagers is false. Around half of its users are aged over 35, with only 30% under 25 and just 12% under 18, down from 25% a year ago.

Of course this doesn't necessarily mean that teenagers are leaving the service, just that the proportions are changing as MySpace gets more attention and the Internet demographic continues to change. The 35-54 age group went up to 41% in August, from 32% a year ago.

This is based on ComScore's measure of Internet audiences, so isn't going to be as accurate as MySpace's registration information, but it's still an interesting observation.

The survey also showed that MySpace took 56m unique US visitors in August, with FaceBook taking 15 million uniques, Xanga with 8m and Friendster with 1m.

Social networking continues to be a hit with a huge cross-section of the Internet.

Gestalt: Online inkblot game could boost creativity

Getty Images has put a game online called 'Gestalt' which has been designed to boost creativity by revealing pictures based on Rorschach inkblot therapy. Not only that but there's a chance to win a daily $1000 or some fantasy experiences including attending New York Fashion Week, Formula 1 racing in Monaco, or visiting the Galapagos Islands.

Getty Images provide royalty free imagery, and it's those images that are used in the virtual therapist's office. I took a look, had a go, and failed miserably. Maybe I'm just not looking creatively enough at the images.

Robert Gubas, Vice President, said "Our customers typically view imagery from a practical perspective as a means of communicating with their audiences. Gestalt offers them a rare opportunity to view imagery from a personal perspective as it takes shape in front of their eyes on the computer screen, or perhaps on the Tanzanian plains or one of the other fantasy experience destinations."

Well, whether or not you win a prize, it's quite a novel use of the net. Yes, of course it's pushing their extensive image collection as well, but that's OK - they've created something a bit quirky and light-hearted (who knows it might even boost your creativity, too). Great for the last hour at work on a Friday, anyway.

Gestalt from Getty Images (via Digit)

Google to buy YouTube: or how to do a really good Internet rumour

TechCrunch have started a rumour (OK, solid news based on something someone said somewhere) which I found via Tech's Message: namely that Google could be gearing up to buy YouTube.

Now, apart from the obvious traffic that this generates for TechCrunch, this might not be as fanciful as it first seems. Though Tech's Message has reported that a billionaire by the name of Mark Cuban said that 'only a moron would buy YouTube', that surely doesn't apply to Google.

We've already seen Yahoo! taking over other potentially competing video services, and online video sharing sites are hot property at the moment (even if they are still quite difficult to monetise and are nasty legal minefields). Google Videos and YouTube are competitors - why not have the might of Google take over YouTube?

Whether this is good for the consumer is another matter. I suppose it depends whether Google would keep the two entities separate (better) or merge them somehow. I think YouTube is a stronger brand than Google Videos.

The going rate? Oh just $1.5bn - $2bn.

Let's pretend this isn't still a rumour, and that the consumer is the most important factor here (of course). Would this be good for us? For video sharing sites in general? What do you reckon?

New browser history exploit could expose user data

A possible new privacy threat has been discovered in the way that web browsers store their history. Researchers at Spi Dynamics claim to have found a way for a website to use a piece of Javascript code to detect a history of web searches performed on popular search engines including Google, without the user's knowledge.

The Big Brother implications are numerous. Imagine online retailers looking to see which of their competitors you may have shopped with (or at least searched for), an insurance company looking at what medical terms you've looked for, or indeed any phisher or spammer getting a better picture of your lifestyle by what you've searched for online.

It's said to work because search engines have their own set way of forming web queries (look in the address bar when you've done a Google search and you'll see) By default, that gets stored in your browser history just like the pages you visit, until it's automatically or manually cleared.

Vnunet.com has spoken with a representative at security firm Spi Dynamics, who have created a 'proof of concept' site that you can use to check if you might be vulnerable to this exploit.

Though the legal status of this is unclear, it does sound very dodgy. Effectively it's someone snooping on your browser history.

Billy Hoofman of Spi Dynamics said that if a marketer had got hold of the technique, they would be unlikely to disclose its use. Most users would remain unaware of it, as well, as you'd probably have to search the source code and it could conceivably be masked in some way. Maybe we'll be able to see if it spreads with Google Code.

As Javascript is (in my opinion) fairly flaky across different browsers, I wasn't surprised to find that the proof of concept didn't seem to work on any of my Mac browsers (Safari, Firefox or Opera). Slightly worrying was that on one browser it reported that I'd searched for every term I typed in - false positives. Whose to say that this is reliable enough for accurate snooping? Snooping is bad enough, but error-prone snooping? I don't think so.

It'll be interesting to see if anything comes of this. For the moment, if you've searched for anything sensitive, clear out your browser history. Might be a pain if you like to see what you've visited recently, but could maintain some of your privacy.

(Via VNUNet.com)

For the in-depth report, read this excellent PDF

Website of the Day: Line Rider

Today's Website of the Day is Line Rider a funny little 'game' that lets you draw lines and let a little guy in a scarf sled down them. It's very simple but strangely addictive. Check it out if you're bored at work!

Top Gear website wins consumer award

Good news for the Top Gear team as they begin filming the new series today without Richard Hammond - the Top Gear web site has just won Consumer Website of the Year at the AOP Online Publishing Conference & Awards 2006. It was commended for growth in revenue and traffic over the past year, with judges saying that the site was "perfectly targeting an audience that is expanding at an incredible rate".

Top Gear site

Vox launches new blogging features, and we've got invites for you to try 'em!

Six Apart's Vox blogging platform continues to go from strength to strength, having launched a bunch of new features last week in its 13th release. It's designed to bring blogging to the masses, while also blending in some cool MySpace-like features such as your 'neighbourhood' of contacts. A good primer is provided by our interview with Vox boss Mena Trott.

The new features include: private messaging, allowing you to comment on posts privately rather than have your response seen by all; comment moderation, so you can approve comments before they appear on your blog; a revamped homepage; new themes for your blog; and HTML markup translation, allowing people to enter HTML tags if they really want to.

Several of the Shiny Media team are already Vox addicts, and it's shaping up to be a great tool for personal bloggers to share stories, photos, music and videos. Sound appealing? Six Apart are looking for more beta testers. If you'd like an invite to see what all the fuss is about, click here to sign up.

Keith Waterhouse, the Daily Mail, Blogging, and the vast Googling tribe of nerds [Rant]

I don't usually give the Daily Mail the time of day, letalone the airwaves, but when I was tipped off about the following piece of tripe from the misinformed Luddite that is Keith Waterhouse, I had to respond. In rant style. Maybe Keith is actually being incredibly 'with it' and doing the "nerdy blog thing" that is linkbaiting - but I doubt it.

In his 'column' (which to all intents and purposes is a blog, given that it's a series of dated, opinionated, entries with invitation for comment) he makes some fairly outrageous statements about blogging, and Internet users in general. I know the Daily Mail excels at sweeping generalisations, but this is classic. In a bad way.

You can read it here (ooh look, I linked out to them, something they don't seem to do) - you'll need to scroll down the page - but here's my commentary on it.

Here's the first loony statement. Beware, there are many:

"Seasoned googlers, of whom there is already a vast tribe, are nerds, anoraks and braces-wearers of the worst sort who spend every working moment searching the infernal engine for other people's blogs."

OK let me pick this apart like the rabid blogger I so obviously am.

1. Seasoned googlers (careful Keith, you'll get into trouble with that infernal engine for using that term): That pretty much covers the majority of Internet users, most of whom are NOT bloggers.
2. Nerd: "somebody who pursues academic and intellectual interests, which may result in the expense of social skills such as: interpersonal communication, fashion, hygiene and physical fitness." I hate to do this to you, Keith, but I think you fit that description pretty well. It doesn't, however, describe the majority of Internet or Google users.
3. Anorak: Assuming you're using the colloquial term and not talking about the item of clothing - what's wrong with having an obsessive personality and highly niche knowledge: it worked for Bill Gates.
4. Braces-wearers: Again, clothing or for the teeth? Well there are many high-powered businessmen that wear braces to hold their trousers up. And many teenagers who wear braces on their teeth. What is your point?
5. of the worst sort: You mean there's a 'best sort'? You're losing me here Keith. Really, you are.
6. "spend every working moment searching the infernal engine for other people's blogs" Actually, Keith, if you'd bothered to do any research you'd know that Google isn't (yet) the best way to search for blogs. Blogsearch is OK but you should've had a dig at Technorati to be factually correct. Oh, hang on, sorry you work for the Daily Mail don't you? Point taken.

What is an infernal engine? One that is irritating and tiresome? Yep, that'll be why it has such huge market share and so many people use it. Stupid people, eh?

"They are descended from a generation of titterers, pranksters and spokespersons of the bleeding obvious who in a more primitive era used to fool around with the office photocopier, circulating allegedly humorous material ("In these days of equal rights, why is Manchester not known as Personchester") faxed or posted to them by fellow-nerds who in turn had painfully copied the stuff from a parish magazine."

Apart from the fact that a lot of this is drivel, interspersed with a phrase that was only funny when John Cleese said it, I'm not sure if we're talking about people who use Google (ie nearly everyone) or bloggers. Either way, it's offensive in so many ways.

"The world is now their oyster - or their lobster as they would say, stealing the joke without acknowledgment. They never acknowledge original authorship, believing as they do that googling has outmoded the law of copyright."

I'll ignore the crustacean humour?? As for acknowledgement... OK when the Daily Mail learns how to do it, then you can complain about it. Don't judge every blogger by your own standards - yes there are blogs that rip content just as there are people who pirate CDs or newspapers that steal from online sources because 'googling has outmoded the law of copyright'. Utter sloblock (I'm in Brit-humour mode now, and acknowledging it)

"Googlers and bloggers do not have an original thought between them. Their ruminations on tax reform, Europe, immigration, Iraq, security, education and the rest have already been googled ten times over by fellow bloggers copying their source material from some other blogger's googling diatribe to the local newspaper."

No, bloggers have an inordinate amount of original thoughts, which is why many mainstream media organisations take inspiration and content from them. Heck, the BBC do (and they acknowledge the source) and even have their own blogs.

The trouble with writing about something you don't fully understand, Keith, is that your sentences don't even make sense. "the rest have already been googled ten times over by fellow bloggers copying their source material from some other blogger's googling diatribe to the local newspaper" WHAT???

"Hopefully, they will google themselves out of steam, replacing their hobby with games of draughts or snakes and ladders."

Hobby? Oh, OK, that'll be why AOL bought out Weblogs Inc for around $25m. That'll be why b5media have just received $2m in venture capital? Blogs can be business - big business - and also highly influential. We are not all teenagers (mind you they get an underserved bad press too).

Maybe this is one of the dying cries of a MSM journo who hasn't moved with the times (even though the rest of the DM thankfully has).

Bloggers aren't (generally) claiming to be the ultimate authority on everything, but then neither should the mainstream media. There's a place for both expressions of news and opinion, much of which is not simply recycled Google News, and diatribe from the likes of Mr Waterhouse doesn't help anyone. Except Google perhaps :)

Let the visitor statistics prove which sources of online news and opinion are most valuable, Keith.

For a more measured and more DM friendly viewpoint, along the same lines, read Ashley's post.

PS: The picture was blatantly stolen from the Daily Mail site, and I added my own 'original' words based on an unholy mix of "A Christmas Carol" and "Keith Waterhouse: The Musical" (I might've made that last bit up)

Lily Allen gets her own MSN theme pack

Record companies haven't taken long to catch onto this digital marketing lark, and thankfully they're looking beyond the basics of getting your artists on MySpace and not suing the arse off children for swapping tunes. It's no surprise to find Lily Allen at the forefront of developments either – after all, she invented InternetWeb social 2.0 networking, along with the Arctic Monkeys.

Anyway, her record label Parlophone have now made her the first UK artist to have her own set of MSN Messenger icons, as part of an MSN Themepack which also includes artwork and backgrounds for use on Messenger, as well as a feature that when you try to type 'Peaches Geldof', autoreplaces the words with 'Skanky Little Ho, Who Does She Fink She Is, Eh?'. Probably.

"With more and more teenagers using instant messenger services over and above email, the MSN Themepacks are a great way for us to reach Lily's target demographic as well as increase her fanbase," says Parlophone's Dan Duncombe. Napalm Death next, please, record company fellas.

(via Brand Republic)

Website of the Day: Rate My PC

Today's Website of the Day is Rate My PC, a technological version of the usual 'Rate My...' site that usually involves semi-naked body parts, pets or bodily functions, but this time involves computers in various states of disassembly.

It's worth the odd click or two before thinking "Why the hell am I doing this?" Quite a lot of blue LEDs on view, here, too.

Yay or Nay: Google Gadgets

It's Yay or Nay Wednesday, and this week I'm looking at the new and improved Google Gadgets.

For the uninitiated, they're a set of mini web applications that can be plugged into any website by its owner, in order to do a variety of things like display news and weather, games, web 2.0-ness, and so on.

Previously they were available for the Google Toolbar and Desktop, but now they should work on any web page on any web browser.

But have we had enough little add-on widgets and gadgets? Will they add value to a webpage or just be another distraction? Do we really need hundreds of people putting PacMan on their site (cool though it might be the first time)?

Google Gadgets: Yay or nay?

MSN Search tops Google search results

Here's an interesting little anomaly: type 'search' into the Google search engine and Windows Live comes up tops (click image for a closer view). Google doesn't even come out in second place, but third...

If you are, ahem, 'feeling lucky' you go straight to MSN search.

OK, quite why you'd search for 'search' in Google is another matter, but at least for now, Windows Live tops the Google charts.

It's not only Microsoft that gets one up on Google. Search for 'search' on Google.co.uk and our eco-friendly Guardian newspaper comes up top! Google comes second.

Maybe Google are playing by the rules and relying purely on their algorithms to determine ranking - in that case you think they'd be able to hone their own home page to come out top.

Windows Live and the Guardian have out-googled Google. Sweet.

Will mobile be the new frontier for MySpace and Bebo?

It's not news that online social networking sites are going mobile. MySpace took its first steps into mobile earlier this year in a deal with US mobile operator Helio, and has talked publicly about its intention to extend this to elsewhere in the world. But talk seems to be intensifying, as the big Web 2.0 sites realise that mobile will be an important part of their future development.

Just this week, speculation's been rife that Bebo plans to launch its own mobile service next year, possibly in partnership with O2. Both Bebo and MySpace have registered .mobi domain names too, which indicates their commitment to mobile. But having experienced rapid growth online, will transferring to mobile be as easy as these companies think, or could they be trumped by new mobile communities, either run by the operators, or independently?

One thing's for sure: it's a logical move for social networking sites to go mobile. "As the number of users grows, so too will the desire to access blog and social networking spaces on the move," says Tim Cole, of mobile content specialist Tao Group. "Mobile phones are the obvious medium to facilitate this."

He's backed up by Mark Fisher, VP of business development for Danger, which makes the Sidekick messaging device. "Mobile social networking is the natural extension of mobile messaging," says Mark Fisher, VP of business development for Danger, which makes the Sidekick messaging device. "It is a big opportunity for the industry. Social networking websites are generally the most popular destination for our users."

Meanwhile, Tim Deluca-Smith, communications manager at mobile firm SmartTrust, points out that it's teenagers in North America and Europe who are likely to fuel the trend, being the heaviest users of PC-based instant messaging and community sites, and also of their mobiles.

"How quickly would they flip to a mobile-based service if it supported the communities and services they get via the PC today?" he asks. "In Asia, where the penetration of cheap, high-bandwidth fixed internet is lower, and the reliance of the mobile for internet connectivity higher, social networking sites such as Cyworld have offered WAP interfaces from inception. And Cyworld, which now boasts 25% of the country's population as a member, is now owned by SK Telecom – an investor in Helio."

Going mobile is not a new option for social networking sites. Take Swedish service LunarStorm, for example, which has 1.5 million members in Sweden, and over 100,000 in the UK since launching here. CEO Nils Hammar explains that mobile is not seen as just a cut-down extra.

"Users have free access to the mobile element of the site, which is as near as possible to being the same as the main site," he says. "The only function that is not available is to upload pictures to the gallery. As each piece of new functionality is launched on the Web, it goes mobile simultaneously. We have a repurposing engine, so we do not need to do the development twice."

So who is best placed to make social networking work on mobile: the existing online services, or new mobile startups? Some have experienced success. For example, mobile operator 3 UK has signed up over 50,000 users to its Kink Kommunity in just two months since launching, who are making 350,000 postings a day, and submitting 80,000 MMS messages a month. However, most observers think the key will be partnerships between the mobile operators, and the online social networking sites.

"It is probably too late for the operators to build their own social networking sites," says Cole. "After all, in this youth market cool and reputation are everything, and MySpace, Bebo and one or two others are already streets ahead. So a partnership approach between the operators and social networking spaces will work best."

Fisher agrees that the established online communities will have an initial advantage in moving to mobile, but points out that there are already some mobile communities showing traction – Kink presumably being one of them. "The services that can deliver a relevant and rich mobile experience will ultimately prevail," he says.

"The established websites that have created the revolution in social networking are the perfect brands to extend to mobile," says Grant Smuts, chief commercial officer at mobile content firm FoneStarz Media Group. "The demographic of their users is what Vodafone refers to as the 'Young, Active, Fun Crowd', who are the target age for the more sophisticated and innovative mobile technologies. Thereford the established brands within this market, who already have a captive audience, should in theory see a fluid transition to mobile, which should provide a substantial extension to their success."

However, Smuts points out that the main challenge facing these brands is whether their online services will work on mobile, and also getting to grips with the mobile industry itself, and particularly the way it is largely controlled by the mobile operators. Above all, they'll have to appreciate that it's not just about transferring what they do online onto mobiles.

"It is unclear whether mobile will be the primary or secondary platform for social networking, but it is clear that it will have an important part to play," says Smuts. "24x7 access is a definite USP, and uploading and downloading content is a realistic example of where mobile can be advantageous. However, for writing long weblogs, viewing higher quality and long audio/video content that requires higher bandwidth, the Internet will remain the primary source of such material. At least for the forseeable future."

It won't just be the likes of MySpace and the mobile operators, however. Anil Malhotra, SVP of marketing at mobile payments firm Bango, says there will also be a lot of brands looking to create a mobile community service for their audiences. "Whether it be magazine publishers, broadcasters or games publishers, it's all about creating an experience around a brand, where people go to share content," he says.

Mobile also offers new directions for social networking, for example building in location-based elements. Loopt is one company that's launched a 'see where your mates are' mobile application, while Webraska founder Jean-Michel Durocher says his firm is also seeing the benefits.

"We are already beginning to observe social networking developing around mobile technologies such as satellite navigation," he says. "With a simple SMS, maps, addresses and directions can be sent to friends, and points of interest can be created and shared by end-users."

Meanwhile, Bango's Malhotra points out the potential for more micro-payments.

"Mobile communities provide an important opportunity for people to profit from their creativity, so we'll see micro-payments come into play in a way we've not seen on the PC Internet," he says. "People won't mind paying 50p for a funny clip and sharing with friends. This will pull people to moving to mobile communities, who wouldn't mind making £50 from something fun they do in their spare time."

One thing's for sure: the next few months are going to be pretty exciting for anyone who's into their online social networking, and is phone-savvy too. Whoever stands to capitalise the most on the impending crossover between Web 2.0 and mobile, let's hope they get it right.

Wednesday interview: Weblo founder Rocky Mirza on social networking for profit

Relationships, eh? When they start, it's about establishing a connection and getting on well. But at some point, they always become more about money. Which is an only slightly contrived way of introducing Weblo, a new virtual world where the networking is more financial than social.

Members can buy and sell property and virtual domain names, as well as become the online publicity manager for a celebrity of their choice. All this based on real-world assets too, from buildings to celebs, while the domain names are the sames as ones owned out on the 'real' Web.

Confused? Founder Rocky Mirza says the service is already a roaring success, having launched last week. I asked him what Weblo is aiming to do, why he thinks it'll be a success, and whether there are legal issues around creating and selling virtual versions of real-world places and celebrities.

"It's been excellent so far," says Mirza. "Every major city is already sold, and people are buying domain names like there's no tomorrow. California went for $50,000, every major state in the US and Canada has gone, and we're pulling in around $92 a minute since we launched. It's a whole new space we're creating here."

Let's wheel back a minute. When you join Weblo, you can pay real-world money for in-world assets, including buildings and cities, but also domain names – even if they've been taken in the real world. The world has its own cyber-marketplace where you can then resell stuff and buy from other users. And the big idea is that besides paying out money, you can also make it from a variety of methods, including advertising, domain redirection and – if you own a city or state – 'taxes' from every virtual property bought in that area.

It's all a bit head-spinning, even if you're comfortable with other virtual worlds like Second Life and Project Entropia, where people have been paying real cash for virtual assets for a while now. Mirza says the concept of Weblo appeals to a wider cross-section of people.

"The target market was 18 to 36 year-olds, but we're getting people up to 60 and beyond," he says. "A lot of people aren't involved in any other games on the Internet. Some people like the business aspect, and some are getting involved for fun or entertainment. In many cases, it's not being perceived as a virtual world. It's a second chance of getting what you missed out on before, for example with the domain names."

Weblo has been designed to appeal to a broad range of users too, without the 3D graphics that make many other virtual worlds inaccessible if you've got an average computer. Weblo's launch of "an internet within an internet" is intruiging though, allowing people to buy domains like cars.com or music.com and then direct Weblo users to whatever site they like, when they type that address in within the world.

Isn't this on dodgy grounds legally though, allowing people to pay for domains that have already been registered outside Weblo, and letting them make money from them?

"We would have launched Weblo a long time ago, but the legal slowed us down," admits Mirza. "It wasn't just domain names. We were planning to sell celebrities, but the lawyers came back and said we couldn't do that, so we're giving them away, one-per-person, on a first-come first-served basis. So we're not selling the celebrities or profiting from them."

Yes, the celebrities. How this works is you sign up to manage the Weblo 'rights' of a specific celebrity (I'm guessing Paris Hilton has gone, but you might still have a shot at Nikki from Big Brother), and can then create a mini fan-site all about them, making money from reselling these rights to other users, or from ads placed on your mini-site.

I have to be honest, and wonder why if you wanted to run this kind of site, you wouldn't just do it as a fully-blown website, rather than within a newly-launched virtual world. But the proof will come if people start making money in Weblo from their chosen celebrity more easily than they would from a regular website.

The other interesting thing about Weblo is its political aspects. Users will be able to be elected as president or prime minister of specific countries in the virtual world, and Mirza has ambitious plans to bring the Weblo leaders together for a real-world summit. If nothing else, it should provide an intruiging glimpse into how people's politics differ in a virtual world from the real one. Mirza is  already planning further features though, based on user feedback.

"People have been telling us we should be selling sports teams like Manchester United," he says. "We're also thinking of starting a psychiatrist programme, where people can take a test online to become a psychiatrist on Weblo, and then charge people 10 or 15 cents to give them advice on, say, relationships. So we have many ideas."

I'll be honest, Weblo is one of those ideas that sounds plain crazy from the outside. Yet that doesn't mean it won't be a roaring success. Part of its financing comes from Richard Rosenblatt, former chairman of MySpace – a fact that's been trumpeted in the press releases for Weblo, which implies the company is keen to win over the doubters, who probably said the same things about MySpace in its early days. Watch that space in the coming months to see if Weblo can take off to a similar degree.

Google's secret new search engine

It's called searchmash, which sounds like a Web 2.0 brand if ever we heard one, and it's apparently a place for Google to experiment with new ideas for internet search. And it's as stripped-down as old-skool Google, albeit with a pastelly purple look. You type in a query, and get a list of results back like normal, and some photos too. But you can drag and drop the search results into a different order. "This is just for fun right now, but we have some ideas for how to use this," it says on the site.

There's also a Features page which explains the different features, and gives you the chance to vote on whether they're useful or not. The site promises regular enhancements, so it's one to keep an eye on in the coming months.

(via CNET)

Website of the Day: Daily SEO Blog

Today's Website of the Day is the Daily SEO Blog from SEOMoz.org. It might seem strange for us to link to a Seattle-based Search Engine Optimisation company, but the accompanying blog is quite an interesting read.

Even if you don't own a website and couldn't care less about search engine ranking and such like, there are some interesting feature articles about Web 2.0 and other Internet things like Digg, Google Bombing, podcasting, spam and online marketing.

Wippit add 2.4m songs to download service

The Wippit online music service has done a deal with five leading distributors and will add 2.4m songs to its database.

The labels are The Orchard, IODA, VUT, Digital Rights Agency, and CD Baby, and feature music including Green Day, Coldplay, Barenaked Ladies, Fall Out Boy, and a host of independent music.

Wippit says it's the second largest UK music download site and this deal should add to its already pretty attractive subscription deals.

Wippit

ChaCha adds humans back to the search equation

The biggest problem with search engines, of course, is that they're not mind readers, so to our minds, they're often somewhere between dense and outright stupid. ChaCha lets you chat with an actual human during the search process, so you can theoretically be guided in more productive directions. When you submit a query, it goes to the pool of human Guides, and someone who has expertise on the subject takes charge of your research. If your query is too vague, nonsensical or has some dirty words in it, they'll either ignore you or bounce you. The more research happens, the bigger the web of pre-researched material grows. Guides are paid $5 to $10 USD an hour and, like a day labourer, get paid straight to a debit card whenever they want. "You can go online for five minutes or work for 16 hours straight if you want,” Jones said. “If you’re in college and you have finals, you can take the week off." The founder, Scott A. Jones, has a bunch of patents in voicemail and a hard business head, so it's worth watching how this plays out. [GT]

ChaCha experimental search engine [via ChipChick]

Related stories: Shazam launches music discovery engine | WOTD: Kartoo: Search engine | Google gets everywhere

Website of the Day: Got Schwartz?

Today's Website of the Day is Got Schwartz?, subtitled 'how gaming is changing the world: technology, society, business and education'. It features some interesting articles as well as commentary on recent gaming news, about gaming and its effects. There's some quite deep stuff in there, but well worth a read. The blog hasn't been going long, so go and give it your support. There's some great screenshots in there, too.

Doodling and Googling: Brit kids artwork vote for prime homepage logo

Google have been running a competition to find out what UK kids think of British life today, and to put their thoughts into artwork based around the Google logo.

They've had over 15,000 entries which were whittled down to 10 regional finalists in each of the three age ranges by a panel of experts including Dennis Hwang, the original Doodle designer. These 30 now go to the public vote and eventually one overall winner will be chosen by Hwang, their logo appearing on the UK Google home page for 24 hours and viewable by up to 18 million people on that day.

The 3 National Age Group Winners will receive a state of the art interactive white board for their school complete with projector, training and installation and a multi e-maths software package. from Hitachi. The 30 Regional Winners will receive a framed copy of their doodle, and will be invited to attend an awards ceremony in London to announce the National Winners.

The vote closes on Sunday 15th October, so head over to Doodle 4 Google and vote.

Tate Modern putting art-inspired music tracks online

The Tate Modern invited a selection of musicians to compose pieces of music inspired by a piece of art in the museum. Each month they'll featuer that music in Tate Modern alongside the piece, and the following month will post a slideshow and the music online at Tate Tracks.

The first track to go online is The Chemical Brothers' musical interpretation of Jacob Epstein's 'The Rock Drill'. Future tracks will come from Roll Deep, Graham Coxon, Estelle, The Landscapers, The Long Blondes, Klaxons, and Union of Knives - each on their own chosen piece.

The music is exclusive and free, with each track unlocking on the first of the month following its debut in the museum.

Worth a visit to see art and music working together online, particularly if you can't get along to the live exhibition.

Tate Tracks

eBay to challenge online retailers with eBay Express

According to a report in the Sunday Times, eBay is set to move away from auctions and into the online shopping arena with a new, more regulated selling service that will go under the name of eBay Express.

All sales at eBay Express will be for a fixed price, similar to eBay's "buy it now" service and it's hoped that it will appeal to those who prefer a more traditional retail environment. All traders will be forced to meet a minimum standard of commercial behaviour, for example, all goods should be shipped within three days, all customer enquiries answered within 24 hours and all sellers should have a returns policy.

eBay is expected to begin promoting the new website from Monday 9th October. We'll keep you posted.

eBay website

Via Sunday Times

UK record industry does 3-year online royalties deal

The UK record industry and music writers and publishers, the MCPS-PRS Alliance, have done a 3-year royalties deal with Apple's iTunes and the four mobile networks O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone so that musicians receive 8% of gross revenue when tracks are sold online, and a lower 6.5% rate when music is streamed.

The UK's online music sales represent the biggest market in Europe, with 34 million 'units' of music already sold this year, so it's something the powers that be are obviously keen to get a fair stake of.

Apparently, though, this is only a partial settlement and a Copyright Tribunal is set to continue for other digital music issues.

I'm all for music creators getting a fair cut for their work (in fact, and it's a long-running debate, they probably don't get a fair cut) - and this is all well and good for these large legitimate services but isn't going to do much for all the illegal downloads going on. It may mean more legitimate music becomes available to these services, though.

BBC teams up with Microsoft to explore Net content possibilities

The big cheeses of the BBC and Microsoft have met in Seattle to discuss how the BBC can better get its content online and keep at the forefront of technology.

BBC DG Mark Thompson met Bill Gates to sign a non-exclusive deal that will see Microsoft working on plans for the BBC's news archive, a web 2.0 project (BBC beta, perhaps?), and new ways of sharing content.

Thompson is keen that BBC 'embraces the creative challenges of the digital future' and this is a 'strategic partnership' with Microsoft. The two companies aim to find areas of common interest such as search, navigation, distribution, and 'content enablement' (inventing new words might be another area)

Do we want to see a partnership between Auntie and Bill?

Capital one offers motivational coaching on the web

Looking to change your life? You could watch one of the many TV shows or read one of the numerous books on the subject - or if your apathy levels have dipped beyond the point of opening a book, you could visit wemakechangingeasy.com.

The site is pitched as a "motivational hub" to help people overcome apathy when it comes to sorting their finances, as well as other aspects of their lives. You can interact with life coach Pete Cohen by visiting the website, get some motivational coaching from the experts and watch and listen to vodcasts and podcasts from experts covering areas from relationships through to personal finance and banking. And if all that sounds a bit serious, they're apparently throwing in some comedy performances too.

If your problems stem from spending too much time on the internet, it might not help. For anything else, it might be worth a look.

wemakechangingeasy.com

Yahoo acquire Jumpcut video website

Yahoo have acquired the Jumpcut video-editing and publishing website, in the ongoing scrabble on the web to compete with YouTube. Is it just me or do Yahoo seem to be doubling up on services? First they acquired Flickr and then launched their own photo-sharing service, now they're buying out a video service even though they have one of their own.

Indeed, they've said that Jumpcut will become part of the 'Yahoo Video family' and won't replace what Yahoo already do. Presumably they'll cater to different audiences.

I took a very quick look at Jumpcut and wasn't overly impressed. Sure, it was first impressions based, and maybe I'm doing them a disservice, but it didn't seem to have the same feel as YouTube or Google Videos, for example. One feature that sounds intriguing, however, is 'Remix' where you can take other people's content and, well... remix it. Ahh, a copyright nightmare!

It also sounds as if Jumpcut will stand to benefit more from the deal than Yahoo, with access to a broader audience.

Have you used Jumpcut (had you even heard of them?). What do you think of the deal?

Jumpcut

Website of the Day: Moby Games

Today's Website of the Day is Moby Games, a user-generated database of computer games from time immemorial (well, the late 70s) to the present day.

It's a great resource and if you're into games you could find yourself getting lost in nostalgia for quite some time. Well worth a visit, and if you notice something missing or incorrect, you can add it yourself.

Happy Birthday Google: 8 today

Can you believe Google is 8 years old today? (or at least, this is its official birthday.) If you've not been on the Net for long, you might not remember a world without Google, but back in the nineties, Alta Vista was one of the ruling search engines, and Google was but a twinkle in the eyes of two young entrepreneurs.

Remember the days when Google was just a search engine?

Now look at where we are. We've got maps, and word processors, and cash-for-questions researchers, and books, and videos, and shopping, and news, and Blogger, and Picasa, and talk, and translation, and...

It's been a pretty amazing 8 years - unless you were one of their competitors. They've certainly done a lot for the web. Happy birthday Google!

Apple .mac webmail to be upgraded

Apple is to update the features on its subscription-based .mac webmail service to make it look and feel more like Mac OS X Mail client on the desktop. With the tag line "Totally new. Totally familiar" Apple are playing up its Web 2.0 features (though they don't call it that) such as smart refreshes (only the bit of the webpage that's changed gets reloaded), drag and drop of mail, quick reply from the inbox, flagging of messages, and keyboard shortcuts.

Given that the majority of .mac subscribers are going to be Mac users, it's probably a decent move to make it look like the desktop version of Mail. I'm not sure if it ties in to the desktop version of Mac via IMAP - that would be useful.

At the end of the day, though, do you want to pay for web-based email? The .mac experience is pretty good, and this should make it even better, but if you're a Mac user then you'd probably only want this when you're travelling away from your Mac? Maybe it's just me, but I've never favoured web mail over a desktop app, particularly when it costs an annual fee (I'm stingy :) ) What do you think?

.mac Mail

Website of the Day: Inside Home Recording

Today's Website of the Day is Inside Home Recording which takes a look at the world of podcasting, technology and music, audio, iPods and accessories. Well worth a read if you're interested in sound technology.

Online publishers propose new content-usage protocol ACAP

Last week I ranted at how French and German newspapers banned Google from aggregating their content on its news service.

Now publishers are getting together to back a new software-based protocol called ACAP (Automated Content Access Protocol) which is used to tell search engine spiders, and other services, what can be done with the content they crawl. The project is due to start later this year and last for 12 months.

There are already systems in place which well-behaved automated spiders will respect, such as whether certain directories, images or sites can be indexed at all, but this new proposal deals with how obtained information can be used and published.

It sounds as if plenty of publishing associations are on board already, including the International Publishers Association, European Publishers Council, and the World Association of Newspapers, though there's no word yet on whether the search engines will accept and adhere to the standard - after all, they will have to re-programme their systems to accommodate these new tags and usage policies.

The alternative? Well, either a string of lawsuits if publishers decide they don't want their content published in certain ways on other sites, or a ban on news aggregation. One problem I see is that the legitimate search sites (Google, MSN, Yahoo, etc) will probably adhere to good practice, whilst the spam sites will do whatever the hell they like with content regardless of any protocols that get put in place.

I personally think it will be a loss to Internet users and original content publishers alike if there's a clampdown on news aggregation services. What do you think?

What's so hot about the .mobi top-level domain

Yesterday saw the start of the free-for-all domain registration process for the new top-level domain extension (TLD) .mobi (dotmobi).

Unlike other top-level domains like .com and .net, the .mobi TLD will put certain requirements on the websites that can be hosted, in order to make them mobile-friendly. Quite what these standards are isn't totally clear yet, but they'll address issues of download speed, types and quality of content.

CEO of MTLD (Mobile Top Level Domain organisation), Neil Edwards said: "The mobile web from the standpoint of content is in its absolute infancy. In terms of the number of sites and the content; it is not very good. If you try your favourite websites on a mobile phone, the chances are they are not going to work."

Certain sections of the Net get excited when a new TLD becomes available, but I'm not one of them.

Sure, it opens up a whole new set of naming possibilities, but other than that it isn't going to do much on its own to improve the quality of the mobile Internet experience.

More important factors are the speed of mobile Net access (the emerging HDSPA standard will help) and a flat-rate for access. Of course good content is also vital, but simply sticking existing sites on a dotmobi domain is not going to make them appealing or useful to mobile users.

According to the BBC report, more people have a web-enabled mobile phone than a PC with Internet access, so the potential is definitely there, and it's something that mobile manufacturers, network operators, and large website operators are all keen to tap into.

Tapping into .mobi is fine, but there's a lot more to get right as well if mobile surfing is to really catch on.

Website of the Day: The Technology Liberation Front

Today's Website of the Day is the Technology Liberation Front.

Today the government has its hands all over the Internet. It's difficult to name an area where lawmakers and regulators are not currently promulgating or considering rules and regulations for the high-technology and communications sectors.

This is why this site is needed. We aim to report on, and hopefully help to reverse, this