| FTC Charges Google with "Deceptive Privacy Practices" in Buzz Rollout Any of the interesting technology that came out of the launch of Google's real-time conversation tool Buzz last year was overshadowed by privacy concerns about the service. These stemmed from the way in which the product was rolled out, namely users were not given the option to join, and many found their private information was inadvertently exposed in the process. This led to a number of lawsuits, as well as a Federal Trade Commission investigation over what were called "deceptive privacy practices" surrounding the way in which Buzz was implemented. The FTC and Google have finally reached a settlement, both parties have just announced.
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Microsoft Adding NFC Support to Windows Phone 7 (Report) Microsoft is adding support for NFC (near field communication) to its Windows Phone mobile operating system, according to a report citing unnamed sources over on Bloomberg Businessweek. NFC technology, which allows for short range wireless communication between two devices for the purpose of data exchange, is a key component to the upcoming mobile payment and mobile wallet systems now reportedly under development at Google, RIM and Apple as well as the new carrier-led initiative Isis, a coalition of three of the four major cellular providers here in the U.S. Support for NFC technology in Windows Phone 7 will be released via an update to Microsoft's mobile operating system, sources told Bloomberg reporters. Those updates may arrive sometime this year.
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Tour Historic Sites in Italy and France with Google Street View Google has added several new tours of historic sites in Google Street View, the service which gives Web surfers a street-level view of their surroundings using Google Maps. It's now offering virtual tours of historic sites, including popular landmarks, palaces, monuments and castles located in Italy and France. Starting today, you can tour sites like Rome's Colosseum and the Imperial Forum, the Thermae (Baths) of Diocletian, France's Chateau Fontainebleu, the French countryside, and much more.
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UX Evolutions: News on iPad When the iPad launched in April last year, news media companies were among the first to create applications for the new tablet device. We're now a year into the iPad era and some of those news apps have dramatically changed how we consume news. But it hasn't been the apps from traditional news media. Rather, it's been two iPad native apps that have enhanced our news consuming user experience: Flipboard and Newsy. Some big media companies have attempted to be revolutionary, with less success. Rupert Murdoch's The Daily launched in February with claims of being the "future of the newspaper." However its user experience fell flat, especially in comparison to Flipboard. This is the second post in a new RWW series looking at how the user experience of consuming media has changed with the increasing popularity of devices other than the PC. Yesterday we explored the thriving world of music on smartphones. Today we look at news apps on the iPad.
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Lawsuit Accusing Yelp of "Implied Extortion" Dismissed A judge has thrown out a lawsuit accusing local business review site Yelp of extortion. The lawsuit made a number of allegations against Yelp, accusing it of acting in a way that added up to "implied extortion," wherein businesses were said to be treated differently on the site according to whether or not they advertised with Yelp. Today, a judge dismissed the lawsuit on a number of grounds, including that some allegations were "entirely speculative."
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NASA to Stream First Mercury Photos NASA will be streaming a live press conference tomorrow at 2:00 PM to unveil the first photos ever taken from the orbit of the planet Mercury. The images, taken by the MESSENGER probe early this morning, will be posted to a special page on NASA's site as the teleconference is taking place on another.
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Gmail to Fine Tune Ads Using Priority Inbox Technology Google has begun notifying users of its email system, Gmail, that "better ads" are on the way. Being sure to note that "ads in Gmail are fully automated" and that "no humans read your messages," the company announced that it will be using a process similar to that of Priority Inbox to bring users fewer, but more relevant, advertisements. Can the company pull off more precise advertising without creeping out its user base?
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Twitter Co-Founder @Ev: On to Startup #3 If there was any room left for speculation left, let it be clear - Twitter co-founder Evan Williams has decided to further "scale back" his role at the company. Reports came out a month ago that the former CEO had been rather absent from the halls of the company's headquarters in San Francisco and today Williams confirmed his lessening role. Why is Williams making the move? He says that Twitter is in "capable hands that aren't [his]" and that he's ready to move on to the next big thing.
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Gettin' Down on Friday: Bieber's Baby No Longer Most Disliked Video on YouTube Yesterday we reported that Justin Bieber's video Baby has become the first video ever to surpass 500 million views on YouTube. The flip side of that fame, though, was that Bieber's was by far the most disliked video on the site - having received ten times more dislike votes than what appeared to be the second-most disliked video (also by Bieber). Then, everything changed. Rebecca Black's video Friday was burning up the charts - but especially the Dislike chart we created by extracting numbers from across the site. Today what seemed inevitable finally occurred - Rebecca Black's Friday surpassed Justin Bieber's Baby to become the most-disliked video of all time on YouTube. Friday currently has 1,187,200 dislikes - but that number has been climbing fast for days. It's hard to know what this all means - but surely it means something. Unless it means ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Watch and listen to the new Anti-Queen of Broadcasting Yourself below and think about it. Don't be too mean though, this young woman is just 13 years old.
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How Twitter Can Become More Mainstream [Conversation] Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey is back working at the company and made public statements today about how Twitter is focused on making the service more mainstream. Biz Stone said something very similar last week at the CTIA mobile conference - that the number once misconception about Twitter is that people think you need to write Tweets to get value out of it. Imagine a place where the most famous and fabulous people in the world emit short little pearls of wisdom throughout the day, every day, in a public forum where anyone can enjoy them. Stars of stage and screen stepping right into your living room - 140 characters at a time! That seems to be what Twitter aims to be now, or at least part of it. We asked (on Twitter, of course) what other people thought of the idea that Twitter should be more mainstream and for their suggestions as to how that could be accomplished. Below are my favorite parts of the conversation so far.
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