Google Street View Demystified

Ever wonder how that wonderful Street View technology worked? Here is the secret compliments of Google Japan...enjoy!



Note: Found via Gizmodo

Facebook Considers Panic Button

The BBC is reporting that Facebook exec's are in discussion with Britain's Home Secretary Alan Johnson regarding the Facebook luring and murder of a British teen by a known paedophile. "I emphasised that including the Ceop abuse reporting button on their site has the potential to transform child protection - and that the company should put this above all other considerations," said Johnson.

Facebook exec's say they are considering the option of a Panic Button but also defend their current measures saying:

"This innovative system has been developed by analysing millions of reports submitted over the years and testing ways to continually improve our system. 

"The system effectively handles all manner of potential abuse we see on the site, ranging from the common minor breaking of the rules, such as embarrassing pictures, to the extremely rare serious matters that are quickly escalated to law enforcement."

I like the idea as long as it is used as intended. Education is also a powerful tool.

Study Expects Mobile App Boom... Realy?

I don't think you have to be a genius to predict that mobile app development is going through the roof! It does however take some amount of thought to predict the magnitude of the explosive growth, but on the other hand the study quoted here was commissioned by an app store so take these numbers with a grain of salt...

According to the BBC:

"A study done for Getjar, the world's second biggest app store, said the market will grow to $17.5bn (£12bn) in the next two years. 

The study claimed downloads would climb from 7bn last year to 50bn by 2012 - a 92% year-on-year increase."

Big numbers!!!

Twitter Upgrades But No Monetization Plans Revealed

The hype around an announcement by Twitter founder Ev Williams at South by South West (SxSW) was that the company was going to announce it's plans for monetizing it's service but well all was said and done the actual announcement was viewed as underwhelming, with some attendees bailing before the key-note address was over.

"What Mr. Williams did announce is a Twitter expansion called @Anywhere. It allows users to log into other websites using their Twitter accounts, so they can tweet a link to something interesting without having to actually go to the Twitter site. Those third-party sites will highlight names and businesses that use Twitter and, when the mouse scrolls over them, a window pops up showing the user's account and latest activity there.

“Imagine being able to follow a New York Times journalist directly from her byline, tweet about a video without leaving YouTube, and discover new Twitter accounts while visiting the Yahoo! home page,” the blog post announcing the change said."

As an avid user and Twitter fanboy, I don't really care how they make money as long as they are able to keep the doors open without selling their souls and invading my screen space.

Source: CBC