And so says Mozilla's rationale behind the launching of Weave, a new Mozilla project which is aimed at deeper integration of Mozilla's Firefox browser with the desktop and the web. Specifically Weave will look at finding ways to enhance the Firefox user experience through increase control over personal information and provide new opportunities for developer to build innovative online experiences.

ensure that it is easy for people to set up their own services with freely

available open standards-based tools

provide users with the ability to fully control and customize their online experience, including whether and how their data should be shared with their family, their friends, and third-parties

respect individual privacy (e.g. client-side encryption by default with the ability to delegate access rights)

leverage existing open standards and propose new ones as needed

build a extensible architecture like Firefox

And explaining how Weave works in three simple steps:

1.browser metadata is pushed into the cloud (e.g. bookmarks, history, customizations, etc.)
2.This metadata is transparently reflected everywhere an individual gets online
3.we provide a basic framework for easily sharing and delegating access to this metadata to friends, family and third-parties
4.we build tools and APIs to extend this framework and to provide new user experiences

To get you started with Weave follow these steps:

1.Go to https://services.mozilla.com and create a Weave account, if you do not already have one.
2. Following the directions in the e-mail that is sent to you, to verify your account and download the initial prototype.
3. Once it is installed follow the directions on the first run page.

It would be interesting to see how Mozilla will manage to weave the web and the desktop into one cohesive interplay of services. Or is this just another one of those announcement that won't get pushed forward. That we will have to see.

Based on the study 64% of online teenagers whose ages range from 12 to 17 years old, are increasingly creating online content, as compared to 2004's data.35% of this teenagers are girls who are into blogging while 20% are online boys.

Other results of the study show:

- 47% of teens have posted photos on the web - 89% of teens who posted receive comments from other people - many teens limit access to their content 28% of teens use social media as a medium of communication among peers and family members

This explains why web predators are having a hayday on the web victimizing helpless young netizens. Although, there's nothing wrong with socializing and interacting in the online environment, teenagers should still exercise some caution when divulging their personal information on the web.

Social media like any other web-based technology which are freely available to anyone is not a bad for as long as everyone should exercise some degree of caution and privacy protection. The teenage web population should follow what the mature web people are doing and talking about when it comes to online visibility and availability of information. Online privacy is a big issue among the mature web citizens and I don't see any reason why teenagers should not take it seriously as well.

The Amazon SimpleDB offers the same core functionality of a database such as real-time lookup and simple querying of structured data. The big difference is that it eliminates the operational complexity of how an operational database works.

To create and store multiple datasets which enables users to query data easily, the Amazon SimpleDB offers a simple web services interface to carry out these tasks.

When users create a simpleDB, they can organize their structured data into domains and run queries across all of the data stored in particular domain. SimpleDB running on a domain can be viewed as a traditional spreadsheet database table. Domain items are the rows of data, its attributes are the column headers and the values are the data entered in each of the table cells.

Among the highlights of the SimpleDB are:

That is basically the reason why this group of corporate bloggers decided to band together and forms a what they call “vendor-free environment” to share tactics, offer advice based on past experiences and develop standards-based best practices that will serve as a model for corporate blogs and corporate blogging.

Among the many issues that the Blog Council would address are:
• How do global brands manage blogs in more than one language?
• What do you do when 2000 employees have personal blogs?
• What is the role of the corporate brand in a media landscape increasingly geared toward consumer-generated media?
• What is the correct way to engage and respond to bloggers who write about your company?

Blog Council CEO Andy Sernovitz said that corporations use blogs differently while adhering to the same rules and etiquette.

"Individual and small-business bloggers don't face the same issues. For example, we still need to deliver a responsible and effective corporate message, but we need to do it in the complicated environment of the blogosphere. We have to speak for a corporation, but never sound 'corporate.' And we have to learn to do it live, and in real-time." – says Sernovitz

So, does the Blog Council appeal to you in anyway? Is a formal blog organization really necessary? Do we need a blogging best practice to govern the way we blog?
Whatever happens to the nature of blogs being a free-flowing, unstructured medium of expression? Well, at least the Blog Council includes only corporate bloggers. Hopefully their advocacy does not spread over other types of blogs and blogging.

Although it does not pinpoint the exact location of the user as GPS does, it delivers location estimate faster, does not drain the battery as fast, and provides coverage even inside buildings. What’s more, My Location does not obtain any personal data or associate a location with any personally identifiable information. Google built the service without needing to coordinate with mobile phone carriers by creating a database of cell towers and anonymously analyzing mobile signals received to make a reasonable guess on where that phone must be located. So far, the algorithm can pinpoint a phone’s location within about 1,000 meters (approximately about half a mile).

Steve Lee, product manage for Google Maps for Mobile, said they “think location technology will make advertising more relevant to users and advertisers in the future.” As such, it is certainly an area they closely looking into. With My Location, Google ads can be designed for target market and will be more meaningful to users and beneficial to advertisers so they hope to get the product into the hands of consumers as fast as possible.

First launched in the US in late 1995, Google for Maps enable users to locate local destinations, view live traffic coverage, and get point-to-point directions. The application has been optimized and is now made available on most smart phones, including Palm devices, Blackberry devices, Nokia / Symbian devices, and Windows mobile phones.

My Location will compete with the likes of Navison and SkyHook Wireless which use Wi-Fi technology for their mobile positioning system service rather than GPS or cell tower location. To download the new application, point your browser to www.google.com/mobile/gmm/index.html.

With the US 2008 election barely a year away, ABC News’ president David Westin said the partnership is considered “a great opportunity to make available to the people already having the ongoing discussion and debate on Facebook the full range of ABC News political reporting." The new Facebook application will contain up to date information about the presidential candidates and other campaign reports while members exchange ideas, express opinions, or debate about election issues.

ABC News’ reporting and coverage of the election will be affected by the thread of discussions and debates in Facebook. Feedback, reactions, and discussions of Facebook users can help ABC to develop a consensus around issues that are important to people.

Members may subscribe to the profiles of ABC News reporters who are embedded with presidential hopefuls. All reporters will continuously post up to date news, photographs and blogs throughout the campaign directly onto Facebook. The technology of Facebook in connecting people and the editorial content of ABC News are expected to extend the reach of the application as members are alerted to the online activity of friends and will present a different environment for political debate among people who know each other.

To try the new application, type “ U.S. Politics” in the search field of Facebook.com

Petside.com is your usual web portal in the likes of Yahoo and AOL with full menu of information about dogs and cats. You'd definitely find a lot of useful information in Petside.com. From links to diagnosing pet's illnesses, to shopping sites for pet stuffs.

So, what’s the deal on why P&G and NBC decided to create Petside.com? Advertising potentials. With such a big web portal as the Petside.com fully backed up by big names such as P&G and NBC, the advertising revenue potential is as clear as the sky during summer time.

Since both companies have specific consumer products of their own, expect the Petside.com to have various product ads from both companies. P&G‘s pet food and air freshener products could very well suit the market of Petside.com. While NBC can promote some of its programs on the web portal.

P&G and NBC representatives told NYT that if Petside.com becomes successful, the two companies will continue to collaborate on producing more web content for the site. Plans to expand the portal is also being planned to include hamster, bird and rabbit owners.

So, the next time you are in need of new dog and what breed to get, you might want to check out Petside.com first. You might find some valuable tips from there.

Amazon describes its innovative E-Book device as a:

"Revolutionary Portable Reader Lets Customers Wirelessly Download Books in Less Than a Minute and Automatically Receive Newspapers, Magazines and Blogs, no PC Required, No Hunting for Wi-Fi Hot Spots."

That seems pretty powerful and nifty indeed.

To encourage users to download E-Books from the Amazon store, wireless bills incurred during download transactions are shouldered by Amazon. This allows users to download books, magazines, newspapers and blogs. But of course, individual downloads are charged per item.

Now, who would want to read all day long using an electronic device that would surely harm one's eyesight? Fortunately for all you bookworms, the Kindle uses a high-resolution display technology called electronic paper that provides a sharp black and white screen that is as easy to read as printed paper. I know this may sound absurd, but the Kindle actually uses an ink just like your printed books and newspapers but Kindle displays this electronically. Hence, the Kindle eliminates eye-strain and glare common to all electronic devices.

Other features of the Amazon Kindle include:

-Holds Hundreds of Books in 10.3 Ounces -Built-In Dictionary and Wikipedia -Long Battery Life -Search -Annotation and Bookmarks -Ergonomic design -Adjustable text size -And many more

Looks like Amazon may have hit the mark this time. The long wait seems all worth it indeed. Ignoring the fact this will certainly plummet E-book sales over at Amazon, the kindle if it manages to gain a good ground may actually pave the road to the demise of the printed book. Or do you really think it could?

CEO and founder Evan Schumacher said that this is part of their objectives “to connect the long tail of promoters with event-seeking audiences” as “the last-mile solution for the 300,000 local monthly RSVPs” that Going.com receives on-site. More than the capability of selling tickets online, Schumacher said it will connect people. Site users can find each other before, during, or after the events they plan to attend.

The Moby’s concert on Thursday is the site’s first stab as a ticket seller. Although the ticketing business has been mainly dominated by Ticketmaster, a large ticket outlet owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp, Going.com identified the changing market for ticket selling. While Ticketmaster signs exclusive ticket distribution deals with artists and promoters, Going plans to sell tickets not available through traditional outlets.

Currently featuring user-organized events in Boston, San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, Going.com will expand its operation in Miami and Atlanta in the next few weeks and in about ten other cities early next year.

Schumacher said the move is more about people rather than tickets. He also started two other companies, an online transportation logistics company (Celarix Inc.) and a mobile entertainment company (Everypoint).

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McBain established MYARTINFO as a venue for artists whether famous or lesser known to showcase their artistic work, chat with fellow artists online and even blog about, what else but art. MyARTINFO aims to assemble all artists, and even non-artists who are members of the art community under one whole network of people and art works freely available to the web consuming public.

There’s a lot of stuff being offered by the social networking site offers to its members. But of course the most important of which is the ability to set up their own public galleries where they can showcase their art work. Of course those art works should already be in digital form.

Other features of the site include, featured artists, highest rated artists (so prospective buyers could have an idea which are among the best artists in the site, new artists which spotlights newest member of the social networking site. Plus a slew of other nifty social networking facilities all yours to use for free.

Technically, the site looks pretty promising. In fact, it has attracted 810 users from around the world in its first few days displaying more than 5,000 works. Not bad for a highly specialize networking site’s initial beta stage.

We may not be seeing MyARTINFO to get that much headway as the more general social networking sites, but for advancing the cause of art and the artists, MyARTINFO certainly deserves some much needed attention from us, web netizens.

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Going back to the Open Handset Alliance which may have disappointed some who were expecting a “gPhone”, I knew all along that the coming of a “Google phone” isn’t most likely to happen. Not just yet. Google doesn’t have the expertise; the infrastructure and the machinery to launch its own mobile phone, albeit make it successful.

So, what is this Android all about? The Official Google Blog has this to say:

Android is the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices. It includes an operating system, user-interface and applications -- all of the software to run a mobile phone, but without the proprietary obstacles that have hindered mobile innovation.

PCWorld has come up with a comprehensive coverage of the Open Handset Alliance by way of an FAQ. You may read it to learn more about the Open Handset Alliance.

As for me, I still believe that the world doesn’t need another mobile phone. Even if that mobile phone would bear the mark of the almighty “G”. Google might just use it as another avenue for its advertising program. The web is already peppered with Google’s Adsense Ad Links. Let there be no more of it on our mobile devices.

For Virtualization, 2/3 of the respondents to the COLT administered survey pointed out the power consumption are the key to virtualization’s success. 92% of the respondents pointed out better use of system capacity as the reason for Virtualization’s growing popularity among businesses.

However, respondents also pointed out that many of them are worried that the emphasis on technology would eventually increase the complexity of SaaS systems. Hence, giving more pressure on skills training and occupational learning.

With the high predilection of server virtualization in the market today, the next wave that business companies might ride into is how to leverage virtualization of enterprise applications. And with this need to move virtualization to a higher ground the key is applying service level agreements to applications. This application is vital to both SaaS and Virtualization model.
In due time, once virtualization and SaaS are able to gain good ground on business models, whatever the reasons are for applying SaaS and Virtualization strategies, these will all be achieved effectively.

“Within the next two weeks, Google is expected to announce advanced software and services that would allow handset makers to bring Google-powered phones to market by the middle of next year, people familiar with the situation say”.

But if you look closely to the sentence, it doesn’t really say much about the release of a mobile phone. “Google powered phone” could refer to any mobile phone which has installed Googl e application and service. Even the last three words that says “people familiar with the situation say.” This must have been read and interpreted wrongly by those who can’t help but link this WSJ article to the pending released of the Google phone.

But any primary school student could attest that the statement doesn’t really say anything about the Google releasing its mobile phone. The WSJ article does not particularly stated anything about a mobile phone. And besides, why would you want a mobile phone from a non-manufacturing company like Google. The world is already saturated with mobile phones, we don’t another one coming from of all companies Google. But then again, who knows, Google might actually launch its mobile handset pretty soon. That gives us something to look forward to.