From time to time I’m going to post a bunch of links to news items that I find interesting, want to draw attention to and make some brief commentary on, but that don’t warrant a post of their own, and that I don’t necessarily want to post to del.icio.us for later reference.
Welcome to my inaugural “Quick Links.”
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TechCrunch – Is This The Future Of Search?
Google is testing a Digg-like interface for search, where users can vote search results up or down and add comments. The human element is added to Google’s magical secret search algorithm.
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TechCrunch – Google Walks Away From Digg Deal
Google had been in negotiations to acquire Digg, but the deal fell through.
As I read about the negotiations I couldn’t help but think about that famous Epic 2015 video in which Google merges with Amazon to become Googlezon, takes over the online world and develops a “social recommendation engine.”
Oh well, at least Google have their own social search engine experiment from the previous item to fall back on.
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MySpace support bolsters OpenID, but the logins won’t be portable
Popular social networking site MySpace said Tuesday it will join the open source authentication platform OpenID, further bolstering the idea of a unified system to carry online identities between Web sites. But for now, MySpace’s OpenID accounts cannot be used elsewhere.
So the good news is… one of the largest web services is supporting OpenID, joining Google, Yahoo!, AOL and other big players, but the bad news is…
However, the implementation of OpenID on MySpace is still incomplete.
The social networking site is what is called a “provider,” which means the site can create new OpenIDs. But to actually use that OpenID login created on MySpace on another OpenID-supported site, MySpace needs to become a “relying party.”
Apparently Yahoo! is only a provider too, at this stage.
I didn’t know that about OpenID… you learn something everyday. Hopefully MySpace and Yahoo! will come on board and become relying party and make OpenID really useful.
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New Foundation Wants to Bridge the Gaps Between Open Web Tools
Speaking at the OSCON Open Source Convention, Six Apart’s David Recordon recently announced the Open Web Foundation, a meta-standards organization dedicated to smoothing the way for large businesses to embrace open web standards like OAuth, OpenID and more.
While there is already the Data Portability Workgroup, which acts as an open standards evangelist, the new Open Web Foundation aims to do the behind-the-scenes dirty work. The goal is to ensure that the various standards, like OAuth and OpenID have consistency, a legal framework and communication between them.
Sounds like a great idea… I wonder if they will be covering open standards for the metaverse.
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IBM says traditional e-mail, phones and desktops will go away
I agree with IBM that 3D immersive environments are going to play a big role in work place communication.
IBM foresees the demise of e-mail, phones and desktops as unified communications makes it possible to replace them with laptops and other mobile devices.
Instant messaging will step up as the preferred means of written communication around which other communications modes – voice, video, conferencing – will revolve, he predicts.
Rhodin demonstrated a virtual conference using technology similar to Second Life that creates a conference space that becomes familiar and in which participants feel comfortable. In combination with other unified communications features, this can make for more productive conferences, he says.
Toward that end, IBM announced at VoiceCon that it is teaming with Forterra Systems to integrate Lotus Sametime with Forterra’s graphical collaboration software. The goal is to create a virtual environment in which groups can meet to run through simulations of physical events and draw on relevant experts as needed.
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ABC launches free net TV service
THE ABC’s voracious and highly successful push into the digital domain has taken another mighty leap with the launch of ABC iView.
The free internet TV service, which went live last night and is available at abc.net.au/iview, is the first real attempt by an Australian network to deliver comprehensive content online.
So our very own Aunty (as the ABC is affectionately called here in Australia) is making as many of its TV shows available for online streaming as possible.
Surely this is the future of television.
Unlike the BBC’s iPlayer, the ABC’s iView does not consolidate the public broadcaster’s television content with its radio content; but like iPlayer, the in-built video player is geo-blocked, or unable to be accessed internationally.
Disappointing, but I guess they have their reasons.
ISP provider iiNet also announced last night it would include the ABC’s new iView service quota-free for all customers.
Woot! Guess who’s with iiNet?
I don’t see Bananas with Pyjamas up there yet. 🙂
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