Google's new Wave

Google's new large venture is Google Wave - a kind of mix between email and chat and the future. It's easier to read the Tech Crunch article than a summary by me, but they're pretty excited about it.


Read more:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/28/google-wave-drips-with-ambition-can-it-fulfill-googles-grand-web-vision/

Read about WaveProtocol:
http://www.waveprotocol.org/

MS Ba-da-BING

Microsoft is launching it's new search engine: Bing.com
It can't be any worse than Live Search - which is awful. Competing with Google is always going to be a challenge. As I've blogged about recently Wolfram-Alpha is taking on the search giant, but with a different slant on searching.
Bing will try to be intelligent about searches, by using the current date, time etc. to make your search results more relevant. It will also provide related search results and search terms.

It's explained well with examples here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/may/28/microsoft-bing

EDIT
More information here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/may/28/microsoft-search-bing-google

EDIT 2
And more about how it works:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/may/29/microsoft-bing-search-engine

Facebook runs a fifth of all UK ads

Apparently Facebook ran 21.6% of all ads in the UK. That's a lot of ads.

Read more:
http://www.nma.co.uk/new-measure-of-ad-views-finds-facebook-runs-a-fifth-of-all-uk-ads/3000814.article

Is adding the third dimension worth it?

This journalist on the Guardian website reckons that the new spat of 3D films isn't anything big and isn't going to be here to stay, and that cheaper technology is far more important.

I'm inclined to agree. I saw UP in 3D the other day and it being in 3D added nothing to the film what-so-ever. (Excellent film by the way.) Coraline (Which is a beautiful film.) made much better use of 3D, but I still think it would have been a great film without 3D.

Read more:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2009/may/28/up

Spotify goes offline

Spotify are developing an Android app that allows you to listen to your music offline as well. Going on the Tube, but still want to hear that funky music - no problem: The app will cache a few tracks for you, whilst you're offline.

Read more:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05/28/spotify_offline_and_mobile/

Will the web get clever on our streams?

An interesting article on social network data streams and the semantic web. I think it's all about creating standards and the data-mining after.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/activity_streams_poetry_or_nihilism.php

Pre-rolling on YouTube

YouTube are going to trial pre-roll ads in the UK. I'm dead against this and I think it's one of the things that has made YouTube so successful is a lack of these forced ads. I guess this trial will see some large scale feedback on the subject.
Personally I think the way forward is highly targeted ads, like facebook provides. The video that someone is watching can mean far better targeted ads, than I currently see on YouTube.

Read more:
http://www.marketingvox.com/youtube-pilots-pre-rolls-across-uk-network-content-044166/