When Will the Google Madness Stop?!?!

Google Search....Gmail....iGoogle....Google Earth....Google Toolbar....Google Talk....Google Docs....YouTube....Lively....the list goes on and on and on and, well, you get the picture. And now, Google offers Google Walking Maps. These are essentially walking directions on the already existent Google Maps. You will get step-by-step directions for the section of your trip you wish to take on foot. The map will also point out public transit in the area. There are a few kinks that have yet to be ironed out, so this initial release is considered a "beta". For instance, the maps do not show whether or not a sidewalk is available. "Pedestrian Pathways" are also not as easily and readily documented and, therefore, are not all indicated on the maps.

Ask.com previously offered walking direction services but has recently suspended this service. No other competitors (e.g., Yahoo and Microsoft) provide walking maps. Once again, Google strikes early while the iron is hot.

Going Virtually Global.... 3D

Since Google Earth came to being, it has grown to include things such as panoramic photos, Wikipedia factoid pop-ups, virtual travel itineraries, 3D renderings and all kinds of other geographic Easter eggs. But how do you find all of these things? If you are already a gamer, then you have no problem swooshing around Google Earth with your mouse and keyboard to find all of the hidden treasures that abound. For those that find themselves a bit more technologically challenged in this arena, there is a nifty new little gadget out there called the SpaceNavigator to assist you. The SpaceNavigator is not a mouse or a joystick. Want to go a little further? Download the plugin for SpaceNavigator that allows you see real time flight traffic for many airports. It even has hourly photos of planes that are in the air (with a U.S. arrival or departure). Downside.... it's just a viewer - you can't edit anything - and it isn't yet compatible with Macs. But for all of you PC users out there, it sounds like a fun new toy to play with for only $60.

Political Social Networking

The Obama presidential campaign has been utilizing the technology of social networking on its website to capture the interests and opinions of America's Millenium Generation voters. MyBarackObama is a networking forum where members may join interest groups, post messages, write blogs, etc. It was initially created for Obama supporters to meet in a virtual location and share their views. But what happens when those who oppose Obama decide to crash the party? This is what we're finding out through the networking group on MyBarackObama specifically formed to get Sen. Obama to oppose the FISA bill he endorsed in June. 24 hours after the group was formed, membership was at 500. Today, the group boasts over 16,000 members and is growing by the hour. So Sen. Obama may find himself in a catch 22. His campaign created this tool to give the people the ability to take an active part in the creation of their presidential candidate and his platform. Now it appears to have come up and bitten him from behind.

You're Fired

Image via PhysicsWorld.com

Pluto has dropped further down the astonomy food chain. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has decided that Pluto, along with other dwarf planets in the solar system, will now be classified as "plutoids". To be a "plutoid", a dwarf planet must also be orbiting at a greater distance than Neptune. Some critics believe that the new reclassification is not robust enough. Alan Stern, lead investigator for NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto, has already mocked the new "plutoid" definition. The president of the IAU does not believe there will be a big reaction, overall, within the astronomy community to the reclassification, however.

Annoyed with XML

Advancements in technology are fantastic, don't get me wrong. But it's always annoying when some things advance faster than others. I've been messing around with widgets and trying to add one or two to my blog. I keep running in to snags, however, because the widget code is not set up to automatically cut and paste in to the xml schema of my blog. I try to go through and fix it, but it's been so long since I've done any web coding in any detail that it's just not happening. So at 8:40 on Friday evening, I think it's time to call it quits and try again tomorrow. Maybe someone much smarter than me can give me some pointers in class tomorrow.

Wired Wednesday

Going political. Clinton supporters are all fired up and getting online.... for McCain. Some are even so angry and anti-Obama that they've launched a pro-McCain website. This website was launched by the founding member of the "Hillary Clinton Supporters of John McCain" group, who incidentally happens to be a 63-year-old rancher from my tiny little hometown in Texas. He is quoted in a blog on Wired.com as saying "We have doctors, lawyers, CPAs, the blue bloods, and then we have rednecks like me. It's a very diversified organization." The group claims 5,000 supporters so far, with over 37,000 hits to the website. Former Clinton White House special counsel Lanny Davis sent out an online petition on the Web Tuesday night calling for Obama to choose Hillary Clinton as his running mate. This has not gone over very well amongst avid Clinton supporters, however.

Wikipedia Meets Google

Well, sort of. It's called Wikia Search. The idea is to take a basic search engine and apply the Wikipedia community model to it. The product is search results that can be edited, deleted, re-ordered, added to, rated, annotated, and commented on. The re-released site uses an Ajax interface that allows users to drag results up and down the page, as well as edit the title or description of a result using an edit-in-place feature. Wikia Search is not as robust as search engines such as Google or Yahoo! with an index of only 30 million pages. The community-driven aspects also open Wikia Search up to spam and abuse. There is promise for Wikia Search, however, with the involvement of Wikipedia's founders and Jabber creator Jeremie Miller.