Web 3.0 Technology.com » Web 2.0

Staying Sane With Web Escapes

Janet Kornblum — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 12:00:00 +0000

When the reality of the world gets to be too much for Jana Ogletree, a waitress from Elgin, Idaho, she turns to — puppies. Six puppies, to be precise — romping, rolling, sleeping, yelping and playing. Ogletree doesn’t own the six furry shiba inu puppies. And she has never touched them. Instead, the puppies are being raised by an anonymous couple in San Francisco, and Ogletree — along with about 4 million others around the world — watches them live, online via video feed on Ustream.tv three to four times a day.

Online Suicide Watchers - Connected but Detached

Erika Morphy — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:32:07 +0000

Last Wednesday, a troubled teenager went home, logged onto the Internet, and discussed his unhappiness with strangers at a discussion board he liked to frequent. He wanted to kill himself, he said. And then Abraham Biggs Jr. did just that — on live videocam. The camera stopped running approximately 12 hours later when the police came to the door. Biggs had told viewers what he was going to do. Some reportedly urged him on. Some discussed among themselves whether the dosage of pills he was taking was enough.

Online Suicide Watchers - Connected but Detached

Erika Morphy — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:32:07 +0000

Internet Echo Chamber Drowns Out Real Campaign Issues

Renay San Miguel — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:30:00 +0000

This column is dedicated to the intersection of technology and traditional news media. With less than a week to go before America elects a new president, that intersection is looking more and more like the scene of a multi-vehicle pileup. The victims: democracy, the average voter, my patience. For me, the most telling collision of the past few weeks — the one that serves as the best example of the old vs. new media/bias vs. objectivity paradigm that’s now all the rage — was the Oct. 23 WFTV-Orlando satellite interview with Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden.

Social Disease Networking Lets People Own Up Anonymously

Erika Morphy — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 15:42:01 +0000

In an era when people routinely deliver life-changing news via text and e-mail — “I want a divorce,” “I’m pregnant,” “You’re fired” — it is perhaps inevitable that a service offering to automate and anonymize a personal, painful message is gaining traction. inSpot, a peer-to-peer, Web-based system, allows people to send free e-cards to sexual partners informing them that they have been exposed to a sexually transmitted disease. The site allows people to send the cards — up to six at one time — anonymously if they choose.

iGoogle Limbers Up With New Flexibility Features

Chris Maxcer — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 18:48:12 +0000

Google has rolled out a new, bigger viewing feature to its iGoogle custom home page builder app. iGoogle basically lets users select and move little gadgets — which are miniature, modular applications that provide news feeds, comics, Gmail access, games, weather, movie listings, etc. — anywhere they want on their iGoogle home pages. The new feature is called “canvas view,” and users to take an application from a simple list or snippet to an entire page.

GoDaddy Gets Smart and Social

Chris Crum — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 01:00:26 +0000

GoDaddy has released as service called SmartSpace, which it claims will make creating web sites - complete with blogs, chat rooms, email addresses, photo galleries, and video showcases - easy for people that are not the least bit "tech savvy."

StumbleUpon May Become Bigger Player

Chris Crum — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 13:52:32 +0000

StumbleUpon announced today that it will be rolling out a new design to make the service more accessible to new users. The biggest drawback has always been the fact that users had to install a toolbar to use the service, but with this new design, the need to do so has been eliminated.

Youth and the Web: The Political Campaign Game-Changer

Seth Lieberman — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 11:00:00 +0000

It’s hard to dismiss the role of the Internet in this year’s elections. Both political parties are using online strategies to an extent never seen before in a political campaign. From daily candidate blogs with updates on issues, to made-for-YouTube commercials, to the use of technologies such as SMS to announce vice presidential selections, to — perhaps most discussed — the use of online tools for fundraising, the Internet has become a dominant force in this election.

In a Digital World, Lies Are Just a Click Away

Harry Lewis — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 11:00:00 +0000

Will the interactivity of the media, the atomization of knowledge and the premium on rapid response result in a collective loss of wisdom, judgment and perspective? Opinions differ. If he wins, Barack Obama is going to be sworn in on a Koran instead of the Bible. Trig isn’t Sarah Palin’s baby, it’s her daughter Bristol’s. Obama refuses to say the Pledge of Allegiance. Here’s the list of books Palin wanted to ban from the library … All these claims — none of them true — turned up in the e-mail inboxes of millions of Americans this summer.