Is There An Innate Virtual Morality?
Read this essay by Andrew Tuplin about morality in virtual worlds and try to keep your brain from tying itself in knots. New technology brings up (surprisingly) an age-old question: Is fantasizing, or playing out an immoral scenario, the same as (or as bad as) actually doing it?
Online Entertainment Applications Dominate Evening Hours
Internet users behavior is shifting as online entertainment-based applications such as gaming, video streaming, social networking and VoIP communications dominate peak evening hours between 6:00 and 11:00p.m., according to a report from network equipment company Sandvine.The report found these real-time, interactive applications increase up to 50 percent per subscriber during peak evening hours.
Experiments In Google Quality Scores
A lot has been made about quality scores for Google ads. Rated on a scale of 1 to 10 per keyword targeted, the quality score is the ultimate determinant of ad placement on the search results. As webmasters experiment, tips for how to achieve a perfect 10 are emerging in the forums.
Google Executives Bound For Obama Administration?
Google CEO Eric Schmidt, to no one’s surprise, officially endorsed Senator Barack Obama for President, a “natural evolution” from his current informal campaign advisor role. Though he says it’s a personal thing, and not an official Google endorsement, you’d be hard-pressed to find a Googler stumping for the other side.
MySpace, Imeem Announce Android Applications
Unlike the iPhone, Google’s Android operating system hasn’t seemed to burst onto the scene with ten marching bands in tow. The "little bit here, little bit there" approach looks to be working pretty well, however, as MySpace and Imeem have announced a couple of new applications.
Statistics of Blogging
Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere is being released this week, one segment each day.
Yahoo Sued By American Airlines
Poor Yahoo. As we all know, the company’s facing quite a few problems – a shrinking stock price, a skeptical Department of Justice, and so on – and now it’s been made the defendant in a trademark infringement case filed by American Airlines.
eBay To Implement Global Ban On Ivory Sales
eBay has announced it will institute a global ban on the sale of all types of ivory that will go into effect January 1, 2009.The move comes after an investigative report from the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) that found more than 70 percent of all endangered species products listed for sale on the Internet occur in the United States.
RSS Adoption Not Reaching The Levels It Should
RSS feeds are not catching on like some of us thought they would. New data from Forrester Research indicates that only the slim minority of consumers are using it, and furthermore, a great deal of those who don’t have no intention of doing so in the future. When Forrester asked if people currently use an RSS feed:
Microsoft Patents Live Audio Censoring
Microsoft filed a patent application several years ago for the censoring of real-time audio streams, and that patent has now been granted. In other words, Microsoft has patented live "bleeping". The patent abstract says: