ReadWriteWeb

Google today announced the release of a new API for graphing social net connections on the web at large. The Social Graph API is a way for developers of social applications to let users easily find data on their social connections across the open web. The information the API returns can be useful in helping users locate and add their friends when starting up at a new social application.

Presuming you've seen the news that Microsoft has moved to buy Yahoo! for $44 billion, the next logical question to ask concerns what this means for users and lovers of technology.

If its business analysis you're looking for, go read Paul Kedrosky. Here at ReadWriteWeb we focus more on the cultural impact of innovation in technology. On that front, I think this acquisition could be very good news.

Yesterday MobileMonday announced the 25 nominees for its Barcelona Peer Award. The selection of the winning mobile startup will take place during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain in ten days on February 11, 2008. The nominees for the award represent early stage and emerging start-up companies from 25 different world cities. We're reprinting the list here because some really cool, mostly unknown startups have been nominated and given how big we think the mobile web will be this year, any one of these companies could make a huge splash in 2008.

In a recent interview with VentureBeat, Marissa Mayer, Google's VP of Search Products & User Experience, spoke of Google's interest in social search and their future plans in that area. Social search, which may be the defining quality of Google's next generation of search products, is any search that is aided by a social interactions or connections. Offline, social search happens everyday. For example, when you ask a friend for a recommendation on a movie to see or a good restaurant, you're essentially doing a verbal social search. Online, social search has not been incorporated in Google's search results yet, but Mayer says that will change in time.