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In a smart policy (and public relations) move, Google has announced that they will allow providers of public Wi-Fi access points to opt out of providing location data to Google services.

Google uses public Wi-Fi data to pinpoint mobile users' location in concert with GPS and cell tower data, because no one method is perfectly reliable. The new policy comes in response to criticism and legal inquiries in Europe over Wi-Fi data collected by Google, particularly by its Street View cars. The opt-out will be available worldwide.

Think your smartphone is cool now? Wait till it gets RFID chips, then it'll truly be 'smart.' That's the promise of two emerging RFID-based mobile technologies called NFC and DASH7. We've already looked at NFC (Near Field Communication), which holds great promise as an enabler of mobile payments. Today we look at DASH7, a wireless sensor networking standard that complements NFC.

Both NFC and DASH7 may soon be a part of the mobile phone that you carry around everywhere - they'll enable mobile payments, building access, advanced location-based services, ticketing, and more. We spoke to Pat Burns, co-founder and president of the DASH7 Alliance, to find out what DASH7 can do.

One of the emerging trends of the Mobile Web is using your phone to interact with the real world. We're not just talking about 'checking in' to locations, either. There's a world of more practical functionality that hasn't yet ramped up in the West - using your phone as a payment device (for example mobile ticketing), getting special offers from retailers, downloading data from the Web via 'smart posters' on the street, and more.

A key technology driving some of these interactions is NFC, which was one of Gartner's 8 Mobile Technologies to Watch in 2010. It's a technology that you ought to become familiar with; whether you're a technologist, a marketer, or a consumer looking to make the best use of your smart phone (and aren't we all!). So in this post we give you an overview of what to expect from NFC.

During my career as a Web strategy consultant I've often had people ask me, "How do I do social media?" Unfortunately the answer isn't simple. But the first step is the same as if you developing any other marketing strategy: know your market. To "know your market" in the old days you needed a $15,000 qualitative market research study that would then need to be quantified for the likes of senior management. The customer research effort was time consuming and expensive.

Luckily the Web offers many ways to gather information on a topic and the conversation around that particular topic or product, in real-time. In fact we are spoiled, even overwhelmed, with free listening tools.

The Attention Economy is a marketplace where consumers agree to receive services in exchange for their attention. Examples include personalized news, personalized search, alerts and recommendations to buy. Note that the Attention Economy is different from the tradional meaning of an economy, because it isn't about buying and selling - although ultimately those things may occur.

News feeds illustrate the point well, since they ask for consumers attention in exchange for the opportunity to show them advertising. Search engines also show ads (asking for consumers attention) in exchange for helping users find answers online (a service provided for free in exchange for that attention).

One of the strongest, but least hyped, uses of web 2.0 technologies over the past couple of years has been e-learning.

We've covered this topic extensively on Read/WriteWeb - and so we're pleased to bring you this overview of e-learning 2.0, including the leading web apps and sites in this niche, and predictions for its future.

In August Steve O'Hear (now last100 editor) wrote an introduction to e-learning 2.0. He noted that teachers and students are embracing web technologies such as blogging and podcasting. Although not designed specifically for use in education, these tools are helping to make e-learning far more personal, social, and flexible.

Firefox is a browser that can be extended and enhanced in many ways - chief among those being Add-ons, which give you more functionality or perhaps just a new theme. In fact sometimes they give you a full-blown web app, like Yoono, BlogRovr or Trailfire. We've written about Firefox add-ons a number of times on Read/WriteWeb, so in this post we'll review some of the neat things you can do with Firefox add-ons.

Top 10 Firefox Web 2.0 Add-ons

Last August we gave you our top 10 Add-ons. Here were our picks then (minus Browster, which is no more), but we encourage you to leave a comment saying what your favorite add-ons are now.