We were very excited earlier this year when RWW made its way onto the latest edition of the Web Trend Map. For those of you unfamiliar with this map, it "plots the Internet's leading names and domains onto the Tokyo Metro map. Domains and personalities are carefully selected through dialogue with map enthusiasts, and every domain is evaluated based on traffic, revenue, and character". Information architecture company iA built this awesome visualization and we have learned that it is about to roll out an interactive version of its map later this month.

No further details were given at press time, but we did find another clue on the company's Flickr photostream; "July 14th is the launch day of the interactive Webtrendmap. I hope we can launch the new iA site at the same time...our website might look somewhat like this (WTM spoiler alert)":

You can already go to openzoom.org to find a zoomable version or go here to order a full-size printed version. Be sure to follow @iA on Twitter and check out the notebook on its blog for any breaking news updates about its visualizations.

This news tip was submitted by a RWW reader. If you discover any Web apps, Web technology trends, social media or social networking tips you think might be interesting for us to write about, please send them to us at tips@readwriteweb.com.

While Google has not confirmed this new search engine just yet, the company's search products chief Marissa Mayer hints that there may have been something like this in the works at Google for some time now: "...we are interested in being able to offer, for example, micro-blogging and micro-messaging in our search. Particularly in Blog Search and possibly in Web Search, but we don't have any particular plans to announce". The Google Operating System blog points to this description used in Google's localization service as further evidence that there is something going on. It is allegedly a phrase that Google wants translated to be multilingual:

"Recent updates about QUERY. This is the MicroBlogsearch Universal result group header text. A Microblog is a blog with very short entries. Twitter is the popular service associated with this format."

This is not proof-positive that Google is developing a microblogging search engine, but it makes sense that they would. Twitter and other microblogging platforms are rich with information could be used to rank messages. Reportedly the search results will appear based on frequently used keywords or current events, but a whole bunch of other factors could play a role in providing relevant results. The number of followers a person has, the author's authority in Twitter's social graph, replies, re-tweets, posting frequency and other stats could be used. We hope Google is paying attention to current microblogging trends and will include those results in any microblogging search engine it may or may not be working on.

This is all fine and dandy, but when it was discovered that it worked for porn site previews also, and that it could be easily accessed by kids, it caused quite a bit of concern among parents. Bing had noted on its blog how to use Smart Motion Previews in combination with its SafeSearch feature, but apparently it was still very easy for kids to view explicit adult content on its site. Yesterday Microsoft announced that it has made changes that will make it easier for parents to block and monitor what their kids are watching when they visit Bing.

"First, potentially explicit images and video content will now be coming from a separate single domain, explicit.bing.net. This is invisible to the end customer, but allows for filtering of that content by domain which makes it much easier for customers at all levels to block this content regardless of what the SafeSearch settings might be. This makes it much easier for filtering software to block unwanted content if SafeSearch has been turned off.

In addition, Bing will begin returning source url information in the query string for images and video content so that companies who already use this method of filtering will be able to catch explicit content on Bing along with everything else they are already blocking for their customers." An example of such a query string is:

http://ts2.explicit.bing.net/images/thumbnail.aspx?q=974382499649&id=12ae77a7fed979b0502840bedacd2552&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.explicitsite.com%2fexplicit-picturegoeshere.jpg

CNET News reports "the company has reached out to more than 25 filtering and security vendors to work with them to provide a solution for filtering explicit content while using Bing".

While there are parental controls built into Vista and Mac OS X and software like Safe Eyes to keep kids from viewing porn online, ultimately it is the responsibility of the parents to impose rules and guidelines and to monitor their internet usage. It's also good to have discussions about what you consider is appropriate behavior online and to keep up with the latest trends and technology.

Why not just use the RSS feed? According to the NYT, the API is better:

"Better than RSS, the Times Newswire API offers chronologically ordered cross-site results, including rich metadata. The response data fields include headlines, summaries, URLs, sections and subsections, bylines, date fields (created, updated, published), indexing terms, media and more. In the words of NYT developer Michael Donohoe, this truly is 'One Feed to Rule Them All.'"

Think about that for a second: every article the NYT publishes, instantaneously. And every one of those articles is coupled with structured data that makes it easy to mix and match with other data sources. That's pretty forward thinking for a publication that, not so long ago, was still blocking access to their content on the Web. And that's why we find this so compelling.

The potential opportunities for applying this information are mindboggling. It will be interesting to see how it's employed by the development community - and what the NYT has up its API sleeve next.

So how was the event received? In our estimation, it seems like another positive step forward for the NYT.

"The message is clear," wrote Times Open attendee Taylor Barstow. "The New York Times is, suddenly, a platform company."

He also offers:

"The New York Times recognizes the need for a news platform, and wants to fill that void. Their developers understand that Web 2.0 is about openness, and are committed to opening up The Times data to outsiders (whether or not the suits--and they do wear ridiculously nice suits--agree remains to be seen). They want to create a community of hackers around their APIs, and invite community feedback to drive future innovation. The Times executives should be supremely grateful for having employees with such vision at their organization."

Attendee Daniel Tunkelang sees promise in the Times Open strategy but still questions how far the NYT is willing to go:

"But there's a big catch: the New York Times is paranoid of diluting its brand equity by mixing up user contributions with their carefully vetted writing. As a result, all comments are moderated, and their aggregation of blogs linking to articles is a limited, proprietary system (Blogrunner). The New York Times wants to have its cake and eat it - all the benefits from users' active engagement without the costs of diluting their brand.

"I think their APIs make this possible, at least in theory."

But the big news coming out of the gathering - according to Allen Stern of CenterNetworks - is the release of a new API called TimesNewswire, which will "give developers access to live headlines. Attendee Kellan called this new API a New York Times firehose and noted, 'NewsWire API is the paper's stream of consciousness.'"

We definitely appreciate the direction that the NYT is taking. They seem genuinely dedicated to embracing openness and have created some momentum in that regard. We're especially looking forward to getting a chance to review the new API - which sounds like it may increase that momentum exponentially.

So where does the NYT get the motivation for all of this openness? For more on the thinking behind Times Open, watch the Yahoo Developer Network's interview with NYT's Derek Gottfrid, Senior Software Architect - the man behind the Times Open gathering. He offers some additional insight into the theory behind Times Open and hints at some of the development in the future - like how NYT will continue to leverage Hadoop.

Originally announced in May of last year, The NYTimes API selection continues to grow. The TimesPeople API joins other available APIs including Article Search, Best Sellers, Campaign Finance, Community, Congress, and Movie Reviews.

So What Does This Mean?

For The New York Times, this release marks a continued commitment to opening up data resources to the social Web, allowing developers to leverage NYTimes.com data to enhance their existing offerings - or to serve as the foundation for entirely new offerings.

Granted this news may not seem like much, especially to members of a community who see applications launching every day with open APIs. But for the traditionally sheltered and closed mainstream media, allowing readers access to full-text RSS feeds and publicly available user data tends to be a big deal.

Even if you're not excited about the traditional media becoming more open, it's still worth mentioning - if only for the fact that an entity like the NYT continuing to move in this direction lends additional credence to the vision for an open and social Web, as a whole.

Hopefully, more dead-tree publications will follow the Gray Lady's lead. If they do, we're all sure to win as creative developers find ways to mash data from disparate sources. (It doesn't take a huge intuitive leap to imagine the type of filtering availed by combining data from social bookmarking, social networks, and news APIs.)

This access to real data from real users is sure to give us a better understanding of what news is truly important - and what stories deserve placement on the front pages of the future.

As Andre Behrens points out in the announcement, the Times is trying to recreate the skimming experience of the physical newspaper, where you often discover random articles that you would probably never notice in the online version.

The layout of the new online application is somewhat similar to that of the Times Reader desktop application, but the team is also trying out some new features. Older articles, for example, gradually fade out as they get older. The newest articles just have a white background.

Overall, the app feels very fluid and lightweight, and the article skimmer provides a great interface for browsing the site's content. It is just a shame that you can't actually read the articles in the same interface.

The New York Times has done a lot of interesting things on the web lately, including opening up an API that allows developers to search the newspaper's articles.

The newspaper business is clearly struggling to reinvent itself on the web, and this experiment is only a small step in this direction - but it is experiments like this that make it clear that there is still a lot of life left in the online newspaper business.

Disclosure: ReadWriteWeb has an existing syndication arrangement with The New York Times

Today, the Harvard legal team representing Tenenbaum commented on the appeal pointing out that if the RIAA truly wants to educate people it should be embracing the narrowcast. The appeal really does beg the question: does the RIAA really want its voice heard by the masses?

Joel Tenenbaum, a 25-year old graduate student at Boston University received a notice in 2003 accusing him of downloading seven songs via a P2P service. The notice asked for a settlement of $3,500, Tenenbaum offered $500; the offer was declined.

Four years later, Tenenbaum received a complaint to appear in court. He filed an answer with a counterclaim asserting abuse of federal power and that the excessive damages were unconstitutional. This time around, Tenenbaum offered to settle for $5,000 and again the offer was declined; opposing council was asking for $10,500.

Now the RIAA wants over one million dollars.

The Joel Fights Back Dream Team

Enter Professor Charles Nesson and his team of Harvard Law students, who last month filed a motion asking the judge to allow audio-visual coverage of the trial proceedings over the Internet. Last week, Judge Gertner granted the motion (PDF) stating:

"In many ways, this case is about the so-called Internet Generation -- the generation that has grown up with computer technology in general, and the internet in particular, as commonplace." Additionally, Judge Gertner points out "It is reportedly a generation that does not read newspapers or watch the evening news, but gets its information largely, if not almost exclusively, over the internet."

Yesterday, Torrent Freak pointed out that the RIAA is appealing (PDF) the motion, pointing to a statement by RIAA's Cara Duckworth: "While this might be an interesting academic exercise for the professor and his class, there's been real world consequences for those who create music."

The point Ms. Duckworth seems to be missing is that there is a real world consequence for those who want to listen to music as well. We can only hope the appeal will be denied and the Harvard Dream Team gets the opportunity to bring this significant trial to the Web.

Why This is Important

The fines are hugely inappropriate. The Digital Theft Deterrence and Copyright Damages Improvement Act of 1999 sets damages of $750 to $30,000 for each infringement, and as much as $150,000 for a willful violation. The Act is old. Particularly when you look at it from the fast paced lane of the Web; change is clearly needed.

The RIAA managed to score some points last month when it announced it would no longer target individuals and instead work more closely with ISPs to identify alleged copyright infringers. Unfortunately they also mentioned they would continue with cases already underway, and the Tenenbaum case falls into that category.

If the Internet feed goes ahead, it will be provided by the Courtroom View Network and streamed on the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School where it is scheduled to go live on Thursday Jan. 22 at 2 pm ET.

At the end of the day, it appears the RIAA has confused itself. If it is serious in wanting to educate the public on the business and legal issues facing the music industry - and copyright in general - it must get in front of the public and speak up; it cannot hide behind bureaucracy any longer. Living in the Internet age we know it's time that organizations with such antiquated ideologies catch up; problem is - when will they work it out?

The report points out that the IRS doesn't always enforce strong password management, authorize user access, encrypt sensitive data, effectively monitor mainframe changes or physically protect its computer resources.

According to the report, the key reason for these weaknesses is that the IRS has not yet fully implemented an agencywide information security program; specifically, that the IRS does not review risks annually, test for controls, or always validate the effectiveness of corrective measures.

"Until IRS takes these steps, financial and taxpayer information is at increased risk of unauthorized disclosure, modification, or destruction, and the agency's management decisions may be based on unreliable or inaccurate financial information," the report said.

IRS Commissioner Douglas H. Shulman said the agency will continue working with GAO and will create an action plan to address each of the recommendations in the report.

Now, this may seem like a relatively insignificant step for people who live and breathe the Web every day. But for traditional media companies, this sharing of column inches with other publications is not only difficult, it's something they have feared (emphasis is mine):

"The days when content sites were afraid to link to other sites are over," said Marc Frons, chief technology officer for digital operations for The New York Times Company.

So it comes as little surprise that NYT is dipping its toe in the water rather cautiously. Rather than replacing the default front page, Times Extra will serve as an additional version of the NYT front page that users can activate by clicking a link. However, that version only remains active for 24 hours, at which point the user will have to activate the Times Extra front page, again.

Whatever the case, this is a step in the right direction. A small step, but a good step nonetheless. Hopefully, the next move to be open will involve NYT sharing the metrics about how many users opt to use Times Extra and - given the options - where they choose to go for their news.

Disclosure: ReadWriteWeb has an existing syndication arrangement with The New York Times

Calling it a 'social inter-networking' service, CEO Steve Vachani today explained: "Social is about people, not about place; we're making 'where' irrelevant."

What is Power?

Power is an interoperable platform that allows social network users to synchronize their profiles, content, messages and friends across various social sites. Right now, it works with Facebook, Hi5, MSN, MySpace and Orkut. LinkedIn is scheduled to appear before the end of the year, and Twitter, Flickr, Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, Skype as well as others should be part of Power's grid within the first few months of 2009.

According to Vachani, what Power is not trying to do is create one place online for people to send and receive updates, "we want people to continue using the sites they are currently using," said Vachani.

Additionally, Vachani explains that Power doesn't need the big websites to get together and agree to any commitment as the platform does not depend on their participation: "This independence contrasts with all previous efforts to bring social networks together, including Facebook Connect, Google Friend Connect, Microsoft Passport, OpenID and OpenSocial," Vachani said.

How does Power work?

Once you register your social networks, Power shows you all the content from your registered sites; friends, IMs, e-mails, photos, data. Your home page will have three Power modules; your profile, your messages and your friends list. The technology is dynamic, so once you're logged in everything is served to you in real time.

If you want to reply to any of your messages, you can do it from within Power, in what Vachani calls 'Power Communicator' and send it to Facebook, MSN, SMS, MySpace, Gmail - all of them if you wish, or you can do it via your 'Power Friends' list:

"Profile Syncing" allows you to change your profile within Power, and gives you the option of updating it across all of the social networks Power supports.

How Power got 5 million registered users so quickly

According to Power, messaging is a prime driver of its user base. Users communicate with their friends across sites, via email and IM using Power Messaging to send millions of inter-networked messages every day and each message has a link back to Power.

Additionally, Power users have added Power widgets, links, and watermarks to their social network profile pages, so when friends visit, they click to learn more.

Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro Brazil, Power.com is a privately held company with 70 people. This month, Power.com is opening new offices in San Francisco, California and Hyderabad, India. The company received an $8 million Series A investment led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and investors including Esther Dyson. The company expects to have over 30 million registered users by the end of 2009.

USB drives, as well as all removable storage devices, can run a program automatically on your machine based on the computer's configuration.

While Autorun is featured in Windows OS as a convenience, you do have the option of disabling it, particularly as an unfortunate side effect can be the loading and executing of programs on your PC without your knowledge.

Autorun and AutoPlay

There seems to be a little confusion about the differences between AutoPlay and Autorun so we've defined them here:

AutoPlay

AutoPlay is a Windows feature that lets you choose which program to use to start different kinds of media. You can change AutoPlay settings for each media type.

Autorun

Autorun is a technology used to start any program automatically when you insert various media into your computer. While different from AutoPlay, the result is typically the same: when inserted, a specific program on the external device runs automatically.

While you cannot modify the Autorun.inf file on the external device you plug into your machine, you can stop it from executing on your computer by modifying your registry.

To modify the registry setting, Microsoft has set up a page to help you determine which updates you will need, and then offers step by step instructions on how to disable Autorun. You can find it here.

Even though disabling of Autorun seems a relatively painless process, clearly it isn't enough to soothe the Defense Department or security experts.

Shachtman, in his Wired article asked Ryan Olson, director of rapid response for iDefense whether banning external devices was "a bit of over-kill," and received the answer "I don't know." Although, Olson did offer: "The USB ban should be effective in stopping the worm."

Perhaps the Defense Department should have taken its lead from what has been drummed into home computer users over the years; that is, use anti-virus software and keep your definitions up to date.

What do you think?

In much the same way, this time also reminds Mossberg of the mid to late nineties as we are once again observing a swell of Internet innovation; this one happening on the software front with widgets/Web apps and service in the cloud.

With so much information available on the Internet, and the instant gratification demanded by consumers today, the melding of these products is inevitable. Mossberg, who believes widgets will flourish on hand held computers, suggested that while the new class of mobile devices offer better browsing than their predecessors, it is in the apps that he sees competition, innovation and ideas fermenting. "We don't necessarily need to go through a browser," he said.

The problem of course is replicating data across devices in a smooth, cohesive manner to ensure that data available on the Internet is available on the handheld. And that's where service in the cloud comes in. While corporate America has enjoyed technologies such as BlackBerry Enterprise Server, Microsoft Exchange, and Lotus Notes that have enabled data to be replicated between devices [servers, desktops, laptops and handhelds], according to Mossberg, nobody has yet been "wildly successful" in bringing this technology to the wider consumer world via the cloud.

And so the race begins. While Mossberg has always claimed he is not responsible for business coverage of tech companies, the fact remains that for the past 17 years, the star of the Wall Street Journal has accurately assessed innovation within the consumer tech market. Given his insights this week, the only questions that remain are: who will bring cloud services to the masses, and will it happen during the econaclypse?

Read the transcript of Mossberg's keynote below.

Thank you.

The U.S. Voter Info site was developed in partnership with with several state and local election officials, the League of Women Voters, the Pew Charitable Trusts, and others involved in the Voting Information Project. In true Google form, the site appears to as just a simple interface that hides the complicated data processing going on in the back-end. All you have to do to use the new site is enter in your home address in the box provided and click "Search."

Google then returns a host of personal voter information about your location including the number of days left for absentee ballot requests, a link to your local government's page where you can request an absentee ballot form, as well as other links to local government sites providing registration forms and other relevant election info. (The types of links will vary some from state to state). There's even a phone number to your state's voter hotline provided.

On the right side of the screen, a Google map displays. There is a green pin in your neighborhood and a red pin where your voting location is found. Then, with one click, you can get directions from your house to the polling site. This is very convenient, but unfortunately, when plugging in my own address, Google was not able to locate my voting location. Hopefully, others will have better success. (Let us know!)

In addition to the web site itself, Google is offering a "where to vote" gadget that can be customized and added to any web site. More importantly, there's an API available which allows third-party developers access to this data.

We Could Have Used This Sooner!

The only major criticism we have is this: why did they have to wait until now until launching? We realize that there are still several days until the actual Election Day, but this information would have been great to have a bit earlier. Given that absentee ballot forms have deadlines prior to Election Day and many states have already started the early voting process, it's a shame this web site wasn't available sooner. However, now that the site is ready, we look forward to using it for many years to come.

The user interface isn't nearly as nice as leading tech blog memetracker Techmeme, but the new Blogsearch has some major advantages.

We're in shock that Google Blogsearch has actually updated. It's cleaner and less spammy than Technorati, it's more transparent than Yahoo Buzz, it's more inclusive than Six Apart's new Blogs.com and to the big question will be whether it's faster than Techmeme. (Techmeme caught this story far faster than the new Google Blogsearch!) That's our concern as a tech site. This has to be entirely new for bloggers who write about television, video games or business. Those sectors have got to be excited.

The science blogosphere has Postgenomic, which is so full featured it probably won't lose any traffic at all to Google Blogsearch Science.

A Techmeme Killer?

Even in tech, though we may love Techmeme - it's audience is more influential than it is large. The new Google Blogsearch has the potential to reach tens of millions of people and drive insane amounts of traffic.

Techmeme indexes a limited number of tech blogs, primarily blogs linked-to by other blogs that are already indexed. Google Blogsearch, on the other hand, indexes all blog posts faster than anyone else on the web.

Techmeme is a great site and founder Gabe Rivera works hard to update its machinery and functionality regularly. The same iteration strategy can't be assumed for the new Google Blogsearch, in fact it appears that the Google News algorithm has just been applied to blogs. All this may or may not be significant. Rivera offered no response when we contacted him asking for one.

We're excited about the new Google Blogsearch. What do you think? Can you imagine yourself visiting it now?