ReadWriteWeb

If you haven't discovered Google Trends yet, you're missing out on some of the Web's most interesting data and information. At any point you can see what searches are trending on Google and can use this data to compare the popularity of trends over time with nifty graphs. It's fun to play around with - but wouldn't it be nice if someone spoon-fed you the popular trends, explaining them each week in a short-form video podcast format? Luckily this is precisely what Google will now be doing with a new weekly video series called Google Beat.

Welcome to the weekend, friends - and what a week it's been. Facebook announced a huge open-source code dump; Social Media Week kicked off in six cities around the world; and the tech world was constantly humming with news and opinions about the iPad.

Frankly, we're exhausted.

One topic that's been top-of-mind at RWW, though, week in and week out, has been location-aware apps and technologies. We're so excited about these kinds of technology that our next premium report is going to center around a lot of geo-based tech! More on that later. For now, fill up your iPod with these three podcasts on location-aware tech, and have a relaxing, informative weekend.

Once again, the weekend is upon us - time to unplug, unwind and relax!

But lest your brains turn to jelly during your time offline and away from work, load up your iPod with our weekly selection of podcasts sure to entertain and inform. The topic of this week's parade is augmented reality (AR), the technology used to add a layer of data and visualizations over the real world in which we live. Download these discussions of a hot new area of tech, and give them a listen at your leisure!

Welcome to the weekend, readers!

Your primary focus at this very moment might be your Friday night drink-ups, but we've got a new feature to help you maintain your mental clarity and conversational arsenal throughout the weekend - all while keeping you at a safe distance from your computer and allowing you to roam freely through the real world.

We're happy to present the Friday Podcast Parade! Load up your iPod with this curation of experts on audio, and give these chats a listen while walking your dogs, working out or running errands. You'll be smarter for it, we promise!

The ReadWriteWeb team will be live today for a 45-minute discussion about the year's best products and biggest trends.

You can listen to the show at noon today on Blog Talk Radio. We will post the recording after the live event.

Show Details:

RWW Live Special: 2009 Year in Review

Time: Noon PST, (GMT -8)

Link: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/readwriteweb

A group of podcasters in Portland, Oregon have teamed up with internet friends around the world to create a new type of charity fundraiser, a live streaming telethon. Called 30 Hour Day, the event begins this evening. It will use streaming media services to deliver the content, the Causes Facebook application to collect donations, and Twitter to spread the word.

30 consecutive hours of music, variety acts, podcasts and other entertainment will raise money for local charity organizations. Will it work? Portland has a deep community of geeks and connections all around the web, so perhaps this group will be able to keep people entertained around the clock.

Google Labs just launched Listen - an "audio magazine" that allows Android users to subscribe to programs and search terms to queue up their podcasts for easy listening. While Listen only offers English audio podcasts for now, the company plans on expanding to index video and content in other languages in the coming months. The product allows you to keep a couple hours of audio on your phone for your daily commute, lets you share podcasts with friends, and helps you find the latest updates for breaking news stories.