Does that strike anyone else as slightly ludicrous? Creating A Space seems to me to just like dangling a nice, plump piece of meat over a pool of ravenous gators. Says Michael Wertheimer, assistant deputy director of national intelligence for analysis:

“It’s a place where not only spies can meet but share data they’ve never been able to share before,” Wertheimer said. “This is going to give them for the first time a chance to think out loud, think in public amongst their peers, under the protection of an A Space umbrella…One perfect example is if Osama bin Laden comes out with a new video. How is that video obtained? Where are the very sensitive secret sources we may have to put into a context that’s not apparent to the rest of the world?”

Ok. Its not that I wonder about the efficacy of such a system; I think it probably would solve much of the interdepartmental angst and hoarding that seems to characterize certain arms  of the intelligence sector.

Its that I wonder why they would ANNOUNCE it to the world if its going to contain highly-classified government secrets, even if they host it on some kind of internal network.

There could be other explanations as well.

It could be one huge, elaborate hoax. I’m not generally a conspiracy theorist myself, but this idea is so OBVIOUSLY whacked that I can’t help but wonder.

Or maybe its a honeypot, meant to lure unsuspecting individuals and catch them in the act of hacking it or otherwise trying to sabotage it.

I’m sure there are myriad other theories too, I’m just trying to think of something, anything, that makes logical sense to me in the wake of this announcement. Sure, its amusing, until you think about the possible ramifications. 

CNN’s situation room will be talking about it at 5PM PST here. If you’re interested.

What do you think about all this?

Chrome is a welcome addition and great to play around with. Its so fast and I love the privacy options. I would reccomend reading/watching a tutorial before you actually use it because there’s a lot to learn that’s not obviously available. 

So lets take a brief look at some of the benefits behind the scenes:

More Secure (allegedly) because of its “Sandbox” architecture: 

The “Sandbox” is built on a multithreaded,  multiprocess architecture which prevents one tab from crashing another and provides improved protection from malware and other bad sites.

Chrome is open source:

It uses the open-source WebKit project (which Safari is built on) to render Web pages in the browser; most importantly is the shiny new V8, Google’s open source JavaScript engine.  

Faster JavaScript:

This means that applications can be faster, but also that programmers can push the Web application limits farther. More code can be included in the browser which will allow it to open up tons of options for Web app developers. Pichai, a Google vice president of product management, was salivating over the possibilities.

As for usability, its got a number of features that are quite handy:

Tabs:

Tabs are the primary component of Chrome’s user interface. Tabs and everything within them can be   seamlessly dragged between the different windows . Each tab has its own set of controls, including the Omnibox URL box.

Tab Pages:

Chrome replaces the normal browser homepage, which is displayed when a new tab is created with a New Tab Page. This shows thumbnails of the nine most visited web sites along with the sites most often searched, recent bookmarks and recently closed tabs. 

The Omnibox:

The URL box on the top of each tab is called the “Omnibox” and offers several advanced features, including an autocomplete option. However, the option doesn’t autocomplete for teh user, they have to choose it manually. This is a good thing because users can choose whether they want to choose Google’s suggestion or not. The autocomplete feature works with URL’s and searches.

Web Apps:

Web Apps can be launched in their own streamlined window without the Omnibox URL box and browser toolbar. This makes the whole process easier and less resource intensiove, allowing web applications to run simultaneously with local software a la Adobe AIR.

Incognito Mode:

Chrome offers the option of setting your browser tab to “Incognito” mode, where users can surf the web without leaving a record of sites visited on the user’s computer. 

Relies heavily on user browsing history:

This has been added as a plus and a negative, as some people find it really handy to have personalized browsing and others find it inconvenient.

Keep in mind that, unless specifically set to Incognito mode, Chrome records Web sites visited, recently closed tabs, recently saved Web pages, and frequently used search engines. This is how it creates the “New Tab.”

Now for the negatives:

Web Standards are rocky:

The first release of Google Chrome Beta does not pass the Acid3 test (checks how well a web browser follows certain web standards, esp for DOM and JavaScript). 

Its behind as far as apps are concerned:

Obviously its brand new, so this will be remedied with time, but until it is, Chrome doesn’t really have a  chance of stealing the market share for browsers, especially since other browsers are consistently upgrading as well.

Not enough features to inspire the average user:

I don’t think average users will be moving to Chrome any time soon. Better, faster browsing and great features like a user-friendly interface, better security, privacy, and search are wonderful components, but it remains to be seen how many people will  take the trouble of downloading and installing a new browser, let alone learning how to use it.

Overall, I think it has a lot of potential, but time will tell how well it does. It will be more intuitive for those who use Safari on a daily basis. In the meantime, I’ll use it for relaxed browsing and research, but for the really heavy lifting, I’ll stick with my totally customized FF.

Relies heavily on user browsing history:

This has been added as a plus and a negative, as some people find it really handy to have personalized browsing and others find it inconvenient.

Keep in mind that, unless specifically set to Incognito mode, Chrome records Web sites visited, recently closed tabs, recently saved Web pages, and frequently used search engines. This is how it creates the “New Tab.”

No way to manage bookmarks, no option for emailing links and pages right from the browser and various other minor tweaks that will be corrected with later versions of Chrome.

The All Things Digital blog was one of the first to pick up on Google’s official announcement; apparently earlier today, Swisher was informed by various sources that the browser was going to be launched tomorrow. And it doesn’t appear to be a joke; Google announced it at around 2pm today. They said they sent an “early” email out with a comic centered on the new browser.

Apparently the new browser is designed to handle complex web applications more easily, which they hope will challenge existing browsers.

“As you may have read in the blogosphere, we hit “send” a bit early on a comic book introducing our new open source browser, Google Chrome. As we believe in access to information for everyone, we’ve now made the comic publicly available — you can find it here. We will be launching the beta version of Google Chrome tomorrow in more than 100 countries.

So why are we launching Google Chrome? Because we believe we can add value for users and, at the same time, help drive innovation on the web.”

The version is still in beta so we’ll see where it takes us, but overall an exciting new development from Google. Chrome’s creators built it on the open-source rendering engine Webkit. This ensures it will use memory efficiently, adapt well to embedded devices and make it easier for the code to work like its supposed to. Chrome is open-source and Google is encouraging people to share and develop ideas off of it.

How well will it work? How does it compare with IE, Firefox or Safari? Are there any bugs? What’s the user experience like? We’ll answer these questions and review it in-depth tomorrow after we’ve downloaded the browser. For now, we can’t wait to try it out. How about you?

“I’ve just agreed to write a movie for Sony and producer Scott Rudin about how Facebook was invented. I figured a good first step in my preparation would be finding out what Facebook is, so I’ve started this page.”

Uh huh.

And:

“I figured a good first step in my preparation would be finding out what Facebook is, so I’ve started this page. (Actually it was started by my researcher, Ian Reichbach, because my grandmother has more Internet savvy than I do and she’s been dead for 33 years.)”

D’oh!

I mean really. Facebook?!?!

Facebook is awesome, but a Facebook movie? Come on now. Its not worth a movie. There’s plenty of stuff out there already about Facebook if you want to know how it was founded (!).

Is there really a story to tell beyond the boy creates amazingly ingenious social network from his dorm and it grows to be one of the most popular and powerful social communities on the web, used by politicians, celebrities, normal people, activists and everyone in between. I mean, sure there’s the conspiracy theories (links to gov agencies and etc.) but still. There are way cooler things to create than a Facebook movie.

I’m 100% with Mashable writer Stan Shroeder:

“Sorkin himself sounds really enthusiastic and full of ideas about the project. “I honestly don’t know how this works, which is why I’m here,” he said. And if you did, Aaron, you wouldn’t be making a movie about it.”

Yeah.

Its fun seeing the numbers next to the results; I think this feature will be rather handy for those of us interested in keyword relevancy and results. Generally it looks like Google suggests the most popular results for a given query with numbers of searches for each one. Makes a nice information shortcut if you’re crunching time or want to get a general idea of how popular a keyword is.

Granted, the moment I saw the feature, I thought about it more in terms of helpful keyword research than user convenience, which I think anyone in the SEO/SEM/SMM field will be prone to do.

However, I’m not sure how useful the feature actually is for the average user. Ask has had a similar feature for several years now, and Yahoo has its own search assist in place, and neither has seen much growth from it (check out comscore.com for the numbers).

According to Google product manager Jennifer Liu:

” Back when I was planning my wedding, I had a list of wedding songs in mind, but the problem was that I couldn’t remember any of the artist names or song titles. So I started typing into the Google search box parts of the lyrics that I did remember — and like magic, I saw suggestions with the artist name and song titles that I wanted! (I was opted-in to the keyword suggestions Google Labs experiment at the time). At that moment, I was so proud to be working on Google Suggest, a search feature that provides real-time suggestions while you search. “

While I can see where this would be helpful, I don’t think its going to make a huge difference in the way most users search. I think this helps people, but it doesn’t fully address the problem of giving users truly relevant results. I did some searching of my own with random words, but several times I didn’t find what I was looking for in the suggested terms list.

So it remains to be seen how useful this feature will truly be, but we’ll find out soon enough. For now, I’m still intrigued by its quick and dirty keyword research opportunities.

Note: it only works on the “classic home” theme, not iGoogle or the Firefox/IE search bar.

Sound familiar?

BusinessWeek’s G. Michael Maddock and Raphael Louis Vitón wrote a great article “Social Media Exposes the Coporate Psycopath.” The article focuses on how Social Networking can help companies whose reputation may not be that great or who are just looking to get out of the “corporate America is evil” stereotype. I’d like to touch on that topic myself.

Social Media Marketing is about building, branding and engaging - its a new type of marketing that seeks to build trust, cultivate communication between itself and potential clients and brand itself as a truly customer-centered company. Its a long-term strategy that is focused on building and promoting a company and is highly effective for combating both a dismal reputation and a perceived anti-social mindset.

Its also VERY handy for reputation management.

People are emotional, and when a company does something they don’t like, its reflected in their attitude towards the company, even if the company had very good reasons for its actions from a logic and business point-of-view.

The great thing about Social Media is it can rectify that distance between corporate America and consumers; through something like Social Media you could explain your actions and allow your customers to see more from your point of view. It brings companies closer to the people for whom they exists and creates a sense of community and relationship that’s often missing from big company interactions with the general public.

Now its more possible than ever to really interact with people and show them what you’re all about and why you exist. Another added benefit of Social Media Marketing is that you can create a community that’s not only buying your widgets or services, but helping you develop new ones based on test marketing groups and popular interest. The opportunities are endless for a forward-thinking company with some creativity.

Corporate America has to adapt to the changes going on around them. With wikis, blogs, myriad online communities, podcasts, video networks, microblogging and everything in between, its growing increasingly harder not to be a part of the social web. If you don’t innovate, you will be left behind. Consumers will increasingly turn to companies more “with it;” those who care about generating relationships, being open about their business and generally cultivating the respect and patronage of the people with whom they’re interacting.

I love the concept, especially since its heavy on video. Its easy to use, content rich and the concept is good. Its still very new so we’ll see where it goes, but its worth checking out, especially if you’re a small or medium0sized business.

The network is open to anyone and registration is free. It is primarily geared towards three sets of users: Entrepreneurs, Investors and Service Providers.

Entrepreneurs - find funding for your company, get valuable advice and research great business opportunities while networking with the community.

Investors - Check out the pool of potential via new media. You can review, discuss and find potential investment opportunities and receive alerts when new companies that match your interests are added to the site. The video-based pitches on the site are unique and intriguing and no-pressure way to listen to pitches at your leisure.

Here’s some screenshots from a couple minutes ago:

Gatlin’s article got me thinking about where people could find this type of information if they need it, so I’ve compiled a list of the top 20 sites who offer free full books/texts/journals.

The way the world deals with information has undergone rigorous changes, even since I was in college four years ago, but textbook prices haven’t changed much in that time, except grown more expensive. Part if this is in reaction to the increasing number of students who are going online for open-source texts, to places like Project Gutenberg and various others. For more info on open-source access, see the Oak Law Project .

Keep in mind, most of these sites are Western-centric, but there are equivalents for many nations across the board. I’ve checked out each and every one on the list, and from what I can see and what I’ve used, they are all great resources. Please feel free to add to the list in the comments.

Digital Library - By Rodolfo Clix

All the sites listed are comprised mainly of public domain books (pretty much any book published pre-1925 or so) or books with expired copyrights. Each site lays out the specifics so you can read more about their methods.

The fact that people are using Social Media to promote this trend of open access publishing by creating groups, interacting with eachother, developing course books for classes together, torrenting them and much more is impressive, but it still remains limited to select groups of students and teachers.

Here are some of the top general digital library resources, please click here for topic-specific open-access sites.

ibiblio - A digital library and archive project, ibiblio hosts a diverse range of publicly available information, including open-source software, music, literature, art, history, science, politics, and cultural studies.

Project Gutenberg -The oldest digital library online, PGB offers full texts of public domain books. Project Gutenberg claims over 25,000 items in its collection, with an average of over fifty new e-books being added each week. These are primarily works of literature from the Western cultural tradition. In addition to literature such as novels, poetry, short stories and drama, Project Gutenberg also has cookbooks, reference works and issues of periodicals. The Project Gutenberg collection also has a few non-text items such as audio files and music notation files (affiliates include Project Gutenberg Australia , Project Gutenberg of the Philippines , Project Gutenberg Europe , Project Gutenberg Luxembourg , Project Gutenberg Canada and PG-EU).

The Internet Archive - A nonprofit organization dedicated to maintaining an on-line library and archive of Web and multimedia resources. This archive includes archived copies of pages from the WWW, taken at various points in time, software, movies, books, and audio recordings.

World Digital Library - The World Digital Library is a project of the Library of Congress that makes significant primary materials from cultures around the world, including manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, architectural drawings, and other significant cultural materials available for free.

Google Book Search - Google Book Search is a tool developed by Google to help users search full texts of books it scans. While a lot of the books only let you view a limited number of pages due to copyright issues, there are lots more that offer the entire work. Also, even if you just view 95 pages of a book, for example, you may find the information or source you need. Google Book Search allows public-domain works and other out-of-copyright material to be downloaded in PDF format.

PubMed Central, Public Library of Science , and BioMed Central - Compendiums, archives and digital libraries of open-access journals in the biomedical and life science fields.

LibriVox - LibriVox has become one of the most prolific audiobook publishers in the world, producing 60-70 books a month. About 1,800 volunteers have contributed audio recordings to the project. Its catalog includes classics like Pride and Prejudice, Moby-Dick, The Bible, Darwin’s Origin of the Species, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, Marx’s Communist Manifesto and many other well-known, and lesser-known works.

The Rare Book Room - This site is a little more obscure than the others, but definitely worth a mention. It offers collections of rare books, including texts like most of the Shakespeare Quartos, a first edition of Shakespeare’s Sonnets and a first edition of Shakespeare’s Poems, a number of original issues of Poor Richard’s Almanc, Franklin’s Experiments and Observations on Electricity, Redoute’s art, Books of Hours, works by Galileo and Copernicus, including De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium and much, much more.

The Universal Digital Library - This project has digitized over a million books so far. Working with government and research partners in India and China, the project is scanning books in many languages, using OCR to enable full text searching, and providing free-to-read access to the books on the web.

Wikis - Wikibooks and Wikisource are open content textbook collections and free content publications and are part of the Wikipedia Foundation.

The European Library - An Internet service that offers access to the resources of 47 European national libraries, from Belgium, Germany and Helsinki to Croatia, Estonia, France Britain and Cyprus, to name a few. The resources, both digital and non-digital, include books, magazines, journals, audio recordings and other material.

Online Books Page - An index of e-text books available on the Internet. It is edited by John Mark Ockerbloom and is hosted by the library of the University of Pennsylvania. The Online Books Page lists over 30,000 books, and has several features, such as A Celebration of Women Writers and Banned Books Online.

Internet Public Library - A non-profit internet library that includes a KidSpace, TeenSpace, Reading Room and Special Collections. Volunteer librarians and graduate students in library and information science form collections and answer questions. It is a great place to search for answers, find resources for research or ask a question that will be answered by an IPL librarian.

There’s lots of DIY guides, but Social Media is a huge time commitment, and I can’t stress this enough. Even if you do a minimum of, say, five hours a week, think about the fact that there are companies who hire individuals and even teams of people to take on their Social Media Marketing campaigns.

They hire people with their fingers in the game, so to speak. If you’re brand new, there is going to be a learning curve, especially if you’re not comfortable with the internet. Even if you are comfortable, maybe you’re not a particularly social person, maybe you have so much to do you couldn’t possibly do it yourself or any number of other reasons its worth investing in someone to help you out. Even if its just hiring a consultant for a few hours to help you outline a plan, bringing in an expert is never a waste.

Granted I’m biased, but the same goes for any job. My time is valuable, so I’m not going to waste it trying to install a satellite dish, for example, which will probably take me forever. Instead I’ll hire someone to do if for me and do a good, professional job in less than half the time it would have taken me.

Just some food for thought.