Google Street Maps is HOT
So imagine for some reason that you wanted to know if tourists really rode horse-drawn “carriages” through central park. Google Maps with a new Street View option lets you do just that, and even hyperlink it:
I was wondering when the footage of the streets was taken, so I decided to look for signs in Times Square. I found a tickertape that read Aaron Carter Breaks Off…, a piece of news that came out on 9/25/2006, or almost exactly 9 months ago. Their data supplier is quite old!
TechCrunch reports that Immersive Media is Google’s provider, while BoingBoing hilights privacy concerns, some of which are real. For example, would you want a truck taking pictures of you while sunbathing?
Perhaps, perhaps not. When these photos become high-resolution, and closer to real time, with a viewable history, then the privacy angle will become more important. Here’s a page on Immersive Media and their weird, but cool, 360 cameras. They claim to have “40,000 miles of storefront images for 25 cities.”
Facebook F8 Applications: The Best Part
So, we know that Facebook launched a generic application platform that modularizes what users can do on Facebook, basically taking the idea that “everything is widget,” even Facebook core features, and lets users mix and match them to create their own profile pages. Companies like Amazon, Feedburner, Forbes, Hot or not, Microsoft, Photobucket, Twitter,Warner bros records, and the Washington Post have signed on to develop Facebook applications, according to Mashable.
But none of this matters to users. What matters can be described better with a picture than with words:
What matters is that we users can now put content where we want it. This is the first step. Facebook has to be eying Virb and Myspace’s level of customization, and making plans to copy their features. Once they introduce tasteful styling options for your profile page, they’ll have exceed every other social networking website in ease of use, customization, features, and uniform look. Facebook Applications is a great way to offload the work of adding new features–why add a feature when there are people out there who can do it for you? Now it’s all about the platform and API.
You can read more about what this means for Facebook’s long term vision at Techcrunch’s They are the Anti-MySpace.
Lolpresidents, The Best Of
This fark thread called You can has contest: LOLPRESIDENT!!!1 has some pretty funny lolcat interpretations of America’s greatest. Here are some highlights, mostly not offensive, but there’s definitely some dark, internet humour here:
“They see me rollin, they hatin”
“I has a presidency … NOoo dey be stealin mah presidency”
“BOOM!!1 HEADSHOT!!1″
“Im crossin the delawarez to kill ur doods”
“Do not want”
“I can has a cheeseburger?”
“It’s a trap”
“Hey painter wtf, come back and finish lol”
“Oh hai, I invented ur interwebs”