On Google Sky

Not that long ago, I posted on Google Streetview.

Yesterday, thanks to the folks at LifeHacker, I started checking out Google Sky. Basically, you can get the same satellite views you're treated to in Google's Earth application. Skywatchers and astronomy geeks rejoice.

I'm also partial to Google Moon, which allows you some fun facts on the various Apollo missions in addition to letting you check out all the moon's nooks and crannies. It's a nice little distraction.

Embedded Google promo video below. Yo.

On Web 2.0

On iTunes - "I'm On Fire" - Bruce Springsteen

I've been doing a lot of reading lately on Web 2.0. The reading led me to thinking about the wealth of information available on the Internet, how the changes that have occurred in the last five years have affected our privacy, how we communicate and how we interact with our world. I wrote about it in my Web World column today. I've posted it below.

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One of the qualities of the Internet I am most fond of is access to research and shared content. There is never a shortage of weird news or items that intrigue me.

For instance, did you know that Lipstick kills?

Research done on manual dishwashing performed at The Ohio State University found that food left on dishes after washing harbors bacteria, but lipstick can have "antimicrobial" properties.

Other research that has really been intriguing me lately is that done by Michael Wesch, associate professor of cultural anthropology at Kansas State University. Wesch studies media and produced this little beauty and posted it on YouTube.

The video shows us the evolution of the Internet, the evolution of HTML and the Web to the mysterious Web 2.0. And if you still don't know what Web 2.0 is, the short answer is that you are Web 2.0 because you are the editor, organizer and gatekeeper. It's a fascinating concept, but really makes you think about privacy, sharing and the shrinking world.

If you're looking for more of a theoretical analysis of what Web 2.0 might mean to media outlets as we know them, I highly recommend Epic 2015, an interesting mockumentary about the merging of Google and Amazon. It details the rise of Google and predicts what might happen in 2015, a year where the press doesn't exist. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem all that far off to me.

Can the press exist with Web 2.0.? We can now all broadcast our own thoughts via podcast, publish through blogging, share through RSS and open our entire lives via Web 2.0. I'm interested; what do you think?

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So. What do you think? Leave me a comment.