February 10, 2008

QUICK TECHNOLOGY NEWS 02/10/08

Bluetooth and WiFi Connect: A collaboration between Bluetooth and WiFi functions is going to be announced mid this week. The idea is to use a single chip that combines Bluetooth and WiFi capabilities (currently your lap top runs two separate chips). This combined chip will use the low-power Bluetooth radio to pair and send small sized files. For larger transfers the combined chip will switch to WiFi radios, resulting in much faster file transfers. If they can develop a seamless connection between both functions (which they will), this chip shift will speed up the lives of many executives and students the world over. We may even get to an age of wireless computer syncing with the same convenience as syncing your mobile phone.

Social Networking Sites join forces: I found a fairly interesting bit of information surfing through the web yesterday, which brings to light the direction companies like Facebook and LinkedIn are taking. It was announced that Yahoo is planning to develop an email service that shares data with Social Networking Sites; Delver is working to develop a search engine that tracks and summarizes social network data; Facebook is introducing new services that take advantage of users' online contacts.

By sharing and linking user information with one another, they are developing an interactive and soon to be search able set of personal information on YOU. I am not sure I like the idea of being a page on wikepedia, which lists (by priority of course) all the personal information I have combined across my Facebook, Email, Blog and Friendster sites. Using the Beacon service launched by Facebook as an example, it will only be a matter of time till online purchases, Ebay bids and so forth are also linked in. Do I really want my personal data easily accessible? Advertising companies and Social Networking Sites certainly think so.

Yahoo wants more: Yahoo finds that the offer by Microsoft undervalues the company significantly and is currently wagering that a $9 per share, or roughly $12 billion added to the original offer price, will sway the board to accept. Microsoft is currently trailing in fourth place for this industry, with Yahoo second (not a close one) to Google. Considering that online advertising pretty much pays for...well... everything online, I would wager that Microsoft is going to fight for this one.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice Tech Reading !!
Those days everybody is talking, writing, shouting of Targeted Advertising or systems able to reach a mass market individually.
And out there there are only very few companies which seems having the right concept. I'm sure many of us will never publish truee personall information of Facebook, Blogs, Friendsster, e-mails,...
For a true data collection, it has to be again personal, the same way you guys are talking about targeting individual.
So, the winner will be the concept which smartly will individually ask users for their personal infrmation , in exchange of value, advantages or gift formulas.
Personally, all my shared information from e-mail account to face book , has all wrong about me, from age to citizenship. I'm still afraid (and better be) of smart guys using your identity for vicious purposes !!

Anonymous said...

information security is a very serious matter. i think these social networking sites won't go into something without considering and abiding these privacy laws. also, how reliable are these details when anyone can just come up with anything they feel like blabbing. how can they filter? am quite sure that there will be a loooong process to have such work.

The Jolly Jetsetter said...

I have found that the majority of users do in fact input personal data into their pages. For social networking users I would say that you would fall in the minority (like myself!) What you should be worried about is the way that these sites can gather information from you in ways that you may not be aware. Purchases using the web track your spending habits (interests), the blogs or sites you read can track you IP address which lists your reading preferences, lets not forget anything that may come up when you type your full name into the computer. Our data is out there. Its whether these companies can capitalize on it or not that makes the difference. Do note that privacy laws prevent companies from releasing/selling data, however, for companies that already have the information, who is to say that they cannot use it internally to target you better? This is an aga old practice, fyi.

wysgal said...

I think people have a lot more control these days over the online personas they create themselves (for Googling employers). Of course you will always have the crazy people that post all sorts of insane personal information on themselves in public websites, with contact information and photos.

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