State of the Blogosphere 2009

Results of the annual Technorati survey.

Interview with Jimmy Wales

Silicon.com talks with the Wikipedia founder about what’s coming next.

Google making us smarter?

As explained in this short piece and the embedded video, brain research is uncovering evidence that using tech may increase cognitive functioning.

There has been a debate over whether the Internet is making us stupid, that I blogged about a year or so ago.

When to trust crowd wisdom

This item in Technology Review reports on research into how online customer review sites can be distorted by small numbers of very active users, etc.

For me, it’s important to be able to read the comments from reviewers, rather than just rely on a star rating.  It’s pretty easy to see when a reviewer is just cranky or picky, whether abnormally good reviews are reliable, and so forth.

Space-time travel data, new services, and implications for privacy

An interesting blog post from Jeff Jonas of IBM about the emerging capability to use space-time travel data as the basis for a range of new services. Will we gladly forego what’s left of our privacy if we get hard-to-comprehend convenience in return?

Cool kids abandoning social networking sites as oldsters log on?

So says the Guardian.

Facebook as a new source of romantic stress

CNet News reports on preliminary research finding that Facebook can stress one’s relationship by exposing members to info about their partner’s past loves, etc.  It raises the question of how much long-term viability a romance had in the first place if it could be derailed in this way.

The value of forgetting in the digital age

In Wired, Clive Thompson previews a forthcoming book by Viktor Mayer-Shönberger that questions whether everything we do or say that’s recorded digitally should be saved forever.

13 year-old checks out Walkman

This article is pretty amusing. The kid had some problems with the older technology, such as not realizing that cassettes have two sides until he’d had the Walkman for a few days. Overall, he’s glad to have his MP3 player back.  From BBC.

Facebook vs. Google

Wired gives the background of sniping between the two companies, and previews their emerging battle over the future of the Internet.