Compiled by John Collins
Google Mobile app for visual search
Google Goggles, the feature which allows you to interrogate the search engine by taking a picture, has up to now only been available for Android phones, but this week was released for the iPhone as part of the Google Mobile app.
Snap a barcode, book cover, logo, wine label, famous landmark or painting and Google will serve up relevant information. Now it even translates foreign text, such as restaurant menus, into English.
[ http://bit.ly/aKQSJWOpens in new window ]
Doctorow defending free material online
Cory Doctorow is rather upset by the accusation by a fellow Guardiancolumnist that he and other proponents of giving content away for free charge large sums of money to speak at conferences. In this opinion piece, he defends giving away content for free online and suggests how it can work for the copyright owner. Doctorow gives away electronic copies of his books to spur sales of the real thing, while he suggests the music industry should charge ISPs a flat fee so customers can download music for "free".
[ http://bit.ly/9nble6Opens in new window ]
Your Facebook privacy settings
Staying on top of the privacy settings in Facebook can be a full-time job, so regularly does the social network seem to change them. This week’s announcements seem to be positive, however, and may tempt the more privacy-conscious to use the site more. A new “Groups” feature allows you to share with only a subset of your friends rather than them all. The “My Download” feature also allows you to extract everything you’ve ever posted on Facebook and store it on your own PC.
[ http://on.fb.me/bttNVxOpens in new window ]
Streetview Ireland blog
This blog is quick out of the blocks. Google’s StreetView was only launched in Ireland last week but already it has an amusing set of images, as well as some beautiful scenery, on the theme of “strange and unusual” sights found in the mapping tool.
As well as posting images, it provides direct links to where they were found in Streetview. We particularly like the image of the Garda car parked beside the sea with the occupants enjoying a quick nicotine break.
