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In case you missed this news, Google’s OpenSocial API went live now (oh, and MySpace is now an official OpenSocial partner too, making Google-competitor Facebook come off as anti-social if they don’t join). The FAQ explains that…

<<…OpenSocial applications use Google’s gadget architecture but with extensions that provide programmatic access to social data within its container environment. Similar to Google Gadgets, OpenSocial apps are hosted XML documents with HTML/JavaScript within their bodies. (…)

One of the initial environments for social apps which use the OpenSocial APIs is Orkut. Other OpenSocial enabled websites are expected to launch support for developers soon.>>

So yes, the OpenSocial library is an add-on to Google’s existing iGoogle gadget syntax, making that framework of Google much more powerful now in the market… because when developers with limited time want to program their gadgets (social or not) only once, they’re now more likely than before to go for Google gadgets. This in turn may not only undermine Facebook in the long run, but also any personalized homepage competitor to iGoogle – such as Netvibes –, making big Google grow even bigger. And at some point, people may start to wonder when that is too big.

Indeed, Google’s market size is both blessing and curse for smaller web competiton. Agree to play by their rules and you get the chance to achieve more effective deployment, while adding to Google’s success as platform. Disagree, and your technology may not be able to get accepted in the market because Google is just too omnipresent. For Google as infrastructure provider, it’s a win in any case.

First examples

NewsGator sent in a screenshot of their own gadget prototypes as part of their Didja Hear program which filters the hot items from a database of RSS feeds.

To get started developing gadgets for Orkut, apply for an invite with Google. Rohit Rai got in already and shows off some screenshots of his first tries (Rohit adds that it was pretty buggy for him at the moment).

[Thanks all! Image by Rohit; Rohit’s blog is CC-licensed.]

Ongoing discussion…

[By Philipp Lenssen | Original post]

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You can now log-in to your Google Analytics account to start enabling the new Site Search feature for a site of yours. The data won’t show right away, but apparently it will after some time (I just enabled Site Search today so I don’t know exactly what happens). Here’s how:

1. (First you need to make sure you have some kind of search engine for your site; e.g. in this blog, there’s a search box to the right side in the navigation utilized by the Google AJAX Search API; also, you must have the Google Analytics tracker script available in your pages.)
2. Go to Google Analytics
3. Next to your site, click Edit
4. On your site’s profile, again click Edit (in the top right)
5. Scroll down on the settings page and check the “Do Track Site Search” box
6. In the Query Parameter input box, enter e.g. “q” (no quotes) when your query parameter is q, as in http://example.com/search.php?q=hello+world
7. Hit the Save Changes button
8. Repeat for all of your sites

[Via official Google Analytics blog.]

[By Philipp Lenssen | Original post | Comments]

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There’s an interesting type of Google ad placement on Pac-txt.com (a game of Pac-Man recreated as interactive fiction): a cartoon monster on a black background is connected to a speech bubble which seamlessly wraps a AdSense text ad. And a thought bubble below the monster integrates a couple of “digg this”-stye icons. The ad placement is original and kinda neat… though I wonder if Google would object to such a composition?

Here’s what the AdSense policies say:

<<Publishers participating in the AdSense program: …

• May not direct user attention to the ads via arrows or other graphical gimmicks
• May not place misleading images alongside individual ads>>

Also, the policies say “No AdSense code may be integrated into a software application” (for instance, I was once asked to remove AdSense from the Blogoscoped chat, where they were placed on top of the chat room).

For more interactive fiction check out the Google Adventure.

[Pac-Man link via Waxy.]

[By Philipp Lenssen | Original post | Comments]

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不久前，Zoho 曾推出过一款用于微软 Office 的插件，最近，他们对于这一款插件作出了改进更新，改进项目包括：

继续.

昨天凌晨的时候就发现 gOS 了，打开网页看了一下之后，整整一天就都打避开了。刚才终于访问正常了，所以进去看看。gOS 是一个非官方的 Google 网络应用桌面客户端套件，下载安装之后，可以创建一个桌面环境，包含了大量 Google 发布的网络应用产品，比如搜索、Gmail、Docs 等等，以及其他一些热门的 Web 2.0 应用，像是 Facebook、Meebo 等等。由于 HUNG 今天没有时间下载体验了，有兴趣的可以先到这里 BT 下载目前的测试版本。由于官方网站信息甚少，目前还不清楚其使用技术与实现手段，不过与最近的一些趋势非常符合，包括 Google、Adobe、Mozilla 等等都在致力于把网络应用本地化的开发工作。

继续.

Amazon 于九月份正式推出数字音乐商店，这一次轮到 Nokia 了。Nokia 今天正式在英国开放了 Music Store (IE-Only)，与 Apple iTunes Store 策略不同，Nokia 严格提供 DRM 保护的 Windows Media 格式的音频，所以据说实际上用户在 Nokia Music Store 购买数字音频的支出要低一些。目前已经有不少 Nokia 手机支持直接通过 Music Store 购买音乐了，比如 N95、N81、5700 等等，具体支持列表可以参看官方列表。

继续.

手机上的远程控制应用？没错，似乎这样形容上周发现的 Dashwire 这一款服务是最贴切的，用户通过它，可以把任何手机上的信息，同步到电脑上进行操作，并且把操作的结果同步返还到手机上。比如电话簿、联系人的编辑、添加和删除，手机拍摄的视频、相片的处理，收发短信，设置铃音和壁纸等等。并且无需下载任何软件、也不需要 USB 连接线，极大的方便了一些在手机上操作比较繁琐，而在电脑上操作更为快捷的应用。同时，由于两者之间的数据是完全同步的，所以也等于给手机上的信息做了异地备份，一举多得。

继续.

- LinkedInAbox 提供一个基于 Flash 技术的 Widget，用于显示你在 LinkedIn 的个人资料，用户可以自行选定显示内容和界面式样、色彩；

继续.

Author: bartelme design
Download: bartelme design

继续.

业主张华将自己与开发商打官司的经历写进博客，但隐瞒了一些重要事实，导致小区内其他业主对开发商产生意见。因此，开发商将该业主告上法庭。近日，昌平法院判决该业主需在全国性媒体上向开发商道歉。

张华于2005年在昌平一小区购买了一套房产，他和开发商约定交房日期为2006年。然而，张华办理入住时，开发商未能交付房屋。此后，张华将该开发商诉至法院，要求对方退房并支付违约赔偿金。在该案件审理时，开发商辩称，张华在收房时拒绝交纳一些相关费用，因此开发商无法兑现房屋。

在以上案件审理过程中，该开发商发现，张华把以上经历写进了自己的博客，并在博客中宣称，自己和多名业主一起收房，开发商不但不予交房，还进行恶意报复。在该博客上，众多网友对张华予以支持，并认为开发商在事件中存在问题。开发商认为，张华的博客不但虚拟了”恶意报复”的内容，还隐瞒了自己拒交费用和要求退房的种种事实，致使开发商的名誉受到严重影响。因此，开发商又将张华起诉到法院，要求张华在全国性报刊上澄清事实，赔礼道歉，且赔偿经济损失30万元。

继续.