Google magazines patent

Goodness. Isn't it hard enough coping with print advertising decline without Google muscling in on the action? The Internet is abuzz with news that Google has filed a patent regarding DIY magazine publishing.

There's a good summary over at Techcrunch of what appears to be a system which will allow users to create customised, printed magazines from Internet content (not sure WHAT content. IPR and all that - do publishers of the content get a cut?).

Crucially the magazines would also include print ads customised to suit the interests of the reader.

For more details (and some visuals) see this interesting post at huomah.com

Hoorah! Embeddable Google Maps

According to mashable, Google Maps will shortly be available with embed codes a la YouTube.


I like this map and will be far more industrious about creating my own once I can embed them. Watch this space.

Web 3.0

Congratulations to my colleague Piers for spotting what Google's Eric Schmidt thinks Web 3.0 will be.




As he notes Google is steadfastly ignoring that whole semantic web idea and going for this vision (apologies to Piers for stealing his summary):

• applications that are pieced together
• the applications will be small
• the data will be in the cloud
• the applications can run on any device
• the applications are fast and easy to customise
• the applications can be distributed virally

Sounds nice, but it's not what you'd call radical. Isn't this pretty much what widgetisation and Facebook apps are all about? In which case, is Web 3.0 already here?

I'd also take issue with his view of what Web 2.0 is. Ajax improved the user experience and made Web 2.0 fun to use, but that's a tiny bit of the jigsaw.

Do you think that Google's being a bit down on Web 2.0 because it didn't think of it first? If so it's being a bit harsh on itself; I think Google was pretty much first to harness the wisdom of crowds in a life changing way.

On a personal note, before we get to Web 3.0 I'd really like to see some intermediate releases - say Web 2.15 or a Service Pack for Web 2.0. I don't know what would be in them, but it would be quite amusing.

Anyway, here's the video: