Google Maps now allows users to edit and move the marker location of their home or business with a registered account. There are a few restrictions (you can’t move a government building, hospital, or claimed business within the Local Business Center), but for the most part, if your house is listed on the wrong side of the street or the wrong corner within Google Maps, you, the user, can change it. The change also pertains to Street View.

In my view, this is another great example of Google trying to make their results as relevant as possible and "organize the world’s information". It’s been a long road with all map services over the years and anything that can be turned over to the people with the most amount of knowledge about the issue is a great thing in my opinion.

Google, being Google, have put safeguards in place to prevent abuse, such as adding a "show original location" link and sending any change of over 200 meters to human review. It may not be the perfect solution, but it’s a good start.

[photo credit: WhirlingPhoenix via Flickr]

It was only a matter of time…

Via /.

The worst-case scenario used to be that online ads are pesky, memory-draining distractions. But a new batch of banner ads is much more sinister: They hijack personal computers and bully users until they agree to buy antivirus software. And the ads do their dirty work even if you don’t click on them.The malware-spiked ads have been spotted on various legitimate websites, ranging from the British magazine The Economist to baseball’s MLB.com to the Canada.com news portal. Hackers are using deceptive practices and tricky Flash programming to get their ads onto legitimate sites by way of DoubleClick’s DART program. Web publishers use the DoubleClick-hosted platform to manage advertising inventory.”

Is this DoubleClick (or Google’s - the parent company) fault for accepting the ads with the malicious code (my opinion is: yes to both Google and DoubleClick)? The website’s for accepting questionable ads on their property? Our ad-based, get it live now, society?

If you were doing public relations for DoubleClick or the online destinations, what would you advise your client?

It also appears that, based on some of the comments on the post, ad-blocking software is not fool-proof against this type of attack.

btw - all comments are set to go to moderation now… been under heavy spammer attack recently. Apologies to legit folks, I’ll try and approve as soon as I can!

[photo credit: KOoLiNus via Flickr]

Or why the EFF is good. Nice illustration of the battle over Net Neutrality.

[H/T - kevin via Corrente - view larger size]

Speaking of Cable… A new YouTube product placement agency out of Montreal: BrandFame.

From the NY Times comes the, well, concerning news about a company who has developed a VOIP program that analyzes your phone calls and delivers contextually relevant ads based on the conversation you are having in exchange for using the service for free. Of even more, well, concern is buried at the end of the article in a quote from the CEO:

“The conversation was actually changing based on what was on the screen,” he said. “Our ability to influence the conversation was remarkable.”

Is that a good path for advertisers to head down? How much backlash should companies who participate anticipate? Or will consumers use the service at all (so far the company is in private beta and not releasing numbers)?

This also begs the question as to how far into our private lives will people allow companies to go in exchange for a ‘freemium’? Ariel Maislos, the CEO of Pudding Media (interesting choice of brand name - does that imply our brains are mush?) notes that Gen-Y doesn’t appear to be as concerned with privacy as the older generations, citing Gmail as an example of a company scanning private correspondence and delivering ads based on the content, but I wonder if there are limits on how far into someone’s private life that extends? Personally, I’m not looking for that level of personalization.

What do you think?

H/T - Slashdot 

The venerable mainstay of IM conversations and emails will celebrate its 25th birthday in September.

I have a love/ hate relationship with the emoticon… I use it a ton as I tend to be a sarcastic person by nature, which doesn’t always come across in written text, but I also cannot for the life of me imagine using ones outside of the standard: :) / ;) / :P / :( . What’s the point, I’d rather have a face-to-face conversation if we’re going to be showering that much emotion on each other.

What about you? Do you love emoticons? Hate ‘em? Can’t type without ‘em? Do you feel they’ve been essential in potentially mitigating the cold hard text of internet communications? Or are they dinosaurs soon to be replaced with winking and dancing avatars? (which of course would lead me into a rant about Second Life and the fact that I barely have enough time to do my own hair in the morning, let alone pick out new outfits and makeup for my virtual likeness…) Or maybe I’m just getting old. ;)

[photo credit: KaCey97007 on Flickr]