It’ll be two months until regulators within the European Commission responsible for issues concerning data protection will hold a hearing with U.S.-based search engines with reference to data retention timelines.

But already those with the job of oversight are expressing frustration with services - Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft in particular - which have so far failed to comply with a limit set earlier this year. The EC demands that they implement a six-months-then-delete program. The Federal Trade Commission in the U.S., meanwhile, is only projected to issue voluntary guidelines on the matter.

Kevin J. O’Brien of the International Herald Tribune quotes French data protection chief as saying that, “For the moment, Google refuses to submit to European data protection law.” Which irks those services operating in the EU which do in fact comply with EC regulations. One of them being Ixquick, a service featured here this summer.

Ixquick claims a query deletion process of just 48 hours. Google, on the other hand, pledges to do so within 9 months (down from an 18-month standard as of last month), while Yahoo holds information for 13 months and Microsoft for 18. In light of this disparity, Ixquick CEO Robert Beens said, “…the value of the information we derive for advertisers is not as great as that of our competitors, who use the extra time to develop more detailed profiles. We have a slight competitive disadvantage as a result.”

Google is expecting to see a compromise when the December meeting with European regulators, who coin themselves the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party, rolls around. And EU telecom and media commissioner Viviane Reding is evidently also hoping to see progress made. She made plain her thinking that Google and the rest of the U.S.-based operators in question should be the ones to move in the EC’s stead. In Reding’s words: “…the European regulations are there for everybody. In our internal market, we have to have rules so that there is a level playing field. It is very clear that European laws have to be applied.”

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:Google Receives 64% of US Searches in AugustKrillion’s StockCheck Offers Real Time Search DataGoogle Trends Adds Another Way to Inaccurately Track Website TrafficMe.dium Moves into Social Search as Yahoo Launches New Boss PlatformSearch Engines Must Comply With Strict EU Privacy RulesAskEraser Keeps Your Searches Private - Or Does It?Grayboxx Acquired for its Local Search Scoring Technique

Source:Mashable!

Yesterday we put questions to you concerning news media and the way in which its video services are being consumed on the Web. Most respondents to a poll told us it was friends who pointed them in the direction of content. Social networking to stay informed, in other words. That’s good to hear! Still, there was the question of live video on sites like YouTube that didn’t quite get the response I was expecting.

The option to view news feeds in real-time is something that interests me, and I gather at least a few of you feel the same. Which just so happens to bring into the spotlight today a different service with another name, this one being something we’ve profiled before, and which is turning out to be a very notable alternative to TV-based broadcasts. It’s called Livestation.

It won’t wow you with a sterling design or slick package. And its attribution to Microsoft Research and a UK-based company called Skinkers Ltd., perhaps isn’t something to proclaim loudly. But Livestation is without a doubt one of the most impressive collections of live television viewing for Windows, Mac, and Linux users. The reason being that the number of choices for users to freely consume at one moment or another is fairly large. We first mentioned this item last year, when it first debuted. And oh how it has grown since then.

Want to access CNN? Go right ahead. CNN International is there, too. Plus FOX, Discovery, Bloomberg, NBC, ESPN, ITV, Sky News, BBC, France 24, Russia Today, Deutsche Welle, Al Jazeera English, CBC and others. Some options provide English, French, German, and Arabic language services as well. And the company just last week added partnerships for BBC Arabic, C-SPAN, Russia Today Arabic, France 24 Arabic, and Euronews German, French, and Arabic. Pretty remarkable, I’ll say.

Granted, this is all very news oriented, which may not whet the appetites of lots of prospective viewers. But the availability of these options enables some measure of consistency. To offer a much broader panoply of channels might detract from the experience, in a way. Regardless, if it’s entertainment you seek, there are several options, including sports, music, and movie and documentary providers.

It’s important to mention that browsing for content via the required software isn’t necessarily the best route to take. The service’s website itself is more amenable to discovering new items - at least when sized up against the Mac-compatible download option. But once you do manage to specify what it is you prefer to watch in your MyChannels column within the application itself, Livestation is something that, with the arrival of more and more streams, you’ll likely often want to keep close at hand.

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:LiveStation: Microsoft’s Joost Rival Debuts at IBCLivestation: Microsoft Attacks JoostFacebook and Bebo Takeover MySpace in the UKThe Pirate Bay Grows And Grows: 1m Torrents; 10m Users (And Counting)No, Digg Isn’t Digging Its Own GravecomScore Reports 89% Increase for Facebook UsersLast.FM Opens Gallery for Third Party Apps

At one time, it was tough to cover your tracks after visiting some, uh, questionable sites, but now it’s getting easier than ever. According to Mozilla, Firefox is joining Safari, Internet Explorer 8, and Google Chrome in providing its users with a “private mode” that will not collect any of your browsing history or cookies in the upcoming release of Firefox 3.1.

Much like Chrome, users will be able to open a separate window in Firefox 3.1 that will let them browse the Web in any way they see fit without worrying about the wife or kids entering the History menu and seeing why they spent the last hour in the office with the door locked.
Source:TechCrunch
Microsoft announced that it has improved its Mediaroom IPTV service to bring more show producers and IPTV networks to its platform.

According to Microsoft, its plan for increasing the value of Mediaroom IPTV contains three parts: increase advertising opportunities, make it easier for IPTV networks to port shows to the platform, and make IPTV more interactive.

The improved Mediaroom platform will let service providers using the service offer targeted, interactive advertising spots and have access to better data in order to target ads to specific groups. Microsoft didn’t elaborate on how that would be possible, but claimed more would be coming soon.

Socialmedian, a social news site that we’ve tracked the progress of over the past few months, is now open to everyone.

While a lot of the bases have been covered in our previous coverage, give Socialmedian credit for a nicely paced launch and responsiveness to its alpha users. Today’s public launch includes 350 “user-generated features” as founder Jason Goldberg likes to call them, and the site already has more than 1,000 daily active users – not too shabby considering that until now the service has been invite-only in the hyper-competitive social news space.

The ongoing enhancements and relatively active community were very visible in a tour of the site that Goldberg gave me yesterday. A lot of the ideas behind the service are very familiar if you use products like Digg, Friendfeed, and Google Reader.

You can follow different topical news groups – which are a collection of activities from people interested in the same topic (called News Networks) - or subscribe to updates from other users (called Newsmakers). On your homepage, you can then filter between the activities in your News Networks and the activities among the Newsmakers you’re tracking. Activities tracked include “Clipping” a story (akin to Digg with bookmarklet and all) or commenting on something on Socialmedian.

Looking beyond those features – which on the surface seem like a hybrid of Digg and Friendfeed – is where Socialmedian potentially gets very interesting for news junkies, and it comes in the form of providing feedback to the service. You can vote on each story’s relevance, rank topics in the order of importance to you, and upgrade the frequency at which you’d like to see stories from specific sources. So, hypothetically, if you want to customize Socialmedian to show you more stories about social networking, from Mashable, you can do just that

Beyond these features are where I draw the analogy to Google Reader. The “sharing” options associated with each item on Socialmedian allow you to either email it, Tweet it, or perhaps most interestingly – share it with one of your News Networks. Additionally, you can send a “Snip” (akin to a Note in Google Reader) to your networks.

If that’s not exhaustive enough, Socialmedian also acts as a profile aggregator, using the Google Social Graph API to pull in your profiles from various networks. While right now, this only leads to your profile displaying links, eventually it will turn Socialmedian profiles into yet another lifestreaming aggregator, but with a focus squarely on news according to Goldberg.

In addition to opening up its door to everyone, Socialmedian – which to-date has consisted of Goldberg and a team of programmers in India - is also for the first time disclosing its list of investors. Among the high profile people and organizations backing the company to the tune of $600,000 so far are WashingtonPost.Newsweek Interactive and former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt.

Clearly, Socialmedian has been paying attention to a lot of the trends in social news and aggregation in readying its public launch. It’s an impressive effort, but if there is one big drawback, it’s that the site does require a big investment from the user. Versus sites like Digg where you can passively browse the top content in your preferred high-level categories, to really get the most out of Socialmedian, you need to be active in the form of following other users, joining different News Networks, and continually using the feedback loops that the service provides. On the other hand, that investment might be well worth it for those that are drowning in information overload.

—Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:socialmedian: The Latest Social News Aggregator [Invites]Alpha: When Beta Is Not Good EnoughSocialMedian Tweaks Site with New Beta Features [Invites]Google Social Graph API Spotted in the Wild: Plaxo Public ProfilesPownce Launch Party Tonight - Pownce to Exit Private BetaPownce To Launch Public APIMobile, Public Art Blogging, Wrapped Up in BigArtMob

Source:Mashable!

UK residents have lived under the watchful eye of cameras for a while now, but still Google’s Street View initiative, an effort to photograph roadways and any structures adjacent to the tarmac, both east and west of the Atlantic, was required to undergo examination by the Information Commissioner after hearing from worried citizen rights watchdogs at Privacy International. Today it is said that the IC is officially satisfied with measures promised by Google to protect privacy and safety (blurring of faces of passersby, vehicular license plates, and image removal), and the company has been allowed to proceed as planned.

According to BBC News, the issue of privacy pertaining to roadway and streetside photography was first raised as a relatively high-profile concern earlier this month, when Google announced its intention to venture down lanes in a “few European countries.” The go-ahead given to Google ensures that it won’t be very long before the UK receives the same treatment many American cities have already.

The only resistance to Google Street View to be publicly reported in recent months, which in fact led to the complete removal of coverage for a specific area, was when the Minnesota community of North Oaks, a private jurisdiction, requested that it be removed when it was decided that Google had not gained the authorization to document it. Google complied.

Of course, any comparison with Google’s efforts and those of the UK government to surveil society, as I made a point to do in the introduction, must include mention that one project is privately managed while the other is government-led.

—Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Look Out: Six New Cities Added to Google Street ViewMashups Can Be Creepy Too: Street View Now in Google Maps APITrulia Adds Google StreetView to Home ListingsGoogle Goes Vertical With Street View In NYCTrulia Ad Network: Keeping More Cash from Real Estate SearchHouston, This is Google Street ViewDotHomes: See Results from the Streets and the Skies

Source:Mashable!

If you’ve been hearing about NBC’s efforts to deliver on-the-go video content from the Olympic Games next month, and would like to watch downloads through a Windows Vista Media Center machine, you’re in luck. NBC is now enabling its Olympics On the Go service for that very purpose.

The broadcaster previously announced a partnership with Wavexpress, the name behind TVTonic, in late June. NBC chose the service to provide downloadable media from the summer games for viewing on PCs in automated, DVR-like fashion. Now the two companies are making it possible to extend the on-demand experience further by enabling Vista Media Center users the ability to watch such content - whether on the desktop or from the comfort of a home entertainment center.

NBC is said to be providing “popular events” for download, such as: beach volleyball, swimming, gymnastics, basketball, etc. Video quality is purported to be “up-to-HD.”

If you’re not interested in arranging your schedule to make time for live video streams from the NBC Olympics page in August — Beijing time may be difficult for a U.S.-based audience to adapt to — but wish to keep abreast of goings on in and around the city in a timely way, NBC’s arrangement with Wavexpress and its IPTV-like TVTonic development is something to consider.

It is rather unfortunate, however, that TVTonic is offered exclusively as a Windows Vista Media Center option. This will presumably keep many viewers in the Web browser to watch the games.

—Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:TVTonic Unlocks Quicktime Videos for VistaTVTonic Adds Next New Networks Content for Downloadable Video FeedsTVTonic Launches Auto-Sync Videos On DemandThe Weather Channel Continues to Expand its Reach, on TVTonicNBC Chooses TVTonic to Provide Downloadable Olympics CoverageNext New Networks Expands Distribution to YouTube, Joost & MoreWindows Media Center Gets Third-Party Last.fm Support

As lovely as Verizon’s Fios Internet and television services may be (speaking with extensive real-world experience with both options, the fiber connection straight to the home does well in helping those bits along), the company’s planned introduction of Web video playback through partnerships with YouTube, Veoh, Blip.TV, and Break is potentially DOA. Why? Because in order to have a go at that type of content from the comfort of your big(ger)-screen LCD or plasma, you’ll have to check your frugality at the door.

Indeed, after Verizon completes its beta test of its new Web video features, Fios TV subscribers will have to spring to a $19.99/month Home Media DVR package to get the goods, according to Dave Zatz of Zatz Not Funny. (Plus whatever traditional television channel package makes sense to purchase.) Which means that, in the space of a year, you’ll pay somewhere around $240 a 12 month rental, just for access. That surpasses the going price of the base model Apple TV set-top box, which itself sports a bridge to YouTube but is nonetheless often pegged by critics as overpriced.

In short, a rather odd premium for Verizon to ask of its subscribers, no? Especially for those who like to consume your average Web video clip.

Mind you, Verizon isn’t asking present and future Fios TV customers to tip a few extra pennies over existing pricing plans to get Web video with a rubber-button remote in hand. They’re keeping things as is, more or less. Instead, it can be thought that some extras will be paying visits to a portion of the company’s subscribers.

But Verizon really has things backwards, here. As you and I both know, Web video is free. (Nearly all of it is, anyway.) So to grant only those who spring for the biggest and baddest (not literally, of course) DVR boxes on Verizon’s menu, it is effectively making inaccessible to most subscribers what is eminently available at no cost to hundreds of millions of broadband users all over the world. Peculiar? I think so. Furthermore, if you’re pushed to subscribe to a stream of dozens of channels for a rough average of $50 per month, what would be the purpose of forgoing the objective of “getting your money’s worth,” as it were, to watch a dog take a journey on a skateboard, or any other odd clip found online? Your time before the television is presumably not limitless, after all. Logic would have it that you the viewer would prioritize material not obtained freely (and legally) through a Web browser. So you would probably visit HBO, The History Channel, Showtime or AMC or whathaveyou before hitting Veoh’s servers, right?

Of course, it’s entirely understandable that Verizon will do what it is able within the space if its own unique position in the market. It plans to offer an option to those with a set piece of hardware in order to make some effort in matching what other players (TiVo is one) are pursuing. Still, doing so seems to completely misunderstand what it is that makes Web video such a catch for some many people. And so it will likely meet few accepting buyers. Money wasted, then?

—Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:ClipShack: The Flickr of Video, Again!Video Search Summit 2008: Register Now and Save $200Yahoo Follows Google, Releases Search Video AdsNew MSN Video Has Time-Based AdvertisingMSN Video…Same As SoapboxVeotag Gets $750K in Angel FundingYahoo Video - Yahoo Developing a YouTube Rival

Should Apple reduce its price on any Apple-branded product within […]Source:GigaOM
AT&T’s (T) much vaunted triple-play service has finally passed the 100,000-subscriber mark — not exactly a scorcher, but good enough to meet the low end of expectations set by the phone company for Wall Street. AT&T also said today that subscribers will soon get more HD channels, according to a press release. The company […]