The Library of Congress has teamed with Flickr to make its vast catalog of images available on the Web, starting with 3,000 photographs with no known copyright holders. The goal of the project is to provide exposure to these rarely seen images and to harness the Flickr community to compile missing data — like the photographer, subject, and copyright holder — for free. As far as partnerships go, Flickr seems to be the winner. They gain access to thousands of beautiful and historic photographs. Having the Library of Congress on board may even encourage other public institutions to follow suit and join their tagging project, “The Commons.” The Library of Congress will likely get what they paid for: inane comments and simplistic tags rather than the useful metadata they seek.

Source:Valleywag

via videosift.com

Before Steve Jobs, Devo was a precursor of geek chic. If you’re 45 or older you probably remember this brain-breaking TV moment, a hot topic after last night’s Macworld show at the Warfield. If not, it’s still a good clip. For context, 1978’s pop music was dominated by the Bee Gees and Debby Boone’s “You Light Up My Life.” Rock musicians — Journey, Styx, Fleetwood Mac — played big area anthems, had long, feathered hair and wore Spandex. A bunch of robotic shorthairs in radiation suits and dorky eyeglasses singing maybemaybemaybemaybemaybemaybemaybe better come back later next week — produced by Brian Eno, who went on to do the Windows 95 startup sound — was a finger down the throat of the Rolling Stones’ contemporary disco hit “Miss You.” As they later sang, Devo were the band for those of us through being cool.

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg may be getting all the money and media attention lately, but News Corp.’s MySpace still dominates when it comes to traffic. The site commands more than 70 percent of visits to social networks, according to this latest chart from Hitwise. Still, its share declined 8 percent in the last year. Which might explain why News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch was rumored to be poking around runner-up social network Bebo recently. Oh, and by the looks of things, maybe Barry Diller should have acquired MyYearbook for IAC back when he reportedly expressed interest.

Source:Valleywag

Google’s mobile operating system Android is a bad idea, Apple CEO Steve Jobs told the New York Times after yesterday’s keynote at Macworld. “Having created a phone, it’s a lot harder than it looks,” he said. Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Eric Schmidt should be happy with the apps they’ve created for the iPhone. “I actually think Google has achieved their goal without Android, and I now think Android hurts them more than it helps them. It’s just going to divide them and people who want to be their partners.”

But Jobs is always rough on the competition. In the same interview with the Times, he ripped MacBook Air competitors for needing too many rubber footpads glued to their bottoms. Still, with prognostications like these, Jobs might want to be wary of not sounding like another CEO Steve.

Back before the iPhone launched Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer had this to say about the new device’s prospects:

There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It’s a $500 subsidized item. They may make a lot of money. But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I’d prefer to have our software in 60 percent or 70 percent or 80 percent of them than I would to have 2 percent or 3 percent, which is what Apple might get.

Of course the truth is that Jobs is on much better footing doubting Android. Unlike the iPhone, it really is a bad idea. So why didn’t Jobs shoot Schmidt a warning SMS last summer? We know the Google CEO and Apple board member is on his iPhone’s short list. (Photo by AP/Paul Sakuma)

Source:Valleywag

Like our 100-word versions? You’ll love this 60-second version of Apple CEO Steve Jobs’s 90-minute keynote yesterday at Macworld, courtesy of Mahalo Daily.

Google Maps performed flawlessly for Apple CEO Steve Jobs in today’s Macworld keynote. Yahoo’s Flickr? Utter fail. In a demo of Flickr photos appearing on Apple TV, Flickr was a technical no-show. To those inside the company, this may not have come as a surprise. “

Yahoo has Flickr’s servers on 24-hour watch,” says a former Yahoo employee. Something going wrong is practically the default state for the site, which has grown beyond its technical capabilities. Flickr was down for four hours over the weekend. With founder Stewart Butterfield on paternity leave, and not expected to return to Flickr when his leave ends — word is he might seek another role within Yahoo instead — Flickr’s staff strikes some as dispirited. And other Yahoo employees would rather gripe about Flickr than fix its code.

Source:Valleywag

I took this picture of Valleywag cub reporter Jordan Golson because I think the kid has potential. But Jordan, watch and learn: See the guy typing away behind you? Forbes senior editor Dan Lyons, aka Fake Steve Jobs. And the man with the early migraine? PC World editor in chief Harry McCracken. Look at them: Work, work, work. With the dual exception of Engadget and Gizmodo, the Web 2.0 kids fell way behind the old guard in reporting this morning. Oh, and whoever decided Valleywag would report the whole thing via Twitter? You win the prize. Go back and read Uncov until you know the difference between “scale” and “fail.”

Blogoscoped corralled Ruth Kedar of KedarDesigns into recounting the story of how she came up with the Google logo back in 1999. It’s a charming story, but not one that should have taken 619 words to explain. Here’s a version for the ADD among us.

Was teaching design at Stanford in 1999. This particular logo was selected because it was playful, deceptively simple. Subtle as to look almost non-designed, the reading effortless.

The colors evoke child play, but stray from the color wheel to hint to serendipity and the irreverence and boldness of the “I’m feeling lucky” link. The texture and shading lift it from the page, giving it both weight and lightness. Solid but ethereal.

The chosen typeface is an old-style serif typeface. Search, by nature, is an activity that requires we look into the past; historical ties seemed appropriate.

Source:Valleywag

A tipster writes in after seeing the MacBook Air advertisement with the uber-thin notebook removed from a manila envelope:

Way back when, DEC (Digital Equipment Corp) unveiled a really thin laptop (was it one of the Hinote machines?). Anyway, they had a TV ad that went something like this:

- man puts briefcase on a table
- opens the briefcase
- starts taking stuff out: papers, folders, etc.
- finally the briefcase is empty
- he reaches into the little pocket on the inside cover of the briefcase
- takes out a manila envelope (10×13 mailer)
- rips open the envelope
- takes out the DEC laptop and puts it on the table

Sound familiar?

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A big-league reporter emailed us to imply that he (or was that she? I forget) has inside info on today’s Macworld product announcements, and that my hunch that there’s a MacBook with AT&T wireless built in is totally wrong. Of course, the real point of the email was nyah nyah I’m special. But thanks for the tip.

Jordan Golson and I are blogging live, but briefly, from the Macworld 2008 expo at Moscone West in San Francisco.

Read on for the full report:

After I left the Gizmodo/Ars Technica party, I headed down to the Moscone Center to check out the line of Mac fanboys enthusiasts waiting in line 9 hours before the show actually begins. When I got there, I noticed a strikingly familiar face amongst the glow of iPhones and MacBooks: Google Executive Marissa Mayer!

It turns out that, for the past several years, Google employees have staked out early spots in the Macworld keynote admissions line. Arriving well prepared with pizza, coffee and a tent, the Googlers “work” (is this twenty-percent time?) in shifts holding line spots so 40-50 Googlers can get good seats. I convinced a few of the them — including Marissa! — to speak to me for a couple minutes and pose for a picture. Why were they waiting in line so early? “The man gives a great presentation. Hopefully we can learn something.”From left to right: Chrix Finne, Associate Product Manager - Google Reader; Nick Baum, Associate Product Manager - Android; David Murray, Associate Product Manager - Gmail; Fernando Delgado, Associate Product Manager - Search Quality; Marissa Mayer, Vice President, Search Products & User Experience; a friend of Marissa’s whom I believe was named John.