My first work in Web TV dates back long before Web 2.0, at the infrastructure level, as I come out of the Internet telecom space – or the industry that makes the Web do what it does as we know it. It’s a cool part of the business. The Internet is ultimately a sophisticated communications infrastructure designed to modify or replace other, older platforms, like landline and mobile phones or TV. It also holds a lot of the secrets to what’s ahead on the Web.

For example, a good year (or more) before video exploded online, things on the back end were pointing to just that. Information moves online in packets, and video is the heaviest. In order to deliver all those YouTube clips, and now, webisodes and favorite shows, speed and good compression are needed. Until recent years, the Web just wasn’t there. Just the same, it was also easy to predict that webisodic and professional Web video would ultimately be king while most were just starting to go bananas over user driven stuff on YouTube and MySpace.

While it’s closer than ever now, we’re still a long way away from the reality of TV on the Web – and the revenue promised to follow it. Yes, a lot of people are watching TV online now, and many more will in the future. Product placement and sponsorship offer revenue opportunity that extends beyond traditional ads. But, none of this is without challenges and limitations. The majority of Web users overall are not watching TV online, and while money is being made through product placements and sponsorships, it’s not without hassle. The market is still very early, and it’ll be either a blessing or a curse, depending on how you go about it.

Here are a few ways I believe to win:

Forget Webisodes…for Now. I’m not a fan of webisodic content from a business standpoint right now, for a few reasons. First, it can be expensive, particularly if you want real quality. Other formats can be done a lot cheaper with less. Second, while there have been some early successes, like Kate Modern, the majority of online video users just cut their teeth a year or two ago on three minute cat clips. Given this, I believe users will adopt better to formats similar to Wine Library TV and WallStrip right now more than anything that requires significant attention.

Understand the Money. The buzz of the moment is the millions that’ll be spent in Web video sponsorships, etc. But don’t be fooled – it doesn’t mean it’s going to land in the hands of small producers or platforms. In fact, historically, it’s been the opposite online with exception to a few players. Saturn is sponsoring a show – but it’s with CBS. Model.Live was brought to us by Express – by way of Conde Nast. There are many other obstacles beyond this. Think through how you plan to get involved, because there are ways to make money – or lose your shirt.

It’s No Longer Just an Internet Game. Think Web 2.0 is just about the Internet crowd these days? Think again. The best in early Web video is coming out of Hollywood at the moment for the most part, with exception to a few Internet successes. They’ve got the connections, experience, equipment and talent to make big things happen – and big things attract big brands, platforms and advertisers. Expand your viewpoint of the market if you can – it’ll pay off in the end.

In the future, expect the bar to get higher, for networks and major entertainment properties to continue to play larger roles and more big names to move into the market. Producers, writers and talent in Hollywood can often fund their own projects, and their marquee names can attract brands. I wouldn’t be surprised to see investment capital shift into these hands. How can Internet executives get a foothold? By doing what my company, 9, did: keep feet in both industries and leverage your Internet experience.

Patricia Handschiegel is an aspiring serial entrepreneur and founder of Stylediary.net (sold 2007) and The 9 Group, a digital consulting and content/production company that leverages entertainment and internet experience. She blogs about the intersection of traditional and web TV for TV Week and is currently producing and developing TV projects in both markets.

Imagery provided by iStock/joshblake

Source:Mashable!

While Firefox is considered a safe browser by most people, it can never hurt to add more layers of security in this day and age. And while you’re at it, there are a number of ways to increase your privacy online. Here are over 20 extensions that can provide you with useful ways to protect yourself, your identity and your family on the Internet.

As with any list of Firefox tools, please do not install all of these at once unless you’d like to slow down your browser.

Child Controls

FoxFilter - You can keep others who are using your computer from stumbling into inappropriate content, or you can use a whitelist to set which sites different people are allowed to access.

Glubble Family Edition - Glubble allows families to communicate and share information with one another in a child friendly environment.  It also gives children 2,500 pre-approved sites they can visit, allowing parents to approve more as they see fit.

ProCon Latte - You can set ProCon Latte to filter websites for certain words or content, or you can choose to block all websites, allowing visits only to those that are approved.

Suricate - Suricate is a collaborative parental control tool. Whenever a user stumbles upon a non-child-friendly site they click the Suricate button which automatically blocks the site on your computer and adds it to the global blacklist the addon uses.

Privacy Browsing

Click & Clean - Allows you to clean out your browser history with one click of a button in the toolbar.

Close’n forget - Once you close a tab in Firefox it is immediately “forgotten” by the browser’s history.

Distrust - Turn on Distrust while you surf, and when you turn it off it will delete all history and cookies that were collected during the time it was activated.

FoxyHistory - Allows you to edit out just selected bits of your browser’s history.

Stealther - Stealther temporarily disables your system keeping track of browsing history, cookies, disk cache, downloads, referrer header and saved form information.

TrackMeNot - TrackMeNot hides your search history by randomly inserting search terms into search engines.

Script & Program Blockers

Controle de Scripts - Controle de Scripts allows you to control what JavaScripts can do with your browser automatically and what is blocked.

Flashblock - Blocks all Flash from automatically loading in your browser, and marks where it is so you can choose what to load. Also blocks Macromedia Shockwave and Macromedia Authorware.

NoScript - NoScript adds more protection to your browser by blocking things such as JavaScript, Java and Flash from running on your system, except from websites you approve. This will lower your risk of malicious scripts running on your system.

QuickJava - Gives you easy button access to enable and disable Java and JavaScript from running on any page of your choice.

Tab Privacy

Page Title Eraser - Allows you to erase the site name and favicon from any tab in your browser so no one can read them over your shoulder.

Panic - Allows you to quickly close all the tabs you currently have open and replace them with one of something you wouldn’t mind people seeing.

Panic Button - Quick! The boss is coming! Hit the panic button and you can hide all of your Firefox windows so no one will see you were surfing or what sites you were going to.

TabRenamizer - TabRenamizer allows you to rename a tab from a possibly embarrassing one to one that is a whole lot more innocent.

Warning Systems

Dr. Web - Right click on the link for a site you want to visit and select “Scan with Dr.Web,” it will then scan the site for any potential viruses.

Interclue - Interclue allows you to hover your mouse over a link and get a summary of what is there and whether it’s a dead link. It will also warn you of malware and phishing sites.

Netcraft - The Netcraft toolbar will provide you with a risk warning for each site you visit as well as show you the IP address and location of the site.

PhishTank SiteChecker - Users can warn the central service that a site is a phishing site, and this will warn you if you accidentally surf into it. You have the option of continuing onto the page, but it will initially block you.

WOT - WOT combines information from spamming and phishing blacklists, along with ratings from users, to warn you of the threat level of over 20 million websites. Also has reputation rankings for trustworthiness, vendor reliability, privacy and child safety.

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:Firefox 2 Security Fixes ReleasedFirefox Add-ons Leave Your Computer Vulnerable to Criminal ActivityMozilla: Would You Like a Virus With That Add-on?Firefox 2.0.0.7 is Live; Eliminates QuickTime Security FlawMozilla to Go Mobile, Launch Firefox for Cell PhonesFirefox 2.0.0.8 Released; Enables Leopard CompatibilityNew Del.icio.us Add-on Released, Jives With Firefox 3

Semantic Web startup AdaptiveBlue is launching a new service today called Glue. The concept is sort of similar to MyBlogLog – showing recent visitors to a certain webpage – except it’s more like recent visitors to a given concept. So, for example, if you’re looking at the Wikipedia entry for the movie Iron Man, the Glue bar will show people that have visited webpages about Iron Man all around the Net, for example, on Netflix or IMDB.

This all works through a combination of a Firefox add-on (Get Glue), AdaptiveBlue’s contextual technology, and analyzing your existing social networks on services like Facebook, Twitter, and Friendfeed. In turn, if you’re visiting the Iron Man page on Wikipedia, you’ll see which of your friends from those sites (who have also installed Glue) have explored Iron Man content, with options to see additional metadata like comments, reviews, or “likes.” Additionally, Glue wants to help you discover new people, so you’ll see other members of Glue who are interested in the concept you’re viewing. This screencast explains how it all works a bit more in-depth:

In addition to launching Glue, AdaptiveBlue has also announced $4.5 million in Series B funding from Union Square Ventures and RRE Ventures. The company previously raised a Series A from Union Square in early 2007. AdaptiveBlue’s first product, BlueOrganizer, also utilizes the company’s semantic technology to recommend similar content when browsing the Web, also via a browser add-on.

As for Glue, it’s a very cool concept. Instead of thumbing through your friend’s reviews of different products across sites, or aggregated on a service like Friendfeed, Glue brings them together and puts them all in context while you’re browsing the way you typically would. However, even moreso than many other services, to be really useful, Glue is going to need to have a big-time user base. While it may work OK with a small network of friends when viewing really popular movies or music, in places where reviews are most helpful – the long-tail of content – the Glue experience could be a bit sparse until your whole social network (and beyond) has signed up.

Source:Mashable!

Company Name

BabySpot

20-Word Description

Facebook for babies with a focus on safety, health and development, economical empowerment and fun.

CEO’s Pitch

Combine a safe and secure online space for parents to share and store their baby’s precious moments with a stimulating social network and a fun, yet educational environment, and you get BabySpot. 

Catering to the busy lifestyles of modern day parents, Babyspot provides a one-stop shop where they can easily and frequently share baby’s growth with family members, socialize with like-minded individuals and learn about and share how certain matters will affect them. Babyspot fosters opportunities for parents and families to learn about things that will ultimately have a positive growth effect on their lives.

Mashable’s Take

There are a couple of things about BabySpot which immediately reveal themselves as primary drivers for the service. Media sharing is one of them. It clearly has a special place among the various features provided. Videos in particular. The other is network activity, be it public or private, which is pretty much how things go insofar as interaction among parents today. Memories are shared at nearly every moment possible. So life goes.

In that sense, BabySpot is a good option to choose when online networking with your infant or toddler in view sounds like something you’d like to get involved with. It’s very easily learned, and makes nearly everything you might want or need quickly accessible. It sports a top-to-bottom layout, which places your main set of services across a header display, followed by items pertaining to whatever section you’re focused on at any one time.

I must say it’s a little peculiar to have a Profile URL box (to embed in places elsewhere on the Web) situated front and center on your BabySpot dashboard, rather than some widget that might have more lasting value to the average user, but there’s a good chance you won’t spent much time at this page to quibble about it one way or another. Individual utilities will demand virtually all your attention.

Such utilities include a friend list, chat box, forum, journal editor, groups directory, message roll, and a video and photo gallery. If you wield a still-shot or video camera with any regularity, the last area is where you’re likely to spend considerable amounts of time. You and your closest relatives and associates together. The journal may get its fair share of activity, too. The same with user groups and the site forum.

Setting up basic information for your infants and toddlers can be accomplished quite speedily, and even done immediately after sign-up. Register an account, and the following pages will reveal multiple fields provided for one or more children, and if invites to family members or family friends are in order, you’re given the option to easily invite people from your Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, or AOL contact list(s). Alternatively, if you prefer inputting names without grabbing them from one of these webmail services, there is a form that allows you to enter addresses manually. Once you complete your initial account setup, you’ll be asked to login once more. No need to check your mail for any verification messages.

Based in Miami, Florida, BabySpot was launched this past summer, and it is evident that the community remains a fairly small operation. But you can interpret this one of two ways. Either it is too little a player in the market, or it is nicely manageable, “exclusive” and fresh-faced. I see it through the latter lens. It’s elementary and comprehensive all at the same time. And that’s the right recipe for any network of this kind to have. Besides, who can say no to a network whose spotlight is babies?

Editor’s Note: This post is part of an ongoing series at Mashable - The Startup Review, Sponsored by Sun Microsystems Startup Essentials. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

Sponsored By: Sun Startup Essentials

Source:Mashable!

Microsoft, Yahoo and Google have agreed — in general — on how they plan to do business in countries such as China or Northern Korea, which are known to restrict free speech and other human rights. Don’t get me wrong — all countries sometimes and to some degree restrict human rights — but some do it more often and to greater extent than others, and giving them all they ask for can lead to PR disasters (and wrecked lives).

These principles, laid out by The Wall Street Journal (link behind a paywall), took over two years to create, and in them these three companies essentially promise they’ll “protect the personal information of their users wherever they do business and narrowly interpret and implement government demands that compromise privacy.” Furthermore, if a country has a “track record of jeopardizing personal information and freedom of expression,” they’ll think twice before launching new business there, which includes “discussing the risks widely with their executives and board members.”

Exactly how following these principles will function in practice remains to be seen. It will be almost impossible to implement exactly the same guidelines for small countries such as Northern Korea and huge markets such as China since giants like Google, Microsoft and Yahoo simply cannot afford to forfeit their stake there. If nothing, the guidelines will definitely be scrutinized by the media and any company that claims to adhere to them (presumably, other companies, besides the big three, will follow suit) will be criticized if they do otherwise. Whatever happens, this is a step forward in a world where geographical boundaries are virtually nonexistent for some, but painfully real for others, especially when it comes to free speech and human rights.

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:CNet Deems Ask.com The Most Private Search Engine in the LandGoogle Search is Now Even More Private. Is it Enough?Google To Microsoft: We’re Serious About PrivacyGoogle and Microsoft Square Off in WashingtonMicrosoft Exec to Testify at Google/Doubleclick HearingMicrosoft’s Acquisition of aQuantive FinalizedLacking Anything Better to Say, Microsoft Blasts Google on Privacy

The Communications Data Bill, suggested by UK Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, proposes that all UK residents’ mobile and Web communication should be stored by the ISPs and MSPs in a giant database for 12 months. Actual content of conversations would not be stored, just times and dates of e-mails and calls. However, storing information on visited websites is also mentioned, and if that’s not an invasion of privacy, I don’t know what is.

Smith explains the proposal thus: “Our ability to intercept communications and obtain communications data is vital to fighting terrorism and combating serious crime, including child sex abuse, murder and drugs trafficking. Communications data - that is, data about calls, such as the location and identity of the caller, not the content of the calls themselves - is used as important evidence in 95% of serious crime cases and in almost all security service operations since 2004.

But the communications revolution has been rapid in this country and the way in which we intercept communications and collect communications data needs to change too.”

An oft (accidentally or on purpose) neglected fact is that the communications revolution also lets you monitor people’s activity in a way that wasn’t at all possible before. Now, in addition to being able to tap your phone calls, the UK government has an additional wealth of information that can — true — sometimes be used to thwart crime, but it can also be used to extract every last detail on people’s personal and private affairs, criminals and non-criminals alike.

As pointed out by Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne, “Ministers claim the database will only be used in terrorist cases, but there is now a long list of cases, from the arrest of Walter Wolfgang for heckling at a Labour conference to the freezing of Icelandic assets, where anti-terrorism law has been used for purposes for which it was not intended.”

Do you trust your government enough to give it every last detail of your personal life if they promise they’ll only use it in terrorist cases? History repeats itself, and so far governments (all of them) have repeatedly done awful things for “greater goals.” Will this additional knowledge give the government(s) better insight, allowing them to make more informed decisions and thus improve overall security of citizens? Maybe, but it doesn’t make me feel better - and it didn’t do poor Winston Smith much good, either. I’ll trade a little less security for a whole lot more of privacy any day of the week, thank you.

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:Google To Microsoft: We’re Serious About PrivacyGoogle Search is Now Even More Private. Is it Enough?The Daily Poll: ISPs Serving Behavioral Ads - Invasion of Privacy?Lacking Anything Better to Say, Microsoft Blasts Google on PrivacyFacebook Pimps Privacy, Calls in CIAThe Daily Poll: Does Google Reader’s “Shared Items” Feature Violate Privacy?The Daily Poll: Do You Care About Search Privacy?

I must admit that when I read and wrote about Google’s private data anonymization policies I took the word “anonymization” at face value. I know that it can mean some very different things, but now that CNET’s Chris Soghoian has actually asked Google the sordid details and debunked the process, I’m quite sure that my and Google’s definition of the word is not the same.

Here’s the reply that Chris got from Google when he asked them to describe what anonymization really means:

“After nine months, we will change some of the bits in the IP address in the logs; after 18 months we remove the last eight bits in the IP address and change the cookie information. We’re still developing the precise technical methods and approach to this, but we believe these changes will be a significant addition to protecting user privacy…. It is difficult to guarantee complete anonymization, but we believe these changes will make it very unlikely users could be identified…. We hope to be able to add the 9-month anonymization process to our existing 18-month process by early 2009, or even earlier.”

Here’s what happens when you do a Google search, in the simplest possible terms: you type in some keywords, Google stores a unique cookie, your IP address, and the words you typed in.

Now, what they mean by anonymization is that after 9 months they remove some of the bits from your IP address. After 18 months, they remove the last part of your IP address. Now, even without taking into consideration the fact that the unique cookie is there all this time, rendering all this anonymization stuff completely useless, this sounds fishy.

Let’s start with the anonymization after 18 months. They remove the last part of the IP address, right? Like, 111.111.111.xxx? That’s a grand total of 255 possible combinations, which means you’re anonymous in the crowd of 254 other people. Gee, thanks Google! That’s the level of anonymity and privacy I want! Even without the cookie, it’s a bit laughable to think that someone who wants to find you will not be able to do so merely by analyzing timestamps, keywords, and the activity from other IP addresses with the same first three octets.

Bear in mind that I am simplifying things quite a bit here and I’m not taking into account the fact that most users today are assigned dynamic IPs by their ISPs. Still, the point here is that Google’s anonymization process - based on the data I have - is laughable and in many cases useless.

After 9 months, however, they remove some of the bits from your IP address. I’d like to know: which ones? If it’s as Chris predicts, 111.111.111.1xx, then this entire anonymization thing is a complete farce. If they remove some of the bits from the first, second or third octet… well, that’s a bit better, but due to the cookie business mentioned above, it’s still all very far from anonymity.

The sad conclusion that can be drawn from all this is that (and again, based on the data I have) Google is not really doing much to protect our privacy; they’re just doing it to shut the critics up. And don’t even get me started on all that other data owned by your ISP, your mobile network operator, your email provider… well, nearly every company that provides you with any online service. Put all those bits and pieces together, and your privacy is thrown out the window. If you want to stay anonymous, you’re going to have to take a lot of extra steps, because the big boys obviously won’t do it for you just yet.

—Related Articles at Mashable - All That’s New on the Web:CNet Deems Ask.com The Most Private Search Engine in the Land7 Useful Firefox Toolbars For Power SurfersGoogle To Launch Google WikiGoogle Maps Hangs Up on Click-to-CallGoogle Checkout Trends Knows Your Shopping HabitsGoogle Gets GhoulishGoogle Calendar Optimized for iPhone

Maybe that little jab about privacy from Microsoft did stir up some changes at Google, because they’ve just announced that they will be anonymizing all IP addresses in their server logs after 9 months, in contrast to the previous 18-month retention policy.

On their official blog, Google is bragging they were “the first leading search engine to announce a policy to anonymize search server logs in the interests of privacy.” But, the truth was, the move came after a quite fierce debate about Google’s privacy issues. Now, they seem to be trying to move ahead of time instead of waiting for yet another salve of criticism about their privacy policies. Unfortunately for them, when it comes to privacy and security, you can never have enough of it, so it’s a neverending battle.

Furthermore, Google is obviously anxious to completely clear the air on the matter, and thus they’ve filed an official response (PDF) to the requests of policymakers and regulators. In short, they’re happy to comply with privacy-related requests, but they’re worried about “the potential loss of security, quality, and innovation that may result from having less data“. Well, from my point of view, I’d rather have ads that aren’t perfectly targeted in exchange for more privacy, but that’s just me. What do you think?

—Related Articles at Mashable - All That’s New on the Web:The Daily Poll: Do You Care About Search Privacy?CNet Deems Ask.com The Most Private Search Engine in the LandGoogle To Microsoft: We’re Serious About PrivacySurprise! Google Still King of Search.Google-DoubleClick: Privacy Groups Now OpposedSearch Engines Must Comply With Strict EU Privacy RulesGoogle and FTC Working on Privacy Standards

WordPress and RSS go together like ham and cheese, but there are always ways to make the combination that much better and make sure you know exactly how well you are doing.  The following 12 plugins will help you add information to your feeds, manage your subscribers and see statistics on how you are performing.

All of these plugins are supposed to work in version 2.5 and above. Also, as always, don’t install all of these unless you want to decrease your blog’s response time.

Additional Feed Content

Ozh’ Better Feed - Allows you to add just about anything you want to your RSS feed entries such as links, ads, copyright information and more.

RSS Footer - Allows you to insert copyright information and link backs to your original posting in your RSS entries.

RSS Includes Pages - Allows you to include pages and not just posts in your RSS feed.

RSSupplement - Allows you to add a number of different things to your feed including comments link, social bookmarking links and more.

Simple Feed Copyright - Adds a simple copyright notice to the bottom of each entry in your RSS feed with a link back to your blog.

RSS Management

FD FeedBurner Plugin - Redirects your main feed, and your comments feed if you choose, through FeedBurner without any need to modify templates.

Feed Key - Allows you to add keys to restrict feeds to registered users.

Feed Wrangler - Allows you to manage your feed with ads, without, make some feeds bypass FeedBurner and more.

RSSless - Allows you to use short codes to remove certain types of content from your feeds such as videos or images that don’t format correctly.

Stats

Feed Subscriber Stats - Allows you to see how many subscribers you have according to FeedBurner in your dashboard instead of going to their site or having to view your own site.

FeedBurner Widget - Allows you to add the FeedBurner chicklet directly from within your admin area.

FeedStats - Tracks feed usage in your dashboard.  Lets you set the number of days to tracks, IPs to exclude and more.

—Related Articles at Mashable - All That’s New on the Web:Wordpress Plugins Directory - Thanks, Wordpress!Best of Mashable: WordPressWordpress 2.3 out on Monday; Now with TagsAutomattic Launches Wordpress Support Network7 Tools For Fighting Spam In WordPress30+ Tools For Working With Wordpress PostsWordpress 2.3 Released

Source:Mashable!

It’s really only been two years. How quickly the digital world changes.

A few weeks ago, I was interviewed by the New York Times for a piece written by Clive Thompson, “Brave New World of Digital Intimacy: I’m So Totally, Digitally Close to You.” I talked with Clive about my experience with social media, my revolt against News Feed, my blogging, and my embrace of Twitter and FriendFeed.

The NYT piece is a thorough piece over 5000 words long, so I’ll try to sum it up with my three main takeaways from the article:

1) Zuckerberg and Facebook created a revolt by privacy advocates by launching Facebook News Feed. And strangely enough, I was the leader of that very revolt.

2) Since the revolt, people have changed how they view privacy and friendships online and have embraced streaming their lives and struggles over platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

3) This change in how we share our lives has had a profound effect on how our friends, audience, and strangers see us and how we see them.

The article is a profound insight into how much privacy and digital friendships have evolved in such a short time span. It’s only been two years and two days since Facebook News Feed launched. And since then, the social media universe has exploded like a big bang: microblogging via Twitter, conversations via FriendFeed, corporate identities via LinkedIn, an explosion of blog readership and RSS, and the evolution of the Facebook platform, live feed, commenting, and the new profile design. What were we doing online two years ago? Think about it.

All of these social media platforms are designed to help us share our lives, our experiences, our thoughts, our beliefs, and our personalities in the digital realm.

Our views on what should be shared, what shouldn’t be shared, and with whom we share our lives are what have changed the most.

When I woke up and saw Facebook News Feed 732 days ago, I was aghast, shocked and upset. I didn’t want every one of my friends to know instantly that I had broken up with my girlfriend or that I had commented on a close friend’s new picture. So I created Students Against Facebook News Feed, told some of my friends and an online message board to spread the word, and by the end of the night, 100,000 people were members of the group. At its peak, the membership was a hair shy of 750,000 users, 8% of the Facebook user base at the time.

The irony of News Feed fueling the protest still boggles my mind.

My followers and I got our wish - the ability to opt out of sending information such as relationship breakups or wall posts. I opted out of everything, thinking this was what I wanted.

Two years later, I’m Twittering, FriendFeeding, and Facebooking like a madman. I didn’t see the value before, but I do now. What the hell happened to my views on privacy and the views of so many others?

In 2006, we were warning our kids not to post pictures online. Now millions of us share our pictures via Flickr photo albums. In 2006, very few marketers saw any reason to be part of Facebook or MySpace. Now companies are hiring people just for social media marketing. In 2006, most of us sent our thoughts via private IMs, Facebook messages, or email. Now we want thousands of people to read our thoughts and give us feedback.

Here’s the major change in the last two years: We are more comfortable sharing our lives and thoughts instantly to thousands of people, close friends and strangers alike. The development of new technology and the rocking of the boat by Zuckerberg has led to this change.

We don’t tweet about our sex lives (usually) and we keep personal family matters private (usually), but we are receptive to asking for opinions and feedback online or commenting on the victories our friends post about through News Feed. Humans as a species are always curious about the lives of their friends. The last two years have been major steps towards filling that curiosity information gap and exposing us to new friends, many of which we’ve never met in person.

We’ve grown more accustomed to sharing our lives with more people as the technology has allowed it. I’m not afraid to post a quirky bio or my thoughts on the political campaign (I used to fear it being used against me). The entire digital world does it now. MySpace has news feed. Twitter is growing at stellar rates. Email is even seen as a dinosaur by some of our youth.

The thing we’ve realized is that we still have control over our privacy. It’s called choice. If you’re uncomfortable with speaking to people digitally, you can decline to sign up for those social media websites. Or you update them differently than others. I can either block relationship updates from News Feed or, in my case, I just never update about it.

News Feed truly launched a revolution that requires us to stand back to appreciate. Privacy has not disappeared, but become even easier to control - what I want to share, I can share with everyone. What I want to keep private stays in my head.

All of this in just two years. Just imagine how social media will change our society in two more.

I look forward to sharing my life and my experience with even more people. I’m not afraid of losing my privacy anymore. You shouldn’t be, either.

—Related Articles at Mashable - All That’s New on the Web:Facebook Gets Egg on its Face, Changes News Feed FeatureFacebook Pimps Privacy, Calls in CIAWould You Vote on a Facebook News Feed Item?Google To Microsoft: We’re Serious About PrivacyFacebook Newsfeeds Are Escaping to Bloglines & BeyondFacebook to Launch Advertising Through News Feed - WTH?Hi5 Gets a News Feed of its Own

A couple of days ago Microsoft fired off a couple of shots in Google’s general direction, with their chief privacy strategist Peter Cullen claiming that, when it comes to privacy, “Google is where Microsoft was seven or 10 years ago.”

Now, ZDNet.com.au has a response from a Google Australia spokesperson, who says “There are different ways of deploying privacy awareness within a company.” Refusing to play the numbers game, the spokesperson did not directly answer how many people they have working on privacy-related issues (Cullen said that Microsoft has over 40 full-time people over 400 part-time people invested in privacy). “Rather than a single, isolated privacy department, here at Google we embed the importance of privacy into our products and systems from engineers through to executives, guided by trained privacy professionals,” he said.

“Isolated privacy department” sounds like a mild jab back at Microsoft, but I doubt this will turn out to be another flamewar between the two companies. It’ll leave both of them more time to focus on actually doing more about privacy instead of talking about it.

—Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Lacking Anything Better to Say, Microsoft Blasts Google on PrivacyGoogle-DoubleClick: Privacy Groups Now OpposedGoogle’s Crumbling Answer to Privacy Groups: Break It Up.Google and FTC Working on Privacy StandardsMicrosoft to Launch Google Analytics CompetitorCNet Deems Ask.com The Most Private Search Engine in the LandGermany Doesn’t Like the Idea of Google-DoubleClick