The reason for this huge growth is the new threats and malware that keep cropping up on an almost daily basis. An anti-virus product of today may prove to be inefficient tomorrow, creating a new demand. In fact, most vendors find it difficult to keep up with the different viruses that keep surfacing.

This is very clear from the fact that in spite of the numerous anti-virus products out there, there still are so many security incidents that take place, including high-profile ones. The Identity Theft Resource Center, an organization that tracks incidents where confidential information has been compromised, recorded that these incidents have doubled in the first quarter of 2008.

It is also seen that the market that is most affected by these security issues is the small and medium business sector. The problem with these businesses is their small budgets. They cannot afford to have the resources needed to implement and manage a high-security environment, with intricate anti-virus systems in place.

Now, with the technological advances, there seems to be a hope for them, in the form of Security-as-a-Service (SaaS). SaaS is nothing more than outsourcing of security.

The new concept of offering security services similar to how software services are offered, by hosting them “in the cloud” and providing businesses a web interface for interaction with the applications, is being seen as a great security solution. Earlier, anti-virus software had to be installed on the systems inside the company and either managed from within or remotely controlled by a service provider.

Subscribers to the SaaS system can now take advantage of content provided continuously, which helps companies manage their anti-virus systems much more efficiently and easily than ever before. Companies no longer have to waste their time trying to keep track of the new anti-virus products out there or spending huge amounts of money on the latest systems.

The SaaS model delivers end-point security in a wonderful way and the focus in the future is going to be on anti-virus, prevention of data leakage, end-point encryption etc. Companies, both small businesses and large ones, that start using the SaaS security alternative will be at a huge advantage and experience the highest levels of security that their companies look for.

Detecting and preventing targeted attacks is the main danger faced by most companies. All these risk factors are alleviated with the use of SaaS. No longer do they need to worry about upgrades that take time to implement and leave a gap in the security with a high probability of getting infected, and they do not need to put in the effort to detect new malware.

SaaS is being looked at as a complete end-point, web, email and network protection solution, leveraging the power of cloud computing, that saves time, effort and cost for companies; both small and big. It blocks all hacker attacks, viruses, spyware, and also identifies thieves from the servers. Anti-virus could be a thing of the past very soon.

I can sense the disbelief writ large on your face and I admit nothing like that is happening.

But we are almost there….

There is this revolutionary new software that has the capacity to understand questions and return specific, tailored answers in a way that was never done before. This software is promising to shake up the Internet.

Is this new software better than the search engine giant, Google? Well, some do go to the extent of saying that the new system may just put Google and the other search engines in the shade.

Harvard University has taken the first step towards what many consider the Internet’s Holy Grail – a global information store that can understand languages and responds to them just as a person does.

Computer experts are excited at the prospect of the new search engine being evolutionary. They are sure that Wolfram Alpha, as it is called, has the potential of becoming as popular as Google but serving a different purpose.

Wolfram Alpha is not only programmed to give the correct and straight answer to a question but will also bring back a ‘neat’ page of related information. For example, if the question is, “How high is Mount Everest?” apart from the answer, it will also show the geographical location, other mountains, nearby towns etc. with the relevant charts and graphs. If you ask it to compare the height of two mountains, it will do that most accurately.

Wolfram’s inventor, Stephen Wolfram from the United States reveals that all the information is assessed by experts first. Wolfram’s team manually enters, and in certain cases automatically pulls in, masses of factual data in different fields, as well as models and algorithms for performing computations with this data. It allows anyone to construct their own computations just by asking questions. This eradicates any doubts or concerns on the accuracy of the information provided, which is the case with other sites like Wikipedia and the like. This software is based on Stephen’s Mathematika software and works by collecting the knowledge on the internet as well as some private databases.

One glaring difference between Google and Wolfram Alpha is that it demands citation when using any of the material from its results, whereas Google lets users do with the information “as they please.”

The long term plan of Wolfram is to serve as a knowledge engine, by providing a single reliable source for all systematic knowledge, where people can find definitive answers of maximum clarity to their factual queries.

People saying that it will shadow Google may not make much sense as it is incomparable to Google. Not that it is any better or worse, but what it offers is completely different. Google searches through web pages and brings back documents that may contain the answers, while Wolfram Alpha is a monstrous database of knowledge, which uses “clever algorithms and heuristics” to compute answers to a wide-range of questions by tapping into its enormous data collection.

Just try and understand the enormity of what Wolfram Alpha does. It computes the answers. It does not simply contain huge amounts of questions and answers entered manually, not does it search for answers in its database of facts. It actually understands what the person is asking and computes answers to specific questions. This makes it much smarter than Google and totally different too.

It works more like an enormous and accurate fact sheet, with the ability to give facts, like whether the Eiffel tower is taller than Petronas towers. You can even check out the nutritional content, including calories of any amount of any food. Mortgage payments can be calculated, equations and formulas can be solved, measurements can be converted, comparisons made and a whole lot of other intelligent and important stuff. Data such as weather and financial are streamed in dynamically, while other data is updated as it becomes available.

Wolfram Alpha is more of a go-to search tool for particular types of knowledge finding and will not be a place to find documents or articles. It belongs more in the toolkits of teachers and students. Although, currently, its strongest areas are where knowledge is more readily quantitative, experts at Wolfram note that they are working through all the content areas that are covered by handbooks, reference libraries and others.

One of the most beautiful features is that result pages can be downloaded onto your desktop as Live Mathematika pages or PDFs. Secondly, all the source information (Web-based and print) checked for that topic is included in link form at the bottom of the page. This allows further research if needed and for determining the accuracy of the results.

Wolfram Alpha could be huge and it remains to be seen if this electronic brain is the “answer” to the future. It would be interesting to see how smart Wolfram Alpha actually is or how much smarter it can get. Will it make mistakes? Since it is in the initial phase, what forms of knowledge will it handle in the future? These questions remain to be answered. But one thing that is sure is that you would still need Google to shop for a new house, find content on the Web or look up a romantic getaway for two. Wolfram does not understand love! But it does understand way better than any other search engine, the importance of factual data.

Of course, the only (legit) way to make your following grow is to make it worth it: post great updates people would love to follow. Naturally, this takes time and effort and not everyone has the patience to do it the right way.

Hence the popularity of other ("spammy") methods to make your following number grow, and here I am listing the 3 of them.

Don’t get me wrong I am not going to tell you why it is unethical or bad to use them: who am I to educate you? (Besides, I have played with all of them just for the sake of an experiment, so I am kind of guilty myself.)

This post is why those tactics are ineffective and even dangerous, but it’s for you to decide is you want to use them or not.

1. Automatic Following Communities:

They work the following way:

• You give it your Twitter login info and allow it to access your account;
• Sometimes you need to specify your interests (but this seldom helps any targeting);
• After that you just start getting hundreds of mutual friends day by day.

Why is this ineffective?

The communities just make no point to me. All you are getting is a number, none of those so-called "followers" ever actually follow you: and you end up being heard by no one having thousands of followers. What’s the point?

2. Twitter Auto-Adding Scripts

This works the following way:

• You install a Greasemonkey script;
• You navigate to any Twitter user’s list of friends;
• You activate the script and it followers all the user’s friends;
• Many of those Tweeple will follow you back.

Why is this ineffective?

Except for often being irrelevant, this is good way to get your account suspended for exceeding the following limit.

3. Advertise Your Twitter Profile

This works as follows:

• You pay for your profile to be shown on some Twitter-related sites;
• A banner is shown to people and they click through and follow if they feel like.

Why is this ineffective?

It just doesn’t work! No one ever clicks and even if someone does, no one follows. Look at the diagram I got for buying 1000 impressions there (the green line represents those who clicked):

The conclusion?

It’s all comes to where we have started: Twitter math is NOT simple and it’s NOT about the numbers. Actually, it is NOT about math. The main thing is if you are really followed or not. 100 "real" dedicated followers who added you for merit are worth thousands!

Post image by Abulic Monkey

My story with Reddit was very common: I was first only browsing and reading without really participating – and I found it exciting.

Then I registered and started commenting – that’s when I started noticing some weird things happening.

I participated more actively and just stopped paying attention to strange things – I thought that were some glitches.

Then I came to realize what and why was happening – and that was a relief, so I decided to share it with you.

Note: if you think my assumptions are wrong and you can offer a better explanation, please comment – I am open to discussion

• Why is my submission nowhere to be found in the “New” section of the respective category?
• Why are my comments invisible to everyone except myself?
• Why can’t I see my page on the front page?
• Why does my submission suddenly start getting plenty of (*rude*) comments?
• Is there any “unwritten” etiquette on Reddit?
• Why did that story of mine get so many downvotes?
• Why don’t I see all the available categories when submitting the story?
• Is there any Reddit terms I should be aware of?

1. Why is my submission nowhere to be found in the “New” section of the respective category?

It happens quite often and quite naturally in this case your submission ends up being never noticed by the community.

One possible reason is that it was so quickly reported and deleted that you didn’t even have time to see it popping up. This may happen if your submission was suspected of spamming the community or happened to be added to the irrelevant category. What you can do about it:

• Try re-phrasing the title to make it sound absolutely “spam-less”;
• Try re-submitting to a more relevant category (here’s the list of all available sub-reddits for you to choose from).

Another reason is that you are just banned from Reddit but you will never get notified about that. So each and every of your submissions are flagged and they will never be shown to other members of the site.

2. Why are my comments invisible to everyone except myself?

The reason: you are banned, my friend. Reddit way of banning is really unique (and can be treated differently).

I call it “ghost banning” – you think you still exist but no one can see you any more. You still come daily, vote for stories and leave comments but your efforts are invisible to the community – because you no more exist, sorry.

3. Why can’t I see my page on the front page (despite the fact that my friends see it on the front page or my site live traffic meter is showing people are coming fro Reddit home page)?

Reddit algorithm is a tricky thing: various registered users may see something different – and most probably it depends on the set of “sub-reddits” each user is subscribed to. In short, if you are not subscribed to “Business” you may not see the submission from this sub-reddit (especially if it didn’t get enough votes).

4. Why does my submission suddenly start getting plenty of (*rude*) comments?

Congratulations, my friend, you are on the front page (even if you can’t see it there – see #3).

And sorry if Reddit fans get offended, but many of those comments left are really *rude* (hey, I am trying to be both impartial and polite here, so you are free to picture any word between ** signs you believe to belong there).

5. Is there any “unwritten” etiquette on Reddit?

Well, actually it is written and even has a name which is Reddiquette – it can be seen here and discussed here. A few things you might be surprised to see officially allowed are:

• Submitting duplicate stories. While Reddit rules encourage you to use Reddit search feature to look for similar stories, Reddit allows you to “try to submit” the same story again (“Feel free to post something again if you feel that the earlier posting didn’t get the attention it deserved and you think you can do better. “). Besides that, you cannot “complain when a duplicate story finds more success than the original”.
• Self-promoting to some reasonable extent (“Because reddit is a meritocracy, old content and some self-promotion are okay…“).

But the good thing about community-driven sites is that they are organic and laws are really subjective. That said, if you follow all the rules (or think you are), it doesn’t mean you won’t get down votes, or rip the community off. So the best advice is: just be yourself, be sincere and honest.

6. Why did that story of mine get so many downvotes?

Officially, Reddit disallows members to down-vote the story only because they disagree with it. One is free to down-vote only if he or she believes the story adds no value to the community. But generally, people downvote anything and everything on Reddit – and they are governed by various (sometimes unclear) reasons.

So if your submission gets many downvotes (as well as upvotes), it doesn’t necessarily mean it was bad. Check any story on the front page (that got hundreds of votes and many comments) – you will see that despite it clearly adds much value, it has received hundreds of downvotes.

7. Why don’t I see all the available categories when submitting the story?

This one is easy but I remember asking myself this very question when starting. If you are trying to submit the story from home page (or using the button on the source page), you will only be able to see those sub-reddits you are subscribed to). By default, you are subscribed to the following categories:

If you mean to submit to another sub-reddit, you have two choices:

• Subscribe to that sub-reddit;
• Navigate to the sub-reddit page (http://www.reddit.com/r/cat-name/) and hit “Submit” button from there.

8. Is there any Reddit terms I should be aware of?

• Linkjacking – linking to stories that add nothing extra to the discussion.
• Dupes – stories covering the same news or adding nothing new to discussion.
• Karmawhoring – submitting stories or commenting just for the sake of improving your Reddit karma;
• RTFTBYV – Read The F#cking Thread Before You Vote.
• Add your own? (please comment and I will add it here)

Final note: please read the official FAQ here.

Post image source: Reddit blog

Facebook seems to land itself into trouble again and again, with lawsuits being filed against it from all corners.

The fight with 02138 ended in a fiasco with the ruling going against Facebook. Let us go back and see what happened. It all began with an article in 02318, an independent magazine geared towards Harvard alumni.

Mark Zuckerberg, as you would know, is the CEO of Facebook, which he founded in 2004. The controversy began when 02138 magazine published an article named “Poking Facebook,” giving a detailed profile of Facebook’s early days, which was the pet project of Mark Zuckerberg, who was then an undergraduate. The author, Luke O’Brien, who was also a Harvard alumnus, dug up old court documents, letters and web site content that painted a cold picture of Zuckerberg as arrogant and an individual with no qualms and willing to do anything to achieve his goals. The documents that were revealed to the public included a huge amount of personal information about Zuckerberg along with his parents’ address, his girlfriend’s address and his Social Security Number.

Even Zuckerberg’s personal journal was not spared. An excerpt from the journal that showed him in bad light was, “I almost want to put some of these faces next to pictures of farm animals and have people vote on which is more attractive,” wrote Zuckerberg, talking about some of the students’ pictures from Harvard. These comments showed him as harsh.

This article understandably got Facebook fuming and legal notices were served to 02138 asking for the documents to be pulled emergently. Facebook also wanted the documents related to a legal battle against it over the origin of the company to be removed immediately. Most of these documents were said to be obtained by a reporter from a clerk at the District Court.

The article’s main focus was a lawsuit against Facebook by ConnectU. The connection with ConnectU began when Facebook was young in 2004, when the founders of ConnectU, another social networking site sued Mark Zuckerberg, a fellow Harvard student, of stealing ideas from their social networking site. Mark Zuckerberg was said to have stolen these ideas while working with ConnectU in 2003.

Facebook fought back and the PR head Brandee Barket sent an email saying, “We filed the motions to let the court know that its orders were being violated. One reason the court ordered certain documents’ protection was to prevent exactly what has happened: misusing documents and taking documents out of context to sling mud. We want to be clear on what these motions are about. These are not about an article the magazine has written, these are about documents that were protected by a court that have been misused.”

She also said, “Mark Zuckerberg and many others built Facebook through their own ingenuity and hard work, and they are focused on building it further. It is unfortunate but not surprising that others falsely claim credit for it after its enormous success.”

The Executive Editor of 02138 replied, “We believe that we have a legal right to post them online and that you have a legal right to read them. Meantime, spread the word that a company which plans to collect and sell personal information about 50 million people doesn’t want one magazine to do the same about Facebook and its founder Mark Zuckerberg.”

Unfortunately, in spite of Facebook’s attempts at claiming that the magazine has no right to reveal personal documents, the court favored 02138.

As far as ConnectU goes, on June 25, 2008, the lawsuit was settled and Facebook, as part of the settlement had to agree to give an unknown amount of cash to ConnectU as well as some stock in Facebook. In return Facebook would receive all the ConnectU stock owned by the founders.

ConnectU then made an appeal saying Facebook is misrepresenting its value. Facebook’s value was put at $15 billion when Microsoft took $240 million stake in Facebook last year, but Facebook claimed that the valuation was only pertaining to the Microsoft deal and that the actual valuation is $3-4 billion. ConnectU did not want to part with its stock until that issue was cleared, because that will affect the amount of money they received. In spite of the appeal, In August 2008, the U.S. District Court ordered ConnectU to stick to the original settlement and transfer its stock to Facebook.

That should put to rest this lawsuit, but controversy is Facebook’s favorite companion, and there is another one waiting in the wings. Facebook sued StudiVZ on July 18, 2008, with an allegation that StudiVZ copied everything from its look to services. StudiVZ denies the claims and awaits judgment.

With so many advantages that it affords, it is no surprise that people overlook any drawbacks it may have, such as the security issues. Wi-Fi networks that are unencrypted or open can be easily monitored by others and used to view all the personal information transmitted over the network, unless some sort of security, such as a VPN or a secure web page is used.

In order to protect people’s interests and make them aware of the security aspect of Wi-Fi networks, the FBI has recently issued a warning that the Wi-Fi hotspots or the wireless internet networks are easy prey to hackers.

These wireless internet networks are found at airports, book stores, malls, supermarkets, school campuses, coffee shops and several such places. These networks are installed for the use of residents of different localities; however, security at these places is very low, with no registration or passwords required to use the service. Even emails and instant messages are not encrypted.

This sort of a setting is like a full-fledged feast to a hacker, who can access and steal this private information from anywhere in the world.

Experts say that it is almost like leaving the doors to a house filled with valuables, open. They say that installing firewalls is the first and foremost thing people should do for their computers. However, firewalls do not protect information that is sent to and from a computer, such as instant messages and emails. They only protect information that is available on the computer. It is advisable not to use the wireless network for emailing or sending messages, unless the wireless network has provided access to VPN (virtual private network.) VPN is a highly secure network that encrypts all the information that is sent from and to the computer.

The FBI, keeping people’s interest in mind revealed the following tips on how to keep hackers at bay.

Users must ensure that their laptop security is up-to-date with firewalls, anti-spyware and anti-virus software. Spyware is a program that collects information from your computer secretly. This software is used by some companies who collect marketing data on people that log on to their website, and is also used by hackers.

When on a Wi-Fi network, it is not a good idea to access financial information, such as logging into banks etc., because if a hacker gets hold of this information, it can prove to be dangerous.

When logging to a site, check out the address bar to see if that is an authentic website. Hackers usually set up fake web pages that look like the original website and unsuspecting visitors type in their log-in details. If the address bar looks different from the others, then it is wise to just close the website without typing anything on it.

Another mistake people make is to use the same password for all their online accounts, because it is easy to remember.

Users also must ensure that their computer does not log on to a wireless network automatically. This can be done by adjusting the internet security settings on the computer.

A good precaution is also to turn the computer off when not in use, so that it does not pick up any wireless signals.

FBI says that taking precautions by following all these tips is the only way one can avoid being hacked. Any sort of carelessness could lead to major problems later.

There is nothing smart about using a computer, smartness lies in safeguarding your information on the computer.

However, the quintessential mobile has just become more endearing and turned our savior. From now on, it will also call the doctor in case of an emergency and its owner is unwell.

Latest research shows that the mobile technology has been given the capability to call the doctor when the owner of the phone is in danger. This works for patients with chronic health problems, such as people who are at risk for a diabetic collapse or a heart attack. With sensors implanted inside the bodies of such people, doctors will be able to monitor them remotely.

If the “in-body network” of sensors recorded that the person had suddenly collapsed, then an alert would be automatically sent to a surgery or a hospital nearby. These network sensors monitor the patients’ moves and pick up health signs that can prove to be dangerous, such as high blood sugar levels or an attack of asthma, and send an alert via a portable monitor or a home hub.

This research is being carried out at Portsmouth as well as many universities in the UK.

They say that these networks may use a spectrum that is allotted to be used by these sensor networks. The main belief behind this technology is that radio spectrum can be used in many ways to help people.

Scientists say that this is not only useful in cases of emergencies but can also be programmed to detect if a patient failed to take his medicines. A pill box containing the patient’s medicines would send an automatic reminder, and if the pills are not taken within a certain time, an alarm would go off and a message would be sent to the patient’s family or doctor. Scientists believe that this technology can be very useful for older people who live alone and have the tendency to forget even important things such as taking their medicine on time. Research is going on to add the required communication technology to these devices, most probably using Bluetooth or wireless local area networks.

There is also research being done on “on-body monitors,” which are small devices that people could wear to check their vital health signals, such as their blood pressure and pulse. They can also be used to detect heart conditions, diabetes, asthma and the device would send signals using a wireless technology such as Bluetooth, from the body to the portable monitors, such as a mobile phone or a home hub.

There are also going to be wireless food content scanners that could change the way we shop, as it helps people scan the content of the food wrapper easily, thus ensuring that their dietary requirements are being met. This can be useful for people who have food allergies, such as allergy for nuts as well as diabetics.

All these are still in the initial stages of research and some of these technologies may come into use in the next five to ten years. Finland has already developed a mobile phone that has a nutritional scanner and a similar technology could be in the UK market in the next five years.

Scientists are also looking at another angle where GPS and wireless technologies can ensure better safety levels when driving. Intelligent transport systems that are being developed by car manufacturers will allow cars to communicate with other cars and send alerts. In case of a collision, the emergency services would be called by the car system automatically. This technology may also apply brakes if the car is getting too close to another vehicle. Paramedics at the scene of the accident would carry a small computer with them that would pick up wireless messages from the bracelet in the watch of the driver. This way, the paramedics can gain access to the driver’s medical history.

As beneficial as this technology may prove to be, experts are waiting to see the impact it has on personal privacy, whether the transfer of personal data is appropriate for the benefits. Their opinion is that anything that can help a human being is worth working on.

Once this technology is ready for the market, we are sure to find many screaming pill boxes, at least until people learn to calm them down.

Scientists have always been fascinated about building an electronic tongue or a robotic tasting device for use in the improvement of food safety and improving food quality. But before robots can learn to taste food, they will have to chew it first.

French scientist, Gaelle Arvisenet and his team have developed an artificial mouth that can chew apples just like you and me. In fact, most people these days, due to increasing dental problems caused by consumption of processed foods, may not be able to chew properly, but the artificial mouth has firm and strong teeth and it can chew hard foods with ease.

Researches in Nantes, France, have created an artificial mouth that according to them, “Mimics all the first vital steps of human digestion, which are chewing, releasing saliva and breaking down food.”

Researchers say that this could be used as a robotic taste tester to perhaps improve the flavor of food.

Previously, there had been artificial mouths designed, but they were only capable of testing soft foods or for testing the teeth of a robot. However, this is the first time anyone has done anything that relates to hard foods and human digestion.

Digestion starts in the mouth and chewing is an integral part of digestion. This is the reason we were told to count our chews when we were young. Teeth begin the digestion process by breaking down food into small pieces mechanically. If food is not chewed, bigger chunks get into the stomach and undigested food can feed bacteria, causing serious problems.

There are several factors involved in the release of flavor and aromatic compounds in the human mouth. Everything from the chewing, the rate of breakdown of food as well as the temperature, affect the flavor and smell of the food before it gets swallowed.

In order to perfect this mimicking act, researchers had to create a machine that could do most of the above.

This “munching device,” as it is called follows all the steps of human digestion process. It is sized much bigger than the normal human mouth, in fact it is five times bigger. Using an electrical element, this mouth is kept at a constant temperature of 37 degrees C. The internal surfaces are coated with a plastic used for implants and which is chemically resistant.

The top of the artificial mouth chamber, which is the ceiling and the bottom, which is the floor, are attached to different speed motors. Food is placed on the revolving floor of this “mouth,” while the spiky teeth on the ceiling move up and down, crushing the food on the floor. The rotation and compression action enables the same process the food undergoes in the human mouth. The whole process is made more realistic with the addition of artificial saliva which comes through a pipe at the base of the chamber. Helium is also supplied through another tube and it flows though the mouth to provide the effect of breathing.

Researchers studied apple chewing by the device as compared to the humans, and the pulp from both was studied and it was found that the results were very close.

Arvisenet said, “Our aim was not to reproduce the human mouth conditions exactly, but to reproduce the result of mastication.”

With devices like this, the future may see humans getting lazier and using devices to chew for them.

For those that are not aware of what BigTable is, it has been described as a distributed storage system for structured data. It is a database system designed to handle huge amounts of date (petabytes) across thousands of community servers.

The BigTable has been built on Google File System (GFS) and more than sixty of Google’s projects store date in it, including Google Earth, Google Finance, Google Maps, Google Analytics, Blogger, Orkut, YouTube and web indexing. We can understand the vastness and capability of this system, if we can for a moment imagine the amount of data these projects could be playing with.

The original intention behind Google creating its own database is to save on the heavy costs and avail of the benefits of better access and total control over its data. BigTable has proved to be most reliable and successfully provided high applicability, high performance and scalability over the past few years. It has turned out to be a great high-end solution for the above Google projects, handling huge amounts of data, taking care of bulk processing in the backend and real-time data serving.

Although, the BigTable is like a database and resembles one, it provides a different interface. While a full relational data model is not supported by the BigTable; it provides clients dynamic control over data layout and format. It allows them to control the locality of the data and also decide whether they want to serve data from a disk or out of memory.

As of now, BigTable is only used by Google, although access is given by Google to its users, as part of the Google App Engine. According to sources, Google is planning on making BigTable available as a web service to other developers, as it is now sure of the extremely high functionality.

The BigTable launch by Google is being seen as a competition to Amazon Web services (AWS.)

Amazon Web Services provides developers access to a powerful suite of web services that allows them to store huge amounts of data and information, gather information from the net, through Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) for cloud processing power, Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) for cloud storage, Amazon Associates Web Service and Alexa web services, among others. Alexa also includes web search, web information, thumb nails and top site ranking services. Amazon only charges its customers for the storage and bandwidth they use and nothing more.

Although, there is no mention of the pricing of Google’s web services, since it is very clearly perceived to be in competition with Amazon’s AWS, assumptions are ripe that Google will go the Amazon way.

With Google’s penchant for doing things perfectly and scoring very high on the reliability factor with its users, if released to the public, this is surely going to be a benefit for thousands of people looking for reliable web services and willing to pay high dollars for the convenience.

Web 2.0
Web 2.0 has become the universally accepted term for the socially modified internet. Websites that are “Web 2.0” integrate user feedback and commentary and work to connect users with each other and other applications and visitors from around the world. Bookmarking, wikis, blogs, and commentary are all heavy aspects of Web 2.0. But just as you are getting comfortable with the new social internet, Industry heavy hitters have gone and introduced Web 3.0.

Web 3.0
It is believed that Web 3.0 will be an early form of the semantic web. Currently, under Web 2.0, users can find all kinds of information on websites and share that information with others. Under 3.0, that same information will be assembled, organized and shared with other computers. Pages and content that can currently only be read by humans will be easily read by machines and bots. The data will then be used for any number of things.

The Massive Database
Already internet users are working toward a single database of information. Social sites encourage users to fill in the blanks on many topics and share their experiences and preferences. These sites compile the information for other users, but currently are difficult to navigate for non-human entities.

For example, del.icio.us accumulates book marks from all over the internet. It can then assemble those bookmarks for others using tags and topics. But other sites such as Similicio.us and Delexa.com go one step further. They use those human edited book marks, but arrange them in a way that people can read along with other computers. (Similicio.us finds related websites through del.icio.us, and Delexa uses del.icio.us to categorize Alexa rankings.)

These sites require that programs be able to communicate with del.icio.us and not only read the coding, but understand and use it as well. Examples such as these are just the beginning of the movement some believe to be the step between the internet we know today and the fully semantic web of the future.

Web Services
As more sites begin to use APIs or standardized URLs, the more connected data will become. Already sites that want to be working toward semantics are scraping data from other websites to help build giant, interconnected databases. While this is questionable legally, many feel the end justify the means. Someday, it is reasonable to assume that the internet will be home to more than socialization and information – it will be the home of true artificial intelligence.