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Archive for August 5th, 2007

Crowdsourcing the google way

05 Aug

Remember googles innovative image labeler idea ? They seem to be doing it again with getting the masses to build maps for Google in india. India unlike US and many other western countries doesn’t have well documented maps for its streets. Eicher is the only organization I know about which actively maps and provides printed maps in india.

Here is what Braddy Forrest has to say…

“Google has been sending GPS kits to India that enable locals to make more detailed maps of their area. After the data has been uploaded and then verified against other participant’s data it becomes a part of the map. The process is very reminiscent of what Open Street Map, the community map-building project, has been doing. The biggest difference is that the data (to my knowledge) is owned by Google and is not freely available back to the community like it is with OSM.”

 
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Posted in google

 

The “me too” phenomenon and Identity theft

05 Aug

A very interesting article from Muhammad Saleem on the “me too” phenomenon. My problem with this phenomenon is that this might make stealing identity easier than before. In this new web 2.0 world, if I need your passwords or mother’s maiden name, all I have to do is build an interesting application which you would like to try out at least once. Once I have your password or other key information (which most likely be the same across all your applications), I can shut the side down and do other interesting things. I’m an open advocate of OpenID which attacks some of the issues, but its no silver bullet.
More from Muhammad’s blog..

“Everyday a new company announces a ‘new’ product which is nothing more than the old product with slight modifications or a few small additional features. This mentality is not only bad for users but also for marketers and even the startups.

A prime example of this phenomenon can be witnessed by comparing Dodgeball, Twitter, Jaiku, Tumblr, Pownce and a plethora of other microblogging tools. 90% of the services these different tools offer are the same, and the 10% that differentiates them is not significant enough to make most users switch.”

 
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Posted in hacking