Internet-based applications and services

By providing access to a Web-based community mapping tool and data, World Bank and Google are aiming to improve the ability of African and other developing countries to monitor public services and respond to disasters.  read more »

A Swiss court has said that Google is breaching citizens’ right to privacy with its Street View service.  read more »

Web-based services are frustrating law enforcement agency's ability to have real-time wiretaps, an FBI lawyer says.  read more »

More than a quarter of web users spend more time online communicating with their friends than in person, says Yazino.  read more »

Mobile phone outfit INQ Mobile has launched two low-cost smartphones that feature tight integration with social-networking site Twitter, it said on Tuesday.  read more »

Google has agreed to delete some of the original, unblurred photographs captured by its German Street View service, ceding to demands by Hamburg's Data Protection Office.  read more »

Skype is developing a VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) software client for Nokia's top-of-the-range N97 smartphone, executives of both companies said Tuesday.  read more »

To commemorate the fifth birthday of Facebook, the ultimate social networking site, here are five reasons it has changed the face of Internet communication forever.  read more »

E-mail was the Internet's first killer application, but now it appears to be dying out -- at least among teenagers.  read more »

During a recent re-run of a famous Simpsons' episode "Treehouse of Horror XI," I burst out laughing when, in the opening montage of various horror spoofs, Lisa Simpson walks out the door of the family home dressed as Marilyn Munster with a book on Copyright Law tucked under her arm. Shortly thereafter, a vigilante mob descends on the family and slays them all, except for Lisa who escapes. I had no idea intellectual property protection extended to immunity from death-by-pitchfork from unruly mobs!  read more »