Google Earth Digitizes Genocide

Access enables rights, but is not a right itself: Vinton G. Cerf

(NEWSER) - With Facebook and Twitter fueling protests across the Arab world, many wonder: Is the Internet a human or civil right? No, declares Google VP Vinton G. Cerf firmly. Courts in various countries have declared it so, but the UN stopped short, calling the Internet "an indispensable tool for realizing a range of human rights." That's exactly what it is, Cerf writes in the New York Times : "Technology is an enabler of rights, not a right itself," "a means to an end, not … an end in itself." More»

Blogs report conflicting information on 'Google Circles'

(NEWSER) - Google will soon launch a social network, blogs are saying, and it may be called Google Circles. The tech blog The Next Web first reported the news Friday, noting that the product would launch at Google’s I/O conference in May; ReadWriteWeb followed with an assertion that the new service would be announced at South By Southwest. Google knocked down the latter claim, but refused to “comment on rumor and speculation” about the service itself, the Telegraph reports. More»

Esquire : Sites that were before their time

(NEWSER) - Everything old is new again, especially on the Web. Some of today's tech darlings owe a lot to websites of years past. Here are some of Esquire's 15 favorite, and mostly kaput, Web 1.0 pioneers:

1. Dodgeball (2000) "A location-based social network for mobile devices, and the Internet's gift to stalkers," says Esquire. Today's Foursquare was co-created by one of its founders.

Actress slams president's Darfur policy in Newsweek

(NEWSER) - Angelina Jolie “hates” President Obama so much that she and partner Brad Pitt “get in nasty arguments all the time” about him, sources tell Us —and she lets a bit of her distaste shine through in a piece she wrote for Newsweek on Darfur. “When the administration says it intends to work to 'improve the lives of the people of Darfur,' I would like to know what that means, besides the obvious point that their lives could hardly get worse.” More»

We're not a newspaper killer, says CEO

(NEWSER) - Google not only wants big news organizations such as the New York Times to survive, it has a "moral responsibility" to help them do so, says CEO Eric Schmidt. He tells Search Engine Land "there will always be a market for people who read the newspaper on a train going to New York City." But that market won't be anywhere near enough to sustain the industry, which must adapt. In a decade or so, for example, he predicts that most people will be getting personalized news from mobile devices. More»