Google has launched a browser based virtual world environment called Lively. Lively lets users create and custom design worlds and avatars and interact with their friends.
The worlds you create can be embeded in your webpage. For now only Windows users with either Firefox or Internet Explorer can see them, but support for Mac and Linux will be available soon.
So far the main difference from Second Life is that users can’t move and interact in a single online world. Several pre-made worlds are available that users can improve (add or move furniture etc.) or create new ones alltogether.
A brief presentational video is available :
If you can’t see this video click here.
Dday, also known as “Download Day” is an attempt to set a world record for the most software downloads in 24 hours and will occur on Firefox 3 launch day. Download Day will coincide with the general availability of Firefox 3. The clock will start ticking when Firefox 3 goes out the door! There isn’t a definitive date for the launch of Firefox 3 yet, but it should be in June.
Some sources say this day will be June 17th. When exactly it is only the folks @ Mozilla know. Anyway you can help this attempt by pledging to download Firefox 3 the day it’s released by Mozilla.
All you have to do is go to the Spread Firefox 3 website and pledge (over 1.2 million pledges were already submitted by the time this article was written), and when Firefox will be released you will be noticed by email that Firefox 3 is available for download.
You can find out everything about this initiative on the Spread Firefox 3 website.
You can also spread the word about this initiative by visiting the “Get involved” section of the website.
If you don’t own a website / blog, sharing (Digg, StumbleUpon, del.icio.us, Reddit etc) this article would also constitute as “getting involved”.
MTV and HP are recruiting designers from all over the world to join the Engine Room (reality show), a creative space where four teams (Europe, the US, Asia and Latin America) compete for a chance to win a top prize of $400,000 US Dollars (that’s right 400k) in cash plus a load of HP gear.
The show films in New York starting 17th of July, and lasts for four weeks. Although it’s a reality show, it’s also a great chance for new talent to stand out from the crowd - and $400,000 is a decent kick start to any career!
The briefing about the show :
Microsoft has made an official proposal to acquire Yahoo! for the sum of $44.6 Billion in cash and stock at a price of $31 per share which represents a 62 percent premium for shareholders.
Here’s a quote from the official Microsoft press release :
Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) today announced that it has made a proposal to the Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) Board of Directors to acquire all the outstanding shares of Yahoo! common stock for per share consideration of $31 representing a total equity value of approximately $44.6 billion. Microsoft’s proposal would allow the Yahoo! shareholders to elect to receive cash or a fixed number of shares of Microsoft common stock, with the total consideration payable to Yahoo! shareholders consisting of one-half cash and one-half Microsoft common stock. The offer represents a 62 percent premium above the closing price of Yahoo! common stock on Jan. 31, 2008.
“We have great respect for Yahoo!, and together we can offer an increasingly exciting set of solutions for consumers, publishers and advertisers while becoming better positioned to compete in the online services market,” said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer of Microsoft.
Knol is a new service being developed by Google and it will serve as a storehouse of knowledge on the internet, much as Wikipedia. In fact many industry experts see this new Google service as a direct competitor for Wikipedia and similar types of websites.
While the two websites have many similarities, the main difference between Google Knol and Wikipedia is that Wikipedia allows virtually anyone to edit an entry while Knol only allows the author of each particular “knol,” – which is what the individual pages in the service will be called – to do so. This means that the same topics could have many different authors with sometimes contrasting – or even competing – points of view.
Knol – the name of which is derived from the word “knowledge” – is being developed to allow people to create Web pages on virtually any topic. When completed, it will include several features that will allow its users the ability to perform a number of tasks, such as submitting comments, rating individual web pages and suggesting changes.
At this time Google Knol is accessible only by invitation but you can take a look at it here.
Aditional resources can be found here :
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