Google is to make the web more social by introducing tools that will enable people to interact with their friends.

Friend Connect follows plans announced last week by the world’s two biggest social networking sites, MySpace and Facebook.

Data Availability and Connect let users move their personal profiles and applications to other websites.

“Social is in the air,” says Google’s director of engineering David Glazer.

During a conference call at Google’s California headquarters, Mr Glazer told reporters: “Google Friend Connect is about being the ‘long tail’ of sites becoming more social.”

“Many sites aren’t explicitly social and don’t necessarily want to be social networks, but they still benefit from letting their visitors interact with each other. That used to be hard.”

Google’s Open Social will allow third parties to build and develop applications for the site.

“Social networking is going mainstream. It used to be proprietary, but now it’s going to be open and baked into the infrastructure of the net, not just one site or one source,” says Mr Glazer.

More radio spectrum will need to be released to cater for breakthroughs in healthcare and transport, said Ofcom.

In a report focused on the future use of wireless, the regulator identified hundreds of new applications. They include wireless devices which monitor health and radio frequency ID tags on food products that allow allergy sufferers to shop more safely. Read more

A new report from independent market analyst Datamonitor reveals that the number of people participating in online social networking (OSN) is booming. The UK has the highest membership in Europe and it is forecast to almost triple by 2012 to 27 million. Social media provide consumers with the opportunities to enhance existing relationships and create new ones. Interaction is a key factor in a network’s success, as shown by the success of sites, such as MySpace and Facebook, which encourage user-generated content. While the trend is driven by the younger age groups, many older generations are also being drawn to social media. Read more

Adobe has announced a plan to try to get its Flash player installed on more mobile devices and set-top boxes. Dubbed Open Screen the initiative lifts restrictions on how its multimedia handling software can be used. Adobe will stop charging licencing fees for mobile versions of Flash and plans to publish information about the inner workings of the code.  Read more

Vodafone is to offer unlimited internet access as a standard feature of its new monthly mobile price plans, driven by an increasing amount of people accessing social networking sites and email from their phones.

The Newbury-based group is the first mobile phone operator in the UK to offer the unlimited deal with all its monthly tariffs, although O2 currently offers an unlimited deal for its iPhone customers.

Vodafone hopes the new flat rate policy will fuel use of the internet on mobiles, as operators search for additional ways to generate revenue in a saturated market.

Read more

The spontaneity and simplicity of the phone-paid payment mechanism allows millions of consumers to enjoy mobile services such as ringtones and other downloads, competitions and TV voting. Most consumers use these services without worry or aggravation.

The review, which PhonepayPlus aims to publish in July, will provide an overview of mobile phone-paid services, and identify issues affecting UK consumers. Of particular interest to PhonepayPlus at this early stage are:

• Unsolicited promotions, especially text messages;
• Price transparency and the use of words that indicate content is ‘free’; and
• Subscription services (e.g. ringtones) and the ‘STOP’ command

Read more

4D has announced that it is to once again put the pedal to the metal and enter a team for this year’s London to Brighton Bike Ride in aid of the British Heart Foundation on Sunday 15th June 2008.

Team Captain, Omar Shah said:

“The bikes have been dusted off, the Lycra is out and the vaseline is ready. Yes Team 4D is ready to once again cycle down to sunny Brighton in the name of Charidee.”

To sponsor the team and aid the BHF please click here!

Web 2.0 is set to be embraced by Enterprise 2.0 as businesses prepare to spend nearly $5 billion by 2013 on social networking tools.

Over half of the companies in North America and Europe see Web 2.0 as a priority for next year, a report says.

Forrester, the research company which carried out the Web 2.0 survey, believes the technologies being developed and unveiled over the coming days represent “a fundamentally new way” for businesses to communicate with employees and customers. Read more….

Ofcom have today released details of their consultation papers regarding how the impact of the ever decreasing availability of geographic number ranges can be reduced. In certain areas of the UK, geographic number ranges have become scarce and can be problematic for network providers seeking to fulfill demand. More…

Sarah Godfrey, Sales & Marketing Director at 4D will be attending. website