Google has opened up its charity wallet once again. This time, the search giant has donated $2,000,000 to the Wikimedia Foundation, the organization that runs and maintains Wikipedia.
The donation, in true social media fashion, was announced via tweets from Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales and Wikimedia Foundation advisory board member Mitch Kapor. Neither Google nor the Wikimedia Foundation have made an official announcement yet — it’s supposed to come tomorrow.
The donation’s definitely in line with Google’s (
) generosity to foundations that promote a faster and more open web. However, we think it’s interesting that Google is giving money to the Wikimedia Foundation now, only a year and a half after the search giant launched its own Wikipedia killer, Google Knol.
Back then, we said it was doomed to fail, and so far Knol’s stagnation has proven us right. Is this a sign that Google’s abandoned the project and is embracing Wikipedia (
Google Gives $2 Million to Wikipedia’s Foundation
Microsoft Outlook to Add MySpace and Facebook Integration
Microsoft Outlook has just become a lot more social through new partnerships with Facebook and MySpace and an existing one with LinkedIn.
You might remember back in November that Microsoft announced Outlook Social Connector, a new Office 2010 feature that hooks up social feeds into the Outlook inbox. The initial partner for the program was LinkedIn (
), whose business connections, alerts, and messages would integrate directly with Outlook.
Now that integration has gone live. Outlook users can now download LinkedIn for Outlook and transform their desktop inboxes into their hub for all things LinkedIn.
Overshadowing its release though is Microsoft’s announcement of two big partners for the Outlook Social Connector, MySpace () and Facebook (). Sometime in the next few months, users will be able to check up on their MySpace friends, update their Facebook status, and browse through photos.
While it’s unclear just how deep this integration will go, it’s clearly a win for Outlook and Microsoft. While Google’s Gmail service now boasts Google Buzz (), Microsoft can counter that with LinkedIn, MySpace, and Facebook, all of which are more widely used than Buzz.
Do you think Outlook Social Connector will be enough keep people hooked to Microsoft’s desktop software? Is it enough of a reason to switch? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Google's Liquid Galaxy Machine Sends Users on Immersive Tour of Earth, Moon, and Mars | Popular Science
Liquid Galaxy Fly me to the moon, but swing by San Francisco first GoogleSomeone at Google apparently took pity on the poor users who can only explore Google Earth on their laptops. Jason Holt used his 20 percent project time to create a wraparound view of a modified Google Earth engine, and splashed it across 8 LCD screens in an immersive viewing booth. The result provides a view not unlike that from a starship's bridge, and allows users to seamlessly explore a virtual environment of the Earth, moon, and Mars -- an experience that Google has dubbed "Liquid Galaxy."
This TED 2010 video showcases Holt running his demo on eight Linux machines and navigating with a six-axis mouse. He also makes use of voice-issued commands to zoom out from San Francisco, California and travel across the globe to check out India's Taj Mahal. We personally can't wait to see the same display with an augmented Google Earth that includes people, cars and clouds.