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links for 2009-04-27

  • Facebook Inc. is expected to announce significant plans to open up core parts of its sites — namely the information that appears in the stream of updates on users' homepages and profiles — to third-party developers so that they can build new services on top of it, people familiar with the matter say.

    The announcement, expected Monday, means developers can build services that access the photos, videos, notes and comments users upload to Facebook, with users' permission. That's a big change for the social-networking site, which has exercised tight control over the look and feel of its service and how developers can interact with it.

    Facebook isn't charging for the feature, instead hoping that developing new ways to access the information it houses will build user loyalty and get people to engage more often with the site, say people familiar with the matter.

  • The Wall Street Journal is reporting Facebook will open up most if not all of their user-contributed data to developers at a developer event tomorrow. This has been long expected and will likely trigger a wave of third-party integration of Facebook streams with other popular feeds, most notably that of Twitter.

    Should players such as Seesmic Desktop and FriendFeed roll out an integrated service, we will be a major step closer to a single stream of realtime events. This in turn will rapidly accelerate a convergence around micromessaging similar to the one around email when it achieved a critical mass following AOL’s opening up of the limited educational and government mail systems to average users.

  • "There is a sense of rebellion brewing," said Katon Dawson, the outgoing South Carolina Republican Party chairman, who cited unexpectedly high attendance at anti-tax “tea parties” last week.

    That same sense is detectable in New Hampshire, where Union Leader publisher Joseph McQuaid – a stalwart of the base – warned in a column last weekend that the push for same-sex marriage in the state legislature was really about “forcing society to embrace and give positive reinforcement to their lifestyle and agenda in our schools and in every other area of public life imaginable.”

    And it is perhaps most tangible in Iowa, where same-sex marriage will become the law this month in response to a state Supreme Court ruling. There, Republican activists and officials say the party is as resolute as ever, if not more so, on cultural issues – regardless of the soundings of some party elites.

  • Russia suspended imports of all meat from Mexico and the U.S. states of Texas, California and Kansas shipped after April 21 on concern about the spread of swine flu, the country’s veterinary watchdog said.

    The suspension also affects pork from Guatemala, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Columbia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Nicaragua, Panama, Salvador, and the U.S. states of Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Florida, the watchdog added in a statement on its Web site today.

    Swine flu, known as the H1N1 virus, originated in Mexico where it has been linked to as many as 81 deaths.

    (tags: swine_flu)
  • The swine flu virus that has killed more than 80 people in Mexico may mutate into a "more dangerous" strain, the World Health Organisation has warned. Skip related content

    "It's quite possible for this virus to evolve… when viruses evolve, clearly they can become more dangerous to people," said Keiji Fukuda, of the global health watchdog.

    Mr Fukuda also called for international vigilance as health experts wait to see whether the virus will turn into a worldwide pandemic.

    Over 1,300 people are now thought to have contracted the virulent H1N1 swine influenza after it mutated into a form that spreads from human to human.

    (tags: swine_flu)
  • The United States is not testing airplane travelers from Mexico for the swine flu virus that has heightened fears of a possible pandemic, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on Sunday.

    "Right now we don't think the facts warrant more active testing or screening of passengers coming in from Mexico," she said at a White House briefing.

2 Comments

  • Ling

    I’ve been trying, desperately, to stay away from microblogging, because I already spend way too much time online. But the pull is irrisistible – I created a twitter a/c just for kicks a few weeks back, and without having posted a single update, I have 4 followers who don’t know me or anything about me – WTF are they following?

  • Flap

    Ling,

    Sometimes folks follow, followers of followers in mass.

    Later, if there are no updates, they prune their accounts.

    With the integration of Twitter and Facebook and with Facebook opening up its code to other developers, there will be more micro-blogging in the immediate future.

    How will this affect regular blogs? Most certainly will pare them down, if you do not update in real time.