Tech Week in Review 10-10-09

TinyChat Goes P2P

Leveraging Adobe’s Real Time Media Flow Protocol, TinyChat now allows rooms with only 2 participants to connect directly with each other for video chat. This allows them to take a little load off their services in those specific cases. Chats with more than 2 people will still have to go through their servers, but they should come out ahead overall. One advantage of using this new Adobe protocol is that most users won’t even need to install any new plugins. (via RWW)

Google Finally Makes FriendConnect Easy to Install

Originally, you had to upload a file to your server in order to install Google FriendConnect on your website. I’m sure this was a major stumbling block for many people. It’s not even that it’s hard to do, but it’s just a pain. Even I rarely upload anything to my hosting account. Now, all you have to do is tell Google your website URL and you’re all set. They also made it better for site owners by keeping the user on your site while they interact with the FriendConnect gadgets. (via Google Social Web Blog)

Public Enemy Funds New Album with Public Funds

Not only is Public Enemy dropping a new album (don’t act like you already knew), but they’re going to partner with fan-funding site Sellaband.

Amsterdam-based Sellaband allows artists to request support from fans, or in Sellaband parlance “Believers”, who invest anything from $10 up in an album. Funding music this way is not for everyone but it does add a novel and badly-needed niche to the music business ecosystem. (via TC)

World, Meet Your Browser

Some folks at Google have created a site called What Browser? that aims to educate people about exactly what a web browser is. The included video talks about how the web browser is actually the most important piece of software on your computer. They have also provided under the hood details about all web browsers. What’s most interesting about the site to me is that it links to just about every browser you can think of with the caption “Try a new browser for your PC.” This means that Google is quite confident in the fact that the user will evaluate their options and come to the conclusion that Chrome is probably the fastest and therefore the best option. Check out the site and see if it makes you want to get your Chrome on.

FTC Makes Disclosure Mandatory

According to new Federal Trade Commission guidelines, people that receive something in return for writing about a product or service must always disclose this relationship. Most interesting is the effect this may have on bloggers and people who use social media in general. They all have to disclose the fact that they’re basically being paid to post. This even includes tweets and other status updates and also includes tweets from celebrities. Personally, I don’t think these revisions will change anything.

Tracy Morgan Jumps on Twitter

Shortly after celebs sightings site OMGICU started a campaign to get comedian Tracy Morgan on Twitter, he showed up to the party. His twitter name is @RealTracyMorgan and he is pulling no punches. He is known in the mainstream for his work on the show 30 Rock (which I’ve never actually seen), but I think many of us knew he was hilarious before that.