Tech Week in Review 11-27-09

There’s a #Hashtag for That

Baratunde Thurston did an awesome talk at the Web 2.0 expo on Twitter #hashtags. Definitely interesting in showing how a simple hashtag can be leveraged to spread your message.

Try Out The New Google Search

Google seems to be experimenting with a new layout for their Spartan search page that actually involved a sidebar. It hasn’t actually been rolled out yet, but Mashable shows us how to try it out now (thanks to Gizmodo) along with a couple tips on how this hack works and how to undo it.

Grand Central Shutting Down

Google bought Grand Central, a service that gave you one phone number that intelligently handled all your calls. Not so shortly thereafter, Google launched Google Voice in private beta. I’ve been using GV ever since at I absolutely love it. Google also went ahead and purchased Gizmo5 (Internet-based calling software) and we’re seeing new phones with the Android OS on them from Google. I’m not sure exactly what this means for the future of telephony, but the original Grand Central site is shutting down for good on December 31st. If you have data stored there, you might want to download all your information. (via TC)

AOL becomes Aol

Not sure what they’re trying to accomplish here, but AOL is officially rebranding itself as “Aol.” I’ve never used it, but I’ve heard it used to be good for people who were afraid of the actual real Internet. You can find more details and a kinda creepy video by AOL at the Inquisitr (there are young black men doing back flips in slow motion).

Wikipedia Bans Volvo IT Department

According to the Channel Register, someone in the Volvo IT Department wrote a number of racist remarks in articles about two Pakistani cricket players: Wasim Akram and Inzamam-ul-Haq. The IP Address, 192.138.116.230, maps back to the Volvo IT Department.

The rants were not directed at the players but other contributors to the site. Less than 20 minutes after the rants were left on the site, Wikipedia banned the Volvo IP address until early December.

Volvo made a statement that they are investigating the incident.

Not sure what this person was thinking, being in the IT department and all. They should definitely have known better. Any time a student or employee uses company or school resources to do anything malicious, they will more than likely be tracked and discovered. Not only that, but these malicious individuals cause harm to the brand of that company or school. Your IP address doesn’t really identify you as an individual, it identifies the company that gave you access to the Internet. (via RWW)

Autotune Your Facebook Status Updates

It sounds like crap and nobody can understand what you’re saying, but autotune is apparently not ready to die yet, despite Jay Z’s claims. In keeping with the hottest trends, Sony has created an Autotune Your Status application. It allows you to pick a hot beat, choose a voice to read your status, autotunes the heck out of the voice, and then publishes it to your feed. (via Mashable)