i202 Fall 2010 School of Information, UC Berkeley

"Google Inc. unveiled a major upgrade to its search engine today, showing off a new feature that promises to shave seconds off most online searches by attempting to predict what users are looking for before they're done typing the query."

If you have an experience using touch-screen devices such as cellphone, e-book readers, or ATM, you might be a person who is awkward or clumsy to manipulate some electronic devices which are not equipped with touching screens. Nowadays, it is so natural that people try to touch the screen when they grab a brand-new mobile device because touching screens has seeped into their daily lives.

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The importance of the organization of information can be seen in the above article which talks about the launch of a new database for property and land mortgages in India. This database will contain the details of the property and the information on the borrower who is using it as the collateral for his or her loan.

In an attempt to reduce spam, scams, and the spread of pornography via cell phone, the Chinese government is requiring citizens and visitors to provide identification when purchasing a SIM card. Working with government-control telecom companies, convenience store owners and street vendors, China hopes to organize a system in which all cell phone numbers and SIM cards can be linked to an individual.

Even a legendary visionary like Vannevar Bush might have been taken aback had he visited the VMworld conference held last week.
 Three ideas that will enable the seamless flow of information, that integrate humans with the world of digital data. There are no definite boundaries anymore. Are we becoming like human  computers , or are they becoming computer humans!

While the whole world is going crazy over social networking, how can Apple be behind? Steve Jobs has taken it upon himself to make people think of Apple, as a Social networking company, on the lines of Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and others. But will Apple succeed in changing people's mindsets? Only time will tell, meanwhile, check out the powerful list of social media offerings by Apple:

In his legendary TED talk, Hans Rosling, a global health researcher from Sweden, presents a tool called "Gapminder" which uses a simple and intuitive visualization of complex macroecononmic information to clearly point out particular global trends. This tool (available online) has access to a bulk of information about almost all countries in the world regarding GDP, HIV, CO2 emissions etc. starting from 1800. Rosling successfully bridges the gap by providing an interactive interface that allows the exporation of vast data sets in an intuitive and entertaining way.

Haven’t you run across images online where you’ve wondered what a particular item in the image was? And then read the image caption to discover that it told you nothing about what you were wondering about. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could describe parts of an image that may or may not contribute to the overall message in the name of the file or the image caption? Well, now you can.