An ambitious new Google service lets anyone upload most anything to a publicly searchable database, potentially laying the groundwork for a foray by the internet juggernaut into classified advertising.
Launched as a "beta test," the venture, dubbed Google Base, has the potential to make instantly available a vast sea of content including -- but not limited to -- recipes, job ads, photos, DNA sequences, real estate listings and individual standalone databases.
Normally, it takes web crawlers days or weeks to scour the web and they usually can't penetrate content buried in databases. This tool will make locating anything that's been uploaded nearly instantaneous, provided it finds users willing to provide the content.
If Google goes commercial with the new service, which is widely expected, it could pose a formidable threat not only to traditional classified businesses such as newspapers but also online sites like eBay and Craigslist.
Speculation has been further fueled by a patent application for a service called Google Automat that helps would-be sellers generate advertising. The company also is known to be working on an online payment system.
Data uploaded to Google Base can be transferred one item at a time or in bulk. There's no limit on how many items users can send, though the database currently restricts the number of pictures in each submission and does not support video or audio.
Submitters are invited to choose from an existing set of item types or can enter their own category. In another step, each entry can be tagged with labels that are either suggested by Google or defined by the user.
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Help them police themselves: I2hub, the superfast internet service popular with college students, shut down.
Logging onto i2hub.com brought up a webpage with a ghostly image of a man walking away, with the words "Remember i2hub" superimposed over the image and "RIP 03.14.2005-11.14.05" written below it. I2hub was one of seven peer-to-peer services that received a cease-and-desist letter from the Recording Industry Association of America.
The music and movie industries have filed more than 600 infringement lawsuits at 39 universities against users of the service, which travels on the high-speed university network known as Internet2.
Coincidentally, the Motion Picture Association of America asked college students to make a film about the problem. The association is sponsoring a nationwide anti-piracy public service announcement contest for college students.
In a partnership with Students In Free Enterprise, an international nonprofit that mobilizes university students to create economic opportunities, the MPAA hopes that getting students to create PSAs will help convince them to eschew copyright piracy.
The winner of the contest, open to students at colleges that have a SIFE chapter, could pocket $3,000.
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Sony could use some TRUSTe: An anti-spyware initiative backed by internet portals Yahoo and AOL would certify downloadable software as consumer-friendly and non-invasive.
Under the program, developers that want to obtain certification for their downloads would also have to prove their products can be easily removed from computers once installed.
TRUSTe, an organization that already certifies and monitors website privacy and e-mail practices for businesses, will rely on testing by two outside labs for the vetting. It would not name the labs.
Developers earning TRUSTe's certification will not be permitted to promote that fact, said its executive director, Fran Maier. Rather, TRUSTe will issue a "white list" of trusted programs that partners Yahoo (YHOO), America Online, CNET and other web publishers may use in determining whose software they wish to ally with or distribute.
TRUSTe may suspend or revoke certifications for violations, and lost certification would likely mean lost revenues for software developers from lost distribution channels on major websites, the program's backers say.
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The news gets casual: A media website scheduled to debut Wednesday will seek to blend traditional journalism with the freeform commentary developed through blogs.
Some 70 web journalists, including Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds and David Corn, Washington editor of the Nation magazine, have agreed to participate in OSM -- short for Open Source Media.
OSM will link to individual blog postings and highlight the best contributions, chosen by OSM editors, in a special section. Bloggers will be paid undisclosed sums based on traffic they generate.
The ad-supported OSM site will also carry news feeds from Newstex, which in turn receives stories from The Associated Press, Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service and other traditional media organizations.
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Compiled by Keith Axline. AP and Reuters contributed to this report.
