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Me.dium is a Firefox and now also IE 7 browser add-on that uses in real-time your web browsing data to share the related information with your friends and the Me.dium community; the extend of that sharing is up to you. The extension presents itself in a browser sidebar and displays your Me.dium universe, or “your online world.” The map is based on your current Web location, your friends’ current browsing spots, and your recent Web activity.

Hovering over any of the sites in the Me.dium display shows information about Me.dium members on that site; sites are presented with favicon style images, and Me.dium users are colour coded (orange -yourself, yellow - friends, blue others). Like in all social networking applications your own status can be set to visible to all, friends, or to no one.

It is easy to chat with any of the users seen surfing: a simple click allows to talk to an individual user, to all or to the entire Me.dium community (”shout outs”). Three conversations can fit in the Me.dium sidebar; the rest is accessible via a drop-down menu. Me.dium has also released an embeddable super-slick designerd widget that can be added to social-networking home pages, blogs, or any other Web page, displaying your browsing activity.

One thing I particularly like is that Me.dium seems to take privacy seriously (unlike many other social networking sites, like Facebook). This is indicated by its cooperation with the Electronic Frontier Foundation to address any issues (ideally) before they arise. Links to its privacy policy and terms of use are both highly visible during the Me.dium IE7 installation process, and the privacy policy is very explicit about the control and ownership of information shared with Me.dium. In addition to the upfront notices, Me.dium automatically turns off sharing whenever you visit a secure Web site, and turning it off completely is as easy as one click of a button.

For more information about Me.dium see CNet’s Daily Download Blog, from which this information was drawn and which also contains reflections on an interview with Me.dium founder David Mandell .

ZDNet provides an interesting article and overview on 17 new or evolving mashup platforms. All the products listed had to allow live integration of functionality or content (data) over a network, provide an easy-to-use development model that is theoretically accessible by end-users, be available in at least beta form, and either consume and/or produce Web-based applications and services.

The article is primarily concerned with business requirements but at the same provides enough useful material for end-users in both business and home environments. It also points to the fact that current mashup platforms focus primarily on sourcing and combining data from a variety of sources; what will be interesting though to watch is the development of platforms allowing the end-user to create software in the same way they now begin to create content.

[Source: A bumper crop of new mashup platforms]

The Financial Times published an article on May 24, 2007 on EU concerns about Google’s use of search data. The ‘Article 29 Working Party’ which advises the European Union on privacy policy asked Google to justify its policy of keeping individual search user data for up to 2 years, raising concerns that Google policies could contravene European privacy laws.

The data in question is separate from the information Google collects from people who have given their permission to use it. The data queried includes user search terms, server addresses and sometimes more personal information contained in cookies or identifier programs on an individual’s computer. This standard search information is kept about everyone who uses the search engine, and privacy groups are concerned that even this non-personal data can be used to identify individuals and create profiles of their political opinions, religious beliefs and sexual preferences.

Google previously kept such data indefinitely, but in March announced it would limit the storage time to two years, in an attempt to assuage concerns. The EU though feels that even two years is too long; separately the Norwegian Data Inspectorate began an investigation into Google and other search engine companies last October and has stated that the 18- to 24-month period proposed by Google was too long.

Google claims that it needs to keep this data for security purposes, e.g. to help guard against hacking and people trying to misuse Google’s advertising system, but given the EU’s privacy concerns it seems that Google’s argument simply is a smokescreen for its commercial exploitation of private data as well as a form of denial that it might actually break European law.

[read the full article]

Amongst many other publicayions, the Houston Chronicle reports that the London-based watchdog Privacy International assigned Google its lowest possible grade on how the online search leader handles personal information about its users. In a report released a couple of days ago, Pricvacy International stated that this category is reserved for companies with “comprehensive consumer surveillance and entrenched hostility to privacy.” While a number of other Internet companies have troubling policies, none of the 22 other surveyed companies, including Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL, sunk to that level of “achieving status as an endemic threat to privacy”, Privacy International said in an explanation of its findings.

Google released a statement saying: “It’s a shame that Privacy International decided to publish its report before we had an opportunity to discuss our privacy practices with them.” It pointed to its track record, which included last year’s successful fight to reject the US State Department’s subpoena demanding to review millions of search requests. Privacy International contacted Google earlier this month, but didn’t receive a response, said Simon Davies, the group’s director.

Seven of the Internet companies and Web sites included in Privacy International’s analysis received the second lowest grade of “substantial and comprehensive privacy threats.” This group included: Time Warner’s AOL, Apple, Facebook, Hi5, Reunion, Microsoft’s Windows Live Space and Yahoo. None of the companies or sites received Privacy International’s top grade, but five rated as “generally privacy-aware.” They were: BBC, eBay, Last.fm, LiveJournal.com, and Wikipedia.com.

Privacy International is particularly troubled by Google’s ability to match data gathered by its search engine with information collected from other services such as e-mail, instant messaging and maps. This concern is further highlighted by the proposed Google/DoubleClick acquisition, which not only would give Google access to DoubleClick’s database but also allow it to track Web surfers’ behavior. And Privacy International is not the organisation concerned about Google’s practices; three consumer groups in the United States are pressuring the nation’s regulators to make Google change some of its privacy policies as part of its proposed $3.1 billion acquisition.

Privacy International plans to update the report in September.

[read the full story]

PC World published an interesting short Interview with Google’s CIO Douglas Merrill. While its focus is on security, Merill also talks quite a bit about about one of Google’s business strategies: the consumerisation of enterprise. Given Google’s background as a web and search company, it takes quite a different approach to the running of a commercial enterprise from the IT point of view.

On the same topic see also Web 2.0: The ‘Consumerization’ of The Enterprise