In 2008, Google acquisition JotSpot announced that it would "expand upon the Google Page Creator already offered within Apps." The idea was that JotSpot would power a system to help businesses set up their own collaboration, project management and customer extranets. After 3 years of sitting quietly in the Google arsenal, JotSpot has now reemerged in the form of a Google Sites Data API.

Scott Johnston, Senior Product Manager for Google Sites spoke to ReadWriteWeb about the benefits of this new API. In addition to offering users the ability to share and edit user content across Google Sites, all of your content can be accessed using the Google Data Protocol. In other words, as per Google's Data Liberation Front, users can import and export apps from Microsoft SharePoint sites into Google Sites or vice versa.

One advantage over SharePoint is that Google Sites does not require users to maintain software on PCs. Google Sites builds on the company's already well-established strengths - including cloud-based office tools and impeccable search. With the new API, if users choose to switch from SharePoint to Google Sites, they've now got an easy way to migrate their content.

How many different ways can you upcycle a dumpster? In a project called ‘Skip Conversions’, eco-conscious artist Oliver Bishop Young proved that what used to be grimy, unsanitary trash receptacles can be transformed for a myriad of uses including swimming pools, skateboard ramps, gardens and even public toilets.

The Goldsmiths University graduate created a stunning urban art project that highlights the versatility of what many people consider a single-use item. It brings together guerilla installation art, recycling, upcycling and freeganism.

Part of the charm of this installation is its accessibility, with converted dumpsters located on public streets, giving passersby a chance to not only change their perceptions of what dumpsters are for, but interact with the upcycled art.

Simply adding a custom liner and some water gives dumpster diving a new meaning, while a few pieces of bent plywood and tape create a miniature skate ramp. A rug, television and seating create a cozy little living space, soil and seeds bring some color to urban environments and a bed of grass becomes an impromptu stage.

Though the project is no longer active, ‘Skip Conversions’ is a great example of just how creative people can get with adaptive reuse, literally transforming trash into treasure in a way that also unites communities for fun outdoor activities.

Earlier today news broke that AT&T had filed a letter with the FCC asserting that Google is violating net neutrality principles with Google Voice by preventing users from calling certain numbers. Google has wasted no time in posting a response to its Public Policy Blog to defend itself against the accusations.

For those who missed the initial letter: AT&T has long had to deal with local phone carriers who charge exorbitant prices to long-distance companies to connect their calls. These local carriers are further exploiting the system by partnering with phone sex operators and similar services to maximize the number of calls to these high-priced numbers. AT&T has tried to restrict such calls but was barred from doing so, and it’s angry that Google Voice — which does restrict calls to some of these pornographic numbers to save money — is getting away with it.

Google’s response outlines AT&T’s concerns over the local operator abuses and actually says that it too believes the current carrier compensation system is “badly flawed.” But then it goes on to say that none of this should apply to Google Voice, because it’s not a phone service.

Google writes that AT&T has tried to “blur the distinction between Google Voice and traditional phone service”, then offers the following bullets as evidence for why they are different:

• Unlike traditional carriers, Google Voice is a free, Web-based software application, and so not subject to common carrier laws.
• Google Voice is not intended to be a replacement for traditional phone service — in fact, you need an existing land or wireless line in order to use it. Importantly, users are still able to make outbound calls on any other phone device.
• Google Voice is currently invitation-only, serving a limited number of users.

Finally, Google closes out the letter by saying:

“The FCC’s open Internet principles apply only to the behavior of broadband carriers — not the creators of Web-based software applications. Even though the FCC does not have jurisdiction over how software applications function, AT&T apparently wants to use the regulatory process to undermine Web-based competition and innovation.”

So who is right? Google may well be correct in its interpretation of the current open Internet principles, and given AT&T’s history of fighting against net neutrality it’s hard not to take its arguments for it with a nice big grain of salt. That said, the notion that a call traveling directly over carrier lines should be treated differently than those that go though software applications seems to be a distinction that is quickly blurring. And from the consumer’s perspective, having some phone services that can call any number and others that come with restrictions seems like a setup that’s ripe for confusion.

At one time, Moviefone was the hottest way to find movie showtimes. It was so hot in the 90s that Seinfeld even made fun of it in an episode (embed below). Sadly, now run by AOL, its website is a cluttered mess. I don’t know about you, but when I visit it, I expect to find a way to easily find movie showtimes. I don’t care about the latest celebrity gossip, nor do I want to see all this behind the scenes stuff. Just movie showtimes, please.

That’s what a new site, ShowtimeFu offers. And it’s so much better than Moviefone You simply visit the site, put in your city (or it may remember it if you’ve been there before), and you get a full listing of every movie playing around you, at what time, and at what theater.

On the left side navigation, you can deselect certain movies, as well as rule out theaters. You can also deselect certain ratings, and filter the time. In the main column, you simply have a list of the movies and the showtimes. If you click on one you’re interested in, it loads a new page in this main column which contains a description of the movie (along with links to its IMDb and Rotten Tomato pages), a map of where the theater showing it is, and the play times (including a beginning and end time).

Unfortunately, one thing you cannot do is purchase tickets from the site. But it seems like that would be an easy enough feature to add. And to be honest, I never buy tickets over the web anyway, I just want the showtimes then head to the theater to get the actual tickets. So this option is perfect for me.

I long ago gave up on Moviefone. Fandango is slightly better in terms of easy access to movie times, but it’s even more cluttered. Recently, to find movie times, I’ve been using Google Search with queries like “movies ZIP CODE”. But that leave a bit to be desired if I do actually want to know a little more about the movie.

ShowtimeFu is a simple site, that won’t lead to any Seinfeld spoofs (that would be hard considering the show has been off the air for a decade), but it works — at least when I’m at my computer, otherwise there are plenty of good iPhone apps for finding movie times.

Earlier this week, we kicked off a new feature that asked you to answer a simple question: which web app is better? Who’d win if you took two web tools, strapped boxing gloves on each of them, and threw them into a steel cage?

We were curious, so that’s exactly what we did (minus the boxing gloves). In our inaugural week of the Web Faceoff, we pitted Mozilla Firefox against upstart Google Chrome. We threw these two web browser titans into the ring and had you cast the deciding vote over who deserved glory and fame. Now, after a staggering 8,800 votes, we finally have a victor.

Here is your winner:

Yes, Firefox has taken the gold and left its newer competitor on the tarmac! It wasn’t an easy win, though. Firefox garnered 52% of the vote – 4600 of them to be exact – while Chrome snatched up 3310 votes for 38%. 10% of you (911 votes) just couldn’t decide between the two and voted that the fight was a tie.

Tune in next Monday, when we take two more popular web apps and have them duel to the death. Don’t miss the excitement, and don’t forget the popcorn.

Ouch. That hurts. New cast member Jenny Slate's first night on SNL. Season premiere. She's co-starring in a skit about a biker chicks' talk show. The word "freaking" was used a lot. And guess what: she freaking said the F-Word.

As commenter DahlELama put it: "Serves Lorne right—Michaela Watkins would never have done that." Entirely possible! But also: maybe not? Not sure. Either way, it's surely going to generate a nice amount of publicity for the new season, which we'll get into tomorrow morning. In the mean time, enjoy the blowfish face of "oh, shit, Lorne's going to have my ass on the fryer in about twenty minutes." Let's see if she's in any skits next week. Or the week after. Or the week after that.

Be nice to her, Lorne. It's the kid's first night.

[Thanks for the assist, Mattchew03.]

And in case the above gets taken down, the original:

Yeni Pencere

And these guys put together a bunch. Who wants to take a bet that at least half-at least-will be taken down by noon?

Finally, here's Seth Meyers hugging Slate at the end of the show.

Yeni Pencere

First ladies looking lovely!

Sharing style secrets?

Michelle Obama and Carla Bruni Sarkozy looked

[Image via AP Images.]

Read More on

Hunky Australian actor Hugh Jackman was spotted in Manhattan on his way to pick up daughter Ava from school, sporting a nudie mermaid tattoo on his arm!

Wonder what that's about?

What do U think of Hugh's ink?

Yes; within ATI's dual GPU ultimately will host a new generation top-level model also has been shown.

No word from extension, Hemlock as a monster before we knew the details, to images and then let's go look at:

* 2 pieces 40nm'lik RV8700 (Cypres) GPU (short R800)
* 2 × 256-bit memory interface (of course this does not mean that in total 512-bit)
* 3200 parallel processing unit
* 6, and 8-two PCI-Express power connector pin'lik

Clock speeds of the model is not yet clear. But as we have already shared with you HD 5870 × 2's to have a 376W TDP as the possibility of a very high within. Here in this context rather than the clock speed of HD5870'ten, HD 5850'den anticipate will be taken. Or a clock speed of between 2 models, a possibility will be determined. That is not possible yet to say anything definite at this point.

For the calendar to November gloom above the present top-level friends in the neighborhood of 675 euro from a fee, we wanted:)

Already the world's fastest single-core with ATI graphics card which has the title, flowers in the nose of the top-level model HD 5870, was signed to the bottom of the first world record. Tremendous time values into the bargain ... that is accessed at

Chilean artist and designer Sebastian Errazuriz never fails to amaze viewers with his offbeat and sometimes bizarre designs and art installations. His urban art has been seen all over Santiago, while his innovative product designs have long been a favorite of design blogs. His projects have won numerous awards, and Errazuriz himself has received a Fulbright grant, a Chilean Presidential scholarship, a New York University scholarship and a Deigo Portales University scholarship.

“The Crane” was a large-scale art project erected in Santiago. The twenty-story crane was decorated with 1200 light bulbs as a kind of massive night light, in the tradition of espanta cucos (children’s lamps that frighten away monsters).

“The Tree” was a rather beautiful public art project in the middle of Chile’s National Stadium. A 30-foot high living magnolia tree was planted on the spot where, some 30 years ago, dictator Pinochet tortured political prisoners. A week-long exhibit saw the stadium opened as a public park; at the end of the week, a friendly soccer game was played in front of 15,000 spectators with the tree still in the middle of the field.

Errazuriz’ “The Cow” was a public spectacle that caused many people to leave their places of work just to see it. A cow was saved from the slaughterhouse, then given a home on a recreated farm on top of a ten-story building. The building was within view of the city’s financial and political headquarters.

But Errazuriz’ talents don’t lie only in urban guerrilla art. He is also a designer who has made some of the most fascinating designs in fashion, furniture, household items and zany novelty items. Above are two pieces from his “Out” series: a birdcage made from a shopping trolley and a fishtank made from a water cooler. In everything that Errazuriz does, he challenges people to see everyday objects from a different angle. These two sculptures are excellent examples of how items that we see everyday can take on an entirely new life under the right circumstances.

This dress made entirely of zippers is a fascinating project from Sebastian Errazuriz. The 120 zippers that make up the dress are able to be opened and closed in many configurations, allowing the wearer to customize the dress in seemingly endless styles. It can go from respectable knee-length halter dress to daring two-piece tube-top-and-miniskirt effortlessly. If only all fashion was this adaptable.

Until now, if you wanted to wear a faux fur coat you were stuck with a coat that looked like real fur or was made of ugly plastic fibers. But the teddy bear coat dreamed up by Sebastian Errazuriz would ensure that you are kept warm, stylish and exceptionally cuddly. (Don’t worry, though – the bears in the coat all died of natural causes.)

The household items dreamed up by Errazuriz probably wouldn’t have any place in a home filled with children, but for those of us with a slightly offbeat sense of humor they are perfect. These are just a few of the creative designs that won Errazuriz the honor of being named as a top emerging designer by I.D. Magazine.

These innovative seating options probably mean that the designer’s house is a very interesting place to have afternoon tea. The bicycle seat bench, the stool with suction cup feet, and the chairs with injured legs all seem like seats straight out of an Alice in Wonderland-like world.

Facebook is one of those Web phenomena that impress everyone with numbers. To cite some: about 250 million users are on Facebook, and together they spend more than 5 billion minutes on Facebook… every day. These numbers suggest that we should start thinking about how to use Facebook for blogging or vice versa.

We did some research to find out how the integration of Facebook with WordPress and vice versa works, or — in other words — how you can present your WordPress blog on Facebook or use the functionality of Facebook on your WordPress-powered blog. Both of these can be achieved with a set of WordPress plug-ins, a couple of which we’ll present here in detail.

1. Integrating A WordPress Blog Into Facebook

Integrating a WordPress blog into Facebook is actually quite simply achieved via the Facebook API. The Facebook API makes programming applications that can be spread via Facebook almost a piece of cake. A lot of interactive browser games are on Facebook, such as the currently popular “Mafia Wars.” This game allows users to start a mafia family with their friends, with the goal of becoming an important figure in the virtual underground crime scene. To start a clan, you invite other friends on the network to join. This is the growth strategy of any application on Facebook: the simple snowball effect.

The applications sustain themselves through earnings generated by displaying advertisements, which also makes Facebook an even more attractive platform to develop on. This symbiosis generates growth for both Facebook and its applications.

Plug-In Installation and Configuration

John Eckman developed the WordPress plug-in Wordbook in early 2009. This plug-in allows WordPress blog owners to integrate their blog in Facebook. This gives a blog two lives: one as an application on Facebook (such as, for example, my private FreigeistBlog) and one at the original URL (http://freigeist.devmag.net).

To access a blog via Facebook, you need to first grant access to the application. To do this, go to the so-called “canvas” page, which is where the Facebook twin of the blog lives (my example). However, granting access to the blog’s application means that the administrator of the blog also has access to information about you as a user (this is what most applications aim for: information such as date of birth, gender and educational status allows them to display quite targeted ads).

The application we’re dealing with is a simple blog and, in this sense, quite innocent, but we should state outright that the Facebook API as it is now treats blogs and websites as applications, which may not be appropriate, given the issue mentioned above. Facebook users who authorize the blog application can now easly send comments and share posts from within Facebook. The data, however, is still stored in the original database on the server where the blog is installed.

This makes it look as though Facebook serves merely as a simple feed reader. Yet, we get some other benefits. The blog on Facebook can be used to create a community around it by taking advantage of Facebook’s snowball effect, because friends of the blog’s users will see in their activity stream that they have been participating on the blog. Furthermore, it means that Facebook users will see new posts from your blog whenever they sign in to Facebook and can easily follow comments, making your blog more accessible.

To create a Facebook twin of your blog, first you have to set up a new application. To do this, you need a Facebook account and have to register as a developer using the preceding link. All of this can be done in a few minutes.

Create a new Facebook application

Once you have agreed to the terms of use, give your application a name. Then you will receive your API key and a secret, which you will need later.

Settings for the Facebook application. Large view.

Then, you have to submit a so-called “post-authorize callback URL.” This is the address on your server to which Facebook will send a notice whenever a user authorizes access to the application. By the same logic, there is also the “post-remove callback URL,” which receives a notice when a user removes the application. Both of these events are handled by the Wordbook plug-in. You merely need to write the address of the blog’s root directory with a trailing slash.

Facebook application settings: Define callback URLs. Large view.

The third step is to claim your canvas page, which is the page through which a Facebook user accesses your blog, and a canvas callback URL, which is the page from which content is retrieved. Again, include a trailing slash, or else internal links on your blog won’t work with their Facebook twin.

Facebook application settings: Define canvas page. Large view.

Now you have some choices to make, namely, how to set up your canvas page. You have a choice between iFrame and FBML. FBML is a Facebook XML scheme with which you can use specific Facebook tags (such as tags to display user profiles). You can also use it to access certain Facebook procedures. However, the Wordbook plug-in works with iFrames, which allow Javascript and other tags, and which FBML does not support.

To distinguish between them rather crudely, you can say that iFrames give the developer more flexibility but, unlike FBML, restrict access to Facebook procedures. Another advantage of iFrames is that code that Facebook retrieves from the canvas callback URL need not be parsed by the FBML parser, which could yield a performance gain. With iFrames, only internal links on the blog need to be adjusted. And the “resizeable” option allows Facebook’s JavaScript code to adjust the size of the iFrame to Facebook’s layout.

Now the hard work is done. All that’s left is to install the Wordbook plug-in using the standard WordPress method: install and activate. Then you can change the plug-in’s settings on the settings panel, and here you will need your application ID and the secret. You also have to tell the plug-in where the canvas page is located, so that internal links can be adjusted.

Adjusting the settings of the Wordbook plug-in

And that’s it! If you want, you could activate or deactivate some other options, such as the commenting function and whether users can add your application to their profile by displaying the latest posts from your blog in their profile.

Browsing through the blog via Facebook. Large view.

The plug-in allows you to play around a little bit. But as we said, you are somewhat limited in how fully you can integrate your blog into the Facebook canvas. But the next plug-in we’ll look at integrates a bit of Facebook into your blog.

2. Integrating Facebook In A WordPress Blog

To begin, a little history lesson is needed. Many users do not like having to register for each blog where they would like to post comments, especially if they already have accounts on so many other social networks, such as Facebook and MySpace. So a single online ID for several purposes would be ideal, wouldn’t it? That’s the idea behind the OpenID protocol, which started in 2005. It decentralizes the identification of users for various providers and services. In essence, you can create an account on Facebook and connect it to services such as MySpace or even a personal blog. If you want to change your profile for all of these services, that too is decentralized: you simply change the settings on your Facebook account. OpenID is a chance to make the Web and its services more easily accessible. There are reasonable risks and concerns involved, but also many opportunities.

Facebook announced in 2007 that it would implement OpenID, and others followed, which explains why we now find more and more buttons that say “Connect with Facebook” or “Google Friend Connect.” This leads us to our second plug-in, Facebook Connect WordPress plug-in, which almost seamlessly integrates Facebook into your blog.

The plug-in allows users to comment on a blog using their Facebook account; and if they are already signed in or on Facebook, they need not sign in again. Users do not have to register for a unique account on the blog because the plug-in retrieves the user’s information directly from the Facebook API. With access to the user profiles on Facebook, you can display your users’ profile pictures, which adds a personal touch to your blog.

The plug-in integrates a lot of Facebook functions: for example, users can send invitations and share stories and comments on Facebook, which gives your blog the benefit of word-of-mouth marketing. To do this, you need to activate the plug-in option that publishes a user’s activity in their respective activity feed. Last but not least, you can enable a gadget that displays the profile pictures of your blog’s most recent visitors, similar to “Google Friend Connect.”

Facebook Connect implemented on sociable.es (in Spanish)

This plug-in essentially does the opposite of Wordbook (which integrates Facebook functionality into your blog).

Plug-In Installation and Configuration

Again, as in the previous section, you will need to create a new Facebook application.

Creating a new Facebook application. Large view.

You will also have to define the callback URLs, which point to the root of your blog.

Defining callback URLs for the new application. Large view.

Again, most of the work is now done, and you can soon start having fun and being creative. Just a few steps remain. First, download the plug-in from the website (see link above) and upload and enable it. A big part of the plug-in consists of the “Facebook Connect” library, which is provided by Facebook. You might stumble over the two xd_reciever files, one in HTML and one in PHP. They play a key role: enabling the so-called cross-domain communication (hence, the xd) between your blog and Facebook.

So why are these needed? Typically, HTTP requests are sent with the XMLHttpRequest object. However, the typical security settings on browsers allow XMLHttpRequest to send requests only to the domain where the original request was sent to. In our case, requests are send to and from Facebook. This cross-domain communication is achieved with iFrame cross-domain communication. With this, the application opens an iFrame on facebook.com with the relevant requests; for example, to retrieve information on whether a user is logged into Facebook.

These requests are sent to Facebook through the iFrame via the URL, with which the iFrame is opened. The request is checked, and now the Facebook script that was called via the iFrame opens an iFrame on the application page, where the outcome of the request is sent to, again with the query string of the URL. The result of any requests lands in the query string of the xd_receiver.htm file on your own server. This circumvents the problem of being unable to use XMLHttpRequest.

Now back to the plug-in. Once you have installed and activated the plug-in, you can add the plug-in as a widget to your blog’s sidebar. However, you first need to enter your API key and secret.

Settings for Facebook Connect WordPress plug-in. Large view.

As you will see, a whole lot of options are enabled by default, such as automatically publishing comments if they are posted through a Facebook account (the rationale being that you don’t have to moderate them because they come from actual people using Facebook and not spambots).

If you activate the sharing function, the plug-in adds a “Share” button automatically below each post. You can also activate the option that publishes a user’s comments in their activity feed on Facebook, thus making their activity on your blog visible to their friends.

After you have adjusted the settings, you will be notified that you need to define templates for the presentation. These need to be “synchronized” with Facebook. Scroll down a bit to generate and activate these templates. You can change the language manually here as well.

Adjust Facebook Connect’s template settings. Large view.

The first template controls how a user’s activity is posted in their activity feed on Facebook. However, you can also include the activity feed of your users in your gadget, as done on sociable.es (see link above). The last step is to go to the widget set-up page and include the gadget as a widget in your sidebar.

Including the Facebook Connect widget in the sidebar

Here again, you have some choice over the configuration, especially with regard to changing the language, showing a big or small “Connect to Facebook” button, etc. After installing the plug-in, you may want to see what else you can do with it. The implementation on sociable.es is quite a nice one.

Further Resources

These two plug-ins are quite specific in what they do. However, a wide variety of Facebook plug-ins are available for platforms other WordPress. Here is a list, certainly not comprehensive:

• Movable Type
  A plug-in by Six Apart for adding Facebook Connect to a Movable Type blog, allowing any Facebook user to sign in. It is still in beta.
• WordPress-FacebookConnect
  This plug-in is quite similar to the one on sociable.es. It has the same features, such as single sign-on, publishing comments to news feeds and displaying profile pictures. However, it has not been updated since the beginning of the year. Still, there is a nice tutorial by the developer Adam Breckler.
• WordPress Fotobook
  With this WordPress plug-in, you can import all of your photo albums from Facebook onto a WordPress page.
• Drupal’s Facebook Connect module
  With this Drupal module, you can allow Facebook users to connect to your blog through their account. Similar to the plug-in by sociable.es.
• Gigya WordPress plug-in
  This plug-in integrates not only Facebook but Twitter, MySpace and other OpenID providers into your blog for community building.
• StatusPress
  This small plug-in displays your Facebook, Twitter or Last.fm status on your blog.
• Quailpress
  Integrate Facebook-sharing functionality on your blog with this plug-in. However, it has not been actively developed for some time. And with the sociable.es plug-in, it is practically redundant.