Google Earth 5.0, including oceanographic data which some thought was a separate project named Google Ocean, was launched Monday at the California Academy Of Sciences in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. In attendance was Nobel Prize Winner and former Vice-President Al Gore.

In a commentary titled I have fallen into recession’s web of fear FT columnist Lucy Kellaway writes that the internet has created a global psyche and that sitting in front of your computer all day feeds your anxiety.

The Mt. Redoubt volcano has been fitted with two webcams, in expectation of a possible eruption. The Alaskan volcano last blew its stack in December 1989. Lately, rumbling and tremors have warned of a possible "event."

In mid-2008 I wrote that Google was working on a net neutrality detector. On Wednesday Google finally announced the previously unnamed initiative, now called Measurement Lab (M-Lab).

Andy Burnham says he wants to negotiate with the Obama administration to find a way to restrict access to content he finds objectionable.

Wikipedia is effectively being filtered for most users in the U.K. since the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) added a Wikipedia article on Virgin Killer, an album from German heavy metal group Scorpions, to its blacklist. This could just be the beginning, however.

ElefanteInstaller.com will help inexperienced webmasters build a personal blog, a community forum or a photo gallery quickly and easily.

I've written before about the use of text messages and Twitter in emergencies. In fact, in the U.S., emergency crews recommend the use of text messages rather than calls as SMS "piggybaacks" on top of voice data, saving bandwidth for those who really need it: emergency responders.

The iPhone has drawn a lot a lot of attention from consumers --- and plaintiffs. The latest lawsuit to be filed against Apple's immensely popular device was filed on Monday by law firm Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro (JMBM) on the behalf of EMG Technology, LLC against Apple Inc. in the District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in the Tyler Division.

In yet another cosmetic change designed to pretty-up its Gmail web-based email client, Google announced Wednesday that it has added themes. Typical of a cloud-based service, it's rolling out to users gradually, so you may not see it --- a Themes tab in your Gmail settings --- just yet. They say it'll take a couple of days to hit all users.

While Hulu, the joint video venture formed by NBC Universal and News Corp., plays catchup to YouTube in terms of views, attracting only a fraction of the 81 million people who visit YouTube each month, it still managed to generate nearly the same revenue in its first year in business, according to reports. How?

OK, I admit, weekends are often slow tech news days, but anything about Britney Spears (at least the last few years, during her meltdown phase), is big news (OK, OK, I'm stretching things). News is, though, that Britney has joined Twitter.