{mosimage}If Facebook is 98% open, Google wants to be 100%.



Yesterday a select group of fifteen or so industry luminaries attended a highly confidential meeting at Google�s headquarters in Mountain View to discuss the company�s upcoming plans to address the �Facebook issue.�



The meeting was so secret that all attendees had to sign confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements strictly forbidding them from discussing what was shown to them at the meeting. Notwithstanding that NDA, I�ve now spoken with three of the attendees off record to get an understanding of what Google is planning. Google�s goal - to fight Facebook by being even more open than the Facebook Platform.



Click here for more on this interesting story.

The twelfth episode of the GameGab Podcast is now up. "This episode we review - Bioshock. Your hosts for this podcast are Oddbod, Sikosis and Minkaman. Eazy-P is off studying, so it�s just us three again, as we wipe the sweat from our brows and get stuck into another interesting review."

NB: Please note Odeo are hopeless at updating their embedded player.



Please use the link to head on over to the GameGab site or alternatively, try the new PageFlakes page.

{mosimage}"Responding to feedback from customers and third parties, Microsoft has extended the availability of Windows XP to both original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and retail channels through to June 30, 2008.



Originally slated to be pulled from retail shelves and OEMs on January 30, 2008�only a year after Windows Vista's debut�customers requested more time to prepare for the upgrade to Vista."



Click here for more information.

{mosimage}It's a question that's been asked of me by a number of people - my father, a mate (friend for you non-Australians), a number of co-workers and I've even been asking myself that question lately. Why so often ? Of course, I know the answer ... it's because of the iPhone.



That's the reason for the number of recent updates. No new features for us non-iPhone users. So, what good are these updates anyway, it's not like us Australians have access to iPhones. At least not until sometime in 2008. What's more alarming is that none of the Australian carriers have announced they'll carry it.



Now all I can see, is get ready for the next batch of updates. Why ? Because Apple released a slew of patches, along with the iPod Touch being launched today. And it'll have bugs or it'll get cracked and Apple will fix the issue by giving us the entire iTunes suite as a download everytime. This is what gets up my goat. Where is the nice Auto-Update and Auto-Installer ? It should just be like Software Update, an progress bar and when it's done, it's done.



Also, another moot point. They should take a leaf out of Firefox's book, on how to do updates. When Firefox is updated, you only have to download the parts that have been affected, making for a much smaller download - whereas, with iTunes, you get the whole enchilada.



Here endeth the rant ...

{mosimage}"Google has pushed out another under-the-radar product, this time a sharing service aptly named Google Shared Stuff. The new service offers a means to share links via a browser bookmarklet that you can drag into your toolbar.



The concept is the same as that behind del.icio.us, Ma.gnolia and the various other bookmark sharing sites. Visit a page, click the bookmarklet and a pop-up window allows you to share the link with others."



For more information, check out this Wired article. Google is just one step closer to taking over the web in terms of the web's finest offerings.