The news waves begin to break onshore

OK that's too much punning and metaphorization but hey it's my blog.

Following my last post about how articles are morphing into topics, on Old Media New Tricks, Robert Quigley details his first attempt to use Wave to cover a topic -- Austin News:

I posted a link to the Texas constitutional amendments that are up for a vote, and people immediately began discussing why anyone should care about them, which are the the most important ones and why. I dropped in topics a few times throughout the day, from the election to the launch of the Texas Tribune to some local economic news. I included links to our stories. People discussed each item as they came in.

There is potential here.

Google News drives $100 million in revenue to Google, says VP

Danny Sanchez warns in: Google News drives $100 million in revenue to Google, says VP

If you aren’t already, start worrying about your event listings, restaurant reviews, comment boards, public records data and any other number of searchable things of which your news organization makes use. Google probably won’t be far behind.

A dream come true: Flash + Google Maps

Danny Sanchez reports on something that our Web map expert Layne Smith will crow about: A dream come true: Flash + Google Maps.

I know that sounds dry as dust to some of you, but it is a major development. This way we can creating map-based graphics with the same utility as Google Maps, but in a look and feel that is much more dynamic and artful.

Thank you, Google. Go get 'em Layne!

Google maps, Wiki style

Google is now allowing anyone in the U.S., Australia, or New Zealand to improve Google Maps by editing places for everyone else to see.

After Google: Human powered search?

There was some talk here this morning about how newsrooms could help in human powered search.  That brought to my mind a new search site that's getting funding and buzz, Mahalo. Here's how they state their mission:

• Mahalo's goal is to hand-write and maintain the top 50,000 search terms
• Each Mahalo page is quality controlled through a strict editorial process
• You can contribute and earn money by writing great search result pages in the Mahalo Greenhouse

In the past six months, some of the digerati notably, Robert Scoble, have been suggesting this kind of editorial effort could succeed Google, which relies on computer algorithms.